Concentration Gradient
Chapter One
"I gotta do this Albus," Harry said in Dumbledore's office, his hair matted with sweat and blood, his left eye cut apart and looking generally ragged.
"I know Harry but it is very dangerous," Albus grimly replied. "You don't know the sacrifices..."
"I know, I'll lose my soul," Harry said. "I don't care, Albus. If Voldemort wins... I can't let it happen!"
"I understand," Albus took out a golden chain from the drawer of his desk. "Here, take it. My life's work."
"Are you certain this will work? Are you sure this will take me back in time to an alternate universe?"
"Very sure, Harry. Just trust me. But I wish you wouldn't do this," Albus sighed and rubbed his blue eyes, which had lost the twinkle over the years.
Harry, thirty years old, unmarried, was at the point of a nervous breakdown. He was exhausted from fighting Voldemort practically twenty four seven, and he knew he wouldn't last long. Albus had long since lost most of his magical ability. The only reason he was still alive was because of Voldemort. Now when Harry would go back in time and fix EVERYTHING Albus could finally get his rest. It would be worth giving his soul for this. Going back in time and fixing everything would finally give peace to Harry and all of his friends, and the order members and everyone who had suffered from Voldemort's hand.
"So, what do you think will happen?" Harry asked after a minute of silence.
"What do you mean Harry?"
"What'll happen to me after my soul is lost?"
Albus sighed. "I don't know, Harry, I just don't know. Look, I don't even know how far you are going back in time for godsakes!"
Harry felt his eyes widening. It was the first time he had ever heard Albus snap at him. He must be really worried.
"Okay, whatever, I'll take the risk," Harry said and reached for the chain. Albus pulled the chain back.
"No, Harry, I don't think you realize the consequences of-"
"I'll be fine," Harry said shortly. "Don't worry, Albus. How long have we known each other for?"
"Ever since you were eleven," Albus muttered. "I've been training you all these years so you wouldn't have to make the kind of sacrifice you are suggesting now."
"Well it wasn't enough was it?" Harry snapped.
"When you go back, what will you do?" Albus asked.
"Easy, I'll kill Voldemort," Harry said.
"Its not so simple, what if you end up in an alternate universe?"
"Well then, I don't know!" Harry ran his hands through his bloody hair. "The battle at Diagon alley was the last straw Albus. Hermione died, Ron's dead, Ginny's dead, Remus's dead, they're all dying."
"I know that, but your soul is-"
"screw my damn soul, Albus. Just give me the chain."
"Alright, fine," Albus slowly and hesitatingly handed the chain to Harry. THere was a little round clock that hung from the chain. Harry put it on, and pressed the sides of the little clock.
The room spun around and all was lost.
Harry awoke to a storm raging above his head. He felt stiff and he hurt all over. Slowly he opened his eyes, blinking away the clepatheris that had clogged up at its sides and looked around. He was in an open valley surrounded by trees and grassland. Birds chirped high in the air, and he even saw a monkey jumping from limb to limb. The air smelt fresh and clear, and looking above he could easily see it was early morning. He was laying on a nice soft patch of grass, and the thing was as he looked around he saw something very very important.
He was naked. He wore nothing, not even that golden time turner chain, and he didn't even have his wand on him. He was basically screwed.
Harry was always a very logical kind of person. Hermione's personality had rubbed off him it seemed. So immediately he made a mental list on what he needed and what he should do. First of all he didn't know where he was. Hell he didn't even know if the time turner thing had actually worked. What if it had sent him in the future instead of the past? That would be disasterous to say the least because that way he wouldn't be able to change anything and that was the main reason he was giving up his soul.
Secondly, he didn't feel any different, and that just added to his fears. What if he hadn't lost his soul? That meant something had gone wrong with the time turner. He hoped that wasn't true.
He started to get up and walk around. There was no path so he had to slip through the branches and the bushes and all that vegetation crap. He got cuts all across his body. When he was admiring a particularly large gash made by a throned branch he noticed something else: His body was new.
He had been battling for his life all his… well… life. He knew how to fight, he knew how to kill and he knew hurt and pain. He knew scars, gashes, gouges, burns, acid burns, knife wounds, curse wounds, accidental magic wounds. He knew it all.
His body was like a newborn. There was no scars on it, no signs of all that hurt and pain. Harry had worn it as a medal, all those scars and gashes, so he was peturbed that it was gone. He felt some inner part of him die at that discovery as a really stupid thought floated up to his mind. Will I have to go through all that again to get my body back?
He started laughing, just a nice pure childish laugh the likes of which he hadn't had in many a year. It was wonderful to be laughing again, because now he knew that there was a chance, a little very very little chance that theh time turner might have worked. Just might.
Albus Dumbledore always knew what he did, and always had his ancient fingers in every magical discovery since dragon blood. He would know or have some surety that it would work or he would never have let Harry try this.
Harry smiled, "Thanks Albus, I owe you one," he said to the forest about him. "Now lets see if I can get back to civilization again."
As he walked, he admired the plant life – there were golden flowers, purple and yellow flowers, thorny flowers, plants with mouths that tried to eat flies, plants with branches that moved, plants with…- andd the animal life, which ranged from humungoes green pythons to leaping gorrilas, and sloths sleeping on branches. In some ways this was much more miraculous than magic itself. He had been around magic all his life, but he had never really gotten close to nature. Well now was his chance.
He plucked a shiny plum from a low hanging branch and rubbed the dirt off it with his grubby palms. Then he bit into it. Red juice splurted out and dribbled down his chin. He finished the plum and ate another, and then another, and then another. After about a thouand plums or so, he started walking again and ten minutes later he had to stop because he got the worst cramp in his entire life.
That turned out to be the best thing ever, because from crouching down, he noticed something in the air, coming out in billowing clouds: smoke.
There was a fire somewhere, and where there was fire, there was civilization and where there was civilization there would be… magic.
He grinned, got up despite the pain and started walking again. He couldn't stop now. Not when victory was so close at hand. He knew sacrifice all his life – from food and drink, to sleep to his own safety. He gave his all in the fight against Voldemort, and had become strong. He could becom strong again despite this obviously new and younger body.
He had no idea how young. He was only five years old.
He reached the clearing where the smoke was floating upward from and cautiously examined the three men and two women and one baby sitting by the campfire. There was a little white trailer a few meters off, they were obviously camping.
Perfect, my ticket out of here, Harry thought and started forward, slowly and methodically. He was like a tiger, he didn't want to scare away his prey. Sneaking up to the campfire he finally made out their faces. Because he didn't have glasses, his far vision was kinda blurry so he couldn't have made out their faces from far away. But now he could see clearly because he was close by, and he could immediately tell that these folks here were no good peace loving dirty bunch of drugged hippies. He had met people of those kinds over the years and he always hated them because they never fought and they expected other people to fight for them.
But he squelched his hatred like it was a cockroach and decided to say hi.
They whirled around, gasping in alarm. Maybe they thought he was a bear or something, Harry didn't know, nor did he care.
"Take me to civilization, now," he commanded and expected them to obey. Well of course they didn't. What sort of maniac would obey orders from a naked five year old?
"Who are you, little boy?" Asked the old granny, who was holding a baby. "Where are your parents?"
"Dead," he replied flatly.
"Were you attacked by tribes or somethin?" asked one of the big muscular men who was quietly smoking a cigarette. He wore a red bandanna around his head and had a Jaimacan like figure. He had a moustache, and a big fat cigar clutched between yellow teeth. Harry instantly disliked him, not for any particular reason but just the general relaxed impression. It reminded him so much of those dirty bunch of hippie peace lovers that if he had a wand he would instantly start cursing them.
Of course he didn't have a wand. You could say he was wandless.
"Look, I don't know where the hell I am, I don't know how I got here, but I need to get some clothes on me and some food, alright?"
They nodded, almost too surprised to speak. Not the man with the cigar in his teeth though. He pulled the cigar out of his mouth and blew smoke into Harry's face. "Listen up, kid, are there any warrior tribes nearby?"
"I didn't see any," Harry said.
"Well, that don't mean they aren't there, now does that?" The man said. "My name's Alred Mahone, this is my family. Now listen up you no good tourist punk, where the hell is your family?"
Harry decided to go with the flow and all that. "Yeah we got attacked. We were treking and ten of these naked guys with body paint all over them attacked us. They took us to a camp and were going to roast us alive but luckily I escaped."
"That's the shit we need to know," Alred Mahone said and then did something surprising. He pulled out a double barrel black shot gun from behind him, took a drag from his cigar and then spat it in the camp fire. "Come on, we need to go huntin" he said. The grandmother or old lady or whatever, but Harry thought it was a grandmother went to the trailer and came back without the baby but with a bunch of clothes. She threw it over the fire at Harry, who deftly caught it. Then in a firm voice she said, "Get dressed, you're coming with us."
"Who are you people?"
Alred smiled, "This is Dumbo and Bumbo," he said pointing to two black twins. They were big though, almost as big as Hagrid the half giant. "They can't speak but they can listen. Show em your tongue, boys."
Dumbo and Bumbo looked exactly alike, big and strong dressed in tattered jeans and stained with mud tee shirts. They both had these really vacant looks on their faces and Harry could see that they were high or something – their eyes were bloodshot and their pupils were way bigger than what it should have been. They opened their mouths in tandem and showed their tonges… or what was left of it.
"Cannibal tribes did that to them," Alred said. "And the woman over there" – he pointed to a rather pale but young looking woman – "she's my sister, Jenny, got kidnapped by those fuckers when she was just a little child. She don't speak no more, but my granny over there is teaching her."
"I see…" Harry said. "Where are we anyway?"
"Boy, you rich tourist folks don't have any sense of direction. This is the bloody amazon forest, how am I supposed to know where in blazed we are?" Alred shouted.
The granny smiled softly, "You got us lost, we were never supposed to be lost, y'hear." She was smiling but Harry sensed something strange about her, something just beneat the surface like an iceburg. He sensed-
He felt his eyes widen as he took her in, "You're a witch!" He blurted out. She gasped, her grey eyes magnifying.
"How the devil did you know that?" She muttered. "Course I'm a witch, but you shouldn't know that… unless… are your parents magical?"
"Yeah, I'm a child prodigy by the way," Harry said, smirking. "Accio wand."
The woman's wand came shooting out of the purse she was wearing over her polka dot dress. "No, stop, stop the brat!" She yelled to Alfred.
Harry was in his element now, he waved his wand over himself and conjured a very comfortable battle robe. Then he said, "Pagasu Rusin," while slashing his wand down in an arc.
A bright red sqaure shield the size of Dumbo and Bumbo together appeared in front of him, protecting him from several bullets that splattered out of Alred's shotgun. The shield held though. Harry lifted his wand, kind of like he was controlling puppets on strings, or maybe like he was a conducter or something and dissapitated the shield.
"Listen up, folks, I'm way better than you. I can kill you right now if I want-"
Alred laughed, his shot gun still pointing at Harry's head. "You don't have the guts, you little brat. Now give Granny her wand back."
Harry's expression didn't change. It was stone cold, but his emerald eyes blazed with fury. "Avada Kedavra," he said, carefully enounciating every syllable as he pointed his wand at a tree where a sloth was perched, sleeping soundlessly.
Sloths are very lazy monkeys who sleep twenty hours a day, and Harry using his very nice observational skills easily spotted it. His aim was true, the sloth's eyes jerked open and the entire branch fell. The sloth was dead before the branch hit the ground.
The effect was instantanous as Granny and Alred blanched, their faces turning the colour of toothpaste. "You… You…" Granny gulped. "You just did an unforgivable!"
"Bloody hell, who were your parents? Fuckin' death eaters?"
"That's on a need to know basis. The point is, I'll kill all of you if you don't do exactly what I say. Understand?"
Alred nodded blankly.
"First of all, we have to trim our numbers," Harry said. "Pulero!" He waved his wand and jerked back as hot molten lava shot out of the wand like a fire hydrant. It hit Dumbo and Bumbo without them having the chance to react. Their cries could be heard for quite a few minutes.
There was silence as the three campers watched with muted horror as Dumbo and Bumbo simply boiled to the ground.
"What do you want?" Granny finally asked.
"I told you, I want you to take me back to civilization."
"Why can't you just apparrate out?" Granny asked.
"And risk the chance of splinching? Are you stupid, lady?" Harry started laughing. He twirled his wand in as he whispered, "Crisu," and conjured a pair of sturdy brown boots which he wore at once. His black battle robes, combined with his evillish green eyes gave him an appearance of great power, but he knew that was only an illusion.
He was growing weak and he would have to act fast. He didn't even feel any remorse at what he did. What did it matter if two mute twins the size of King Kong just died in a forest? He felt no guilt, but he did feel a bit sad. The twins were a waste but they bought him something: fear, and fear led to power, and power led to the way he fought.
His way.
The way he would win over Lord Voldemort.
They were locked in an unending duel – Who could inspire the most fear?
So far, Harry had been completely ruthless about his methods, and it was working too, but then his friends started treating him coldly. He didn't care, he was doing it for them, but then they started dying one by one, and that really hit home.
He knew it was illogical but he went into a spiralling depression that only ended when Dumbledore showed him the time turner.He took the opportunity, and was in a new universe it seemed. Now he felt hope again.
"I'll kill you this time," he whispered to himself.
"Don't kill us! We'll do anything you want," said Granny, her wrinkled face scrunched up, tears leaking from her watery eyes.
"Good. I want you to get in that trailer and Alred, I want you to drive." Harry said. "By the way," he waved his wand, the shotgun in Alred's arms started melting, "That's much better."
Alred and Granny were obviously scared stiff. But the girl showed no reaction. She was youngish, like about eighteen or so, and had smooth brown skin, black eyes and long straight hair. She wore a simple gray dress that reached her knees and black boots. As this was going on, she showed no reaction.
"Get in all of you," he said loudly. "Go on, get in!" He urged them on by waving the wand at them. They cowered in fear and meekly went into the trailer van. Alred and Harry climbed into the front seat, and Alred got in behind the wheel. He started the engine, it took some time to start because there was maybe some shit stuck in there but it started after a bit. Then he drove it onto the little trail that Harry hadn't even noticed, and they went along.
Harry made no conversation because he was deep in meditation. Every few hours he would open his eyes, say, "Point Me" and tell Alred to change course to Northwest, or Southeast or something like that.
Alred tried to ask him questions – "Where are we going?" What's your name?" "Who are you?" but Harry wouldn't respond. Then he sort of gave up but his eyes kept flickering to Harry's face, and no doubt he was wandering if Harry was asleep.
Harry wasn't, he was meditating, extending his magical senses around himself toward the forestry and the woods around him and he tried to sense every creature, and every little action. This paid off because Alred decided to test his assumption that Harry was sleeping.
He reached into his green military style pants for a hand knife and ever so gently pulled it out. Before it was even halfway out, Harry sensed it and his eyes shot open, wand outstretched, pointing straight between Alred's eyes.
"Listen up, because I don't think we understand each other."
Alred let out a gasp. "S-s-sorry!"
"No you're not, you pathetic piece of shit. I know your every movement, you here? This won't go unpunished. Stop the car."
"I-I didn't mean to-"
"I said, STOP THE CAR!"
Alred stopped.
"Now get out before I get angrier." Harry said.
Alred slowly got out, engine in the car still running, and slumped.
Harry moved quickly, he ran over to Alred's side of the car, pointed his wand at Alred and said, "Crucio!"
Granny could only watch as her grandson was put under the crucatious curse, not able to do anything to help. She wanted to but she was just too scared, too scared for Jenny. This devil child might… might… kill them all!
She was going to try to do something but she couldn't do anything from the backseat and she didn't have an extra wand. There were rows of bars seperating the back seat and the front seat, kind of like how you see in a cop's car. Alred put that in, just to make his ride more badass. She always disliked it and now she could see why….
She didn't know what she could do so she opted to do nothing, even though it killed a bit inside of her.
"Now, are you ready to behave?" Harry asked Alred who was gasping and panting on the ground, his face red from pain, tears dribbling from his bloodshot eyes.
"Yes, yes… I'll do anything," he said.
"Good." Harry smiled and bade him to get up. "Now get in the car, and don't try anything stupid."
They drove along in silence, and it seemed that Alred was getting better – his breathing was steadier, the wetness around his face had dried up, and he looked better too. But the pain was still there, a fragment of it, and Alred was way too scared to try anything… funny.
They reached Monnoco City by nightfall. As they entered the city gates, the trail changed into a proper concrete road, so they could drive faster. When they reached a busy street filled with the smells of popcorn slowly toasting on a blackened portable stove, fish cooking and the sounds of shopkeepers trying to sell their goods and customers trying to negotiate a bargain, Harry raised his hand. "You can stop here, thank you for your hospitality but now I am afraid I must go." Harry waved cheekily and kicked the door open.
He walked and dissapeared into an alley until Alred and Granny lost sight of the "Devil-child" as they called him.
Harry himself never felt so cheerful. He felt totally and utterly in control of himself and the environment around him. He knew how to get what he wanted – through fear and pain – and he was willing to get it.
It was time to find out what the situation in the UK was like, Harry decided as he emerged in another busy road filled with stands and vendors trying to sell their goods.
This was a busy city, and Harry could take his time, enjoy the sights and all.
He grinned. Things were finally looking up for Harry Potter.
COMING UP NEXT CHAPTER:
Brazil was certainly different from any other place he had ever been in. Then again since he had never travelled outside the UK, he never really went anywhere else so yeah it was different. Most of the people here spoke english but with a slight Spanish accent that Harry kind of liked. Also, he also liked the food which he got for free. Conjuring money was the easiest thing to do, even though it was illegal and all, but who could catch him? For that matter, in Brazil's hideously corrupt government, who would dare try? He decided to stay for at least a month or so, on a sort of vacation, then he would go in Britain. He needed a vacation didn't he? Hell yeah he did, and it turned out taking a vacation in Brazil was the smartest thing he could ever do because he made a discovery. He found a magical tome in a museum...
