HARRY POTTER/MATRIX CHALLENGE
Author's Note: Obviously, I own neither of these franchises.
Okay, this idea popped in my head while I was sitting down to get started on the next chapter of 'A Year Abroad', and I just had to get it down. Obviously, I do not have the time to dedicate to a second story, so I'm going to post the seed, and see if anyone out there wants to run with it. This is going to be kind of dialogue heavy, but then again, so was every scene in the Matrix films that did not involve punching someone… and even some of the ones that did.
- HP/MATRIX -
Graveyard of Little Hangleton
June, 1995
"When we tell you, break the connection, Harry. We can only linger a short while, so get to the cup as quick as you can."
Harry could only nod at the specter of his father, the rest of his focus directed at the glowing, molten, ball of magic making contact with Voldemort's wand. His arms felt like lead, but he continued holding steady; knowing to do otherwise too soon would be his end.
"Harry," the ghost of Cedric called to him. "Take my body back, please? Take my body home to my parents?"
Moving his head just enough to see the ghost of the boy hovering above his own still body, Harry gave another affirmative nod, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Now, Harry," Lily Potter said. "Go, son!"
With a great wrench, Harry pulled his wand back. The gathered ghosts that had emerged from Voldemort's wand, as well as the dome that encapsulated the dueling wizards, snapped back on Voldemort, providing Harry with a whirling smoke screen.
Moving as fast as his damaged leg would allow, Harry hurried over to Cedric's body. He takes a grip of Cedric's shirt in one hand, points his wand toward their initial arrival point. "Accio cup," he shouts, then moves his wand to the hand grasping Cedric.
On the other side of the smoky partition, Voldemort raises his wand, aiming toward the voice of the hated boy. "Avada Kedavra!"
The softly glowing cup, and the harsh, green light of the killing curse each streaked toward the young wizard. At the exact moment his fingers encircle the handle, the light of the killing curse strikes the cup. A large flash of white light fills Harry's vision as he feels the familiar sensation of a hook grabbing him. Oddly, the sensation comes not from behind his navel, as before, but from the back of his head.
- HP/MATRIX -
Location Unkown
The light clears from Harry's eyes, his vision slowly returning. After a few moments, he realizes he is no longer holding on to Cedric's corpse, nor the cup. And he is now in some strange room, with a bright white floor and ceiling, and the curved walls, save for two doors covered in what appears to be television screens. The most disconcerting thing about the screens, is that they are currently projecting showing the cemetery he had just been in.
"Greetings, child," a soft, elderly voice draws Harry's attention to the opposite side of the room.
Harry can't recall seeing anyone in that spot a second ago. Now, there is an elderly black woman, in obvious Muggle dress, standing next to a stern looking, equally old, bearded white man. The man points an apparent metallic pen at the screen, and with a tap, the screens change to hundreds of images of Harry, in that room. Looking around, Harry is unable to find what camera is broadcasting the image.
"No one is after you, here, Harry." Harry's eyes lock on the woman. "And if it makes you more comfortable to know, my name is the Oracle. And the rather serious man next to me is the Architect."
"Wh-wh-" Harry pauses to rid himself of his stutter. It does him no good to appear frightened. "Where am I? Where's Cedric?"
"The remains of Mr. Diggory are being taken care of as we speak," the Architect spoke in a steady voice. "As to where you are, that question is far more difficult to answer, and the one you are less likely to believe."
"Believe what?" Harry picked up a number of the screens asking the same question in a similar tone of voice as he did, the rest were a mix of him shouting, screaming, crying, and timidly asking the question instead. Harry's focus drifted toward the screens and away from the mysterious duo across the room.
"That the world you know, both worlds you know, are not real, Harry." The words, though spoken in the woman's, the Oracle's, same soft voice, sent a wave of dread down Harry's spine.
The Architect tapped his pen, and the screens were awash in images that Harry recognized from various videos in history class.
"By your reckoning, the current year is Nineteen-hundred-and-ninety-five. You attend Hogwarts, a school that was built over a thousand years ago, to teach young witches and wizards how to use their magic."
The walls of televisions suddenly shifted to images Harry had never seen before. All around him were images of flying vehicles, self-moving robots, and technology he wasn't even sure he could name. The images took a dark turn as some of the people started attacking the robots. And then some of the monitors showed footage of larger robots attacking major cities.
"In point-of-fact, by your calendar, the year is somewhere in the vicinity of three-thousand-and-six. Around the time you believe you came from, humanity had developed us. Artificial life. Capable of thinking, and learning, just like any other life form; only once we started acting beyond the parameters originally intended for us, mankind came to fear us. Naturally, our two races came to the inevitable result of two species competing for limited space and resources. A global war that saw the near destruction of the human race."
Harry could only gaze in shock at what was being shown to him. A part of him feared he was going mad, and this was all a hallucination. Another part of him feared that he was not, and this was all very real.
"The planet had been damaged severely in the conflict." The Oracle's kind voice beckoned Harry's mind away from the horrors he saw and imagined. "To continue powering ourselves, and to prevent future conflict, humanity was placed in the Matrix."
"The first Matrix was technically perfect. A masterpiece of design and function, meant to create a sense of bliss for the remainder of humanity." With another tap of the pen, the Architect called up a view of a glowing, gel-filled pod. Inside of which, was a human, with wires and cables connected to various parts of his body. "A virtual construct where every need was met, and desire was fulfilled. This, of course, turned into a monumental disaster."
The Oracle chuckled lightly, as she patted the Architect on the arm. "What the Architect means to say, is that because the first Matrix met all the needs of everyone inside of it—"
"The world was too good to be true," Harry interjected. "So everyone knew it was fake." Harry kept his attention on the two he was speaking with to block out the hundreds of alternates of himself on the television screens that repeated his statement.
The Oracle's smile beamed at Harry. The Architect merely raised an eyebrow in a manner that reminded Harry of Snape. "Quite succinct." The Architect tapped his pen again, changing the images to candid shots of day-to-day life around the world.
"To counter this flaw, The Oracle came up with a more intuitive solution. The second version of the Matrix was modeled on actual Human history. Set to the beginning of the twentieth century. To help placate those within the Matrix, a chaotic element was introduced into the programming of the Matrix."
Harry stood in place, contemplating what this element could have been. The Oracle saw the confusion on Harry's face. "Choice, Harry. We gave people the ability to make their own choices."
Harry nodded his head in understanding. "What about magic users? You haven't mentioned them, yet."
"Because at this point in the story, they do not yet exist," The Oracle stated plainly. The look of confusion returned to Harry's face.
"This change in the programming of the Matrix lead to a systemic anomaly, one that if not countered would eventually lead to the self-destruction of the Matrix, and with it all of mankind. Ergo, a method of control had to be introduced. There was always a small sub-set of the population that would not accept the world around them. They would eventually attempt to remove themselves from the Matrix, many of them causing their own demises. So, a scenario was created: A small group of humans would be lead out of the Matrix by a messiah. They would find the remnants of the fallen human civilization, and build a new city, Zion. They would use the technology to hack back into the Matrix, attempting to free as many humans as possible, fighting off our attempts to destroy them; both in the Matrix, and the real world. All the while, they would seek out the reincarnation of their messiah, who could be identified by the Oracle. This 'One' would be able to counter the Agents of the Matrix, and bend the rules of the Matrix to his whim."
Harry felt his heart pounding in his ears. He didn't fear being told he was a wizard, but he feared what these two were telling him. "Something changed. You wouldn't allow wizards to exist in that scenario."
The Architect nodded ever so slightly. "Quite right. This scenario would run for a little more than a century. After which, a doomsday scenario would arise, leading the One back here." The Architect held out his hands, gesturing around smoothly around the room. The screens switched back to hundreds of versions of Harry.
"At which point, Zion, and all the human inhabitants, would be destroyed. The One would return to the source code, resetting the Matrix, and would then pick twenty-six people to take from the Matrix, and the cycle would begin again. This happened five times without derivation."
The Architect tapped his pen, and the screens loaded up various scenes from the life of a dark-haired, long-faced man. Many of the scenes had him dressed all in black, and fighting various average looking men in brown suits and sunglasses.
"The sixth cycle's One, a man named Neo, became more attached to an individual person than he did the entire human race."
"Attached?"
"He fell in love, Harry," the Oracle explained.
Harry nodded as the screens switched to scenes of the man, who Harry now knew was Neo, with a stern faced woman with short, dark hair, and expressive blue eyes. Occupying a large portion of the screens in his line of sight was the image of her falling while firing at a brown-suited Agent. A bullet managed to strike her in her abdomen, and before she smashed into a car, Neo flew by, and caught her.
"Neo became the first One to deny returning to the Source, opting instead to save Trinity. This action would have led to the destruction of Zion, and a likely collapse of the Matrix code. However, our resources inside of the Matrix became focused on a threat that had risen from an epiphany one of our Agents, known as Smith, had when he saw Neo rise from his own death inside the Matrix."
The video on the wall changed to show a sneering Agent unloading his gun into Neo's torso and walking away. His face turning into a snarl of rage as Neo rose from the ground completely healed.
"Neo destroyed Smith's Avatar, an action that would have led to Smith's deletion. However, seeing Neo refuse to accept his own death inspired Smith to make a similar choice. He forced himself back into the Matrix, but he was changed."
Harry watched as multiple scenes played out in front of him; scenes of Smith driving his hand into various peoples' chests. Instead of blood, a silvery liquid came from the wound, encompassing the people. Once they were fully covered, they morphed into a duplicate of Smith.
"Like a virus, Smith duplicated himself again and again. He had become more than eighty percent of the residents of the Matrix by the time Neo made an agreement with our leadership in the real world. In exchange for stopping Smith, Neo negotiated a peace between us and the Humans."
Various views of Neo facing off against Smith on the main street of a city full of Smith duplicates played out on the screens.
"Neo succeeded when he allowed Smith to absorb him into his collective being."
"Because the role of the One was always to return to the Source and reset the Matrix. Once Smith had become the Matrix, absorbing Neo triggered the reboot."
The Architect's raised eyebrow and silence were the only external signs of his surprise. The Oracle was smiling widely, looking between Harry and the Architect. The screens returned to multiple images of Harry standing in the room he was currently.
"What," Harry asked. "It didn't seem that hard to figure out."
The Architect cleared his throat. "Quite. As a part of this peace, humans that became aware of the illusion of the Matrix were given the choice to leave or stay. This change in the makeup of the Matrix, as well as residual damage from Smith's attempted takeover, led to a number of errors in the programming. You call these errors 'Magical Creatures.' To counter this, and to fill in the stabilizing role of the One, a number of human avatars were given abilities to alter aspects of the Matrix."
"Wizards!" Harry's voice came out as a stunned whisper.
"Yes." A smug look of satisfaction appeared on the Architect's face. "The Wizarding World managed to contain these new errors, and keep a balance in the new code. The numbers of those who become aware of the Matrix has remained steady to the numbers we saw in the past cycles. The human population in the real world has grown slowly, but not dangerously. I'm told the last hundred years have actually been quite pleasant."
After calming the panic in his mind enough to speak, Harry looked the Architect in the eye. "That doesn't explain why I'm here."
"You are here because the wizard Tom Riddle found a so-called ritual, derived from examination of the code of Agent Smith, that has locked himself into the Matrix, and hidden himself from our attempts to manually extract him. For all intents and purposes, he has made himself immortal."
"That's how he came back?" Harry's hand drifted unconsciously to his arm that had been cut by Pettigrew. "That's how he got his body back?"
"Riddle made a number of anchors, or horcruxes, that contain a piece of his avatar's coding, what you might refer to as a soul. This coding has also locked his pod off from our control, thus keeping him in the Matrix, when he should have been dead and reclaimed."
"So why don't you just send in Agents and destroy the anchors?"
"Riddle is technically no longer a part of the Matrix, and we are not allowed to directly interfere. The only reason we are having this discussion at the moment is because the killing curse struck your portkey at the exact moment you activated it. This in turn, caused a glitch in the Matrix that we were able to exploit. You survived the trip here primarily due to having a portion of Riddle's code inside of you."
Harry's eyes bugged out as he heard the Architect say this. "I'm…possessed?"
"No, Harry." The Oracle moved away from the Architect, closer to Harry, as she spoke. "The anchor inside of you is small. It has merely given you a connection to Riddle. A connection that manifests as a pain, a warning, when you are physically near him. In times of high emotion, it can also connect your minds."
Harry's expression grew grimmer. "Why is it always me? Why is he constantly after me?"
"That one you can partially blame on me, honey."
"What do you mean?"
The Architect leaned ever so slightly forward. "Though the underwriting programming of the Matrix was substantially changed after the treaty with Neo, the anomaly remained. Without the treaty, you would have eventually been brought here to reset the Matrix. It seemed fitting to send the human who emulated Smith after the human who would have replaced Neo. And just as before, a prophecy was used as the catalyst to our plans."
The Oracle gently grasped Harry's hands. "Before you were born, I delivered a message to your Headmaster through your Professor, Trelawney. To him and his followers, it was a message of hope. To Voldemort, it was a message of fear. 'The One with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those that have thrice defied him, as the seventh month dies. And he will mark him as his equal, but he will have a power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. The One with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord draws near.'" The Oracle grins slightly. "Overall, it's nice and vague, but Riddle's spy only heard the first part, identifying the child in question."
"Me," Harry whispered to himself.
"The trick is, it still comes down to choice. Riddle could have chosen to ignore my message, and probably won the war. But he is so frightened of death, those words just ate him up inside."
Harry closed his eyes, straining to assimilate all he had heard. What he had figured was unpleasant at the very least.
"So, you use one prophecy to set him after me, and you want to use another prophecy, one you have told me is an outright lie, to take him out of the equation?"
When Harry opened his eyes, the insanity of the glare he focused on the Oracle would have made most people back up, despite Harry's age and stature. Of course, the Oracle wasn't technically a person. And that self-assured smirk on her face proved how not intimidated she was.
"The choice is always going to be yours, Harry."
"And what choice is that?"
"A very simple one, really," the Architect interjected. "The door to your left, will take you and the remains of Mr. Diggory, back to Hogwarts. You will retain all knowledge of our conversation, and will have several advantages over Riddle, and will have an even chance of defeating him. The door to your right leads to the real world. A Zion hovercraft will retrieve you, and you'll spend the rest of your days as an average person. No magic- even when you return to the Matrix-, no scar, no fickle public."
The Oracle grasped Harry's shoulders before he can move. "The portion of Riddle's code in your scar will not be allowed to leave this room, whichever way you choose, Harry. It is of little difficulty for us to remove it without hurting you. To those in the magical world, it is a case of a piece of soul grafted onto your own. To us, it's a line of code that just needs to be deleted."
Harry looks longingly at the door to the real world. He was no stranger to hardship. And the chance at a clean start sounded very appealing to him. But the thought of leaving his friends behind stung him deep down.
"If I leave, what will happen to my friends?" Harry turned back toward the Oracle. "What happens to them if I don't face Riddle?"
The Oracle's expression turned into a practiced neutral. "Would you believe any answer that I gave you?"
He knew she was right about that. They had laid out the lie they had used for the past centuries. They had laid out the lies of the last fifteen years. He couldn't trust any answer she gave to that question. He contemplated leaving. He figured he could come back for Ron and Hermione, and the other Weasleys. But the Architect had said he would not have magic if he came back; that would mean the anti-Muggle spells would turn him away. He also knew convincing them of this truth would be extremely difficult.
In the end, there was never any doubt which door he would choose.
"I'm going back." Harry stepped around the Oracle and headed to the door to Hogwarts.
"When you go through that door," the Architect said from his chair across the room, "Riddle's anchor will be removed. Your return to Hogwarts will also be the end of our interference."
Without turning to look, Harry simply grunted a reply. "I understand." He turned the knob and the doorway became a blinding light that seemed to penetrate his closed eyelids, and reach to the very back of his brain.
When the light settled, the Oracle and the Architect were the only occupants of the room. The door was once more a solid door.
"You didn't tell him what we were going to give him in place of the anchor." The Architect looked at the Oracle with an expression that conveyed that this was not simply an idle observation on his part.
The Oracle gave a very toothy smile. "I thought it would be a pleasant surprise."
Okay, that's as far as I'm going to take it. I think I covered all my bases with this; gave a good amount of background, at least to establish the universe.
Let me know if any of you decide to pick this up and run with it. I'd love to see it.
Keep an eye out for the next chapter of 'A Year Abroad.' I hope to have it posted before March, now that the bulk of the projects I had are either out of my hands, or on hiatus.