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batsutousaiTitle: Xerosis
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
batsutousai
Beta:tsuki_no_suzu & magickmaker17
Rating: T
Pairings: Voldemort/Harry (post-Harry/Ginny)
Warnings: SLASH, AU, character death, super!Harry, Dark!Harry
Summary: Harry's world ends at the hands of those he'd once fought to save. An adult-Harry goes back to his younger self fic. Super!Harry
Chapter Six, Part One
-0-
The next morning's Prophet made Harry grin a bit madly as he read through the article on the front page. Jenkins had spun a fantastic story, citing the series of gas-based explosions three years ago in Guadalajara, Mexico and some similar incidents to support his theory behind the cause of the explosion. Skeeter, true to form, had taken the story and made it absolutely epic, insisting that Jenkins had a point and ending the article with a question about whether this was the start of a war.
"You are disturbingly pleased by that article," Andromeda commented, buttering her toast. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were behind the explosion yourself."
"Andy, you wound me!" Harry cried, setting the paper down and leaning over the table, eyes filled with sorrow. "To think me capable of such an act of violence and destruction!"
"Kid, I have heard first-hand accounts of your duel with Voldemort; you gave about as good as you got."
Harry widened his eyes. "Against Voldemort," he pointed out.
"Living with Sirius has turned you nutters," Andromeda decided. Harry put on a wounded look. "Yeah, nice try. I spent plenty of time around your godfather, Harry. Don't think you can get that past me."
Harry grinned. "It works on Siri."
"Yeah, well Sirius is insane. I'm not."
"You should try it some time. Being insane is brilliant."
"Eat your eggs."
Harry grinned a bit wider and tucked in.
Over the next couple of days, he was constantly trading owls with his friends. He'd only been able to tell them that he was staying in London somewhere, so they were understandably concerned. Hermione and Neville had also wanted to know what he knew about the attack, rightfully expecting that he wasn't willing to just sit about and cool his heels when he could be snooping. Lillian's letters ranted on about how vile muggles were and made suggestions for killing them that, while a little disturbing and often creative, weren't really plausible with the way the Death Eater attacks were run. Luna just asked how to make a pipe bomb.
When the wards on the cottage were finally finished, Harry, Andromeda and Tonks made for the place with all speed and settled in to their rooms. By the next day, the two guest rooms were filled with Harry's best friends, including Lillian, who Sirius grumbled about, but didn't bother turning away. Luna, never one for conventional rules, had offered Lillian her usual bed in the larger guest room the girls usually had, then curled up in Harry's room on the floor. The second day, Harry rolled his eyes at his best friend and hunted down a cot for her, which she had him set up in his room, insisting that it was too crowded in the guest room. Which was a load of bollocks, but Harry knew better than to argue with Luna, so he let her sleep in his room without complaint.
The cottage was quite crowded for a good week before Sirius finally got tired of fighting over his gaming systems and cried to the kids' parents. When Harry and Luna were the only ones left – Xenophilius was off on an expedition on the continent and unable to collect his daughter – Sirius jokingly looked up into the sky and pleaded with James and Lily to take Harry back. Harry had smacked him, then dragged Luna out to his garden to work with his abused flowers. Neville had helped a bit while he was there, but they still needed a lot of love.
Harry had spent almost two hours fighting with his godfather about whether or not he would be allowed to visit Diagon Alley for his school shopping. Luna had made herself some popcorn and sat on the sidelines munching it while Harry and Sirius got louder and louder in their most epic fight ever. Considering they'd never actually fought about anything before, it wasn't saying much, but Andromeda had assured them both, once they'd calmed down, that it had been on par with the fights Sirius had waged with his mother in the weeks before he ran away. Honestly, Harry was just glad he hadn't gone dementor on his godfather, though it had been a near thing. (Catching sight of Luna out of the corner of his eye every few minutes had helped him keep his power in check, which had probably been the girl's original intent, knowing Luna.)
In the end, with Andromeda supporting Sirius, Harry had admitted defeat – well, it would perhaps be more correct to say that he stormed out of the living room and slammed the door to his room before shadowing away to kill some mundanes. Andromeda had collected a list of subjects Harry was interested in studying that year and promised to get him the best books she could find for each of them, even if it meant traversing Knockturn.
When Andromeda got back from her trip, however, she had the strangest look on her face as she stepped into Harry's room. Both he and Luna were curled up on his bed, reading the most recent edition of the Quibbler together, which included a series of photos that supposedly had rare animals in them. They were trying to be the first to spot each animal, Harry constantly complaining that Luna had helped take most of the pictures while the younger Ravenclaw cheerfully pointed out that Harry had stolen his vision and reflexes from vampires, which meant he was cheating too.
"Harry," Andromeda interrupted as they were turning the page.
"What's up, Andy?" Harry asked, already searching the new photo for the creature in question.
Andromeda shook her head at the two, but continued with, "I just had the most interesting conversation with my sister."
"Narcissa, I assume," Harry replied, then groaned as Luna spotted the creature. "If it was dear, insane Bella, it wouldn't have been interesting. More exciting, I think. Curses being flung about, aurors being called. Someone probably would have died."
"Or at least ended up in St Mungo's," Luna added airily. Harry snapped his finger out to point to the creature and the girl muttered, "Cheater."
"You're finding the same number as me, so stop whining."
Andromeda stepped forward and took the magazine away from them before they could get started on the next photo. The teens gave her disturbingly similar pitiful looks and she rolled her eyes. "You. My sister."
"I suppose she's not too bad to look at, but her husband might crucio me if I try anything naughty with her," Harry quipped.
"You are being purposefully thick," Andromeda replied. "How do you know my sister?"
"Well, see, her son–"
"Harry, don't make me get some Veritaserum."
"You have Veritaserum in the house?" Luna asked, eyes lighting up with mayhem. "Hey, can I borrow it to ask Harry some questions about faeces?"
"Luna, for Merlin's sake, would you stop mentioning that?" Harry complained.
"But you start turning this lovely green colour that matches your eyes–"
"Don't think I won't turn you into a peacock."
"That is cruel and completely uncalled for–"
"Merlin's dirty y-fronts!" Andromeda shouted.
"Ew..." Harry and Luna chorused.
Andromeda rubbed tiredly at her eyes, muttering, "Would you just stop playing insane for one minute?" She opened her eyes and met sharp green eyes without a glint of humour in them and took a surprised step back.
"I don't know Narcissa personally," Harry said quietly, "but we have a common acquaintance. I mentioned to him that I was worried about you and he found some way to get Narcissa to ask you out to tea."
Andromeda swallowed, unnerved by the dark knowledge that Harry usually hid with jokes and mucking about. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that this boy had held his own against Voldemort and remembered watching his mother murdered. "Who is your... common acquaintance?" she asked, wanting to know. Whoever they were, they had saved her life. Narcissa had refused the life debt, insisting that she wouldn't have saved her if it hadn't been asked of her, and Andromeda wanted to know who she owed.
Harry offered a humourless smile. "I don't think you want to know, Andy."
Andromeda shook her head. "Harry, please. I know that anyone who knows Cissa is probably Dark–"
"He's a vampire," Harry interrupted, watching her with a strange intensity.
"There are a lot of vampires out there, Harry."
Next to the boy, Luna smiled knowingly. No, there really weren't a lot of vampires left, not with Harry hunting them to extinction when he was bored.
"Not a lot of vampires who go by the name Xerosis, though, are there?" Harry replied, an unamused smile touching his eyes.
Andromeda's eyes widened. "You know that monster?" she breathed.
Harry cocked his head to one side. "Monster?" he wondered in a child-like voice. "What is a monster but the face of man?"
"L'homme n'est ni ange ni bête; et le malheur veut que qui veut faire l'ange fait la bête," Luna quoted. "Blaise Pascal."
Andromeda frowned at her. "Wait, what?"
"It's a quote from a French mundane, Blaise Pascal," Harry offered. " 'Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.' " He turned to Luna. "I didn't know you knew French."
Luna smiled mysteriously. "I know many things."
Harry grinned and kissed her cheek. "You really are my favourite, Luna."
Andromeda cleared her throat. "Are you trying to excuse Xerosis' actions?"
"He's a murderer and he enjoys what he does," Harry replied, frowning at his cousin. "I'm not excusing him, and neither is Luna. We're just trying to point out that he has his reasons and while you might find them to be wrong, to him they are correct. Where you see an evil monster, he and other like-minded individuals see a leader with a vision and the strength to do what needs to be done."
"Andy!" Sirius called from downstairs somewhere.
Andromeda didn't move, still watching Harry and Luna with narrowed eyes while they watched her back calmly. "And what do you think?" she asked.
"Hey, Andy!" Sirius called again, his steps sounding on the stairs.
Harry smiled. "I wonder."
Sirius' head poked around the doorway. "There you are! Here, Albus sent you another owl. What are you two discussing, anyway?" he wondered, holding the parchment out.
"What's this?" Harry wondered, eyes widening with shock. "Siri hasn't been opening other people's mail? Has the apocalypse come? Are the mundanes all firing their nuclear bombs at once?"
"...some days, I really don't get your jokes," Sirius decided as Andromeda took the letter.
"You're better off that way," Harry offered cheerfully. "Come on, Andy, what's in the letter?"
Andromeda glanced up from the parchment, eyes darkly amused. "In this letter? Oh, just Albus' usual ramblings."
"That is so not fair!" Harry complained as the woman shooed Sirius out of the doorway. "Come on, Andy! You can't just leave me hanging!"
The door closed behind the two adults and Harry sighed in defeat. Luna smiled a bit and reached over to pick the Quibbler up off the floor. "I wonder who our new Defence professor will be."
Harry blinked once, twice, then laughed. "Better a suspicious Andy than a toad," he decided, relaxing back against the wall. "Well, come on then, Luna. We've got three more pictures to go. One of them's going be the tie-breaker."
"You've actually been keeping score?" Luna wondered, opening the magazine to the proper page.
"Nah. But whoever catches the last one wins by default."
"Agreed."
-0-
"You said Hogwarts would be taken out?" Riddle asked one evening over a glass of wine. Harry would be returning to Hogwarts the next day and they'd just finished another raid. The two leaders had agreed to enjoy a quiet game of chess, which turned into something of a tournament, Riddle winning more often than Harry.
Harry frowned a bit at the board. "Yeah, but it took them a few years." He moved a knight to take one of Riddle's pawns, then glanced up. "Why?"
"I don't want to chance them hitting it again," Riddle admitted.
Harry rubbed at his chin, leaning back in his chair. "They're far less developed now than they were when the war started before, but need creates what idle curiosity does not. They may advance much faster this time just to destroy us."
"It is a concern. Their random attacks are stepping up," Riddle pointed out.
After the first explosion that destroyed Andromeda's house, three other gas-based explosions had taken out magical homes in London. One target had included a large family of mundanes with one magical child, a six-year-old girl. Harry had tried stopping that one, but he'd gotten to the mundane who'd set the explosion too late, as the bomb was already set up. They'd fought next to the bomb, the mundane with a handgun and Harry with magic. Their fight had upset the building gases, causing the explosion to occur three hours sooner than the mundane had planned it. The mundane had been killed and Harry badly wounded; the house with the mundane family and the one magical girl had still collapsed, killing all of the people inside.
Harry shook the reminder of his failure from his mind. "We talked, briefly, about creating a magical ward to protect important places from damage, but there were so few of us left by that point that it really wasn't important. That was after they'd taken out Hogwarts, anyway."
Riddle nodded. "Do you think we could create a ward like that?"
"I don't see why not," Harry decided, chess game forgotten in light of his new distraction. "The anti-mundane wards on Hogwarts are good, but they didn't hold up under the mundane computers and satellite images. Something about the distance from the satellite made the spell useless. If we could extend the spell..."
"Or a repelling ward of some kind aimed towards their bombs?"
"That would just shoot them off elsewhere, which would still be dangerous. I'd rather they never fired them at all," Harry replied, shaking his head.
"The wards were specifically intended to repel muggles," Riddle offered, swirling his wine glass a bit. "Could we create a ward that would defeat artificial intelligence?"
"You know, I'm not sure. And even if it worked to keep the aiming computers from locking on, they can still fire off to one side if they know where they're aiming. Sonya – one of my partners back then – suggested working a long-range notice-me-not charm into the wards, but we weren't sure how well that would work."
"Making it long range could be a problem, especially if you want to keep using the area it's protecting," Riddle murmured. "Any notice-me-not charm is going to be just as effective close up as it will be from a distance. Is there a way to trick their satellites into avoiding those spots?"
"Or, not avoiding, just not seeing," Harry said, eyes lighting up. "Mess up the image so it always looks like what they'd see if they were there in person. Also, maybe tweaking the current wards to make the ruins look even more uninhabitable?"
"Make it look condemned?" Riddle suggested. "About to fall apart at any moment. That would keep them away."
"There's already a lake next to it, could we change the shape of the lake?"
"Make it surround what looks like ruins?"
"And maybe include Hogsmeade in the wards. Right now, it's this magical town located right next to ruins that people can't help but avoid. That's suspicious."
"Very much so, yes. Extending the wards, though..."
"Maybe not extending, just adding? Could we set up a new set of wards over the town and tie them in with the Hogwarts wards?"
I... don't honestly know," Riddle admitted, waving the chessboard to the side and summoning some parchment and a quill. He did a quick sketch of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, then added a faint line of wards around the school. He considered the picture for a moment, then started adding ward lines around the town. "Covering this much area..."
"We'd need a team," Harry agreed, summoning his own quill and absently marking spots along the ward lines where they'd need people to cast from. "Uhg. How did the Founders manage to cover the whole of Hogwarts with just the four of them? Protecting the whole of Hogsmeade and the outlying houses will require a team of ten people."
"I don't suppose you've got a time-turner of Death that will let us go back to the creation of Hogwarts?" Riddle muttered.
"Ha, ha." Harry spelled away half of the people. "I suppose we could manage with five, if they were all strong enough."
"You, myself," Riddle offered. "Dumbledore, I suppose–"
"If we could get him to see sense."
"Yes, well, that could be a chore. Who else? Severus might work..."
"Depending on how magically draining it is, Xerosis and Harry could both help," Harry pointed out.
"Using two of the same person?" Riddle murmured, eyes distant as he stared through the parchment on the table. "That would double the power, yes. We could all use a time-turner, at that."
"Bringing us to eight with two Dumbledores and two Snapes?" Harry rubbed at his chin. He absently erased his previous marks and put in spots for eight people. "That could..."
Riddle reached forward with his own quill and moved them all around so one of the marks was missing, bringing it down to seven. "More magical number–"
"Wait!" Harry erased the seven marks and quickly changed the configuration so there were four people standing on the ward lines and three people in the centre, standing around a stone he sketched in. "Seven people with four casting the ward and three tying it to a ward stone in the centre. The three in the centre won't even need to be magically powerful as long as they've got a strong will."
Riddle nodded and quickly wrote their own names on the outside four, with Voldemort opposing Riddle and Harry opposing Xerosis. "We'll have to find people who won't have a fit over seeing Harry Potter," he commented.
"Can Lucius and Barty break the Imperius Curse? Well..."
"Barty can be trained," Riddle commented, adding their names to the inner circle. "What about the third person?"
Harry considered for a moment, then added Luna's name. At the Dark Lord's disbelieving look he replied, "Trust me."
"Hn." Riddle left the name where it was and started up a list to one side. "Wards to make the village look uninhabitable to muggles. Muggle repelling wards. Something to keep satellites from seeing it."
"If we can find a way to have the satellites always see the area as they would when they were up close, could we tie that spell in with the wards?" Harry suggested.
"A two-part spell held together by a ward stone?" Riddle murmured, sketching some quick runes to one side. "Maybe. We'd have to put the wards up first and then tie the distance spell in to them after."
"That shouldn't be too hard."
"No," Riddle agreed, considering his runes, then turning them to face Harry. "It will have to be rune-based, though."
Harry grimaced. "Might be a bit hard to apply to the satellites already up there."
"We could just hijack a rocket and shoot ourselves up there–"
"Tom, you're completely bonkers."
Riddle chuckled and sat back in his chair. "I don't know, Potter. The science of space travel is beyond me."
Harry sighed and nodded. "I know. I'll mention it to my friends and see if they can't think of something. If nothing else, Luna will have some magical creature that lives on the moon."
"Potter, your friends..."
Harry grinned. "You're one to talk."
"I don't have friends."
"Minions, friends. Same word, different letters."
"You are insane in ways I don't fully understand," Riddle decided.
Harry laughed at that and drew a satellite above the picture of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. "We can catch any others that are going up there, once we've set the wards around Hogsmeade and made some changes to the Hogwarts wards. Actually, that last is the bit I'm worried about. I mean, Luna and I are students, and Lucius is a school governor, but you and Barty might have some trouble getting in. You more than Barty."
"Never mind figuring out where the ward stone is," Riddle agreed.
"Oh, no, I know where that is," Harry replied with a smile. "We found it when we were cleaning up the wreckage. It's actually the stone at the centre of the arch over the main doors."
Riddle blinked, then snorted. "Clever. Hide the stone holding the wards in plain sight."
"It was probably Salazar's idea," Harry agreed, eyes flickering to the runes the other had written on the parchment and tapping them with the soft end of his quill. "You know more about runes than I do."
"You never studied them?"
Harry snorted. "Hell no. When I was in school, I was a lazy little idiot. I learned a little as an auror and a little bit more when the war started. I've got some runic knowledge from the magical souls I've eaten, but my knowledge is spotty other than what I've learned so far in Ancient Runes. I've done some studying on my own, sure, but it's sort of a 'what interests me when' thing."
"So for all your apparent genius, there're still things you haven't mastered," Riddle commented, a pleased smile curling his lips.
"I never claimed to be all-knowing."
"You acted like it."
"I put on a show, because if I didn't, you would never have listened to me," Harry pointed out. "And to set the record straight, I am a defensive magic prodigy. I mastered the patronus charm at thirteen, in the presence of a dementor."
Riddle blinked a few times, then shook his head. "Okay, defensive magic prodigy it is. Everything else, however, depends on what you've learned during your rather long, stressful life."
"That is true," Harry agreed. "Some of my knowledge is stolen, true, but most of what I stole is language or mundane-based. My magical knowledge has been gained through my own hard work."
The Dark Lord leaned forward. "Runes."
"You'll have to figure out which ones need to be added to the stones," Harry said, shrugging.
"Will I need to make the spells, too?" Riddle wondered, uncertain how much ward creation knowledge the other had.
"Mmm... No, I can help with that."
"You want to get this done tonight," Riddle figured.
"Yes." Harry sighed and ran a hand through his chin-length hair. "Getting it done tonight means we can work on figuring out a time in the coming weeks. I'd like to get at least this part done before things get any worse."
"Agreed."
Another piece of parchment was summoned and they leaned over the table together, adding and debating parts for their spells.
-0-
Harry woke the morning of September first to the sound of a bird tapping urgently on the window. He grumbled to himself a bit, but rolled out of bed and stumbled around Luna's cot to shove the window open. The bird that flew in was one of Sirius' small flock and Harry frowned as he reached for the letter.
"Trouble?" Luna asked quietly.
Harry recognised his own writing and almost tore the parchment in his hurry to get it open, not yet answering Luna.
'H,
'Elm tree, ten minutes.
'X'
"Could I be any more useless?" he grumbled, tossing the letter in the bin, a fire spell following, before moving over to his wardrobe for some robes.
"Harry," Luna reminded him.
Harry sighed and tugged on one of his few non-school black robes before moving towards his trunk. "I'm sorry, Luna. I don't know what's going on. I'll let you know as soon as I'm back. Whenever that might be." He grabbed his Cloak, time-turner and broom.
"It's not good," Luna whispered, blue eyes glinting eerily in the light from the setting moon.
"When I wake myself after less than three hours of sleep, it never is," Harry agreed grimly before slipping out of his window and flying into the forest surrounding the house. The elm tree was just outside the wards, so Harry was unsurprised to find Xerosis standing with Voldemort and a couple of Death Eaters. He landed next to Xerosis, asking, "What's going on?"
"...This is only a little disturbing," Barty decided, looking nervously between the copies of the younger Dark Lord while some of the other Death Eaters shifted uncertainly at seeing an apparent enemy.
"Xerosis, get to it," Voldemort ordered.
Xerosis rolled his eyes and looked over at Harry with sharp eyes. "There will be an explosion in King's Cross today at ten."
"How can you know that if both of you are her–"
"Barty, shut up," Harry and Xerosis chorused.
"Sorry, my Lord," Barty mumbled. Around him, some of the Death Eaters shifted again, quelling under Voldemort's angry red eyes.
"There's an old system in place from before King's Cross existed, but it hasn't been used since the mid-nineteenth century," Lucius offered, concern obvious in his voice. "My Lord, are you certain–"
"I heard word from a trusted source and went to check it out myself a few hours ago," Xerosis reported drily. As Voldemort opened his mouth, he added, "Yes, we could probably stop them, but if we can find a way to get the students to Hogwarts without worrying about the bombing, I would prefer that." The apparent vampire smiled cruelly. "There's something poetic about a mundane-planted explosion killing hundreds of insects for us."
Voldemort nodded and turned to Lucius. "How much trouble would it be to get this old system up and running?"
Lucius grimaced. "I don't honestly know, my Lord. I don't know how much the Ministry will be willing to listen to reason."
"Lucius, if you can put pressure on them from your end, Harry can come at them from his end," Xerosis pointed out.
"Will that be enough?" one of the Death Eaters muttered, shooting Harry an unimpressed look.
"Were the suicidal idiots necessary?" Harry asked his future self drily.
Xerosis smirked. "No."
"I hate vampires," Harry decided, rubbing at his face tiredly while Xerosis chortled. After a moment, the teen glanced up at the Death Eater who had spoken, green eyes glowing warningly while the man shivered. "Are you questioning your Lord, scum?"
The man stumbled back and shook his head.
Xerosis snorted and laid a gentle hand on his slightly younger self. "Lucius, Baley, Stuart, all of you get to the Ministry and put pressure on them to get that system working. Drag Fudge out of bed if you have to, Lucius."
"Yes, my Lord," the men murmured before apparating away.
"Grayson, Thompson, get to the Prophet offices and ensure this makes front page," Voldemort ordered the last two Death Eaters other than Barty. When the men were gone, the Dark Lord turned to his two partners, scowling, "Was there a reason you insisted Barty come?"
"Momentary amusement?" Harry suggested with a cheeky grin.
"Potter," Voldemort hissed while Barty let out a resigned sigh.
Xerosis smirked, then snapped his fingers at Harry. "March of 2054."
Harry raised an eyebrow, then considered back to the stated date. "Erm, yeah. I remember. The blue house, right?" he replied, recalling the attack they'd made against a mundane strike group that had been based just outside London.
Xerosis nodded. "Two hours."
"Got it. How long before...?" Harry waved his hand at Voldemort and Barty even as he pulled out his time-turner.
"Four-thirty."
Harry grimaced and offered Voldemort an apologetic look. "I'm sorry?" He'd left Malfoy Manor at around two, and he'd known the red-eyed man still had things to do when he'd left.
Voldemort bared his teeth in response. "Not yet, you're not."
Xerosis rubbed absently at his shoulder. "Give me a break," he complained. "Like I got much more sleep than you."
Harry slipped over to Barty's side, time-turner forgotten, while Voldemort and Xerosis started in on one another. "Come on, Barty, let's escape before we're collateral damage."
Barty let himself be shadowed back to his room in Malfoy Manor. As Harry was checking that he had everything, the Death Eater asked, "Why did you bring me? Will you. Whatever."
"Possibly to keep myself from getting involved in that argument," Harry decided. "Well, and some amusement. Sorry, Barty, but you make it way too easy."
"I'm resigned, my Lord," the man replied drily.
Harry smiled at him. "Probably simpler that way."
Barty snorted, earning a chuckle from the teen. After a moment, just before Harry could shadow away, he asked, "My Lord... Harry?"
Harry blinked at him, always a bit caught off guard when the Death Eater used his given name, since he was the only one who ever did. "Yes?"
Barty looked uncertain, but still enquired, "2054?"
Harry smiled grimly. "Ah. It's a code I use with myself."
"I don't–"
"Barty," Harry warned before the man could press it, "it's not your concern."
Barty considered the boy with the eyes of an adult for a long moment before nodding. "Yes, my Lord."
Harry offered him the faintest of smiles before shadowing away to a park he knew of near the house Xerosis had specified. He'd use his time-turner there.
-0-
"There's going to be a bombing at King's Cross," Harry explained to the waiting Luna as he slipped back in through his window. "I need to wake Andy and Tonks."
"Won't the Aurors try defusing the bomb themselves?" Luna wondered as Harry unloaded his various gadgets back into his trunk.
"Not unless they're idiots," Harry retorted. "At any rate, I fully intend to stress to Tonks how bad an idea that would be."
"What if they make sure the mundane government knows?" Luna asked, following Harry as he left his room and made for Andromeda's room.
"Then the insects get warned. It happens." He knocked on his cousin's door and waited patiently while she muttered sleepily and shuffled out of bed. When the door opened, he offered her an apologetic smile and offered, "Sorry, Andy, but it's important."
"You're far too awake for this hour," Andromeda muttered sleepily before stepping back and waving the two teenagers in. Harry and Luna took the desk chair and the floor next to the chair, respectively, while Andromeda returned to her bed. "Okay, what's so urgent?" she asked around a yawn.
Harry cocked his head to one side. "At ten o'clock, a mundane-planted pile of explosives will be going off at King's Cross."
Andromeda jerked out of her exhaustion. "What?" she whispered, paling slightly.
Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "The Ministry has already received word, but we're not sure they'll really get their behinds in gear in time to get their older system up and running and get the word out for parents to send their kids to Hogwarts that way. Headmaster Dumbledore would put the extra pressure on them to get moving."
"Can't the bombs be nullified?" Andromeda asked, even as she hurried to pull on some robes.
Harry shrugged. "Probably, but I'd leave that to the mundanes; a witch or wizard would probably just set it off pre-emptively. Whether the mundanes get told or not, we're still going to have to find another way to get a few hundred kids to Scotland by the end of the day."
Andromeda gave him a slightly suspicious look. "You don't care if they're told or not?" she wondered.
Harry smiled, but kept his mouth shut.
"You're being more obvious about your muggle-hatred than usual," Andromeda pointed out.
"What ever do you mean, dear Cousin Andy?" Harry replied, looking up at her with suspiciously innocent eyes.
Andromeda snorted. "My husband was muggleborn," she reminded him.
"As was my mother," Harry said, leaning his chin in one hand. "As are two of my friends. I see no reason to fault the child for their parents."
Andromeda snorted again. "You just blame the muggles for being born without magic."
"I never said that," Harry pointed out, amused. "I dislike them because we're all human and it's in our nature to have a certain amount of dislike for those who are different than us. I fear them because I know they have the power to destroy the world, and I hate them because I know they're more than willing to destroy the world to get rid of magical people."
Andromeda frowned. "There are good muggles out there."
Harry shrugged. "Yes, but even good mundanes will choose violence when they're afraid."
"Your friend – Xerosis – and Voldemort are the reasons the muggles are fighting back," Andromeda pointed out.
Harry smiled. "Time is of the essence, Andy; we can continue our philosophical debate later." He stood and reached down to help Luna to her feet. "Come along, luv. If I have to be awake, Sirius will suffer with me. We can wake Tonks on the way."
Luna entwined her arm with his and they walked together down to Tonks' room, where they woke the clumsy metamorphmagus and left her to get ready after explaining that there had been a bomb threat reported at King's Cross.
At Sirius' room, Luna let Harry go in first, not even bothering to knock. She followed him to the bottom of Sirius' bed, where he stopped to consider his sleeping godfather for a minute before summoning a pitcher of water and magically warming it. This he slipped Sirius' hand in before pulling a chair over and sitting down to watch with a smirk.
Five minutes later, Sirius was woken by Harry's loud laughter. Drowsily looking to Luna for sanity, he found the girl giggling quietly and pointing at the front of his trousers. He glanced down, noticed the wet patch, then realised his hand was in a pitcher of warm water. It took him a moment, but he eventually connected the dots and lurched out of his bed towards Harry, who darted out of the room, loudly shouting, "Siri wets the bed like a little kid!"
"Get back here, you little wretch!" Sirius called back, stumbling after the teen and half falling against the wall from time to time.
Luna, still quietly giggling, grabbed the pitcher and left to return it to the kitchen. There was still some popcorn left with her name on it, and she had front row seats to a crazy show.
-0-
Harry quickly understood why they'd chosen to use a steam engine over their old system. "What about the people with mundane parents who can't apparate or no access to a floo?" he asked of the room in general. Andromeda had just returned with their instructions, drily commenting that everyone else would get theirs via owl within the next two hours. Since they had three and a half hours or so until the bomb was supposed to go off, Harry wasn't concerned.
"The Ministry, St Mungo's and the Three Broomsticks are all opening their floos for Hogwarts traffic," Andromeda reported. "As long as families can stick to the schedule, everything should go smoothly."
"I have this amazing mental image of a mundane family refusing to let their child attend Hogwarts because they'll have to step in a fireplace," Harry commented drily.
"They can take the Knight Bus," Sirius replied from behind a yawn. "So, Andy, when're Harry and Luna due?"
"Harry needs to leave sometime between one o'clock and one fifteen. Luna an hour after that."
"Can't we just go early?" Harry complained, rubbing at his face. He'd very much like to just take a long nap, personally. "I mean, technically we're living with a professor. Doesn't that get us some sort of bonus?"
"You're living with a professor?" Sirius parroted, looking at his godson with a befuddled expression.
Harry and Luna both pointed to Andromeda, who looked rather amused. "How did you figure it out?" the newest Defence professor asked.
"Luna told me," Harry reported. "Come on, Andy. Can we go early? Luna and I can behave ourselves. We'll stay in our dorm and you'll never even know we were there."
"I don't know, kid..." Andromeda replied, shaking her head slowly.
Harry turned an evil smirk on his godfather.
"Oh, for the love of Merlin, Andy! Take the little demon before he drives me completely off the mountain!" Sirius complained.
"What mountain?" Andromeda demanded, shooting her cousin an incredulous look.
"The Mountain of Sanity!"
Andromeda rubbed tiredly at her forehead while Harry's smirk widened and he said, "I don't think you were ever on that mountain to begin with, Siri."
"Takes one to know one, brat," Sirius retorted.
"Hey, I will have you know that I am a proud resident of the Valley of the Completely Bonkers."
"...why does that sound more awesome than the Mountain of Sanity?" Sirius wondered.
"Because it is. Not only are there no rules, but there are also valley-wide orgies every Friday," Harry declared before glancing at a nearby calendar. "Hey, what do you know? It's Friday!"
"You're too young for an orgy!" Sirius declared.
"No rules," Harry reminded him before turning to Luna. "I know I'm not your type, luv, but would you like to join me in my room for an orgy?"
"Hmmm..." Luna replied, considering her friend thoughtfully.
"Too! Young!" Sirius tried again.
Andromeda groaned to herself. "Merlin forbid," she complained. "Harry, Luna, get your trunks. I'll take you over early if only to preserve my sanity."
"What about my sanity?" Sirius complained as the two teens traded grins and hurried from the room.
"What sanity?"
Harry caught Luna in a quick hug at the top of the stairs before leading the way into his room. "So, what is your type, Luna?" he wondered as he tossed a couple of last minute things into his trunk.
"Someone a little closer to my own age," Luna replied with an absent smile.
Harry chuckled. "Sorry about that."
"Don't be sorry," Luna chastised. "You would make a very poor Lord if you were only fifteen."
"Hn. Good point." Harry closed his trunk and tapped the top to make it shrink, then tossed it into a pocket. "But, really, who's your type? I know you eventually married Rolf Scamander–"
"I've met Rolf a few times," Luna interrupted absently as she shrunk her own trunk. "He's a nice enough boy, but he isn't willing to accept that Crumple-Horned Snorlacks even might exist."
Harry shook his head fondly and ushered the girl back towards the living room. "Luna, luv, that's what most people think."
"They're quite silly then, aren't they?"
"Undoubtedly."
"Are you two ready?" Andromeda asked when they entered the living room.
"Yes," Luna offered.
Harry blinked at his godfather, who gave him a pleading look from behind his gag. "Um, Andy, why is my godfather trussed up like a lamb off to the slaughter?"
Sirius whimpered.
"I'm thinking of giving him to Severus as a peace offering," Andromeda replied drily.
Sirius whimpered again.
"If you're going to do that, you might want to divest him of his clothing, first," Harry commented, eyes gleaming with mischief as Sirius turned, in turns, green and bleach-white. "After all, we both know how Siri is about first impressions when it comes to possible mates."
Sirius' eyes rolled backwards into his head and he toppled off his chair.
Andromeda blinked at her fallen cousin, then looked over at Harry. "That was brilliantly evil."
"I do try," Harry replied, grinning.
Andromeda let out an amused snort. "Yeah, I see that. Well, go on. You're flooing to the Headmaster's office." She waved the two teens towards the open floo.
"Fair maiden," Harry said, bowing Luna forward, "ladies first."
Luna smiled a bit absently at him. "Why thank you, my Lord," she said before flooing through.
Harry considered his godfather's prone form for a moment while Andromeda watched him with an amused look. "Harry, if you're going to curse him, do it now."
Harry offered her a wide-eyed look. "But I'm still under-age, Andy!"
"I've lost track of the number of times I've seen you performing magic this summer, kid," Andromeda informed him drily. "Not sure how you got past the Trace, but since you spent half the summer in the Black family library, I can make a pretty good guess."
Harry smiled, not commenting on that, and pulled his favourite stolen wand out of his pocket. In truth, he'd never removed the Trace from his holly wand, though he'd considered it, but if Andromeda had seen him using magic, she'd have seen this wand, anyway. "Unbekleidet Bekleidet," he muttered, casting the spell on his godfather.
When nothing happened, Andromeda looked at him curiously. "Yes?"
"It's a German spell, meaning 'unclothed clothed'. No matter what Siri puts on, he'll think he's naked, although others will see the clothing he's put on. It'll end after a week." Harry smirked a bit. "I'm kind of curious about whether or not he'll just stop wearing clothing after a few days."
"My poor daughter," Andromeda muttered, stepping forward and turning Harry towards the floo. "Go torture your other professors."
"You're not coming?" Harry asked, surprised.
"In a bit. I need to forewarn Dora about your prank."
Harry chuckled and tossed the powder into the flames before flooing through to Dumbledore's office. "Sorry about the wait, luv," he offered Luna, who was enjoying some tea and biscuits with Dumbledore.
Luna offered him her absent smile. "The Headmaster was asking about Blibbering Humdingers," she explained. "Why don't you join us, Harry?"
Harry glanced over at where Fawkes was glaring at him, feathers puffed up threateningly. That was reassuring. "No, I think I'm going to go nap until lunch. You enjoy your talk, though." He leaned over and kissed her cheek, earning him a pleased smile, then nodded to Dumbledore. "Headmaster."
"Pleasant dreams, my boy," Dumbledore replied with a smile.
Harry had almost reached the door when Fawkes let out a sharp sound and the teenaged Dark Lord clapped his hands over his ears. "What the fuck?" he demanded, giving the phoenix an angry look. He hadn't much expected Fawkes to like him, not with all the blood on his hands, but neither had he expected the bird to verbally attack him, either.
"Fawkes?" Dumbledore asked, half-rising from his seat and watching his familiar with both surprise and concern.
Harry narrowed his eyes at Fawkes as the bird gave off another piercing screech. With his temper up, it didn't take much for Harry to bring his power forward and he threw it at the phoenix, freezing the fire bird with a warning that was the complete opposite of everything the elemental bird was.
Fawkes let out a sound that could only be described as a bird-whimper, then turned his back on Harry completely and hunched his head.
Harry reigned his power in and stalked from the office, wishing he could control his anger better right then. "Fucking hormones. Fucking fire birds."
He needed sleep. He could figure out what to do about Fawkes once he was thinking clearly.
-0-0-0-0-0-
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: I apologise in advance for a lack of sanity in those last couple sections. I've been awake for way too long, but I wanted to make this chapter acceptable before handing it over to my betas. ^.^"
Anyway, for all that I wanted to have the whole year in this chapter, I'm kind of fond of where it's ended. (I dunno. Let's see what I think after I've slept a bit. XD)
ETA: Change in the German spell thanks to morbiid.doll (FFN).
Edit made to the Blaise Pascal quote courtesy of Arwen00710 (FFN).
I fail at languages...
~Bats ^.^x
Chapters:
Pro - If We Could Only Turn Back Time / 1 - Long Road
2 - Never As It Seems ||| 3 - The Bad Man, the Sad Man ||| 4 - Armies of Robbers and Thieves
5 - Fear Falls Like Rain |||6 - Rage Like Fire ||| 7 - Born From Conflict
8 - Reach Any Star ||| 9 - Cold Fields ||| 10 - Ice Inside Your Soul
11 - King of Anything
Author:
batsutousaiBeta:
tsuki_no_suzu & magickmaker17Rating: T
Pairings: Voldemort/Harry (post-Harry/Ginny)
Warnings: SLASH, AU, character death, super!Harry, Dark!Harry
Summary: Harry's world ends at the hands of those he'd once fought to save. An adult-Harry goes back to his younger self fic. Super!Harry
Chapter Six, Part One
The next morning's Prophet made Harry grin a bit madly as he read through the article on the front page. Jenkins had spun a fantastic story, citing the series of gas-based explosions three years ago in Guadalajara, Mexico and some similar incidents to support his theory behind the cause of the explosion. Skeeter, true to form, had taken the story and made it absolutely epic, insisting that Jenkins had a point and ending the article with a question about whether this was the start of a war.
"You are disturbingly pleased by that article," Andromeda commented, buttering her toast. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were behind the explosion yourself."
"Andy, you wound me!" Harry cried, setting the paper down and leaning over the table, eyes filled with sorrow. "To think me capable of such an act of violence and destruction!"
"Kid, I have heard first-hand accounts of your duel with Voldemort; you gave about as good as you got."
Harry widened his eyes. "Against Voldemort," he pointed out.
"Living with Sirius has turned you nutters," Andromeda decided. Harry put on a wounded look. "Yeah, nice try. I spent plenty of time around your godfather, Harry. Don't think you can get that past me."
Harry grinned. "It works on Siri."
"Yeah, well Sirius is insane. I'm not."
"You should try it some time. Being insane is brilliant."
"Eat your eggs."
Harry grinned a bit wider and tucked in.
Over the next couple of days, he was constantly trading owls with his friends. He'd only been able to tell them that he was staying in London somewhere, so they were understandably concerned. Hermione and Neville had also wanted to know what he knew about the attack, rightfully expecting that he wasn't willing to just sit about and cool his heels when he could be snooping. Lillian's letters ranted on about how vile muggles were and made suggestions for killing them that, while a little disturbing and often creative, weren't really plausible with the way the Death Eater attacks were run. Luna just asked how to make a pipe bomb.
When the wards on the cottage were finally finished, Harry, Andromeda and Tonks made for the place with all speed and settled in to their rooms. By the next day, the two guest rooms were filled with Harry's best friends, including Lillian, who Sirius grumbled about, but didn't bother turning away. Luna, never one for conventional rules, had offered Lillian her usual bed in the larger guest room the girls usually had, then curled up in Harry's room on the floor. The second day, Harry rolled his eyes at his best friend and hunted down a cot for her, which she had him set up in his room, insisting that it was too crowded in the guest room. Which was a load of bollocks, but Harry knew better than to argue with Luna, so he let her sleep in his room without complaint.
The cottage was quite crowded for a good week before Sirius finally got tired of fighting over his gaming systems and cried to the kids' parents. When Harry and Luna were the only ones left – Xenophilius was off on an expedition on the continent and unable to collect his daughter – Sirius jokingly looked up into the sky and pleaded with James and Lily to take Harry back. Harry had smacked him, then dragged Luna out to his garden to work with his abused flowers. Neville had helped a bit while he was there, but they still needed a lot of love.
Harry had spent almost two hours fighting with his godfather about whether or not he would be allowed to visit Diagon Alley for his school shopping. Luna had made herself some popcorn and sat on the sidelines munching it while Harry and Sirius got louder and louder in their most epic fight ever. Considering they'd never actually fought about anything before, it wasn't saying much, but Andromeda had assured them both, once they'd calmed down, that it had been on par with the fights Sirius had waged with his mother in the weeks before he ran away. Honestly, Harry was just glad he hadn't gone dementor on his godfather, though it had been a near thing. (Catching sight of Luna out of the corner of his eye every few minutes had helped him keep his power in check, which had probably been the girl's original intent, knowing Luna.)
In the end, with Andromeda supporting Sirius, Harry had admitted defeat – well, it would perhaps be more correct to say that he stormed out of the living room and slammed the door to his room before shadowing away to kill some mundanes. Andromeda had collected a list of subjects Harry was interested in studying that year and promised to get him the best books she could find for each of them, even if it meant traversing Knockturn.
When Andromeda got back from her trip, however, she had the strangest look on her face as she stepped into Harry's room. Both he and Luna were curled up on his bed, reading the most recent edition of the Quibbler together, which included a series of photos that supposedly had rare animals in them. They were trying to be the first to spot each animal, Harry constantly complaining that Luna had helped take most of the pictures while the younger Ravenclaw cheerfully pointed out that Harry had stolen his vision and reflexes from vampires, which meant he was cheating too.
"Harry," Andromeda interrupted as they were turning the page.
"What's up, Andy?" Harry asked, already searching the new photo for the creature in question.
Andromeda shook her head at the two, but continued with, "I just had the most interesting conversation with my sister."
"Narcissa, I assume," Harry replied, then groaned as Luna spotted the creature. "If it was dear, insane Bella, it wouldn't have been interesting. More exciting, I think. Curses being flung about, aurors being called. Someone probably would have died."
"Or at least ended up in St Mungo's," Luna added airily. Harry snapped his finger out to point to the creature and the girl muttered, "Cheater."
"You're finding the same number as me, so stop whining."
Andromeda stepped forward and took the magazine away from them before they could get started on the next photo. The teens gave her disturbingly similar pitiful looks and she rolled her eyes. "You. My sister."
"I suppose she's not too bad to look at, but her husband might crucio me if I try anything naughty with her," Harry quipped.
"You are being purposefully thick," Andromeda replied. "How do you know my sister?"
"Well, see, her son–"
"Harry, don't make me get some Veritaserum."
"You have Veritaserum in the house?" Luna asked, eyes lighting up with mayhem. "Hey, can I borrow it to ask Harry some questions about faeces?"
"Luna, for Merlin's sake, would you stop mentioning that?" Harry complained.
"But you start turning this lovely green colour that matches your eyes–"
"Don't think I won't turn you into a peacock."
"That is cruel and completely uncalled for–"
"Merlin's dirty y-fronts!" Andromeda shouted.
"Ew..." Harry and Luna chorused.
Andromeda rubbed tiredly at her eyes, muttering, "Would you just stop playing insane for one minute?" She opened her eyes and met sharp green eyes without a glint of humour in them and took a surprised step back.
"I don't know Narcissa personally," Harry said quietly, "but we have a common acquaintance. I mentioned to him that I was worried about you and he found some way to get Narcissa to ask you out to tea."
Andromeda swallowed, unnerved by the dark knowledge that Harry usually hid with jokes and mucking about. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that this boy had held his own against Voldemort and remembered watching his mother murdered. "Who is your... common acquaintance?" she asked, wanting to know. Whoever they were, they had saved her life. Narcissa had refused the life debt, insisting that she wouldn't have saved her if it hadn't been asked of her, and Andromeda wanted to know who she owed.
Harry offered a humourless smile. "I don't think you want to know, Andy."
Andromeda shook her head. "Harry, please. I know that anyone who knows Cissa is probably Dark–"
"He's a vampire," Harry interrupted, watching her with a strange intensity.
"There are a lot of vampires out there, Harry."
Next to the boy, Luna smiled knowingly. No, there really weren't a lot of vampires left, not with Harry hunting them to extinction when he was bored.
"Not a lot of vampires who go by the name Xerosis, though, are there?" Harry replied, an unamused smile touching his eyes.
Andromeda's eyes widened. "You know that monster?" she breathed.
Harry cocked his head to one side. "Monster?" he wondered in a child-like voice. "What is a monster but the face of man?"
"L'homme n'est ni ange ni bête; et le malheur veut que qui veut faire l'ange fait la bête," Luna quoted. "Blaise Pascal."
Andromeda frowned at her. "Wait, what?"
"It's a quote from a French mundane, Blaise Pascal," Harry offered. " 'Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.' " He turned to Luna. "I didn't know you knew French."
Luna smiled mysteriously. "I know many things."
Harry grinned and kissed her cheek. "You really are my favourite, Luna."
Andromeda cleared her throat. "Are you trying to excuse Xerosis' actions?"
"He's a murderer and he enjoys what he does," Harry replied, frowning at his cousin. "I'm not excusing him, and neither is Luna. We're just trying to point out that he has his reasons and while you might find them to be wrong, to him they are correct. Where you see an evil monster, he and other like-minded individuals see a leader with a vision and the strength to do what needs to be done."
"Andy!" Sirius called from downstairs somewhere.
Andromeda didn't move, still watching Harry and Luna with narrowed eyes while they watched her back calmly. "And what do you think?" she asked.
"Hey, Andy!" Sirius called again, his steps sounding on the stairs.
Harry smiled. "I wonder."
Sirius' head poked around the doorway. "There you are! Here, Albus sent you another owl. What are you two discussing, anyway?" he wondered, holding the parchment out.
"What's this?" Harry wondered, eyes widening with shock. "Siri hasn't been opening other people's mail? Has the apocalypse come? Are the mundanes all firing their nuclear bombs at once?"
"...some days, I really don't get your jokes," Sirius decided as Andromeda took the letter.
"You're better off that way," Harry offered cheerfully. "Come on, Andy, what's in the letter?"
Andromeda glanced up from the parchment, eyes darkly amused. "In this letter? Oh, just Albus' usual ramblings."
"That is so not fair!" Harry complained as the woman shooed Sirius out of the doorway. "Come on, Andy! You can't just leave me hanging!"
The door closed behind the two adults and Harry sighed in defeat. Luna smiled a bit and reached over to pick the Quibbler up off the floor. "I wonder who our new Defence professor will be."
Harry blinked once, twice, then laughed. "Better a suspicious Andy than a toad," he decided, relaxing back against the wall. "Well, come on then, Luna. We've got three more pictures to go. One of them's going be the tie-breaker."
"You've actually been keeping score?" Luna wondered, opening the magazine to the proper page.
"Nah. But whoever catches the last one wins by default."
"Agreed."
"You said Hogwarts would be taken out?" Riddle asked one evening over a glass of wine. Harry would be returning to Hogwarts the next day and they'd just finished another raid. The two leaders had agreed to enjoy a quiet game of chess, which turned into something of a tournament, Riddle winning more often than Harry.
Harry frowned a bit at the board. "Yeah, but it took them a few years." He moved a knight to take one of Riddle's pawns, then glanced up. "Why?"
"I don't want to chance them hitting it again," Riddle admitted.
Harry rubbed at his chin, leaning back in his chair. "They're far less developed now than they were when the war started before, but need creates what idle curiosity does not. They may advance much faster this time just to destroy us."
"It is a concern. Their random attacks are stepping up," Riddle pointed out.
After the first explosion that destroyed Andromeda's house, three other gas-based explosions had taken out magical homes in London. One target had included a large family of mundanes with one magical child, a six-year-old girl. Harry had tried stopping that one, but he'd gotten to the mundane who'd set the explosion too late, as the bomb was already set up. They'd fought next to the bomb, the mundane with a handgun and Harry with magic. Their fight had upset the building gases, causing the explosion to occur three hours sooner than the mundane had planned it. The mundane had been killed and Harry badly wounded; the house with the mundane family and the one magical girl had still collapsed, killing all of the people inside.
Harry shook the reminder of his failure from his mind. "We talked, briefly, about creating a magical ward to protect important places from damage, but there were so few of us left by that point that it really wasn't important. That was after they'd taken out Hogwarts, anyway."
Riddle nodded. "Do you think we could create a ward like that?"
"I don't see why not," Harry decided, chess game forgotten in light of his new distraction. "The anti-mundane wards on Hogwarts are good, but they didn't hold up under the mundane computers and satellite images. Something about the distance from the satellite made the spell useless. If we could extend the spell..."
"Or a repelling ward of some kind aimed towards their bombs?"
"That would just shoot them off elsewhere, which would still be dangerous. I'd rather they never fired them at all," Harry replied, shaking his head.
"The wards were specifically intended to repel muggles," Riddle offered, swirling his wine glass a bit. "Could we create a ward that would defeat artificial intelligence?"
"You know, I'm not sure. And even if it worked to keep the aiming computers from locking on, they can still fire off to one side if they know where they're aiming. Sonya – one of my partners back then – suggested working a long-range notice-me-not charm into the wards, but we weren't sure how well that would work."
"Making it long range could be a problem, especially if you want to keep using the area it's protecting," Riddle murmured. "Any notice-me-not charm is going to be just as effective close up as it will be from a distance. Is there a way to trick their satellites into avoiding those spots?"
"Or, not avoiding, just not seeing," Harry said, eyes lighting up. "Mess up the image so it always looks like what they'd see if they were there in person. Also, maybe tweaking the current wards to make the ruins look even more uninhabitable?"
"Make it look condemned?" Riddle suggested. "About to fall apart at any moment. That would keep them away."
"There's already a lake next to it, could we change the shape of the lake?"
"Make it surround what looks like ruins?"
"And maybe include Hogsmeade in the wards. Right now, it's this magical town located right next to ruins that people can't help but avoid. That's suspicious."
"Very much so, yes. Extending the wards, though..."
"Maybe not extending, just adding? Could we set up a new set of wards over the town and tie them in with the Hogwarts wards?"
I... don't honestly know," Riddle admitted, waving the chessboard to the side and summoning some parchment and a quill. He did a quick sketch of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, then added a faint line of wards around the school. He considered the picture for a moment, then started adding ward lines around the town. "Covering this much area..."
"We'd need a team," Harry agreed, summoning his own quill and absently marking spots along the ward lines where they'd need people to cast from. "Uhg. How did the Founders manage to cover the whole of Hogwarts with just the four of them? Protecting the whole of Hogsmeade and the outlying houses will require a team of ten people."
"I don't suppose you've got a time-turner of Death that will let us go back to the creation of Hogwarts?" Riddle muttered.
"Ha, ha." Harry spelled away half of the people. "I suppose we could manage with five, if they were all strong enough."
"You, myself," Riddle offered. "Dumbledore, I suppose–"
"If we could get him to see sense."
"Yes, well, that could be a chore. Who else? Severus might work..."
"Depending on how magically draining it is, Xerosis and Harry could both help," Harry pointed out.
"Using two of the same person?" Riddle murmured, eyes distant as he stared through the parchment on the table. "That would double the power, yes. We could all use a time-turner, at that."
"Bringing us to eight with two Dumbledores and two Snapes?" Harry rubbed at his chin. He absently erased his previous marks and put in spots for eight people. "That could..."
Riddle reached forward with his own quill and moved them all around so one of the marks was missing, bringing it down to seven. "More magical number–"
"Wait!" Harry erased the seven marks and quickly changed the configuration so there were four people standing on the ward lines and three people in the centre, standing around a stone he sketched in. "Seven people with four casting the ward and three tying it to a ward stone in the centre. The three in the centre won't even need to be magically powerful as long as they've got a strong will."
Riddle nodded and quickly wrote their own names on the outside four, with Voldemort opposing Riddle and Harry opposing Xerosis. "We'll have to find people who won't have a fit over seeing Harry Potter," he commented.
"Can Lucius and Barty break the Imperius Curse? Well..."
"Barty can be trained," Riddle commented, adding their names to the inner circle. "What about the third person?"
Harry considered for a moment, then added Luna's name. At the Dark Lord's disbelieving look he replied, "Trust me."
"Hn." Riddle left the name where it was and started up a list to one side. "Wards to make the village look uninhabitable to muggles. Muggle repelling wards. Something to keep satellites from seeing it."
"If we can find a way to have the satellites always see the area as they would when they were up close, could we tie that spell in with the wards?" Harry suggested.
"A two-part spell held together by a ward stone?" Riddle murmured, sketching some quick runes to one side. "Maybe. We'd have to put the wards up first and then tie the distance spell in to them after."
"That shouldn't be too hard."
"No," Riddle agreed, considering his runes, then turning them to face Harry. "It will have to be rune-based, though."
Harry grimaced. "Might be a bit hard to apply to the satellites already up there."
"We could just hijack a rocket and shoot ourselves up there–"
"Tom, you're completely bonkers."
Riddle chuckled and sat back in his chair. "I don't know, Potter. The science of space travel is beyond me."
Harry sighed and nodded. "I know. I'll mention it to my friends and see if they can't think of something. If nothing else, Luna will have some magical creature that lives on the moon."
"Potter, your friends..."
Harry grinned. "You're one to talk."
"I don't have friends."
"Minions, friends. Same word, different letters."
"You are insane in ways I don't fully understand," Riddle decided.
Harry laughed at that and drew a satellite above the picture of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. "We can catch any others that are going up there, once we've set the wards around Hogsmeade and made some changes to the Hogwarts wards. Actually, that last is the bit I'm worried about. I mean, Luna and I are students, and Lucius is a school governor, but you and Barty might have some trouble getting in. You more than Barty."
"Never mind figuring out where the ward stone is," Riddle agreed.
"Oh, no, I know where that is," Harry replied with a smile. "We found it when we were cleaning up the wreckage. It's actually the stone at the centre of the arch over the main doors."
Riddle blinked, then snorted. "Clever. Hide the stone holding the wards in plain sight."
"It was probably Salazar's idea," Harry agreed, eyes flickering to the runes the other had written on the parchment and tapping them with the soft end of his quill. "You know more about runes than I do."
"You never studied them?"
Harry snorted. "Hell no. When I was in school, I was a lazy little idiot. I learned a little as an auror and a little bit more when the war started. I've got some runic knowledge from the magical souls I've eaten, but my knowledge is spotty other than what I've learned so far in Ancient Runes. I've done some studying on my own, sure, but it's sort of a 'what interests me when' thing."
"So for all your apparent genius, there're still things you haven't mastered," Riddle commented, a pleased smile curling his lips.
"I never claimed to be all-knowing."
"You acted like it."
"I put on a show, because if I didn't, you would never have listened to me," Harry pointed out. "And to set the record straight, I am a defensive magic prodigy. I mastered the patronus charm at thirteen, in the presence of a dementor."
Riddle blinked a few times, then shook his head. "Okay, defensive magic prodigy it is. Everything else, however, depends on what you've learned during your rather long, stressful life."
"That is true," Harry agreed. "Some of my knowledge is stolen, true, but most of what I stole is language or mundane-based. My magical knowledge has been gained through my own hard work."
The Dark Lord leaned forward. "Runes."
"You'll have to figure out which ones need to be added to the stones," Harry said, shrugging.
"Will I need to make the spells, too?" Riddle wondered, uncertain how much ward creation knowledge the other had.
"Mmm... No, I can help with that."
"You want to get this done tonight," Riddle figured.
"Yes." Harry sighed and ran a hand through his chin-length hair. "Getting it done tonight means we can work on figuring out a time in the coming weeks. I'd like to get at least this part done before things get any worse."
"Agreed."
Another piece of parchment was summoned and they leaned over the table together, adding and debating parts for their spells.
Harry woke the morning of September first to the sound of a bird tapping urgently on the window. He grumbled to himself a bit, but rolled out of bed and stumbled around Luna's cot to shove the window open. The bird that flew in was one of Sirius' small flock and Harry frowned as he reached for the letter.
"Trouble?" Luna asked quietly.
Harry recognised his own writing and almost tore the parchment in his hurry to get it open, not yet answering Luna.
'H,
'Elm tree, ten minutes.
'X'
"Could I be any more useless?" he grumbled, tossing the letter in the bin, a fire spell following, before moving over to his wardrobe for some robes.
"Harry," Luna reminded him.
Harry sighed and tugged on one of his few non-school black robes before moving towards his trunk. "I'm sorry, Luna. I don't know what's going on. I'll let you know as soon as I'm back. Whenever that might be." He grabbed his Cloak, time-turner and broom.
"It's not good," Luna whispered, blue eyes glinting eerily in the light from the setting moon.
"When I wake myself after less than three hours of sleep, it never is," Harry agreed grimly before slipping out of his window and flying into the forest surrounding the house. The elm tree was just outside the wards, so Harry was unsurprised to find Xerosis standing with Voldemort and a couple of Death Eaters. He landed next to Xerosis, asking, "What's going on?"
"...This is only a little disturbing," Barty decided, looking nervously between the copies of the younger Dark Lord while some of the other Death Eaters shifted uncertainly at seeing an apparent enemy.
"Xerosis, get to it," Voldemort ordered.
Xerosis rolled his eyes and looked over at Harry with sharp eyes. "There will be an explosion in King's Cross today at ten."
"How can you know that if both of you are her–"
"Barty, shut up," Harry and Xerosis chorused.
"Sorry, my Lord," Barty mumbled. Around him, some of the Death Eaters shifted again, quelling under Voldemort's angry red eyes.
"There's an old system in place from before King's Cross existed, but it hasn't been used since the mid-nineteenth century," Lucius offered, concern obvious in his voice. "My Lord, are you certain–"
"I heard word from a trusted source and went to check it out myself a few hours ago," Xerosis reported drily. As Voldemort opened his mouth, he added, "Yes, we could probably stop them, but if we can find a way to get the students to Hogwarts without worrying about the bombing, I would prefer that." The apparent vampire smiled cruelly. "There's something poetic about a mundane-planted explosion killing hundreds of insects for us."
Voldemort nodded and turned to Lucius. "How much trouble would it be to get this old system up and running?"
Lucius grimaced. "I don't honestly know, my Lord. I don't know how much the Ministry will be willing to listen to reason."
"Lucius, if you can put pressure on them from your end, Harry can come at them from his end," Xerosis pointed out.
"Will that be enough?" one of the Death Eaters muttered, shooting Harry an unimpressed look.
"Were the suicidal idiots necessary?" Harry asked his future self drily.
Xerosis smirked. "No."
"I hate vampires," Harry decided, rubbing at his face tiredly while Xerosis chortled. After a moment, the teen glanced up at the Death Eater who had spoken, green eyes glowing warningly while the man shivered. "Are you questioning your Lord, scum?"
The man stumbled back and shook his head.
Xerosis snorted and laid a gentle hand on his slightly younger self. "Lucius, Baley, Stuart, all of you get to the Ministry and put pressure on them to get that system working. Drag Fudge out of bed if you have to, Lucius."
"Yes, my Lord," the men murmured before apparating away.
"Grayson, Thompson, get to the Prophet offices and ensure this makes front page," Voldemort ordered the last two Death Eaters other than Barty. When the men were gone, the Dark Lord turned to his two partners, scowling, "Was there a reason you insisted Barty come?"
"Momentary amusement?" Harry suggested with a cheeky grin.
"Potter," Voldemort hissed while Barty let out a resigned sigh.
Xerosis smirked, then snapped his fingers at Harry. "March of 2054."
Harry raised an eyebrow, then considered back to the stated date. "Erm, yeah. I remember. The blue house, right?" he replied, recalling the attack they'd made against a mundane strike group that had been based just outside London.
Xerosis nodded. "Two hours."
"Got it. How long before...?" Harry waved his hand at Voldemort and Barty even as he pulled out his time-turner.
"Four-thirty."
Harry grimaced and offered Voldemort an apologetic look. "I'm sorry?" He'd left Malfoy Manor at around two, and he'd known the red-eyed man still had things to do when he'd left.
Voldemort bared his teeth in response. "Not yet, you're not."
Xerosis rubbed absently at his shoulder. "Give me a break," he complained. "Like I got much more sleep than you."
Harry slipped over to Barty's side, time-turner forgotten, while Voldemort and Xerosis started in on one another. "Come on, Barty, let's escape before we're collateral damage."
Barty let himself be shadowed back to his room in Malfoy Manor. As Harry was checking that he had everything, the Death Eater asked, "Why did you bring me? Will you. Whatever."
"Possibly to keep myself from getting involved in that argument," Harry decided. "Well, and some amusement. Sorry, Barty, but you make it way too easy."
"I'm resigned, my Lord," the man replied drily.
Harry smiled at him. "Probably simpler that way."
Barty snorted, earning a chuckle from the teen. After a moment, just before Harry could shadow away, he asked, "My Lord... Harry?"
Harry blinked at him, always a bit caught off guard when the Death Eater used his given name, since he was the only one who ever did. "Yes?"
Barty looked uncertain, but still enquired, "2054?"
Harry smiled grimly. "Ah. It's a code I use with myself."
"I don't–"
"Barty," Harry warned before the man could press it, "it's not your concern."
Barty considered the boy with the eyes of an adult for a long moment before nodding. "Yes, my Lord."
Harry offered him the faintest of smiles before shadowing away to a park he knew of near the house Xerosis had specified. He'd use his time-turner there.
"There's going to be a bombing at King's Cross," Harry explained to the waiting Luna as he slipped back in through his window. "I need to wake Andy and Tonks."
"Won't the Aurors try defusing the bomb themselves?" Luna wondered as Harry unloaded his various gadgets back into his trunk.
"Not unless they're idiots," Harry retorted. "At any rate, I fully intend to stress to Tonks how bad an idea that would be."
"What if they make sure the mundane government knows?" Luna asked, following Harry as he left his room and made for Andromeda's room.
"Then the insects get warned. It happens." He knocked on his cousin's door and waited patiently while she muttered sleepily and shuffled out of bed. When the door opened, he offered her an apologetic smile and offered, "Sorry, Andy, but it's important."
"You're far too awake for this hour," Andromeda muttered sleepily before stepping back and waving the two teenagers in. Harry and Luna took the desk chair and the floor next to the chair, respectively, while Andromeda returned to her bed. "Okay, what's so urgent?" she asked around a yawn.
Harry cocked his head to one side. "At ten o'clock, a mundane-planted pile of explosives will be going off at King's Cross."
Andromeda jerked out of her exhaustion. "What?" she whispered, paling slightly.
Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "The Ministry has already received word, but we're not sure they'll really get their behinds in gear in time to get their older system up and running and get the word out for parents to send their kids to Hogwarts that way. Headmaster Dumbledore would put the extra pressure on them to get moving."
"Can't the bombs be nullified?" Andromeda asked, even as she hurried to pull on some robes.
Harry shrugged. "Probably, but I'd leave that to the mundanes; a witch or wizard would probably just set it off pre-emptively. Whether the mundanes get told or not, we're still going to have to find another way to get a few hundred kids to Scotland by the end of the day."
Andromeda gave him a slightly suspicious look. "You don't care if they're told or not?" she wondered.
Harry smiled, but kept his mouth shut.
"You're being more obvious about your muggle-hatred than usual," Andromeda pointed out.
"What ever do you mean, dear Cousin Andy?" Harry replied, looking up at her with suspiciously innocent eyes.
Andromeda snorted. "My husband was muggleborn," she reminded him.
"As was my mother," Harry said, leaning his chin in one hand. "As are two of my friends. I see no reason to fault the child for their parents."
Andromeda snorted again. "You just blame the muggles for being born without magic."
"I never said that," Harry pointed out, amused. "I dislike them because we're all human and it's in our nature to have a certain amount of dislike for those who are different than us. I fear them because I know they have the power to destroy the world, and I hate them because I know they're more than willing to destroy the world to get rid of magical people."
Andromeda frowned. "There are good muggles out there."
Harry shrugged. "Yes, but even good mundanes will choose violence when they're afraid."
"Your friend – Xerosis – and Voldemort are the reasons the muggles are fighting back," Andromeda pointed out.
Harry smiled. "Time is of the essence, Andy; we can continue our philosophical debate later." He stood and reached down to help Luna to her feet. "Come along, luv. If I have to be awake, Sirius will suffer with me. We can wake Tonks on the way."
Luna entwined her arm with his and they walked together down to Tonks' room, where they woke the clumsy metamorphmagus and left her to get ready after explaining that there had been a bomb threat reported at King's Cross.
At Sirius' room, Luna let Harry go in first, not even bothering to knock. She followed him to the bottom of Sirius' bed, where he stopped to consider his sleeping godfather for a minute before summoning a pitcher of water and magically warming it. This he slipped Sirius' hand in before pulling a chair over and sitting down to watch with a smirk.
Five minutes later, Sirius was woken by Harry's loud laughter. Drowsily looking to Luna for sanity, he found the girl giggling quietly and pointing at the front of his trousers. He glanced down, noticed the wet patch, then realised his hand was in a pitcher of warm water. It took him a moment, but he eventually connected the dots and lurched out of his bed towards Harry, who darted out of the room, loudly shouting, "Siri wets the bed like a little kid!"
"Get back here, you little wretch!" Sirius called back, stumbling after the teen and half falling against the wall from time to time.
Luna, still quietly giggling, grabbed the pitcher and left to return it to the kitchen. There was still some popcorn left with her name on it, and she had front row seats to a crazy show.
Harry quickly understood why they'd chosen to use a steam engine over their old system. "What about the people with mundane parents who can't apparate or no access to a floo?" he asked of the room in general. Andromeda had just returned with their instructions, drily commenting that everyone else would get theirs via owl within the next two hours. Since they had three and a half hours or so until the bomb was supposed to go off, Harry wasn't concerned.
"The Ministry, St Mungo's and the Three Broomsticks are all opening their floos for Hogwarts traffic," Andromeda reported. "As long as families can stick to the schedule, everything should go smoothly."
"I have this amazing mental image of a mundane family refusing to let their child attend Hogwarts because they'll have to step in a fireplace," Harry commented drily.
"They can take the Knight Bus," Sirius replied from behind a yawn. "So, Andy, when're Harry and Luna due?"
"Harry needs to leave sometime between one o'clock and one fifteen. Luna an hour after that."
"Can't we just go early?" Harry complained, rubbing at his face. He'd very much like to just take a long nap, personally. "I mean, technically we're living with a professor. Doesn't that get us some sort of bonus?"
"You're living with a professor?" Sirius parroted, looking at his godson with a befuddled expression.
Harry and Luna both pointed to Andromeda, who looked rather amused. "How did you figure it out?" the newest Defence professor asked.
"Luna told me," Harry reported. "Come on, Andy. Can we go early? Luna and I can behave ourselves. We'll stay in our dorm and you'll never even know we were there."
"I don't know, kid..." Andromeda replied, shaking her head slowly.
Harry turned an evil smirk on his godfather.
"Oh, for the love of Merlin, Andy! Take the little demon before he drives me completely off the mountain!" Sirius complained.
"What mountain?" Andromeda demanded, shooting her cousin an incredulous look.
"The Mountain of Sanity!"
Andromeda rubbed tiredly at her forehead while Harry's smirk widened and he said, "I don't think you were ever on that mountain to begin with, Siri."
"Takes one to know one, brat," Sirius retorted.
"Hey, I will have you know that I am a proud resident of the Valley of the Completely Bonkers."
"...why does that sound more awesome than the Mountain of Sanity?" Sirius wondered.
"Because it is. Not only are there no rules, but there are also valley-wide orgies every Friday," Harry declared before glancing at a nearby calendar. "Hey, what do you know? It's Friday!"
"You're too young for an orgy!" Sirius declared.
"No rules," Harry reminded him before turning to Luna. "I know I'm not your type, luv, but would you like to join me in my room for an orgy?"
"Hmmm..." Luna replied, considering her friend thoughtfully.
"Too! Young!" Sirius tried again.
Andromeda groaned to herself. "Merlin forbid," she complained. "Harry, Luna, get your trunks. I'll take you over early if only to preserve my sanity."
"What about my sanity?" Sirius complained as the two teens traded grins and hurried from the room.
"What sanity?"
Harry caught Luna in a quick hug at the top of the stairs before leading the way into his room. "So, what is your type, Luna?" he wondered as he tossed a couple of last minute things into his trunk.
"Someone a little closer to my own age," Luna replied with an absent smile.
Harry chuckled. "Sorry about that."
"Don't be sorry," Luna chastised. "You would make a very poor Lord if you were only fifteen."
"Hn. Good point." Harry closed his trunk and tapped the top to make it shrink, then tossed it into a pocket. "But, really, who's your type? I know you eventually married Rolf Scamander–"
"I've met Rolf a few times," Luna interrupted absently as she shrunk her own trunk. "He's a nice enough boy, but he isn't willing to accept that Crumple-Horned Snorlacks even might exist."
Harry shook his head fondly and ushered the girl back towards the living room. "Luna, luv, that's what most people think."
"They're quite silly then, aren't they?"
"Undoubtedly."
"Are you two ready?" Andromeda asked when they entered the living room.
"Yes," Luna offered.
Harry blinked at his godfather, who gave him a pleading look from behind his gag. "Um, Andy, why is my godfather trussed up like a lamb off to the slaughter?"
Sirius whimpered.
"I'm thinking of giving him to Severus as a peace offering," Andromeda replied drily.
Sirius whimpered again.
"If you're going to do that, you might want to divest him of his clothing, first," Harry commented, eyes gleaming with mischief as Sirius turned, in turns, green and bleach-white. "After all, we both know how Siri is about first impressions when it comes to possible mates."
Sirius' eyes rolled backwards into his head and he toppled off his chair.
Andromeda blinked at her fallen cousin, then looked over at Harry. "That was brilliantly evil."
"I do try," Harry replied, grinning.
Andromeda let out an amused snort. "Yeah, I see that. Well, go on. You're flooing to the Headmaster's office." She waved the two teens towards the open floo.
"Fair maiden," Harry said, bowing Luna forward, "ladies first."
Luna smiled a bit absently at him. "Why thank you, my Lord," she said before flooing through.
Harry considered his godfather's prone form for a moment while Andromeda watched him with an amused look. "Harry, if you're going to curse him, do it now."
Harry offered her a wide-eyed look. "But I'm still under-age, Andy!"
"I've lost track of the number of times I've seen you performing magic this summer, kid," Andromeda informed him drily. "Not sure how you got past the Trace, but since you spent half the summer in the Black family library, I can make a pretty good guess."
Harry smiled, not commenting on that, and pulled his favourite stolen wand out of his pocket. In truth, he'd never removed the Trace from his holly wand, though he'd considered it, but if Andromeda had seen him using magic, she'd have seen this wand, anyway. "Unbekleidet Bekleidet," he muttered, casting the spell on his godfather.
When nothing happened, Andromeda looked at him curiously. "Yes?"
"It's a German spell, meaning 'unclothed clothed'. No matter what Siri puts on, he'll think he's naked, although others will see the clothing he's put on. It'll end after a week." Harry smirked a bit. "I'm kind of curious about whether or not he'll just stop wearing clothing after a few days."
"My poor daughter," Andromeda muttered, stepping forward and turning Harry towards the floo. "Go torture your other professors."
"You're not coming?" Harry asked, surprised.
"In a bit. I need to forewarn Dora about your prank."
Harry chuckled and tossed the powder into the flames before flooing through to Dumbledore's office. "Sorry about the wait, luv," he offered Luna, who was enjoying some tea and biscuits with Dumbledore.
Luna offered him her absent smile. "The Headmaster was asking about Blibbering Humdingers," she explained. "Why don't you join us, Harry?"
Harry glanced over at where Fawkes was glaring at him, feathers puffed up threateningly. That was reassuring. "No, I think I'm going to go nap until lunch. You enjoy your talk, though." He leaned over and kissed her cheek, earning him a pleased smile, then nodded to Dumbledore. "Headmaster."
"Pleasant dreams, my boy," Dumbledore replied with a smile.
Harry had almost reached the door when Fawkes let out a sharp sound and the teenaged Dark Lord clapped his hands over his ears. "What the fuck?" he demanded, giving the phoenix an angry look. He hadn't much expected Fawkes to like him, not with all the blood on his hands, but neither had he expected the bird to verbally attack him, either.
"Fawkes?" Dumbledore asked, half-rising from his seat and watching his familiar with both surprise and concern.
Harry narrowed his eyes at Fawkes as the bird gave off another piercing screech. With his temper up, it didn't take much for Harry to bring his power forward and he threw it at the phoenix, freezing the fire bird with a warning that was the complete opposite of everything the elemental bird was.
Fawkes let out a sound that could only be described as a bird-whimper, then turned his back on Harry completely and hunched his head.
Harry reigned his power in and stalked from the office, wishing he could control his anger better right then. "Fucking hormones. Fucking fire birds."
He needed sleep. He could figure out what to do about Fawkes once he was thinking clearly.
-0-0-0-0-0-
A/N: I apologise in advance for a lack of sanity in those last couple sections. I've been awake for way too long, but I wanted to make this chapter acceptable before handing it over to my betas. ^.^"
Anyway, for all that I wanted to have the whole year in this chapter, I'm kind of fond of where it's ended. (I dunno. Let's see what I think after I've slept a bit. XD)
ETA: Change in the German spell thanks to morbiid.doll (FFN).
Edit made to the Blaise Pascal quote courtesy of Arwen00710 (FFN).
I fail at languages...
~Bats ^.^x
Pro - If We Could Only Turn Back Time / 1 - Long Road
2 - Never As It Seems ||| 3 - The Bad Man, the Sad Man ||| 4 - Armies of Robbers and Thieves
5 - Fear Falls Like Rain |||
8 - Reach Any Star ||| 9 - Cold Fields ||| 10 - Ice Inside Your Soul
11 - King of Anything
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no subject
Date: 23/6/11 14:48 (UTC)Dude, this was so worth the wait! MY HERO!
One thing I love about this fic is it doesn't ignore basic human nature. There has ALWAYS been violence between groups of people who are different, and when authors try to have the magical world come out peacefully to the muggle world, I cringe and think of the Middle East.
Another thing I love is Harry and Voldie realising that the whole scale attacks on the muggle world is going to create huge problems, but since there's no way in hell they want to decrease the magical population themselves, and they can't really reign in the DE's totally (who're always up for a spot of violence), it's really a matter of damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Honestly, Voldie should make the DE's watch those educational documentaries about Hiroshima and possibly Vietnam and other sites of world conflict just so they know what the muggles are capable. Then make Lucius do some research about muggle and magical population statistics. Lucius is smart, adaptable, and reasonable. If the information came from him in a report during a meeting it might open up a lot of eyes and the DE's could become the saviors of the magical world, working to hide it and protect it more efficiently than the government. Especially now with the bombings and the sheep scared shitless. And there's always attacking researchers and scientists to satisfy the crazy sadist DE's (and Harry).
no subject
Date: 23/6/11 14:54 (UTC)Harry is definitely fond of killing scientists. It's almost as awesome as decimating vampires. XD
But, naw, Harry and Voldie aren't so likely to make the DEs see sense about the dangers of muggles. Although, the bombings are kind of helping prove that without any research needed. XD
no subject
Date: 23/6/11 16:19 (UTC)I mean, everyone knows that Lucius is much more sane than Voldie, even Voldie knows it. So if Voldie tells Lucius to find out who they need to torture and kill, then everyone will know Lucius actually did the research right.
no subject
Date: 23/6/11 16:56 (UTC)'Course, we all know he's a bit more sane than that, but the DEs don't know that.
no subject
Date: 24/6/11 01:06 (UTC)AND I LOVE YOU!! This is crack-tastic. With a plot. Cheers!
I also found a copy of Radiata Stories, so I will start that after fireworks at the fair.
no subject
Date: 25/6/11 00:47 (UTC)Yay, Radiata Stories!! XD
no subject
Date: 24/6/11 02:11 (UTC)no subject
Date: 25/6/11 00:48 (UTC)Can't very well have them jumping into bed together at the drop of a hat, for all that it would be kinda awesome. It's just not in their characters. Alas. XD
no subject
Date: 24/6/11 07:22 (UTC)i especially loved the spell on sirius. cheers!
no subject
Date: 25/6/11 00:49 (UTC)Glad you enjoyed it! ^.~
no subject
Date: 27/6/11 13:29 (UTC)But never mind me! The chapter's brilliant!
I do so love the Barty-stalking and the Harry/Sirius/Luna/Andromeda insanely fun and cracky parts! :D
Poor Sirius... The spell's ingenious! I can see Harry with his Evil Grin(TM). :P
Now if only there were more Lucius-stalking as well... And random rounds of Crucioes... XD
The Muggles are finally fighting back! This is WAR!!! ;D
Seriously, Andromeda? I never would've guessed! I don't really pay muuch attention to the not so main characters. ^-^"
Anyway, sorry for the late view, I was busy playing Dragon Age. It's awesome!!! Though Alistair is much too sensitive at times, I lost count of how many times I had to reload the game because he broke up with me. It's partly my fault cz I'm romancing Zevran at the same time. ^-^" Sadly, I'm only halfway through it.
Oh well, after I finish that, Awakening and DA2, I'm off to play Radiata Stories! Now, if only I can figure out how to emulate it properly on my comp...
See ya! :D
no subject
Date: 1/7/11 19:34 (UTC)It's not so much at a standstill as the boys just aren't ready for it yet. I mean, Voldie's all about no emotions, and Harry's got mundane-killing on the mind. It'll happen, just not so much in the way you expect, I think.
Hmmm... Lucius-stalking... I'll see if I can fit a bit of that in. (Though, Barty-stalking is just way more fun, 'cause he's a bit mad already... XD)
Yeah, well, she sort of wrote herself into the story and then I had this random character and I was like, 'What the balls am I going to do with her?' And then I remembered I'd killed off Umbitch and needed a Defence professor and, boom, problem solved.
Yay! Radiata Stories for the win!
Speaking of video games, I should stop playing Kingdom Hearts and work on Xerosis. *shifty eyes*
no subject
Date: 2/7/11 06:20 (UTC)Lol. It's ok, I don't mind. You just replied anyway! Thanks for that! :D
Hmm, ok then, I'll wait for it. It was just my inner fangirl talking... Not much to worry about. *shifty eyes*
Inner fangirl: *whacks* "What the hell were you saying about me?!" Outer self: "Erm, how awesome you are?"
Inner fangirl: "Oh, that's ok then." *blushes* -^.^-
Lol. True, but I got this image of Harry/Xerosis sneaking around and pulling Lucius' hair randomly and disappearing then reappearing and pulling again! His hair is just too long, silky, smooth, shiny to not pull! XD
Lol. Good luck with both the story and the game! XD
Though, I took a break from my own game for about a week to read fanfiction... I should probably get back to it... Damn! -.-"
no subject
Date: 7/7/11 21:02 (UTC)I find the idea of the Dark Lords conspiring to protect what is commonly believed to be their enemy's stronghold, very amusing. That's just all kinds of funny.
Also, congratulations on completely surprising me with the Fawkes thing? I have no idea where you're going with that... Better go look if there's another chapter.
Love,
cloe
no subject
Date: 7/7/11 21:41 (UTC)Balls, I have no idea where I'm going with the Fawkes thing. ^.^"
Working on posting the next chapter right now. Like... Maybe ten minutes.