Harry and Co Read an Excerpt

A/N: Special thanks in the next part of The Dark Lord's Servant to whomever can tell what book I got the excerpt from or what the last bit is regarding. Just a stupid, STUPID bit of fiction that demanded to be written eventually. Please don't take the time to tell me how stupid it is, I know already.

On the far side of the earth Aura citizens fought great wars with other nations. They had lived a relatively peaceful coexistence....

HARRY: If they warring with other nations...how can they live a peaceful co-existance?

Hermione: Read the rest of the paragraph Harry.

...until government representatives became restless and greedy. The need for power and control seemed to spread throughout the Congress of United People, C.O.U.P., like a disease out of control. The discord caused great unrest within the colonies.

RON: So this takes place in America does it?

HERMIONE: *glares*

Absent any real or decisive leadership...

HARRY: So...it DOES take place in America

...citizens gathered arms and formed militia groups. These splinter revolutionaries were determined to reclaim democracy, and preserve the legacy their forefather's had given their lives to make possible.

RON: I reserve the right not to comment as Hermione is about to hex me.

To most of Aura's citizens it appeared that all of this unrest had occurred suddenly, when it had actually taken years and years of corruption and political maneuvering to tear apart the very fibers of the Constitutional Charter. This Charter made democracy possible for all nations, and gave its citizens inalienable rights. It was masterfully written to insure that the citizens would control the government, and was intended to prevent government intrusion into the their private lives.

HERIONE: Oh, what an original idea...basing the Constitutional Charter...on the Untied States Constitution!

RON: Did anyone get what any of the ment?

HERMIONE: Basically the citizens of Aura didn't realize that people didn't like the way things were and a bunch of politicians were working to break the 'Constitutional Charter' thus ending democracy.

HARRY: This is a children's book?

HERMIONE: To my knowledge.

HARRY/RON: Oy!

Leadership of the C.O.U.P., headquartered in Aura, had gone unchecked by its citizens for many years as they enjoyed prosperity and freedom. Little by little, this complacency gave rise to corruption. Nations intended to include, and respect the rights of all people regardless of heritage or color, had slowly mutated into countries defined by class distinction, nations of haves and have-nots.

RON: Still sounds like America to me...

This seemingly simple erosion of morality gave rise to gross civil unrest, and massive wars resulted. Aura's citizens suffered catastrophic hardships and losses. The wars forever changed life as Aurians once knew it.

HERMIONE: War has a tendency to change things...

They lost the freedom and liberties they had worn like a comfortable pair of old shoes. The Great Thirty Year War would be recorded as the most vicious and evil in the history of mankind. Senseless battle after battle had nearly destroyed everything.

RON: But on an up note-housing was REALLY cheap now.

Although the C.O.U.P. arms treaties had boasted the elimination of nuclear weapons, it was the reassonably and use of such weapons that brought this anguishing war to a sudden and devastating conclusion.

HARRY: They blew up parliament!

RON: They blew up the White house!

NEVILLE: They blew up Snape!

Forest and valleys, farms and villages lay in waste. Only barren battlegrounds were visible where beautiful estates had dotted the landscape and productive farms once thrived. Here the lingering radiation made it impossible for ordinary human life to be sustained.

ALL: Oh...

HERMIONE: They blew up everything....

The nuclear holocaust had blanketed the sky with dark poisonous clouds of radiation. The sun disappeared behind the radiated eclipse just as Aura citizens fled their homeland. Beaten, tired, and nearly starving, they deserted the ruins, leaving behind the imprisoned have-nots: the injured, the handicap, the ethnically impure, the elderly, and other less fortunate human beings.

HERMIONE: How awful! *sniffles*

No mercy was shown to even the children of the abandoned citizens. Their cries for help went unrecognized as they rang out with piercing resound. Despair painted their faces like a mask of terror. Moans of anguish echoed in the air with dizzying repetitiveness as the have-nots struggled to clear the debris from the entrance of their cavernous prison.

HERMIONE: *more sniffles*

The self-appointed "chosen-ones" gathered in crowds along the shoreline to escape on the few remaining cruise ships, where most of them had once enjoyed luxurious vacations with their families. Now all that these luxury liners represented to them was a way to escape. They pushed and shoved, trampling one another like a herd of cattle to secure their place on a vessel. Ladders and ropes and planks of all kinds were filled with people trying to crawl and climb aboard.

RON: It's the fleeing of Titanic in reverse...

HARRY: Our homelands now lay in waste but hey! Let's go party on a Princess Cruise line ship!

The ships and their captains had armed and locked themselves inside control rooms to maintain absolute command of the vessels. As the ships filled to an overflowing capacity, the command was given to leave the port. Planks broke away from the ship decks, while desperate people futilely reached out for a helping hand aboard. Others were left still clinging to ropes and ladders that dangled along the sides of these iron ocean monsters. As the mammoth ships floated off to sea, the ropes and ladders were cut from their sides, dropping the unlucky ones into the murky and stormy water, never to be seen again.

HARRY: Sorry, we're too full, try the ship about to run you over...

NEVILLE: This is depressing...

It is hard to imagine that anyone left behind on Aura could have survive, but they have. The power of the human spirit was never more vivid than it is now, nearly five hundred years later. Against all odds, a primitive generation of human beings, ancestors of the have-nots, the Muggles, now inhabit the land. They have never experienced the warmth of sunlight, nor the beauty of an evening sky filled with glittering stars. Their world is lit only by moonlight shining through a purple haze left behind by nuclear warfare.

HERMIONE: Wait, after a nuclear holocaustthere are people still LIVING?

RON: It's fiction Hermione.

HERMIONE: But still, NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST!

HARRY: * rolled eyes *
Muggles look much like human babies, but none of them have hair. Their shoulders are narrow and delicate. They have round, plump bellies, which make their legs and arms look very thin.

RON: No they don't, muggles look likenormal people.

HERMIONE: I should hope so!

Muggles have smooth, soft skin. At one time their skin was blue from the lack of sunlight and oxygen, but now they have creamy white, beige or brown complexions, and little, pink cheeks. Even when full-grown they look like children.

HERMIONE: How did they survive without oxygen?

RON: Fiction, remember, FICTION

The Muggles speak many different languages and understand all others, even those of the animals. Some think Muggles voices sound faint, but that is because the Muggles are very tiny. Their average height is three and one half feet.

HERMIONE: What does height have to do with the vocal cords?

RON: Yeah, Harry's a midget and I hear him just fine.

HARRY: HEY!

The only knowledge the Muggles have of their ancestors and the history of Aura are the stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. These stories are found within the pages of the historical ancestral diary known as the Ancient Book of Tales.

NEVILLE: Original name.

The Ancient Book of Tales has become a record of every event that has taken place, or is taking place in Aura, and in the lives of the Muggles. It describes traditions and survival methods, and records births, deaths, and achievements. Every Muggle child is educated by guidelines set forth in the Ancient Book of Tales, and expected to live by the moral standards described in this historical book.

HARRY: Sounds like the bible cross-breeded with a history book and a census.

RON: Well that would make for an interesting bedroom moment.
The tradition of record keeping continues to this very day. This book is the Muggles' only link to the past, their legacy to the future, and the most treasured possession of the Muggle community.

DRACO: So, they are poor. * gets slapped upside the head from several sides *

It has been said that history repeats itself, and many, many years after the Great Thirty Year War, another nation was growing restless. Their actions would bring about change that reached far beyond their borders, and would profoundly affect the lives of the Muggles.

RON: Times are a changing, young un.

HARRY: * gives Ron a look *

RON: What?

In this distant land, the chilling sounds of a raging war echoed in the background. For you see-this land too, had nearly been destroyed by great wars.

RON: This would be the Middle East * also gets slapped upside the head *

And so, the Ancient Book of Tales tells us-

In The Year of the Purple Haze

RON: Wasn't that a muggle song in the seventies?

HARRY/DRACO/HERMIONE/NEVILLE: * all shrug*

~~Story moves into normal formating~~

Harry watched as the book they had been reading slowly dissappeared. "What the hell?"

Hermione staired at the empty air in Neville's hands that used to be the book. "I sure hope it got better, it was a horrid beginging for a children's book."

"That is was." Draco muttered. Ron frowned at him. "Malfoy, what ARE you doing here."

Draco laughed coldly. "Nothing special Weasley, just reading that bit of garbage with you to get a scope on what the stupid case is all about, same as you all."

"Oh."

The group lapsed into silence, each contamplating their own thoughts.