AN: This is an AU of Son of Potter. Where Son of Potter, Daughter of Black will end on a high note, this is what would happen if it didn't. Melania and her surviving friends face new challenges in the Marvel Universe.
I own neither Harry Potter nor Marvel.
A Fresh Start
"I am the Watcher and in the reality you know, the team known as the X-Men split once the original group were rescued from Krakoa, the Living Island.
In another, there are no mutants but there are extraordinary people who are brought together to save the planet known as Earth.
But there are other, even stranger, worlds in the multiverse. Realities separated by the thinnest of curtains. Where Destiny has taken a different course than the one you know.
Including this one. When a group of wizards and witches are given a free pass to leave their dying world and join one with mutants. It is an act that changes everything."
Melania Cassiopeia Lilith Black, sometimes known as Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, stood atop an indiscriminate mountain in the Scottish Highlands and stared down at the flooded plain that had once been the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was one of the very last flickers of light in the darkness that had destroyed everything and almost everyone she ever loved.
The fifty-eight-year-old witch was unusual even among those born with magic. Her mother, Lily Potter, had been hit with a curse that would destroy mother and child if she ever fell pregnant. It was designed to feast upon the father's contribution first, forcing the mother's blood and magic to compensate until there was nothing left of either. Lily Potter had refused to accept that as a reality. Lily Potter had been a genius of the highest order.
She had used a combination of magic and genetics. The highly illegal Blood-Adoption potion that enabled a child to have three parents – or completely override the child's biology with a new set of donors – had been used as a starting block. The results; A child with two fathers whose magic and genes were constantly being swapped between the two in order to confuse the curse long enough for mother and child to survive.
The only question Melania had never found a true answer for was if Lily Potter knew the possibility of the Blacks' proficiency in the shape-shifting ability of Metamorphmagi affecting the process. Had it been nothing but a twist of fate? A factor that was required in the entire process in order for mother and child to survive? Or simply something else, something Lily had actually planned for? After constantly being labelled her mother's daughter, Melania came to believe it was closer to the last.
Yet the truth...the truth never really mattered.
The result was that the genetics of James and Lily Potter had created Harry, an emerald-eyed version of his father right up to his scruffy hair and propensity to get into trouble. While the genetics of Lily mixing with Sirius Orion Black had made Melania, a true snake capable of striking down her enemies without any hesitation or mercy.
The three parents that made up the unique child came from incredibly powerful bloodlines. All three could trace their roots through some of the most famous and infamous names in Wizarding history all the way up to the legendary House of Danu. The power of the Tuatha Dé pulsed within their collective hearts, as did being a Chosen of Fate. It made her a dangerous enemy and a powerful friend. Yet even a woman of her power needed a family.
Despite the hardships of her young life as Harry Potter, Melania had come into her own when Nymphadora Tonks taught the recently discovered binary metamorph – they had discovered the term for the ability to switch between a male and female form in one of the Potter's ancient text and suspected it was what gave Lily the entire idea in the first place. The connection turned to love and eventual marriage. But the world was not all sunshine and roses as both the Light and Dark rebelled against House Black's leadership of the Grey.
Rumblings from both sides had been going on for years until the first strike of what would become an endless war broken by years, at one point even a decade, of uneasy peace. The attacks had come quick and vicious with the murder of her werewolf uncle, Remus Lupin, and Dora's assassination five years after their marriage.
The secret Light and Dark Lords behind the worst day of Melania's life delved deeper into the arcane and dangerous in order to destroy each other and their mutual enemy, forcing Melania and her family to do the very same until the world itself crumbled beneath their clashing wills. Melania herself had been forced to Scorched Earth part of North America in order stop a runaway horde of demonic forces. Not that Melania cared.
She cared for very little after burying her wife and unborn child.
They did their best to save those they could and avenge those they couldn't even as loved ones continued to fall. Melania and her group fought when and where no one else would, driving back the two insane monsters who had a seemingly unending supply of fanatical followers and creatures at their command. They had refused to concede, refused to allow the innocent blood being spilt to go unpunished, but they were simply not enough.
Melania's patron Goddess would eventually come to her in a series of dreams. The protective shell Melania had built around her heart shattered at the sight of the Mother Goddess crying bloody tears as She confessed that the Earth was no more. There had been too many nuclear weapons used by the mundanes in response to the magical threats, and too much magical energies used by the other side in the never-ending war. The planet was doomed.
The Goddess admitted that the world would have survived the nuclear winter that was being currently being held back by magic. It could even have survived the rupturing of reality that the two insane warlocks had caused. But together the two dangerous forces had locked themselves into an apocalyptic spiral dance. A deadly symbiotic relationship that fed itself and was ripping the Earth apart.
The Goddess had given Melania a ritual and a place to perform it that would enable her small group to escape the dying planet for a new dimension. The runic arrays were designed in such a way that would enable the very essence of the Earth to piggy-back the journey and merge with her counterpart in the new dimension.
Melania sighed. There was no breeze to capture the air, not within the protective magical bubble that allowed her to be out in the open. She tried to imagine Hogwarts was whole, was the home and safe haven it had once been, but the putrid, poisonousness water made it difficult. The supermoon was bright enough to bring out the blood that had tainted the world's rivers.
The school itself had been long gone, dead and broken ten years before the Magical-Mundane war melted the polar ice and sent Florida hurtling free of North America. Those two events that would remove all traces of the once great castle and school.
She turned away from the first place Harry had once called home and, between one step and the next, vanished, never to be seen again.
The third most powerful being left on the plant appeared deep within the catacombs beneath the Almendres Cromlech menhir circle of Evora, Portugal. With the loss of Hogwarts and Stonehenge, the circle at Almendres was the most powerful concentration of Ley Lines left standing. It was a Lunar Standstill, the exact event the Cromlech menhir was built for, and would aid in powering the ritual.
Her dragonhide boots echoed through the caverns as Melania made her way to the sacred chamber where the last of her friends and family waited. It had been a long, hard road with an ending that promised nothing but uncertainty. Yet she couldn't stop the swell in her breast at the thought of them being together at the very end.
At first Melania's group had been horrified at the energy requirements of the ritual and there was a very real chance that she wouldn't survive the journey even with her insanely large core. She had gone through almost as many rituals to boost her power as Dumbledore and Riddle, though none near as Dark and demented as what they had used, yet she still it wouldn't be enough.
And then she remembered the legacy of the Potter and Black families and the final "Screw You" they possessed if the very worst happened. A ritual that would open up the Family Magic and pass it and its power to the other bloodline.
Her friends had been horrified at the idea of using a ritual to power a ritual but they had been forced to admit it would actually work. That was all Melania needed to know.
She finally entered the ritual cavern and looked at those waiting for her. All were ready, standing in their required positions, and all carried everything they possessed and more they had simply taken in shrunken trunks in order to start a brand new life elsewhere.
The man standing at the head of the six-pointed star had long ago lost his baby fat. Now he was a chiselled warrior forged in the fires of many battles, his short blond hair allowed his baby blue eyes to shine with the strength of character Harry had seen one long ago night when he attempted to stop a group of friends sneaking out of their common room. He and Harry were the last survivors of that quartet and the sword at his hip that had once defeated a century old basilisk had also avenged their lost friends. He was a Druid and Earth Mage, steeped in the magic and power of aeons past and known simply as Gryffindor. Dressed in dragonhide that had seen much use, he was Harry and Melania's best friend and brother in all but blood.
To his left and Melania's right was the man's wife. Her dirty blonde hair was down to her mid-back and she was wrapped in loose clothes that reminded all of their once Divination teaching. Her slender fingers were wrapped around what had once been the tibia of a half-giant. Now the bone was cored with her own hair and blood, making it the perfect staff for the Seer. Her once beautiful silver eyes had long been taken in a misguided attempt by their enemies to break her ability to See and the gaping holes were covered by a green silk cloth.
Those who escaped the fury of her best friend and future husband over her torture died a most horrible death when the woman known as Snorkack called upon the fury of the Many-Angled Ones.
Next was a slightly younger man who went by the name Atari. The boyish enthusiasm for life and magic had all but been extinguished upon the death of his older brother. It was in the same attack that cost him his family that Atari had lost his right arm. He had been taken under the wing of the Weasley twins and spent enough time in America to become a Master Technomancer. The project for his Mastery was the prototype techno-magical arm he had created to replace his lost one. The strange metallic limb did nothing to take away from his handsome features. He was their builder and their designer of all things needed to live and destroy.
Melania walked between the two who stood at the bottom of the seven-pointed star carved into the ground. The woman returned Gryffindor's hard gaze with one of her own. Simply known as War to their enemies, the blonde haired, icy blue eyed woman's loyalty to Melania fell completely into the realm of obsession. War was Melania's bodyguard, Harry's lover, and protégé to both. She had been driven mad at what was done to her family and it was only the complete acceptance by their leader that kept War from ending it all.
The other spot was taken by another silvery blonde. Far more curvy than the other women, the woman known as Flower had taken her name in honour of her elder sister who had died in defence of their Veela colony. A Master Healer, Flower had been the one to keep them all alive at some point but her blue eyes held a fragility that the rest of the strange Coven had managed to hide.
Facing across from Atari was the other male in their eclectic group. Pestilence, for where he goes his enemies fall to their deaths, was a Master Assassin, Shadow Mage and a borderline psychopath held in check by his leader's iron will. The Italian wizard with brown eyes and short brown hair was a seducer of both men and women while his laughter was known to echo long after his dance of death had brought down armies.
And if Melania was known simply as Death then the last of the group was Famine for the redhead was capable of leeching the very life out of anyone she wished. Upon the death of her aunt, Famine took up the mantle of her House and became a true Mistress of the Necromantic and Black Arts, wielding powers and spells that had even shaken the Dark Lord and it was only by her hand that the demonic forces called up by Voldemort had been ultimately defeated.
Melania stopped in the centre of the configuration where a table had been prepared. It was a perfectly square table that had been placed in the exact centre of the room with everything else designed around its positioning. On it sat items straight out of myth.
The Elder Wand, the Death Stick, sat on the north end of the table, pointing East to West. The second Deathly Hallow, the Resurrection Stone, was at the south side of the table. Between the two most infamous magical items was a smooth wooden bowl filled with blood. The third Hallow was draped over Melania's shoulders and created a connection between the Mistress of Death and her Hallows. It had been a long time since she had needed to use the objects, their power being slowly absorbed by her core the longer she held the mantle of Death's Mistress. Now it was time to give them back to their maker.
Yet it was the last two items that she knew should have been feared by the world if there was anyone sane enough to know what was about happen.
The Potter Book, given to Gwydion fab Don's first true disciple, had been bled upon by untold generations from its maker down to Harry Potter. It contained within its pages the true depths of the Potter magic, including the very methods that had forged the Hallows. On the other side of the bowl was an item just as deadly. The Black Knife, given to Gwydion fab Don's second true disciple, had absorbed and shared the power and fighting skills of all those who had let it bleed them, from its maker down to Melania Black. The two had been kept apart since their creation and she was about to combine them for one last hurrah.
There was a shift in the air just above Melania's shoulder and a raven appeared from nowhere. Muninn, once known as the owl Hedwig, was with her bonded right until the end.
The Lady Black looked around the room that was the most powerful crossing of Ley Lines outside of Stonehenge or Hogwarts, both had been destroyed decades ago. The cave was covered in runes from multiple languages, some the group could barely look at given their other worldly energies.
"It has been a pleasure to know you all," she told her last living friends and family. The Coven had bled, killed and almost died for each other and none would back out now. "We did our best when those who could have stopped the insanity did nothing. If this fails to work then I can think of no other place I would rather be in my last moments. I love you all."
The Coven wasn't given a chance to reply before Melania picked up the Black Knife but they all knew how the others felt. Some stood taller, the simple words giving them a sense of peace that had been missing for years.
"I, Lady Black of House Black, this day and this time, do call upon the Ties that Bind," her voice vibrated in the very bedrock and all across the world, the last dregs of life paused in what they were doing. "I offer my blood and magic to my brother House. As House Black falls so shall our enemies!"
She barely looked as the blade sliced open the palm of her left hand to bleed down upon the open pages of the Potter Book. Her magic healed the wound as the book began to glow.
There was a slight shift and Melania's body rippled until it morphed into that of Harry Potter. Where Melania looked like a Warrior Queen, still regal no matter the death and destruction she had seen, Harry was nothing more than a primal force of nature. An unstoppable killing machine against those who preyed on the weak. Gone was the lost boy living in Privet Drive. He was a Death-Bringer to those who caused pain and suffering.
He swapped the Knife into his other hand and looked to the ceiling once more, his voice a deeper echo of his other identity.
"I, Lord Potter of House Potter, this day and this time, do call upon the Ties that Bind. I receive the blood and magic of my brother House. As House Black falls so shall our enemies!"
Another slash and this time Harry Potter's blood poured onto the pages. The results were almost instantaneous. A single tear burst open the pages to review pure, undiluted Wild Magic, the fail-safe built into the two blood-lines activating.
The idea was as simple as it was deadly. In the event that the two Houses were falling against overwhelming odds, the Lord or Lady of one could hand the power of their House to the Lord or Lady of the other. It would be a true merger to give the remaining House the power and skills required to take their enemies with them to the grave.
Harry Potter and Melania Black had always done the extraordinary even by Magical standards. Before the ritual could truly get going, Harry swapped the Knife into his bloody hand and called out the words Melania had used, offering the Potter blood and magic to the Blacks. A second shift and Melania was barely able to accept the gift with her own blood before the book exploded.
She had managed to do the impossible. An offering of blood and sacrifice twice over before the ritual could close.
Where once two lives had lived within one body, there were now two people standing back to back. Harry and Melania cried out in pain, their arms outstretched, and it was only the lack of oxygen in their lungs that kept their screams from echoing around them. Each had a bird on their shoulder that was as caught up in the ritual as their human.
The magic expanded to wrap around each of those at the star's points and they too were consumed by the sheer force of raw power that had been released in the feedback loop. The Black Knife had absorbed the skills and knowledge of all those who tasted its edge and continued to draw it from them until their death, regardless of if they never came near the blade again. Harry was now living through the lives of all the Blacks, the Le Feys, Ravenclaws, and beyond who had offered their blood to the sharp edge. The ritual grafting those instincts and powers into his soul without affecting what made him the man he was. The Potter Book had done the same and Melania was under similar torture, absorbing the creative knowledge and skills of the Potters, Peverells, Slytherins, and beyond, absorbing it all without affecting the core of the woman she was.
The ritual was the last Fuck You to their enemies and had never been designed to be used in such a fashion. Harry and Melania were still only one mind, one soul, and each body's new experience caused the magic in the cave to increase ten-fold. The runes in the walls blazed with the light of the sun but none there could tell. The entire world of all ten beings had been reduced to nothing more than agony on the atomic level.
High above the Earth, the moon began to glow, the cold rock burning with magical flames. The power shone down on the planet and ignited the pure magical forces that made up the Ley Lines. Probabilities and reality broke down as things that could not be alive lived, only to be burned to ash, while that which lived crumbled into nothingness as they simply ceased to be.
The ritual was far more powerful than those involved had expected. It was Gaia herself rather than the aspect Danu who was pulled into the cave. It was Gaia herself that appeared on the opposite side of the ritual table. The sea-green eyes stared down at the blood boiled and twisted on the book. The blood moved of its own accord, splitting in half as it crawled out off the Potter Book and across the table until both Wand and Stone had been covered by the crimson liquid.
The offerings were the last stage of the ritual. The moon grew even brighter, a shining beacon was seen across the universe, and then was pulled into down into its host planet as Portugal erupted in a pulse of magic that destroyed half of Europe. What remained of Earth's seas went wild while tectonic plates cracked beneath the energy the Ley Lines were putting them under. The planet collapsed under the impact, its structural integrity worthless from the magical stresses, and the resulting explosion ripped through the solar system. There would be nothing left but a dark, dangerous part of space, forever uninhabitable until it was drawn into the powerful nothingness of a black hole that had been created where one small marble of a world had once been.
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oOoOo
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1st May (Beltane) 2008 – Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Westchester, New York, another reality.
The Xavier Mansion and its huge expanse of land had been in the Xavier family for ten generations. The family fortune was enough to keep its current owner more than lazily comfortable for the rest of his life without a threat to the land itself. Yet the genius that was Professor Charles Francis Xavier was hard at work as the early sun began to seep through his office windows. In point of fact, he had yet to be to bed.
Professor Xavier was Headmaster to his School for Gifted Youngsters, an idea born after his days working with the CIA in the sixties. Xavier was a mutant, someone who possessed unique abilities that activated sometime after birth, and his school was focused on finding young adults in order to teach them how to harness and control their abilities.
Xavier's mutant ability meant he was potentially the most powerful telepath on the planet. But even in his youth, he knew that wouldn't be enough to shape the world's attitude. Charles Xavier had a dream, a dream of peaceful coexistence between what he called Homo Superior and Homo Sapiens, and so he had brought together a small group of mutant teenagers together in order to turn them into a group ready and willing to fight for peace between the two species. Over the course of the past five years, his X-Men had been working towards this goal when all their hard work had almost come undone. They had nearly died at the whim of an island that had somehow achieved a basic sentience.
Scott Summers, codename Cyclops, had been the only member of his X-Men to escape and the two had been forced to recruit more mutants in order to rescue those Xavier considered his children. And therein lay the problem. These new mutants weren't teenagers who had gone through his school and learned about his ideals but rather adults in their own right. Adults with their own views on how the world did and should work. Now the Xavier mansion was home to thirteen mutants and their unique personalities were clashing as they recovered from the mission.
"Working all night is no way to live, Professor," a soft voice from the doorway caught Xavier's attention and he was smiling even before he lifted his head to look at the speaker.
While Xavier was paralysed from the waist down, his body was still that the athlete it had been in his active youth and even his baldness could be said to be appealing to some. One who had never considered him in that light was Jean Grey. Standing, or in this case leaning, against the door-frame at around five and a half foot with vibrant red hair that hung in waves to the middle of her back, she looked at her mentor with light green eyes filled with concern. She was wearing tight black trousers and an open-necked pale shirt that hugged her firm breasts. She had the body of someone who constantly worked out with the curves to turn heads of both sexes.
"It's the never-ending curse of being a workaholic, Jean," he answered in his low, baritone way. "You haven't slept either."
"Not a wink," she confessed, using her hip to push herself away from the wall and into the room. Xavier watched her coming with worry. Jean Grey was both a powerful telekinetic and telepath with her abilities tied intrinsically with her emotions. An emotional and tired Jean was a dangerous one.
"I monitored your confrontation with Wolverine. I'm very proud of how you dealt with him and Warren," he gave a quick smile that faded just as fast. Warren Worthing III, codenamed Angel, was one of his original X-Men and had seen the older, newer, and far more dangerous member of the team talking to Jean in the shadow of a tree. The youngest X-Man had reacted badly, something which the ever volatile Wolverine had responded to instantly. It was only luck that blood hadn't been spilt. "I know Wolverine has rough edges – he may very well prove the most difficult and dangerous student I've ever taught – but I believe the reward is worth the risk. Given enough time, and care, he has the potential to become a keystone of the team."
"I'm glad, Professor, I really do hope he works out," Jean paused as she settled on the edge of his desk to stare out of the large windows behind him. Her arms had crossed in a protective manner. "But I won't be here to watch it happen."
"The conflict between you all strikes so deeply?" He leaned back in his chair to look at one of his favourite students. Xavier was surprised. He had not expected her to be so easily defeated by the clash between the old and new members.
"Oh, Professor, you have no idea," she laughed and it was a humourless sound that caused him to frown. "I thought the patterns of my life were properly ordered but they've been smashed to bits. And one look from Wolverine crushes those pieces to dust."
She stood, restless in body as she was in heart and mind, and moved to the window. It was still dark enough that she could see a clear reflection of herself in the smooth surface and realised she didn't recognise the woman staring back.
"I love Scott with all my heart even as I can't deny the attraction between me and Wolverine," she sighed, briefly closing her eyes to look inside of herself. Scott is my constant, the one who has been there by my side from the beginning. Yet his identity is so wrapped up in being part of the X-Men I don't always know where I fit in. Wolverine offers me freedom, a wild man to take me away from here, yet there's no sign of anything more beyond that. She opened her eyes to stare into the brightening sky. "But that is only part of the issue. I've nearly died so many times since you formed the X-Men. Yet tonight I found myself wondering why I keep coming back for more. What of my dreams and plans? For love, for a family? Are they to be sacrificed on this altar of responsibility that is being an X-Man?"
"Is that what you truly believe?" A shocked look passed across Xavier's face at her questions. He could admit to himself that such things had never entered his thinking in conjunction with his dream of the future. "Have I failed you so utterly, Jean?"
"I don't know, Professor," she admitted, pressing a palm against the still cool window. A single tear fell but she didn't see it in her reflection, her eyes lost elsewhere. "There's a whole world out there, a world to explore that knows nothing about aliens, mutants, or super-villains. This was once my home but now I feel trapped, bound here with the others. How can humanity come to trust us, Professor, if we forever hide behind these walls? If we're afraid to go out there and discover if we can make it on our own?"
"It can't," he confessed after a long, heavy silence. She heard him sigh and didn't need her own telepathy to know that her mentor was struggling with her revelation. "And I would be no better than Magneto if I kept you from those dreams, from this need."
He turned his wheelchair around to face Jean and took the closest hand in his. She turned away from the new day to stare down at him with a timid half-smile.
"I wish you well," he said, his throat tight with emotion as he realised this was a goodbye. At least for now. "And there will always be a place here, should you need it. Don't hesitate to..."
"I know," she smiled, truly knowing that she could return if she needed. The two shared a moment of understanding only for it to be broken by the alarm of Xavier's Mutant scanning machine, Cerebro. Jean looked up as though able to see the threat the fantastic machine was picking up and felt a pull coming from somewhere. Something deep inside her grew warme feeling like the sun had risen on her soul for the first time in years, and she had to fight her smile from growing.
"Once more unto the breach," she whispered, looking back to her mentor. "How about one more suit up for the road?"
Xavier was about to comment when the astral plane blazed with power the likes of which he had never experienced. The raw energy caused both telepaths to cry out in agony before their minds shut down from the pain.
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oOoOo
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The Xavier Mansion wasn't the only place to have alarms sounding. Across the world, people and machines reacted as a powerful surge of energy echoed through the dimensions. In San Francisco, California, the second Baxter Building was home to the Fantastic Four, a family who had greatness thrust upon them and decided to stand up in order to make a difference. Their leader, Reed Richards, was one of the very top geniuses in the world yet even he could only watch in despair at what his instruments were telling him. The scientist had only recently become obsessed with researching the dimension known as the Negative Zone and he was forced to watch as the ripples within reality crushed that dimension from existence.
Elsewhere, men, women, and beings that might have been both or neither were reacting to the death of an entire dimension and the incoming echoes of a traveller of immense power. Psychics across the universe collapsed under the weight of power that flooded the astral plane and beings that could only be described as gods and demons stirred in unease as the playing field was forever changed.
Future friends and enemies narrowed eyes and began preparations to meet this new power that had shaken the very Omniverse. One such was a vast man who almost reached seven foot. His long white hair hung loose, framing a single sky-blue eye that saw much more than most could be understood by mortal minds. His strong fingers tightened around the hilt of the spear Gungnir and the air thickened with his emotions. Rage was tinted with fear as the Nordic All-Father stood and stormed out of his hall in order to hunt down the one known as the Watcher of Worlds.
"I feel you, Darkest Star," Odin's deep voice echoed in the undercurrent of the universe as his subjects moved quickly out of his way. "I will find you and I will kill you as I swore to do."
The Sky-Father would find it wasn't that easy and that Heimdall's vision had been temporarily blinded by the power of an Elder God.
The universe itself rippled and twisted, rewriting personal histories as people blinked into existence who were never meant to be while others faded or even fused with others to make entirely new lives. To the immensely other being that watched the Omniverse and by whose authority allowed such a massive shift in reality its four faces watched as the six-hundred and sixteenth born reality duplicated itself in the same way a cell would. Another, far larger numbered reality did the same and the two new realities then merged, pulling together fragments from other realities to born a brand new one. When it was all over with, the Living Tribunal nodded as though pleased with its work.
One of the only other beings in existence that knew of the cause of the chaos within reality stood in a place that wasn't a place. A place outside of time or any other pesky mortal restraints. It was a concept that wrapped itself within the image of a beautiful, if pale, woman covered in intricate markings. A shimmering cloak kept most of her body covered and it moved as though it had a life of its own, sometimes even turning its owner invisible. The Cosmic Entity known as Death turned towards the oncoming storm and smiled. She spoke only three words but those worlds caused all the spirits within her Realm to cower in fear.
"Welcome, my Champion."
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oOoOo
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A cave deep beneath the Almendres Cromlech of Evora, Portugal
Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts, stood at just over 6'2 and possessed the body of someone highly skilled in martial arts.
He appeared silently within a cave and was almost immediately blinded by the blazing power emanating from the walls. Strange flicked a hand in front of his eyes and the air rippled in colour between limb and organs in order to filter out the painful energies.
"What are you doing here, Sorcerer?" a terse but very obviously feminine voice demanded and Strange felt a quick clenching of his heart when he recognised it.
"Gaea," Stephen Strange turned to look at the being. She was in a deep green dress that had a plunging neckline almost to where her bellybutton would be. If she had one as such things did not belong on a being that had never been born. The dress stopped just above her slender ankles with wide slits up the side in order to reveal shapely legs. The dark hair fell down her front, framing the large décolletage rather than hiding it. Yet for all the being's beauty, it was the eyes that held Strange. They were the eyes of the very first being that had appeared from the Primordial Chaos of the universe and Stephen really didn't want to have to fight her. "What's going on?"
The Elder Gods had been chased out of their home dimension and into ones of their own creation, spreading their awarenesses and powers across time and space. In some way this weakened them as much as it did show their immense power given their eventual struggle when bringing themselves back together again. Gaea had no such issues. She was the very essence of the planet upon which Strange stood and was more than capable of drawing from the spiritual energy of every living thing on Earth.
She merely waved a hand and the intense power of the cave was pulled from the walls and forged it into a large rip in the fabric of the world. The ring of energy crackled with eldritch flame and the air rippled within the circle, only to clear to find Strange looking into the Negative Zone. His eyebrows rose at what he was seeing. Something was emerging from the Crossroads of reality deep within the Negative Zone and was heading towards their world, its very presence destabilising the structural integrity of the slowly dying dimension.
"What is it that comes?"
"A Childe of mine," the words were spoken softly but the entire cave echoed with their impact. "A Fate-touched Childe that will change everything."
"I must ask, for what purpose?" Strange was polite but firm, mentally preparing himself for going up against the Elder God if she was looking to bring destruction where he had given an oath to protect.
Gaea didn't reply. The speck had been rapidly closing and Strange saw it was a body floating on its back. Walking beside the still form was a woman who could have been Gaea's sister, such was their familiar auras. This other Gaea stopped at the gateway's opening while the Negative Zone vanished as though never existing in the first place.
"Stephen Strange, protector against the Darkness," Gaia smiled as she placed a protective palm on the floating body that he could see was another woman. The body had a mass of black laying across her chest that he couldn't identify. "Meet my protector against the Darkness."
And just like that Dr. Strange realised what was happening. The Elder Gods who had fled this reality did so in a way that meant they were the same Elder Gods across the whole Omniverse. But with Gaea limiting herself to a single planet, she had left all the other versions of Earth open to alternative versions of herself.
"And the Sorcerer Supreme understands," his version of Gaea announced with a smirk that did nothing to calm his rapidly beating heart. The other goddess stepped closer until the two stood side-by-side. The sleeping woman gently lowering to the ground as though an afterthought.
"You are a champion, a Defender," the other declared with a deceptively soft voice. "But sometimes that isn't enough. Sometimes a world needs something more."
"What does it need?"
"A Warrior!" The mirror goddesses declared, raising their right arms with the palms open.
There was a flash and Strange found himself back inside his New York Sanctum Sanctorum. The former surgeon took stock of his options and decided to wait and see just what the Elder Goddesses had planned.
Back in the cave, the two versions of the same deity looked at each other and took a step closer, Gaia slipping inside Gaea until the two became one. The Ley Lines, the very veins of life for the planet, pulsed wildly at the vast amounts of new power surging through them and then settled down as Gaea knelt down to wake her chosen.
The gentle touch placed palm over Melania's heart while allowing for Gaea's thumb to rest against the sleeping black bird on her chest. A sudden build up of power had the cave carved with the very same runes that the Coven had carved in their old dimension and the seven-pointed star spread out from beneath the sleeping woman. At the tips ghosted into existence the still bodies of the other travellers and then Gaea's hand pulsed, sending energy into the body of Melania and through her out to the other seven. The Elder God stood and took a step back as the Coven began to wake.
There was a ruffle of feathers as Muninn open her eyes and tried pushing the sleep from her avian mind. The familiar bond opened between witch and raven and pulled Melania fully from the realm of dreams.
"It worked," she croaked from a badly damaged throat.
"Better than you had hoped, Childe," Gaea smiled, the Goddess' fingers itching to run through Melania's dark hair as the witch forced herself to stand. Melania sore muscles felt as though they had gone ten rounds with Riddle's Crucio from Fourth Year and by the looks of the others, it appeared they weren't in a better state. "Your appearance in this world made quite a noise and will draw attention. Best to be going home in order to prepare."
"Home?" Melania snorted, working the kinks out of her sore neck. Muninn was already in her usual spot on her left shoulder. The others were silent, allowing their leader to direct how the strange meeting would go. "We don't have a home."
"You know where it is, Childe," and suddenly they did. Information for not only where they were to go but what they should do as well as what else was important to know was suddenly in all of their minds. "Until next we meet."
Gaea vanished as though she had never been. The Coven shared half-amused looks and nodded their heads as one. The cavern was filled with the pops of Apparition and then it too faded from existence, never again to be accessed by mortals.
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oOoOo
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Somewhere in Scotland
The group found themselves standing in front of a small castle on a far too familiar piece of land. Far too old eyes glanced around the grounds of what had never been Hogwarts and each felt the tingle of magic beyond simple the intercrossing Ley Lines beneath their feet.
"Wards," Neville Longbottom announced as he eyed the building and its magic. "Blood wards keyed to a specific family, insanity wards to drive anyone not of the blood out of the castle or so insane it wouldn't matter."
"The ground is waiting," Daphne Greengrass through in her thoughts as scanned the area. There was a large lake off to the side that was missing a giant squid and there was even a forest behind them. "There is more magic waiting for the blood to awaken."
"Black blood," Luna Longbottom nee Lovegood announced and all turned to look at her. She stood serene with her hands clasped around Gwamp's bone and a there was a smile of happiness that had been missing from the lithe woman for years. "Claim the land, sister, and give us a home."
Melania blinked at her sister's words but that was the extent of her physical reaction to what she had heard. They had all grown to understand that sometimes it was best to follow Luna's instructions first and ask questions later.
"So, are we apparently going to ignore how we're all now decades younger than we were before the ritual?" Susan Bones asked in a tone that said she wasn't complaining on either account. The chorus of 'yes' that followed had everyone ignore the point and return to the immediate issue.
The group spread out in a protective circle with Luna in the middle and Melania striding alone and head tall to where she could feel the edge of the ward line. The Black Knife materialised in her grasp and she lazily sliced open her palm, absently noticing that the wounds from the ritual had been healed without a scar. She pressed the bleeding wound to the wards and spoke in a clear voice, using the words from their old world and silently hoping they would be enough.
"I am Melania Cassiopeia Lilith Black, Lady Black of House Black, and I claim these lands in the name of my blood."
The blood wards rippled beneath her touch and then centuries old magics stirred beneath her feet. The protection wards expanded, fuelled by the Ley Lines, and the wards hidden deep beneath the castle activated in joy.
The effects of the castle being claimed would be felt in the nearest small village and would bring excitement to those sensitive enough to know what it meant. The echoes would spread across the world to cause all those already studying the effects of the Coven's entrance into that reality to worry what else was about to happen.
The small group of survivors stood and waited for something else to happen. For an attack to appear. All bar Luna who skipped her way past Melania with a giggle that reminded her sister and husband of their teenage years.
"Well, I think that went well," Blaise Zabini snarked and just like that, the tension in their bodies vanished.
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oOoOo
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The Coven had no idea that the wards around the castle were similar to the Muggle Repelling wards of Hogwarts. The beautiful, if abandoned, manor was still in working order with no sign of weather or age damage anywhere unlike what anyone previously would have seen. The group worked as one to move through each room at a time, cataloguing anything of interest while still being alert to dangers. The more they saw, the more it was looking as though it could have been a small Manor for one of the Noble and Most Ancient Houses. This image was never more blatant than when they found the Master's study and the family journals within.
It only took a few hours with everyone reading that the history of their new world's Black family came clear. While they all possessed knowledge of the new world, including knowing that magic was still possible and the growing "mutant problem", a gift from Gaea according to Luna, it was still shocking to see the similarities between this family and Melania's original one.
"So let's see if we have this straight," the woman in question announced into the silence as she stared down at a number of journals that were opened to important entries. "In our reality Lord Danu created two Brother-Lines that would ultimately become the Potters and Blacks via Slytherin, Le Fey and Peverell. In this reality there were four Brother-Lines who were all Apprentices of Loki, the literal Asgardian God of Magic, Mischief as well as Fire and/or Ice. All was going well until the Norns – bitches – decided to give a Prophecy outside of the Ragnarök that we know of that foretold the coming of the Darkest Star. Although no actual description of this prophecy is listed."
"Melania means 'dark', Cassiopeia is a constellation in the Northing sky, Lilith means 'of the night' and your last name is Black," Susan said the words that no one wanted to. "You are literally the Darkest Star."
Melania snarled and spat out a curse in Parseltongue before continuing.
"The Asgardians, and I still can't believe I'm saying that," she shook her head and some of the others shared her surprise. "Were all hunky dory with wand users until this happened and then suddenly entire communities are disappearing off the map until only the four lines are left."
"A good strategy," Blaise interrupted in his soft, smooth voice that hid the monster beneath. "Remove allies and escape roots before taking out the real target."
The room was filled with a round of nods. It was something they were intimately familiar with both in action and having it done to them.
"Three of the four lines give up their magic while all four tie themselves to the Land and the Fae. Luna?"
"They would become protectors of the Little Fae in the same way the Lovegoods were," the dirty blonde explained, looking directly at Melania even without eyes. "Their lands would be safe havens, their magic turned inwards and becoming benign. Healers, carers, maybe even mutations now if the lines are still active. The Fae would feel safe with them."
"They became the Shield while the Blacks became the Sword," Melania nodded, knowing this was almost exactly what had happened with the Potters and Blacks of their old home. "And whatever hunters the All-father sent to hunt the lines seemed to be only able to follow the magic. According to the later entries, it was only the Blacks who were still being killed off before the last decided to vanish underground."
The venom she used when speaking Odin's title was something they had only heard directed at either Dumbledore or Voldemort.
"Which means we already have an enemy," Gabrielle Delacour said with barely a hint of a French accent to indicate her homeland. "And it is a god."
"But we also have an ally. Well two, really," Dennis Creevey spoke up, his sharp mind already running through the information provided. "And that's not including any of the other families if they're still alive or those we make now we're here. This entire genocide was aimed at someone who came from Loki's Apprenticeship. If the myths are true then right now Loki has had at least four of his children taken from him by Odin's desire to stop Ragnarök and this would be another attack on him."
"Four?" Neville frowned, not knowing any Norse mythology.
"Five," Dennis corrected, his voice never changing as he patiently explained. "Fenrir would be chained up somewhere, the World Serpent just discarded, Hel is forced to be the Norse goddess of Death while it's believed some Asgardians turned one of his human looking twins into a feral wolf in order to kill the other. It's unknown what happened to that child and then there's Sleipnir who is forced to act as Odin's personal steed."
"Merlin," Susan whispered, pale at the thought of a parent going through what she had just heard.
"Exactly," he nodded before turning back to Melania. "And then there's the ties between the four families and the Crown. I don't know what could be done there but we saw the benefits of that in our world."
Melania thought everything over and the others let her, knowing their leader would do what was best for them all. It had been many years since they had to worry about any self-sacrificing People Saving Thing had been an issue.
"We can't do anything about the one-eyed giant," she announced, finally, her once laurel eyes shining the same Avada colour as Harry's. "What we can do is make something of this new world and actually make a place for ourselves in it. This is our chance to find some small piece of happiness and calm after everything we've been through and I'm not about to let a stuck up panicking god ruin that for any of us."
The words were spoken with such determination and power that everyone in the room knew Melania would do her very best to give them something they had believed was beyond them.
A home.
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oOoOo
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Melania had left the Coven to setting up their own rooms as well as stocking the larder with food from their trunks. While the manor house had been cared for by the magical protections, it was still centuries out of day and lacked any semblance of modern amenities. Something that was driving poor Dennis crazy.
She had decided to visit the local village that the family journals said was raised to protect the lands and had to fight down the tears when she saw how similar it was to a mundane Hogsmeade. There was even a pub where the Three Broomsticks would have been and Melania headed straight for it.
"Welcome to Arrochar Arms, lass," the barman announced as soon as she walked through the doors. The smile didn't reach his eyes but she saw something that looked like hope in their depths. "We don't be getting many non local folk 'round 'ere."
"Arrochar?" She blinked, barely away of the locals watching her with undisguised interest, unease and eagerness. Could they know what I did? She wondered.
"Well it be better to yer ears tan An Tairbeart lar," one of the customers grumbled and Melania had to admit he was right. She didn't even know if she could grunt whatever it was the man had just said.
"Right, yeah," she said, shaking her head as though to clear the cobwebs. "So, I'm trying to find information about my birth family."
"Oh?" The barman's friendly mask disappeared and the emotions shut down so fast a Slytherin would have been proud to call him one of their own. "An what be de name of yer family, lass? And what yer name be, as we at it?"
"Melania Cassiopeia Lilith Black, birth daughter to Sirius Orion Black and Lily Jasmine Evans, adopted daughter to James Charlus Potter. I'm looking for anything about the Blacks that I can."
The silence that followed the run of names was charged. Some of the locals became closed off and suspicious while others shifted as though preparing to move towards her. The barman, the obvious spokesman to the village locals, spoke up after wetting his lips and taking a few hard swallows.
"Black ye sey? Well there's not been a true Dubh here since before the MacFarlanes."
"Another one lookin' for the MacDubh legacy," growled another of the locals. Melania narrowed her eyes and made to take a step towards the man only to pull herself back at the last moment. The shift did not go unnoticed.
"Yer be understandin' like, lass," the barman spoke up before her temper got the best of her. The man wasn't in tune with the lands the way his wife was but she had been excited like a kitten for the past few hours, even going so far as to saw that their people had come home. "But the legacy of the MacDubh be the very foundation of our home. We don't be speakin' it to strangers."
Melania knew this, she'd seen people like this all over the world. They were people who protected their own no matter what but she also know something that would help.
"I have fought and I have conquered..." she began what she had come to know as this world's version of the Black and Potter combined motto Toujours pur et Toujours debout.
"For I have been pure to my blood..."
"...and taken the blows..."
"..to remain standing," he finished. The attitude of the locals had changed with each line and the entire pub roared with delight at his next words. "Yer a lass of the Byrnes!"
What followed was an evening that eased the aching in Melania's soul. It felt as though the entire village ended up hearing that a true descendent of their patron family had come back. All were happy and offering advice with the barman, Samuel, having his wife, Gillian, cooking the entire Coven a small meal once they it was announced that Melania had friends up at the castle.
The group of friends felt something shift within them at the welcoming and knew they had find something special. It was only the beginning and would take time but the watching Elder Goddess and embodiment of Death both smiled as they watched the small village come alive in a way it hadn't for centuries.
Elsewhere there were people and organisations reacting to the ripples that the Coven's appearance had set off. While the eight members began the very first steps of recovering from the war that ended all wars, others planned to involve them in yet more struggles.
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oOoOo
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SN: The one aspect of this story will be what do I do as the main pairings? Harry/Mel with one person or as a multi? This is the one situation where I'll let you decide if you have a preference.