Foreword, Disclaimer, and Terms of Reviews

Do not own the rights to Harry Potter and any related materials.

It is owned by JK Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, and Warner Bros.

Support the Official Release!

CS Lewis' estate still owns all rights to Uncle Jack's collected works.

Long waits between updates will likely be the rule and not the exception.

Any expressions of Christian doctrine should be thought of as the author's.

I receive no remuneration for this story that is in violation of any laws.

Mistakes or contradictions in the Harry Potter universe are the author's doing, intentional or not.
Entertainment is the primary purpose of this fanfic.

Reviews are most welcome. Flames are sadly expected, and increase the review count all the same.

Some credits that didn't fit into the acrostic poem:

Zatch Bell!/Konjiki no Gash! is owned by Makoto Raiku.
Rurouni Kenshin is owned by Nobuhiro Watsukii.

The Adventures of Merlin is owned by Shine Limited, Shine Group, and Distributed by FrematleMedia.

This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness is owned by Frank E. Peretti.

This fanfic is written as an attempt to make a form of the Harry Potter series palatable to other Christians and as a response to the disturbing popularity of slash fanfiction in the Harry Potter fandom. If you are offended by the doctrines of Christianity, you will probably want to find a different story immediately. If not, then feel free to skip down to the actual Prologue unless you're interested in getting a little background into why I'm writing this story. My mom has brought to my attention the high possibility that this Foreword may discourage anyone from picking up the story.

By clicking 'Post Review As' at the bottom of this page and any page of this story you will be assumed to confirm you have read this disclaimer, that you understand that this story is intended for Christian audiences (or at least readers who are not offended by expressions of Christian doctrines), and you agree to be bound to the following terms and conditions:

The author is given carte blanche to use the content of your review as dialog for characters in this story who share similar anti-Christian sentiments and opinions.

Okay, are those folks gone? Just the odd one already typing up a flame? Okay, now we can begin with the explanation of the changes the Harry Potter universe you should probably be aware of.

One of the reasons why certain Christians (myself and my family not among them) will not even read JK Rowling's best-selling series is that, in the real world, any magic of the kind depicted in Harry Potter would only be possible through the supernatural. Since God doesn't perform miracles on demand, and as nearly all magic in Harry Potter is done willfully, the devil and his followers would be the driving force behind the magic. (Just to be clear and to take some possible ammunition out of the hands of potential detractors, sleight of hand, misdirection, special effects, smoke and mirrors, optical illusions, escape tricks, wires, magnets, and any other means that stage magicians and entertainers employ are strictly natural means, and thus not inherently sinful. That being said —)

Whether or not a supernatural act prompted by mortals as good or evil is all about intention: 1) Your intention of what the result should be, AND 2) Your intention of the source to provide the supernatural act. Sadly, by this standard there are only three examples of magic in Harry Potter canon I can think of off the top of my head that would not be sinful if judged by real-world standards. All three are cases of Accidental Magic, which allows us the leeway to assume that, so long as Harry or Neville weren't thinking "I want [insert false god/goddess/demon here] to help me", we can mostly eliminate the second criteria from the equation, as by definition of Accidental Magic, they occurred without conscious effort. The two cases of Harry Potter using Accidental Magic that cannot be judged as sinful are when Harry grew his hair back after receiving a dreadful haircut from Petunia Dursley and the time he Apparated onto the school roof when chased by Dudley and his gang. The third case was Neville Longbottom using Accidental Magic to bounce after being dropped out of a window by his uncle Algie.

If God has blessed you with the ability to read on to the actual content of this first chapter, you will notice me establishing "magic" as a morally neutral force. To reiterate, this is not the case in real life. and in defense of the Christians who take their faith to the length that they will not read the Harry Potter series, the only times where magic used would not be sinful are cases of Accidental Magic.

Though my family all thoroughly enjoyed the Harry Potter series, I wanted to write a story where I didn't have to put my faith to the side in order to not think of the good guys as receiving their abilities from the powers of darkness. That said, it's about time I get to the actual storytelling.

Harry Potter and the Armor of God

D is for Don't own Harry Potter, some of the best books of all time.

It is the work of JK Rowling, not mine.

S is for Support the Official Release!

C is for Comment on my stories, please.

L is for Likely updates won't come sooner, but later,

A is for All rights reserved by a work's creator.

If you recognize something, it's not mine, I confess,

M is for Money for writing this, which I will never possess.

E is for Enjoy my story and have fun,

R is for Read on, it's time we've begun!

Prologue

Location: Hell's Embassy, Outside the Pearly Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven

Time as Known to Mortals: March 15th, 313 AD

It was once again the time when all the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, fallen and faithful alike. There was, as always, considerable grumbling from the Rebels about why they had to go through this every day before time could continue to flow in the mortal realm.

It wasn't as if the One who commanded they perform this ritual of giving reports when He already knew more than the demons giving reports did about anything and everything that came up. The Powers of Darkness were even allowed to lie by omission in their reports.

However, the Infernal Legions were noticeably less irritable than usual this time around. In fact, some of the Princes of Darkness could be caught giving the spiritual equivalent of smirks that were wont to appear whenever the demons had come up with a new plan they felt was sure to secure thousands of mortal souls to share in their torment. The last time the angels of Heaven had observed their fallen brethren in such high spirits was 93 mortal years ago with the formation of Manichaean Gnosticism. After the billions of celestial beings had delivered the report of their actions during the previous 24 hours in the mortal world, it was time for the fallen angels to present their appeals and proposals, though 99.9999% of the demons were escorted out of the place closest to heaven they were allowed to dwell. The demons grumbled about it, but it was actually for their own good. Corrupted as their natures had become, only the 0.0001% that remained were powerful enough to survive the prolonged exposure to their Creator's presence. Hell was in many ways more painful, but it was a pain they had become accustomed to and bear, if only because they had no choice (none that they were willing to make, at least) in enduring it. It had become second nature. The sheer undiluted glory and goodness was not something they could ever become accustomed to. But the fallen angels were only required to show up to give their report, and then they were free to leave. Most just grudgingly stuck around because as long as they didn't provoke the wrath of the LORD of LORDs, the Embassy was the most comfortable place they were permitted to reside.

Normally the fallen angel known to mortals by various names, the current most prominent being Hermes, Mercury and Thoth, who among other things had settled into the position as spokes-demon for several centuries mortal time, would come forward. Of course, had these meetings been constrained to mortal means, even if each report would only take a minute to deliver, each mortal day would be accompanied by easily two millennia. Thoth would have been in his position for over 200 million years. Mercifully, even the weakest of the celestial beings were capable of transmitting and processing information faster than Google's servers.

Still, to the angels, it was still quite a long time since a demon other than the one who inspired the plurality of supernatural entities mortals attributed to the first planet in the solar system had come forward to present an agenda item. What was even more peculiar was the fallen angel who came forth wasn't any of the fallen angels who would occasionally come before the Most High, usually asking for permission to tempt, torment, or terminate one of the saints beyond what was normally permitted.

The feminine fallen angel, who had discarded the name Gannanetel in favor of Unsere, was not one who would normally come forward directly in front of her Maker due to her chosen field of operations. In fact, she went so far as to deliver reports through one the very few fallen angels who had chosen to accept the consequences of their rebellion, grit their teeth and bear it, and not do anything to make things worse by influencing humans in ways that would lead them to share the eternal torment that was to separation from their Creator.

Unsere performed what would equate to a woman curtseying so low that they would be taller kneeling waiting to be recognized. There was some sneering from some of the other archdemons at the sickening display of subservience, even if it was appropriate in front of the Almighty and a matter of self-preservation to mitigate the righteous anger of the Sovereign LORD.

You may ask why Unsere, a being of such powerful that, fallen she may be, could crush an entire company of Angels with median power in combat, found the need to debase herself in front of hundreds of thousands of beings she detested with a burning passion fitting with one of the rulers of Hell. Simple, because of her chosen sphere of influence were the twin anathemas of fertility rites and sorcery, and she derived great and perverse pleasure from leading the Maker's beloved humans into committing abominations in the eyes of their Creator.

"You may share your proposal in the presence of your peers, pale shadow who was once Gannantel." spoke the Almighty in a tone that lacked the usual disgust that usually accompanied addressing a fallen angels who had perverted their nature to such a degree. The demoness took this as a good sign, and would have made the spiritual equivalent of a smile if the weight of utter disappointment in her Creator's voice wasn't enough to make her want to find a nice comfortable black hole to hide in.

Unsere took a microsecond to compose herself before she proceeded. "My good friend Azlyn was nice enough to warn me that with -" the demoness made a metaphysical wince "- The Way no longer being outlawed under Roman rule, I would be well advised to work with my sister Delepitoré, Mistress Hecate, and Baal-Berith to restructure the principles of witchcraft, or find another niche to secure my standings. After taking some time to compute the variables and constants, I too foresaw a future where I was marginalized to the point where some of those inferior to me in both power and intellect were given superior status to me. Surely this was not how You meant for matters to be when You made me so perfectly that even now, a mortal would perceive me more glorious than some of my former family who were too timid to assert their independence."

"I'd thank you kindly not to call me Shirley. Even calling me Yeshua is far too informal." The language spoken by all sentient beings was a glorious thing. Even though it wasn't actually English, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Mandarin, or indeed any language spoken by mortals since the Tower of Babel, all the plays on words present in all languages ever spoken were maintained [1].

Unsere couldn't suppress a spiritual groan. Apparently the Ancient of Days was in a humorous mood. While that was a good sign for the chances of their proposal, damn if it didn't grate on her nerves. "If You're going to bring word-play into this exchange, this is going to take forever. Are you going to let me present the proposal, or can we skip that for once since You already know what I have to say and how it will pan out if you permit it?"

"Very well, carry on."

"As I have said, the legalization of - gack - The Way in the Roman Empire, I can only foresee massive losses in my department, so we decided a restructuring in order to maintain our relevance was in order. Unfortunately, our optimal solution does require Your approval, since the solution involves certain actions outside our jurisdiction."

"And what, for the benefit of my faithful children, do you propose?"

"It's somewhat of a challenge as well as a proposal. Seeing as how Your followers no longer have to fear for their lives for their faith, we propose a new test. Mistress Astaroth in her capacity as Director of the Office of Budget and Management is rather pleased in that it requires less leeway than we currently do for pacts." Unsere presented the details of the proposal the Department of Magic had drafted. It caused a murmur amongst the loyal angels as they pondered over why their estranged relatives would be willing to allow mortals advanced access to the power contained in their soul[2].

"They aren't even claiming magic use as a sin in and of itself, just the intent and how the mortal conceptualizes the power coming from. Why… ?" mused one of the angels.

"I think I get it. They may not automatically have increased hold on the souls of magicians, but with this arrangement they wouldn't have to restrict themselves to the absolute idiots who give their souls and don't even gain the world. I know I shouldn't think this, but they're welcome to have those souls. This proposal sets up a system where magic could be used by anyone with a gene that will either be created or an existing gene modified to allow access to Internal Spiritual Power. I have to give our former siblings some grudging respect, it is a clever tactical maneuver on their part to extend access to Internal Spiritual Power to saints as well as the idolaters. I can see it has the potential to cause some strife within families when one displays signs that will be assumed to be activity from the Opposition. This certainly opens more opportunities than making a pact with their ilk to be given access to powers beyond a mortal's normal means. Until the invention and widespread use of the charcoal-potassium nitrate-sulfur mixture in warfare, this has the potential to shift the balance of military power in a way not seen since Israel and Judah were faithful," mused an angel who was even more powerful than Unsere, the second in command of the Archangel Gabriel's right hand Archangel.

At the words of one of the top Captains of the Host, a mild fight seemed to break out amongst the ranks of the fallen angels. A sigh of annoyance swept across the angels and demons who, while not knowing the precise nature, recognized the signs that someone had lost a bet and was trying to back out of the terms of the wager. It wasn't something that either side liked happening, The ranks parted to allow Michael (one of the handful of angels whose name was known with ontological certitude to mortal man) and the fallen angel that was in charge of maintaining the persona of Lucifer for The Devil and functioned as the Chief Justice of the Infernal Supreme Court (When a matter was serious enough to go to the Supreme Court of Hell but not dire enough for The Devil to oversee personally, this demon was the one to deal with the matter. The vast majority of such matters were when disputes happened between archdemons[3]) both moved to settle the dispute, both drawing metaphysical swords to display their power. The Archangel and Archangel-turned-Archdemon shot glares of grudging respect for the other's power before turning their glares on the two archdemons who had turned the digits of their hands into claws sharp enough to slice an electron neutrino from a atom in terms of precision and cut apart a black hole with raw power.

Those claws were retracted instantly the moment their owners saw the metaphysical blades able to leave painful wounds in immortal souls coming their way. For beings thousands of years old and truly powerful enough to be considered gods by mortal understanding, the two archdemons gave off the impression of children knowing they were about to be scolded for being caught fighting over a toy.

"Terms and stakes of the wager. Veguaniel, Volac," Lucifer spat in the hissing voice.

"Wager was on which of the opposition would figure out the objective of the plan, " the demon Volac was quick to announce, posture quickly straightening. "I was able to correctly divine it would be Tal[4] or another second in command to an Archangel directly under Gabriel. The stakes would be that the loser would forfeit an underling of the winner's choice of Viscount rank or below. Veguaniel is trying to back out."

"IF you had made such a bet with me, dear Volac, my pigsnie, you should have known better than to make a wager with one so clearly your superior such as I. Ours is a vicious existence, dear nephew, unless you have support from an even higher power, even Occamy shouldn't attempt to vie with dragons." Veguaniel retorted.

"And that's why I made sure to bring this up where two beings even our Father Below couldn't afford to hold back against in single combat." Volac retorted with a sneer.

Veguaniel's formerly condescending countenance shifted. "Oh, well played, my poppet. I confess, I didn't think you had the chutzpah to weather the wrath of the higher powers just for another subordinate. But I suppose that's to be expected when the stakes are so much higher for you than for me. However, you were premature in your attempt to collect the forfeit. Brigadier General Tal did get most of the idea, but… well, unlike you, I'm not one to give the game away."

"If I may take a guess, Tal would have needed to explain why the proposal is going to be accepted to fulfill the wager. Seeing as there's always a Long Game being played, I'd say that this would be at least a partial culmination of past plans." Michael drawled, lips twitching upward when Veguaniel and Volac grudgingly inclined horned heads in acknowledgement. Michael turned his head toward the place where Tal and his fellow Captains of the Host sat. "I figure that Veguaniel is higher up on the Smite List than Volac, so any of you care to take a stab at what they're up to?"

[Author's Note: The Smite List is Heaven's less vulgarly named equivalent of a Shit List.]

A bookish angel promptly cleared his throat, looking up from the metaphysical copy of the demon's proposal and giving Veguaniel a sweet smile that rankled the ruler of Danlor. "Former Lieutenant General Gannanetel is likely to succeed in passing the Department of Witchcraft's proposal due to how they concede the right to masquerade as false gods in order to deceive mortals into thinking that acts of witchcraft are not the abomination in the eyes of the True God that they are. As far as Leeway goes, they are actually giving up enough that the Sovereign Lord in all fairness will probably refund some of it." The archerubim's[5] bright expression at having the opportunity to take Veguaniel down a few pegs became grim. "They are counting on the Sinful Nature and the corrupting influence of power to do their dirty work for them, and I fear that they will be highly successful. As for the Long Game, Tal, would you like to finish it?"

The veteran archseraph gave the celestial being's equivalent of a thankful nod. "Much obliged, M'natechael. I think most of us have figured out what trap in their Long Game has been triggered in this proposal. Though it was highly unlikely that they planned to forfeit their recruitment policy prior to having their ability to deceive the nations hindered, they took the calculated risk of spending a premium of their given Leeway in order to prevent critical losses to the number of sorcerers in their thrall. In turn, we had to concentrate our efforts to mitigate the damage. Those damn Artificial Soul[6] demonlings they whip up are pathetically easy to overcome, even a Lance Corporal with an emphasis on combat can single-handedly take down a battalion of those hell-spawn. But they are infuriatingly effective when employed for stalling tactics, particularly since the amount of power either side can unleash without express permission from the Sovereign LORD is exhaustively restricted." As powerful as angels had been created, they had trouble bringing even a thousandth of their power to bear without having to allocate more than half their power as a buffer to prevent spillover to the physical world. Even so, it was common practice to drive the enemy out of Earth's atmosphere into the vacuum of space where more of their power could be unleashed without the potential for collateral damage. Not that any would be allowed to have an impact other than occasional atmospheric disturbances, but the Almighty made sure to make His displeasure known for those who would have brought about the end of the world before the Appointed Time for the Day of Judgement if not for Divine Intervention.

"With those endless masses of Artifi-Souls able to stall for time, and the amassed numbers drawing our attention to the activities of the Department of Magic, they've had both time and demonpower to entrench and fortify their positions in other areas." Tal concluded grimly.

Tens of thousands of beings of phenomenal cosmic power turned their attention to the two archdemons that had started the disruption. Veguaniel was radiating bitterness that made some of the (relatively) weaker angels uncomfortable.

"By your disgraceful lack of control over your emotions Veguaniel, I trust between Captain Tal and Captain M'natechael, the rest of the nuances of this proposal has been sufficiently and accurately described?" the Archangel Michael inquired the archdemon who modified himself to become Archdemon level during third hour of every day.

"Indeed, General, you are correct." Volac chirped as cheerfully as a demon was capable of being when all Veguaniel did was give Michael the most hateful glare he dared without giving the Archangel justification to bury a metaphysical sword into his metaphysical gut. Volac turned a sneer to his superior in the Department of Witchcraft with a grin showing metaphysical teeth. "I'll have the documents transferring Comadiel to my command within a few peta-ticks[7] after "time in"."

"Enjoy your victory while it lists, little Volac. I'll have her back under my command within a mortal week." Veguaniel spat.

"Don't think your little stunt here will go unpunished. While I applaud your daring and cunning, Volac, you made us look weak and divided in front of the Opposition." Lucifer hissed, suddenly grabbing the much (relatively) weaker demon by the metaphysical chest. "If our leader agrees, I'll see your title of nobility knocked down to President." The Chief Justice of the Infernal Supreme Court turned a glare lit with the burning of a dying star to Veguaniel. "And as for you, I'll put in a recommendation that your peerage privileges be stripped down from King all the way to Earl. That ought to take you a few mortal centuries to regain and be a lesson to the others that even power and past loyalty will not save you from the consequences of insubordination!"

Lucifer barely caught the whirl of movement in time to move his sword in time to block the swing of Archangel Michael's metaphysical weapon. If supernovas didn't take place in the vacuum of space, and if the use of swords wasn't metaphorical, the clash would have been as loud as a sun exploding.

Lucifer scowled but grudgingly nodded in silent acknowledgement of the warning strike from Michael. A demon mentioning insubordination, rebellion, or anything similar to the actions of the Rebellion as something that needed discipline in the presence of one of the loyal Messengers of God, especially one charged by the LORD of LORDs with preserving justice like the Archangel Michael.

"Alright, that's enough. Now that everyone has had the chance to examine and understand the proposal, I will give you my verdict. While Tal's assessment is mostly accurate, those who would be lead astray by the appeal of supernatural power can be lead astray by more commonplace methods. There are those who would not repent even if someone from the dead were to appear. It is also true that many of those who lived in Tyre and Sidon would have repented if they had seen the miracles performed in Korazin and Bethsaida. Even with the depraved denizens of Sodom, enough of their people would have repented from their evil ways if they witnessed the miracles performed in Capernaum that they would not have been wiped from the face of the earth. So I accept your proposal and the challenge of granting select mortals access to a portion of the power and glory with which I created their souls. SO MOTE IT BE!"

Author's Notes and Footnotes

1. [Doctrine Warning! : This idea of language in heaven containing so many puns is solely an independent concept created by the author as a theory how eternity in heaven would keep from becoming boring. Mankind was created speaking a single language and lost that unity due to sin, so it stands to reason that everyone would speak the same language or at least be able to understand every language. However, there is no support one way or another of the idea that everyone in heaven would speak a single language configured so that almost every sentence is guaranteed to have a humorous double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, etcetera meaning. Just something I came up with when pondering eternity as a way to fend off the boredom that would seem inevitable.]

2. [Doctrine Warning! : The author does not believe in any baloney about "becoming god" or the "Damn Nonsense" (CS Lewis' words, I just happen to love them) of pantheism. It is merely a logical assumption that as our souls are eternal, and an angel in the Bible says to the author, despite the angel's glory, he is only a fellow servant. Thus, it made sense that after Judgement Day, we wouldn't be that far below the angels in power and glory. And it's the easiest explanation where humans could get magic from without being beholden to demons, and angels aren't going to lend power in visible ways to unbelievers if their would be a chance that it would be confused for magic instead of Divine Intervention.]

3. [No Scriptural basis behind this thought, just how this fictional universe rolls. Was inspired by several sites saying that Lucifer is a different being than The Devil.]

4. [Tal, Guilo, Scion, Triskal, and all other characters from This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness are owned by Frank E. Peretti.]

5. [To my knowledge, the concept of an "archerubim" is something I completely made up on April 15th of 2016. I know you're plenty intelligent to figure this out on your own, but it's a portmanteau of "Archangel" and "cherubim". In this story, there are Archangels and then there are archangels. Those I will dub "archangels", "archerubim", "archseraphim", and "archdemons" aren't in the same league as Archangels or Archdemons. ArchCherubim and Archseraphim however, are closer in power level to Archangels and Archdemons.]

6. [Artificial Souls, or Artifi-Souls for short, created by archdemons, while not even a billionth as powerful as the weakest angel or demon created by the Almighty (indeed, even the immortal soul of a human would be more powerful than millions of Artifi-Souls), they could be created by the millions daily, and they possessed as much power as could be brought to bear by spiritual beings without causing a disturbance in the physical world. Even though they could be summarily slain simply with a single soul-smiting stroke of a sharp celestial steel sword, Artifi-Souls still took time to disperse and send scurrying back to Hell where they would reform to lick their wounds.]

7. [In this universe, angels and demons when mortal time is resumed is measured in ticks, with a tick being less than a quadrillionth of a second.]