Posted: 16 December 2014
Last Updated: 18 December 2014
Chapter WC: 3,299
Story WC: 3,299

Summary: While working as an Auror Harry falls through an Eluvian and accidentally gets involved with the fate of Thedas. It would be just like old times, only instead of having Ron and Hermione as sidekicks he has Neville (who is not putting up with this shit) and Marcus Flint (who is technically under arrest). Harry is quite sure everything will turn out just fine.

That One Time Harry Saved Everyone

Chapter 1
Eluvians and Elves

This was supposed to have been a simple mission, Harry lamented as he hunkered down against a broken wall. Spells of every color flew overhead while shouts came from within the room.

Marcus Flint had never been the sharpest quill in the pot to begin with. Added to the fact that Harry's team was attempting to bring him in for smuggling Jarveys out of the country—though why he was smuggling Jarveys of all things Harry couldn't being to understand—amounted to what should have been an easy case. Instead they had three dark wizards who had barricaded themselves into a storage room below Knockturn Alley.

Harry wasn't sure how they expected this situation to end in their favor. His team was spread out over the building, he'd already called for another Auror squad for backup, and the anti-Apparition wards over the building prevented escape. The three dark wizards could fight themselves into exhaustion, but they wouldn't be able to get away. Then again, if there was one thing Harry had learned in his time on the force, it was that galleons and stupidity went hand in hand

A loud crunch echoed through the room. Harry leapt to his feet and vaulted over the half-destroyed wall he'd been hiding behind, knowing before he saw it that Neville had sent vines up through the floor. The vines had entangled the feet of the dark wizards and yanked them to the ground.

Harry shot off a stunner before his feet landed back on the floor. It dissipated against the flagstones as Flint lunged out of the way, tearing free from the vines. He spat out a curse, which bounced off Harry's quickly erected shield, hit a crate, and sent splinters of wood flying as it exploded. One of the other dark wizards yelled out as a piece of wood embedded itself in his thigh. The sound cut short when Neville jumped through the doorway to the stairs and hit him with stunner.

The third dark wizard made a sweeping motion with his wand. A wave of concussive force blasted from the tip of his wand. Harry jerked his shield up, but the spell smashed right through it and tossed him back like a ragdoll. He felt his back hit the tall mirror that stood against the far wall of the storeroom and grit his teeth, excepting it to shatter.

He kept falling.

Harry's eyes widened and a stomach-dropping feeling of weightless took over for a second. A flash of blue swirled around him and then his back hit the ground. His breath wheezed from his chest, but Harry was already rolling to his feet with his wand raised and a spell on his lips.

Then he stopped.

And stared.

He was…not in the basement. Or Knockturn Alley, for that matter. He stood in the middle of some kind of courtyard. Gray mist drifted over the flagstones, curling around the dozens of mirrors that were set up in the square like tombstones.

The mirror before him, the one he'd…fallen through, did not show a reflection. Instead it was blue, shifting and shimmering like starlight.

Its surface rippled suddenly, like a pond disturbed by a stone. Moments later two bodies flew through it and rolled across the ground. Neville and Flint struggled to their feet and Flint whipped his wand around.

"Diffindo!"

Harry ducked as the white light flew past him, and then froze when a sharp crack echoed through the otherwise still air. All three of them held their breath as the mirror fractured, sensing the heavy buzz of magic in the air. The blue ripples on the mirror shuddered, then went dark.

That was bad. Harry didn't know what had happened, or where they were, but he knew instinctively that that was Very Bad, capitalized and all.

Flint turned on his heel and fled. Harry and Neville ran after him and caught him two rows of mirrors down. With both of them and no other distractions, it took only moments to knock him out and tie him up. They dragged him back to the broken mirror and stared at it grimly.

"Have you see anything like this before?" Neville sat down on Flint.

Harry shook his head. "It's a little old, like the Mirror of Erised, but…different." He glanced around the courtyard and shivered.

This place looked almost monochrome. It felt muted too; made him want to talk in whispers. He could feel magic hanging heavy in the air. In the courtyard there were also a few…trees? Well, Harry hesitated to call them trees, but he thought that was what they were. They were made of stone and their branches curled upward, forming the outline of a ball above theirs trunks.

"I think I can safely say that this is a new experience."

Neville snorted. "I'm fairly sure that's not what Ginny meant."

Harry flashed a grin. "Her exact words were, 'We need to go out more and have new experiences.' This is one. Of course it's a date between you and me instead, but hey, I'll take what I can get."

"Of course." Neville chuckled. He stood and nudged Flint with his foot, but the man was still out cold. Merlin, how had Flint managed to get even uglier since Hogwarts?

"Must be that troll blood," Harry mused.

Neville shot him a look, then shook his head. They'd worked together long enough that Neville had learned to ignore the odd slips when Harry spoke his (usually disjointed) thoughts aloud.

"So how do we get back?" Neville asked.

The smile slipped off Harry's face. That was a very good question. He pointed his wand at the broken mirror.

"Reparo."

The pieces of the mirror vibrated, then stilled. Harry frowned and repeated the charm with more force, but got the same result. He cursed, ran a hand through his hair, and tried again.

Nothing.

Neville considered the mirror with narrowed eyes. "It must be a powerful enchanted object." He glanced around. "Perhaps one of the others…?"

"It's worth a try."

They peered through the rows of mirrors, wands at the ready. The thick mist gave the area an ominous feel and Harry's eyes kept darting around, half expecting something to jump out at them.

About half of the mirrors were broken—some just cracked and others entirely shattered—while most of the rest were dark, reflecting dull shadows. There were, however, a handful that gleamed like their mirror had before it'd broken. None of these shone with that blue light, but they were clearly magical as well.

Harry stopped in front of one of the active mirrors and pressed his palm against its surface. It felt warm. Magic thrummed within it, growing stronger with each passing second. Harry felt a tug on his magic and immediately jerked his hand away.

"Definitely enchanted."

Neville stepped up beside him. "Is it activated by touch?"

"I think so. It feels different from any enchantment I've come across before though. More…alive."

"So, people-eating mirrors then? It's a step up from those people-eating handbags, at least."

Harry grinned. "Agreed. But in this case I think its magic that it wants, rather than human flesh. Can you spot me?"

Neville heaved a sigh. "What else is new?" he muttered, but obligingly drew his wand and pointed it at Harry. If anything went wrong, he would cut off Harry's magic or knock him out.

This time Harry pressed both his hands against the mirror. He felt an answering pulse, then another tug on his magic. He gritted his teeth as his magic connected with the mirror's enchantment and the mirror drew energy from him. The sensation was sharp and foreign, like a splinter under his skin.

The mirror took a surprising amount of magic to activate, but Harry could tell the exact moment it did—and not just because its surface turned blue and began to ripple again.

"That's a portal if I've ever seen one." Harry let his hands fall away.

"You've never seen a portal."

"But I've seen Muggle movies with them."

Neville snorted and shook his head. "So, do we go through?"

"Better than staying here. I'm fairly sure these work like the Vanishing Cabinet back at Hogwarts did. And it didn't kill us the first time, so we should be fine."

"Fantastically reassuring, as always," Neville said dryly. "Though with your luck this one will spit us out somewhere in the Amazon rainforest and we'll have to hike back to civilization."

"Naturally." Harry grinned impishly. He looked back at the mirror and took in a deep breath. "Well, here goes nothing."

He stepped through the mirror with his eyes screwed shut. Its surface brushed over his skin like a gossamer veil. Now that he wasn't in the middle of having a heart attack while falling, he could also feel the sheer power running through it. How in Merlin's name had the first mirror activated?

Walking through the mirror was like walking through a doorway. There was no disorientation and half a second later he stood on solid ground again. It immediately secured a spot at the top of the list for his favorite forms of magical transportation.

Harry was very noticeably not back in the storeroom, not that he'd really expected to be. Instead, he found himself standing in the middle of an ancient ruin. Vines climbed up the walls and sunlight streamed in through holes in the ceiling and walls.

The mirror rippled as Neville came through with Flint's body levitating before him.

"Well, it's not a rainforest," Harry said.

Neville rolled his eyes.

They trudged out of the ruins with Neville stopping every ten feet to admire and take samples of a plant he'd never seen before. They both pretended they weren't increasingly alarmed by the lack of familiarity, or by the strange language carved into the walls.

The ruins sat in the middle of a forest—though thankfully not a rainforest. It actually reminded Harry a bit of forests of Northern England, if hit with a growth charm. Two white deer with curly horns grazed at the edge of the ruins, then ran as soon as Harry and Neville walked outside.

"I really wish I knew a good location spell," Harry murmured.

Neville had put on his game face—entirely impassive and extremely intimidating, especially considering that Harry still remembered the clumsy child he'd once been.

"We should find a river first and follow it. Most Muggle towns are built next to a large water source."

Harry nodded. They took three steps into the forest when a voice cut through the air.

The two Aurors froze. Harry gripped his wand, but didn't raise it. Neville lowered Flint closer to the ground so that he could safely drop him if needed.

Three people stepped out of the woods. All of them had lithe frames and long, pointed ears. They were pointing drawn bows at the wizards, but Harry barely noticed that detail.

"Elves. Merlin, they look like elves!"

Neville's lips quirked up into a smile. "Breathe, Harry."

"Elves! Are you seeing this?"

The lead elf, a woman with blonde hair, barked out something else, but it might as well have been Gobbledygook for all that Harry understood her.

"We come in peace?" Harry tried.

The woman—elf!—frowned fiercely. She said something else. When the Aurors just stared at her, she demanded something and then pulled her bowstring back further.

Harry held his free hand out in a placating gesture. "We mean no harm. We're just a bit lost. You wouldn't happen to have a signpost around, would you?"

No response. Harry took a step forward and one of the other elves, a boy who couldn't have been more than fifteen, let his arrow fly.

Harry diverted the arrow with a wave of his wand, then Apparated behind the elves. Three stunners later and two of them were down, but the third, a man, had dodged out of the way. He dropped his bow and drew two daggers instead, then jumped at Harry with the blades raised like fangs. Halfway through the lunge he collapsed to the ground, nearly stabbing himself. Harry glanced up to see Neville standing in an offensive dueling position with his wand up, pointed at the elf.

Harry nodded his thanks. He straightened out the elves from where they'd fallen while Neville healed the shallow scratch the man had gotten.

"Two adults and a child… A family, you think?" Neville mused.

Harry shook his head. "They're armed and armored. My guess is a patrol of some kind." He pursed his lips. "Did you recognize the language?"

Neville shook his head mutely.

They checked over the elves, but found nothing that hinted at where they'd ended up. The woman had a belt with several potions tied to it. Harry removed the cork on one of and sniffed at the reddish liquid inside. It smelled slightly sweet, but not like anything he'd come across before.

A faint whistle sliced through the air and then a sharp pain exploded in Harry's shoulder. Hissing, he Apparated a few feet away, behind a broken pillar.

Neville snapped out a physical shield spell just in time to block another arrow. Harry scanned the forest, but their new attacker had hidden themselves well.

"Homenum Revelio."

Harry's vision shimmered and the red shape of a person appeared a good twenty feet away, behind a large tree. He Apparated twice in quick succession until he had a line of sight, then hit them with a stunner.

Harry grimaced as he lowered his wand. He walked back to Neville instead of Disapparating.

"Hostile natives are never a good sign. We should go."

Neville nodded. He crooked his finger at Harry and sighed when he got a blank look in return. "Your shoulder."

"Oh, right."

Now that he remembered the arrow wound, pain blossomed in Harry's shoulder. He turned to give Neville better access. Neville used a vanishing charm on the arrow, then healed the wound with a couple of muttered spells. It was still a bit tender by the time Neville finished, but definitely manageable.

Harry beamed at his partner. Neville just sighed and offered his wrist to Harry, who pressed the tip of his wand against it. Harry murmured the incantation for the tagging charm the Aurors had started using a few years ago. It gave him a sense of where Neville was, like a nudge in the back of his mind, regardless of whether they could see each other or not. Once the charm had activated, Harry offered his own wrist to Neville so that he could do the same.

As one, they placed disillusionment charms on themselves and vanished from sight.

o-O-o

Harry and Neville walked for most the day without encountering another person or finding the edge of the forest. When night fell, they set up their Ministry-issued tent, which even with magic had barely enough room for three people.

Or at least it was supposed to. Hermione had altered both Harry's and Ron's tents to be triple the standard size, with a full kitchen and a separate bedroom that had four beds.

While Neville dumped Flint in the bedroom and sealed the door, Harry made a couple of slapdash sandwiches. When he walked back into the common room with them, he found Neville sitting in an armchair with his head thrown back and his arm over his eyes. Harry set a plate down next to him, took his own seat, and began to eat.

Two minute later, Neville finally spoke. He didn't move his arm. "I put in for retirement this morning."

Harry stopped chewing. He carefully set down his plate.

"I was going to tell you after this case." Neville smiled thinly. "I… I've been talking to Professor McGonagall. I accept the Herbology post. It will be…more stable."

"You'll make a bloody good professor."

"I think I will. I think I'll love it."

They sat in silence for a good ten minutes.

"We'll figure out where we are, and find a way back," Harry promised.

"Of course we will."

"Albus is going to be so excited when he finds out you'll be one of his professors."

Neville cracked a smile. "He should know better than to think I'll go easy on him, Godson or otherwise."

"Oh, of course not."

They shared a grin and if they weren't on duty Harry would have immediately brought out the Firewhiskey. As things stood, he was tempted to do so anyway.

"You should probably feed Flint too," Neville pointed out.

Harry groaned. They really did need to wake their prisoner; it wasn't healthy keep applying stunners like they had been doing all day. Heaving an exaggerated sigh, he went back to the kitchen.

o-O-o

Neville sat for another minute, and then heaved himself off the armchair with a sigh. He walked into the bedroom, waving his wand offhandedly to relock the door behind him.

Flint was laid out on the bed in the back corner. His eyelids were twitching as his eyes moved back and forth behind them—a sure sign that Harry's latest stunner had worn off and Flint had slipped into sleep instead. He would likely wake up on his own within the next few minutes.

Though Neville didn't actually have enough patience to wait for that.

Placing himself directly in front of the door, Neville pointed his wand at Flint and intoned, "Rennervate."

A full body jerk went through Flint and his eyes slowly blinked open. He stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment, then scrambled off the bed.

"You can try to Disapparate is you want."

Flint froze.

"I'm sure you can tell there are no wards up," Neville continued. "But likely any Apparition just won't work. Or, if it does, it might splinch you in half and save me the trouble of having to kill you. So please, go ahead."

Flint's face twisted into a scowl. He looked constipated for about three seconds, then his face paled and his eyes widened.

Neville rolled his eyes. Of course the idiot tried to Disapparate anyway. Well at least that saved him and Harry the risk of testing Apparition out here themselves.

"What did you do to me?!"

"Nothing. We're too far from England for you to be able to Apparate there. Do you remember the mirrors?"

The shifting of Flint's eyes told Neville that he did.

"The mirrors were a form of magical transportation. Your cutting curse broke the one we came through, blocking our way back home."

As Neville spoke, he noticed how progressively tense Flint got. He was entirely unsurprised when the man suddenly lunged forward, likely trying to overpower Neville and got for the door.

Sighing, Neville flicked his wand. The blankets on Flint's bed whipped forward and wrapped around Flint's legs, knocking him to the floor. A Second flick conjured a rope that tied Flint's hands to the bedpost.

Flint huffed and cursed and glowered, but couldn't get free.

A knock came from the door. Once Neville unlocked it, Harry waltzed in with another sandwich on a paper plate.

"Here you go!" Harry set the food on Flint's bed. He smiled in response to the criminals' glare. "Don't worry, I only poisoned it a little."

Flint sneered at Harry, Neville, the sandwich, and everything else around him. Harry shrugged and walked out.

"You may not like this, but you are still in our custody until we get back to England," Neville said.

Flint spat on Neville's shoes. Neville impassively vanished the fluid and left.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Neville's expression shifted to disgust. "Merlin, how has he gotten even worse since Hogwarts?"

"I know, right?" Harry readily agreed. "I told you, it's the troll blood."

o-O-o

A/N: So yeah, this is a thing.

I haven't written any fanfiction in far too long, but two days into playing Dragon Age: Inquisition this idea popped into my head and hasn't let me alone since. Of course, now that I've finished the game the plot has changed quite a bit. I am writing this as I go/as inspiration comes, so updates will likely be quite sporadic. This is also mostly unedited, so please do point out any errors you notice.

I was very close to naming this "That One Time Harry Got Eaten by a Mirror", but Harry's saving people thing won out in the end.

Please review to let me know what you think!

SR