Chapter Text
“The Shadow Monarch is truly amazing.”
High above a set of stairs that stretch to nowhere, there lies a crudely made throne made of rock and iron at the top. And sat on that throne, with a posture only befitting those with confidence to strike anyone beneath them down, lies the Monarch of Destruction, King of Dragons.
“I didn’t expect you to use the cup of reincarnation to turn back time,” the man with the long, red mane smirked.
Just a few dozen steps below the King of Dragons, wisps of shadows gathered around and formed in a single spot on the step, slowly converging until a man in dark armor rose up from the singularity, dual wielding daggers of the same essence, long black hair that reaches below his waist, and an eerie black and purple aura that haze around the dark figure. His eyes, that glow purple from his mana, stared fixedly at the man in armor of silver and red, his own red aura slowly gathering around as he watched the noirette appear before him.
“To think I’d meet you again, alive and breathing,” the man said, his cheshire-like smile widening. Now lifting his head off his hand that was resting his chin, straightening his gaze, “...but it’s time for one of us to rest in peace for the rest of eternity.”
The Monarch of Shadows stayed silent, slowly matching his smirk to that of the Monarch of Destruction, now fully materialized at the steps. At the bottom of his feet, shadows wriggled about, stretching and pulsating, as if it’s yearning to be let free.
The King of Dragons moved to stand up from his decrepit throne.
“I’m Antares, what’s your name?”
“The second Monarch of Shadows, Sung Jin-Woo.”
The young Shadow Monarch gripped his blades tighter.
“Do you have anything else to say?”
A flurry of red mana erupted from the Monarch of Destruction. He stood there, eyes brightened crimson from his mana, locked onto those of the Shadow Monarch.
“...No.”
A step. Two powerhouses of different powers instantly clashed within a second. The surrounding dragons that stood at the sides of Antares collided with the shadow soldiers of Sung Jin-Woo, the shadow soldiers immediately rocketing out of Sung Jin-Woo’s shadow and taking on whatever enemy they first laid eyes on. Within those few moments, Antares transformed into part of his spiritual body form, now donning horns and inhuman fangs upon his humanoid body, and Sung Jin-Woo let go of his smile and formed a more stoic expression, opposite that of his adversary.
But the moment they let go and readied themselves for a second strike against each other, the sound of an abysmal crack overtook their senses. Before either of the Monarchs could realize what’s going on, a rip into the dimensional crack formed between them. Then, silence.
–
There is no way Hogwarts Castle isn’t sentient. Considering that the old building was designed and built by a powerful wizard architect and four of the most famous wizards, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin, the magic casted into its construction would only evolve and grow over time. But not only that, the school was also built on 4 roots of the dimensional leylines of this world, coincidentally lining up with where each of the 4 houses of Hogwarts lie upon. Whether it’s founders or the architect knew, no one knows. And neither people of the wizarding world, muggles, spirits or magical creatures know of this fact. Along with the main Hogwarts Castle eventually gaining awareness, the leylines that lie beneath the castle allowed each of the Hogwarts houses their own subconsciousness.
A rift formed in the heart of the leylines. Although the crack was only a ruler’s length and width, there was enough magical energy pouring out of the rift for the sentient castle to take notice. But, the magic within the dimensional crack felt… sinister. The houses’ sentience stayed away, except for one. The magic of the Slytherin house strayed from the others and approached the rift, sensing great power beyond the gate despite the eeriness of it all. As it peered into it, a cold, dreadful feeling spread throughout the area, also affecting the other sentients. But as the stray conscious peered on, what it found was a pair of purple eyes staring back at it. This dark, mysterious entity…
The House of Slytherin wants it.
And call upon the entity it did, dragging the presence from the rift and into their dimension.
The moment when the entity fully materialized into this plane of existence…
A shockwave erupted from what remains of the rift, a quake so massive it shook the entirety of Scotland– no, the entire continent to its core. An earthquake of disastrous magnitudes. But just as quickly as it started, the rumblings of the earth soon stopped after a minute. And what the rift left behind was a jagged scar at the heart of the leylines, sealing up any traces of its dimensional wound.
.
.
.
Laid out on the old stone floors of the castle lies a man adorning armor as dark as shadows and long hair as dark as night. Surrounding him, shadows stretched to the walls and ceilings, gazing.
–
“Bellion, do you have any idea where we are?”
The winged shadow warrior shook his head as he kneeled down to his awakened king, head lowered to match his liege’s posture, “ I believe we are no longer in the plane between dimensions, nor are we back in your home world. Unfortunately, I do not have any more information.”
The Shadow Monarch sighed and stood up from the dusty floor. As expected, it’s not going to be easy figuring things out from now on.
When Sung Jin-Woo first opened his eyes in this new dimension, what met him was a high ceiling that resembled that of the Cartenon Temple but on a smaller scale, much to his displeasure. The last thing the Shadow Lord remembered was exchanging blades with the Monarch of Destruction, only for their battle to be abruptly cut short. There was a nagging feeling that… something was watching him before he woke up in the room, but seeing as the room is absolutely devoid of anything except dust, that was a matter Jin-Woo can push off to later.
There’s more important things to worry about right now.
“Shadows, investigate this area and come back. Beru, go and find anyone resembling my mother or Jinah. If you do, return to me immediately. Bellion, Igris, the both of you stay with me. Report back if any of you find anything of interest. Do not let yourselves be seen.”
As the shadows dispersed in every direction, Jin-Woo continued to examine his surroundings. The room is smaller than he expected, pillars aligning the walls, reaching up towards the curved ceiling. The more Jin-Woo observed the archaic architecture the more pissed off he felt. It looked way too similar to that damned temple, after all.
As Jin-Woo was distracted by his growing annoyance, Igris approached.
“My liege,” the deep, husky voice started, “I can sense a magical humanoid coming towards your direction.”
As Igris finished his report, the sounds of quickened footsteps can be heard beyond the only door of the room, rapidly coming closer to the trio.
“...our apologies that we couldn’t detect them sooner,” Bellion said regretfully.
“It’s okay. I couldn’t detect it either. Both of you, return to my shadow for now. I’ll deal with whoever they are.”
“Yes, my liege.”
As the two warriors dismiss themselves back into Jin-Woo’s shadow, the door flung open, revealing a dark haired man in similarly dark robes, a stick in hand pointing towards the King of Death.
“State yourself, intruder!” bellowed the dark man.
Thank goodness for omnilingualism. It was lucky that Monarchs had this ability, otherwise surviving in this world without knowing any other language except for Korean and English would be more difficult than it should be– Is what Jin-Woo was thinking before mentally smacking himself in the face when he realized the man was, in fact , speaking English.
“Shouldn’t you introduce yourself first before asking someone for their name?”
Jin-Woo, who originally had his back to the door, turned around to fully meet the gaze of the stick waving man. What the dark robed man initially thought was a death eater breaking into the school turned out to be something, much, much sinister. The longer the shadowy figure stared at him, the more his entire being, all the way down to his soul, started shaking. This isn’t a being he can curse away and live, or even attempt to hurt at all . Every cell of the man’s body is screaming for him to run away, every instinct of his to submit to the entity at once, to no avail, since there’s a certain pressure leaving him stunlocked in fear.
Just as quickly as he lost his senses, the pressure was gone in an instant a moment later. The man’s heart still pounding heavily from fear, he tried his best to calm his shaking hand and lowered his wand, but not completely pointing away from Jin-Woo.
“...Professor Severus Snape. May I ask who you are, and why are you here in Hogwarts grounds unauthorized?”
“...professor…? Hogwarts?”
“My liege, I received reports from the others that the structure we’re in resembles a castle, and many of the rooms here look similar to Lady Jinah’s school,” Igris’ voice rumbled in Jin-Woo’s mind.
Jin-Woo looked towards his shadow, not minding the man in front of him.
“Bellion, what are your thoughts about this man?”
“He has magical prowess, but nothing that our weakest couldn’t handle,” the baritone of Bellion’s voice resounded, “I sense no malicious intent, but if you wish, I can wipe him on the spot.”
“There’s no need for that. Stay guarded.”
As Snape watched the mysterious intruder stare into his eerily moving shadow, the man turned back to look at him, his eyes no longer glowing a sinister purple, and the room slowly becoming easier to breathe despite it being dust laden. The shadowy haze that was flowing around him retracted and settled back beneath his feet.
“I got a bit lost and ended up here. Could you tell me where I am?”
“It would be absolutely not possible to wander upon this room by accident, even through the uses of apparition . I will ask again: who are you and why are you here?”
Snape snapped with gritted teeth, annoyance rising. Just an hour before, a burst of magic shook throughout Hogwarts, alerting all the staff that stayed behind the castle to prepare for the upcoming school year. Then, a second shockwave erupted all throughout the European continent. The spirits within the castle got spooked so badly they left their usual posts and scattered throughout the structure, a multitude of paintings and portraits flew off the walls, furniture crashed into each other and broken, and countless supplies prepared for classes destroyed and misplaced. Snape considered himself lucky to be chosen as one of the staff to investigate the cause of the incident instead of cleaning up, but he’s slowly thinking that facing off with a powerful unknown entity isn’t something he would do instead of chasing down undead spectrals.
Jin-Woo sighed. Maybe he’s being unfair to what he’s assuming to be an educator patrolling the school. But that doesn’t mean he’s willing to freely give up information about himself without something in return.
“Jin-Woo. No surname.” It would be a pain if I said my surname and people think I’m a relative of some random family. “I was being truthful when I said I was lost; I do not know where I am or how I got here.”
Jin-Woo stepped towards the man.
“Now that I answered your question, will you answer mine? Where am I, and what is this place?”
I’m not gonna find out more information like this. The Professor hardened his gaze.
“I’m not going to answer your questions until you answer this: Are you a death eater, and do you practice the dark arts?”
Oh this motherfucker–
Annoyed by the audacity of this man, Jin-Woo nearly let out a curse as the arrogant man in front of him dared to ignore his question and ask another. What kind of fairness is this? The Shadow Monarch intentionally held back his aura and left his hands empty in order to let the man beneath him in power breathe and make conversation easier, and not once did he show any hostility towards him, too!
“Shall I subdue him so we can interrogate him later?”
As tempting (and easier) as Igris’ suggestion is, Jin-Woo feels that detaining an unknown teacher at an unknown school in an unknown dimension would obviously not be a good idea.
“Not now. It’s not a good idea to act without knowing what kind of place this is first.”
Trying his best not to show annoyance in his voice, Jin-Woo held back a sigh before replying to the rude man.
“I do not know what either of those are.”
I’ll have him drink a veritaserum later.
“Then what are you–”
“Hold on.”
Jin-Woo interrupted Snape, holding up a hand to indicate he has something to say, much to the other’s surprise and irritation.
“I’ve already allowed you to ignore my question twice now, and I’m not about to let you ignore it for a third.”
The Monarch of Shadows took another step closer to the school Professor, now about an arms length away. In the perspective of Severus Snape, each time the man named Jin-Woo spoke, even though he had been unblinking the whole time, it seemed as if the mysterious entity simply… appeared closer instead of him simply walking towards him.
“Now, if you could please tell me…”
The King of Death leaned his body forward, maintaining eye contact.
“Where am I?”
The primal fear the professor felt just a few minutes earlier came back in an instant, his knees suddenly buckling under him as the eyes of the dark entity flared back into a iridescent purple. Damn his pride. But if his death could hold back the suspicious man from whatever plans he may have against Hogwarts for a minute, then so be it.
(Unknowingly to Snape, though, if the young monarch had wished to, the entirety of Hogwarts would be flattened in under 5 minutes. With or without his presence to resist against the unknown humanoid.)
“Sectumsempra!”
In an attempt of a last ditch effort, Snape summoned every strength of his body to lift his wand back up and cast a slashing spell against the intruder. From his perspective, the spell looked as if it connected, judging by the magic that shot forth from his wand and onto the man’s chest. Unfortunately for him, the dark armored man standing before the fallen professor looked unaffected.
“...”
“...”
“...are you done? Can you answer my question yet?”
The young monarch squatted downwards, matching the height of the sitting professor and looked straight into his eyes.
“I will forgive you this once for your insolence towards me, but believe me when I tell you this is your last chance to answer my question. Since your assumed attack towards me, my shadows have been itching to get their hands on you, and I really have been truthful about all my answers so far,” except for my surname but that shouldn’t matter in this world, “so you better answer my question, Mister Severus Snape, or else.”
The arm that held his wand went slack awhile ago, his wand rolling just out of reach. There was no way in his mind that he could escape this predicament without dying. But thinking back, if the words the eerie intruder said were true, then maybe there would be no harm in answering the long haired man’s inquiry.
Letting out a quaking sigh, Snape closed his eyes to calm his nerves before answering.
“...you are at Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry. Specifically, you are in one of the secret underground chambers of the castle. There should not have been any possible way to access this specific room from the outside, magically or physically.”
“As I suspected…”
Jin-Woo stood up from his position, pondering on this newfound information. A secret underground chamber? What kind of school has secret rooms? Witchcraft and wizardry? Is the use of magic normal in this world? Why did he ask whether I know of death eaters or the dark arts? Is that why this professor was so hostile towards me this whole time? Is it forbidden in this world?
There is much more information Jin-Woo needs to learn about this dimension before he could attempt to try to find a way back.
Retracting his mana and internally placating his shadow soldiers, he held out a hand, offering to help the fallen professor to his feet.
“Apologies for the initial scare, there are not a lot of things I know about this world as you can guess. I didn’t arrive here on purpose, and I really do not know how I got here. So if you will, since we’re both searching for information, why don’t we call a truce and discuss this calmly.”
Sensing no malice or hidden meanings behind the words of Jin-Woo, the young professor took the hand of the dark armored man, and stood up. As he picked up his wand, brushed the dust off himself and fixed his sleeves (in an attempt to regain normalcy after all… that .), Snape continued the conversation, though still retaining his wariness. If this man doesn’t know what Hogwarts, death eaters, or what the dark arts are, just what exactly is he, and where did he come from…
“If your words are to be believed, then I assume you have no dark intentions towards Hogwarts or any of its residents at all?”
“Was that not obvious?”
Jin-Woo tilted his head to the side. He clearly showed no hostility the moment the man entered the room, nor were his hands hidden or holding any weapon (not like Jin-Woo needs a weapon to strike down an enemy). Was there a reason why the school was on such high alert? Is the use of magic not that common after all?
“My King, I came back to report that there are no such persons that resemble Lady Jinah or the Matriarch.”
“My liege, the scouts have reported that the castle is in disarray, and the surrounding area is also in a similar state.”
“Good job, Beru. Stick by my side for now. Igris, tell the others to expand the search to the entire world. There’s a lot of things we don’t know just by sticking to this area.”
“Yes, my liege.”
As Beru and Igris finished their report (and Jin-Woo mentally blocking out Beru’s cries of happiness over being praised), Jin-Woo focused his eyes back to the man before him.
“I guess there’s a reason for your suspicions against me. Perhaps it would be better for us to change locations to a better one? I would rather not stay in this dusty place any longer,” Jin-Woo looked past the stilled professor towards the open door behind him, “and preferably, I’d like it if we kept this meeting between us.” It would be a pain if every person I met from now on acted like this man.
“...I understand,” Severus Snape sighed, “this arrangement would be better for me, too.” It would be best if I don’t report this man to Dumbledore. I fear that his methods would anger this entity into destroying everything we know.
“It would be best if you could stay in this room for another few hours. The castle is a mess right now, so there are many prying eyes running about for me to sneak you out discreetly.”
“There’s no need for that.”
Before Snape’s eyes, the body of the dark haired man before him slowly turned transparent. How is he able to turn invisible without the use of spells or potions?
“Just lead the way. I will be following you the whole time.”
And just like that, everything about the man disappeared. The uncomfortable feeling is gone, and his presence can’t be sensed anymore.
“You know what will happen if you tell anyone else about me.”
Severus Snape straightened his back and let out a deep, long sigh. This is going to be a very long night for him.