Here is my latest new story. As the summery says this is a crossover between Harry Potter and the Avatar Universe set post Legend of Korra. Unlike most crossovers between these two great works of fiction this is written as if the characters of the Harry Potter universe live in the Avatar universe so there is no magic, it is replaced by bending. The path of Harry and his friends will be different from the book but the similarities will be clear. Also to those fans who know Harry Potter well each of the 4 houses of Hogwarts represents an element. Fire for Gryffindor, water for Slytherin, air for Ravenclaw, and earth for Hufflepuff. While for the most part students of the respective house from Harry Potter will be benders of the elements associated with their house there have been a few changes, mainly to Team Avatar so that I could have all elements represented in the team, and so that Harry could be the next Avatar, which has to be an earthbender not a firebender. I was inspired to write this story after reading a similar story with the same style of crossover. However in that story it was not as true to the Avatar Cycle as I would have liked and made Hermione Harry's love interest and Ron a dumb brute, two things I detest but that will be evident in the story. Therefore I began this story to set my own crossover as there aren't any I like here (suggestions welcome though). At the moment of publishing this chapter I have the entire story outlined, half written as a rough draft and a quarter typed up. I will be uploading a new chapter every Sunday (as best I can) until this story is completed, sequels are a possibility. Sorry for this rambling rant it won't occur every chapter so please begin my story and I apologize for any bad grammar or missed typos. Rated M for language, sexual references and violence. Pairings are HPGW and RWLL. (I didn't have enough space in the summery to add an explanation for the rating or the pairings)
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from either the Harry Potter or the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra universes.
Avatar: The Tale of Harry
Book 1: Purity
Chapter 1
Fire. Air. Water. Earth. Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring balance to the world.
In her life Avatar Korra accomplished many great and noble deeds. From defeating Amon, Unalaq, the Red Lotus and Kuvira to restoring the Air Nation in the wake of Harmonic Convergence and much more. However one of her greatest achievements came later in her life when she created the Elemental Academy. Located in the United Republic the Academy became the center of education for the youth of all nations. The foremost school for the bending arts it is not just open to benders of all nations but also to nonbenders. It was created to be the finest school, both academically and physically, in the world. Inspired by the United Republic the Elemental Academy was designed to break down the boundaries of the nations and continue peace and unity throughout the world.
The Academy was divided into 4 houses to represent the 4 elements and the basis of the nations. Both bending and non bending students lived there in the house associated with the element of their nation. In addition there was a central area modeled after the United Republic for students who wished to live in a mixed elemental and national area. Each house was headed by a skilled master of that element who served on the 5 seat council of the Academy, lead by the High Chair. The Chair of the Academy served a term of 10 years and followed the Avatar cycle so that each element had a fair term.
However as with everything Korra's time on this world came to an end. That was 14 years ago and the new Avatar, an earthbender, has yet to be unearthed but the expectation is that the bender will be a student at the Academy as many of the best earthbenders in the world reside there, any of whom could be the next Avatar.
Harry sat in his room at the Elemental Academy meditating. He wasn't the most spiritual member of the Academy but he enjoyed the relaxation of meditation. It allowed him to focus on who he was and how he had gotten to this point in his life.
Harry was born and raised in the Imperial State of Omashu, in the city the state was named after and which served as its capitol. From an early age he showed signs of being a talented earthbender. Both of his parents were gifted earthbenders but he was a prodigy. Some had even compared him to the greatest earthbenders of history such as the inventor of metalbending Toph and his own personal hero King Bumi the Eccentric. By the time he entered the Elemental Academy in the United Republic at the age of 11 he was already a master earthbender, the youngest in a generation.
From the moment he entered the Academy he excelled in all aspects of earthbending that he tried, despite some not coming naturally to him he would persevere until he had mastered a form or style. He increased his bending skills by learning the styles of the other elements and incorporating them into his own earthbending from his new friends at the Academy. By the end of his first year he had subtle arts mastered the arts of seismic vision and truth seeing, both considered above mastery level though often overlooked by most earthbenders.
That summer Harry traveled to the city of Zhao Fu and learned from the Metal Clan. That drove him to focus on metalbending during his second year at the Academy, mastering the art by the end of the year, though he could metalbend from the start of the year had taken plenty of practice over the course the whole school year to fully master it with the ease of a master metalbender.
His 3rd year was devoted to mastering the hardest and rarest subbending art of earthbending, lavabending. It took him all year and a lot of private lessons with the Head of the Earth House, Master Bolin, to learn lavabending. Bolin was the only living lavabender and only the second known non Avatar to learn the art after its creator Ghazon. It had taken a lot of focus and most of the year before Harry could even begin to lavabend but eventually he got it, the first since Bolin to even be able to do it let alone master it, and the first ever earthbender to be able to both metal and lavabend.
Now that he was about to enter his 4th year at the Academy Harry was going to focus on the last subbending discipline for an earthbender, sandbending. He had put it off until now because he had wanted the challenge of lavabending to be his focus last year. Now that he was almost a master at the art Harry felt that sandbending wouldn't be as hard and he could master it with ease and then focus in his ultimate goal, creating an entirely new subbending style for earthbenders. It was the pinnacle of achievement to accomplish and he wanted to write his name into history as a creator of a new subbending art like Toph had. Only problem was was that he had absolutely no idea what else was out there for an earthbender to bend but hell no one had thought metal could be bent until Toph or that an earthbender could bend lava so there had to be something out there he could be the first to bend.
As he was meditating Harry was wondering what would be in store for him and his 4 closest friends this year, all Harry knew was that this year would be more monumental than all his previous years combined, even if those years had been pretty mundane and ordinary.
Harry took a moment to think of his friends. He had made them back when he had first arrived at the Academy when they had made a bending team for the Academy's annual tournament, which was a probending tournament though none of the students were officially pros. As a bunch of fresh faced 1st years they had all wanting to compete in the tournament but couldn't join a team so they made one themselves once they realized all wanted to be on a team and they had all the elements covered between them. Since then they have been inseparable.
First there was best friend Ron, a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe. Ron was natural tactician and widely regarded as the best Pai Sho player in the Academy, he had won the tournament the last two years becoming the youngest winner in Academy history when he won it in their second year. A gifted water bender he wasn't as academic as Harry but as skilled at bending his respective element as Harry was and served the team's water bender. He had twin sister Ginny who served the team's healer and reserve waterbender, the only reserve on the team. Though less skilled a fighter that her brother she was more spiritual and one of the few waterbenders to have mastered the art of spirit healing. Then there was Neville. A firebender from an aristocratic family in the northwest of the Fire Nation he was very humble and shy about himself, his abilities and his family. It had taken him a few years to truly come out of his shell and out of the shadow he felt his parents had cast over him but now that he had found himself he was rapidly growing in skill and confidence. Lastly there was a Luna. A member of the new Air Nation she was a child of two Air Nomads from the Western Air Temple. Spiritual, blunt and eccentric Luna enjoyed the absurd and the spirits but she was a talented airbender as well. With the emergence of the new Air Nation they had changed the rules probending and the arena itself to incorporate airbending into the sport. Last year their team had won at all, the youngest team to win it in 20 years and they wanted to repeat as champions. Harry was looking forward to seeing them after a long summer away.
Every summer since their first year they had all broadened their own education by traveling the world the way Avatar Aang had done during the 100 year war, though they had yet to travel as a group something Harry was hoping would change soon. This summer Harry had gone to Kyoshi Island to learn from the warriors about their history, culture and nonbending fighting style. Harry believed that bending shouldn't be all a fighter knew just in case they were separated from their element or spirits forbid some waterbender figured out how to use bloodbending to take a person's bending the way Amon had, a secret many hoped died with the Equalist leader. Therefore Harry and his friends trained and learned how to fight with normal weapons as well as their respective elements and how to use their weapons in their bending should they ever need to do so. While there he had felt connected to the Island in ways he couldn't quite place.
Meanwhile Ron and Ginny had traveled to the Foggy Swamp to learn from the Foggy Swamp Tribe. Ron wanted to learn the Foggy Swamp style of waterbending and Ginny had wanted to learn from the spirit vines and meditate under the Banyan Grove tree. Neville spend the time traveling the Fire Nation learning from the Fire Sages about the lost history of his nation from before the rule of Firelord Sozin. Luna had traveled the Air Temples as she did every summer. It had felt longer than usual to Harry as he and Ginny had started dating at the end of their previous year.
His meditations done it was time to practice. Standing, Harry changed into a pair of loose green training pants. He decided to go bare chested and left his room to go to the training hall taking his training bag with him.
The earth house training complex was on the level below the dorms. It was a cavernous hall filled with everything an earthbender could need. Rocks, earthen disks, metal wires and sheets, and recently a pit for lavabending. The complex was empty as term had yet to start and Harry enjoyed the peace and quiet. As a master he had a little to learn from standard training. As such he had to do is own rigorous three hour workout by himself or with friends when it wasn't a school day as the school had specific training most days of the week.
Taking a green sash out of his bag and tying it around his head as a head band Harry caught a glimpse of himself in the sparkling green crystals embedded into the wall. At 14 Harry was still growing but right now he stood at 5 foot eight and lean. Unlike other earthbenders Harry was scrawny rather than squat though he was still muscular from all his training. His long black hair hung to his shoulders and had to be tied back whenever he worked out. However the most startling feature was his emerald green eyes which seemed to be brighter than any in the Earth Kingdom. Putting his bag on the side Harry walked barefoot to the center of the room to begin his workout.
Harry split his work out into 6 1/2 hour segments. The first half hour was standard earthbending; tough, blunt, and powerful. Next was what Master Bolin called probending style, which was a faster lighter and more agile form of earthbending often used in probending, hence the name, or where earth was a scarce resource. Harry had learned this style prior to arriving at the Academy from his father who had just retired as a probender but it didn't hurt to keep it sharp and it was very different to normal earthbending. Next was 30 minutes of blind earthbending to feel the earth the way the badger moles did, the way the great Toph had used earthbending to overcome her blindness and see better than anyone. Then it was 30 minutes was for metalbending using his own cables in hip mounted spools the was the Republic City Police Department had used them when Toph had been Chief of Police and how the Metal Clan still used them today. Speaking of the Metal Clan the spool had been a gift to Harry from the Clan's Matriarch Suyin Beifong as well as working with the metal in the room. Then it was time for the latest addition to his workout, 30 minutes of lavabending. Harry wanted to practice using waterbending styles with his lavabending as lava is liquid rock but he would need Ron and Ginny to help. Then there was his last half hour what he called his experimental workout.
This experimental workout was something he had begun a few years ago after his summer in Zhao Fu with the Metal Clan. It was there that he had learned that many of the Metal Clan used waterbending styles, mainly Southern Style, in their metalbending. This was done in homage to Su's father; Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe. Now Harry and his friends incorporated the styles of the other elements and cultures into their own bending. It wasn't always easy to adapt them but that was the fun part after all. It was during this session that Harry fell into a trance.
Harry was thinking, as he practiced the footwork usually associated with airbending, he had been having some strange dreams ever since his visit to Kyoshi Island. In these dreams, which felt more real than a dream should feel, he saw a white kite like Spirit and of a teenage looking girl with Water Tribe braids in her hair and clothes indicative of the Southern Water Tribe. Harry didn't know what he was dreaming of or why but he knew that the girl must be Avatar Korra, he had seen enough pictures of her to make her easily identifiable. Plus a large statue of her graced the entrance to the Academy and even if it was of a middle aged Korra it was still clearly an older version of the girl in his dreams. Harry stopped his footwork and took a strong horse stance. Now he was going to try to use the precision of firebending to earthbend a pebble across the room at a small target he had randomly picked out on the wall. Kicking up a pebble Harry punched it while imitating the style Neville had taught him. To his surprise instead of accurately sending the pebble across the room a jet of flame shot from his fist and incinerated the pebble instead.
As Harry was marveling at this across the campus someone's eyes opened.
"The Avatar has returned." Jinora said.
The granddaughter of Avatar Aang was meditating in her office at the top of teacher's tower the Air House. After Korra had created the academy Jinora had been approached to run the Air House as well as be in charge of the spiritual aspect of bending for all students who wished to learn it, other than airbender for whom it was mandatory. She had accepted immediately. That had been 27 years ago and although she had relinquished the spiritual position to a new teacher in the Air House 15 years ago she had loved every minute of her time teaching at the Academy. It beat running the Air Nation after her father had passed and she had happily given that job to her eager brother Milo when she joined the Academy. Seven years back it had been her turn as the then Head of the Air House to take over the Academy as part of the High Chair cycle, elevating her Deputy Head of House to Head of the Air House in the process. In three years when her term as High Chair ended she could take her old position back but a large part of her didn't want to do that and just retire somewhere peaceful and spiritual with he husband Kai.
She missed Korra everyday but the poison that that monster Zaheer had infected her with had finally come back to take the Avatar's life 14 years ago. Every day since her passing Jinora had meditated in an attempt to connect with the spirits and find the new Avatar. Today she finally sensed the return of the Avatar Spirit Raava. She couldn't tell exactly what had happened but she knew that an earthbender had just firebent somewhere in the Earth House. Immediately she returned to her meditation in order to project her spirit to see who the new Avatar was. She recognized him at once as a rising fourth year native of the Omashu, the city for which the Imperial State of Omashu was named after. She knew he was called Harry, considered a prodigy at earthbending and seen as the best master since Toph, from her position as High Chair of the Academy as well as seeing him win the bending tournament with his team last year. Also Bolin had been raving about this particular earthbender's skills for the last 3 years and from what she had seen in the tournament Bolin wasn't exaggerating that much. She needed to speak to him but as she had never spoken to him before she didn't want to startle him by projecting her spirit right in front of him. She remembered that Harry was friends with one of her best rising fourth year airbenders, a girl called Luna who was on his bending team each of the last 3 years. Turning her spirit to the Air House she found Luna meditating in her room in the girls tower of the Air House.
"Luna" the spirit projection of Jinora said.
"Sifu Jinora what an unexpected pleasure." Luna replied opening her eyes without a hint of surprise, "To what do I owe this honor."
"I need you to contact your friend and teammate Harry." Jinora said, "I wish to speak to him."
"My spirit projection has been spotty as I still do not have it down." Luna said, "But I will try. May I ask what this is about?"
"If I am right there is something that Harry will want to tell you in his own time." Jinora said as her spirit form vanished.
Next Jinora contacted the 4 Heads of House who ran each of the elemental houses that made up the Academy, technically she was the Head of House for the United Republic section as the High Chair but the few students who chose to live there tended to practice with the house associated with their bending and/or national element. She felt that the Heads of House should present and they confirmed that Harry was the new Avatar as they would be his elemental masters as he learned the other elements, except Bolin who was obviously already the Avatar's earth master.
Meanwhile Harry had finished his workout. He knew what the fire blast meant. It explained the dreams had been having. He should have figured it out from the dreams but they were too confusing and he was too busy to dwell on them. Now he was back in his room. He had just finished his post workout shower and was in his underwear trying to decide what to wear. Ultimately he decided to go with a pair of dark green pants, soft thin soled brown leather boots, beige short sleeved shirt and a light green vest with the crest of the Imperial State of Omashu on the left breast. He finished it off with a green headband tied at the back so that the sash fell down his back with the symbol of the Earth Kingdom emblazoned on the center of his forehead. He also wore studded metal belt with the two wire spool canisters on each hip and a pair of shorts swords, his nonbending weapons of choice, on his back. He had just finished attaching his belt when he saw a flicker of blue light in front of him. Then the blue spectral form of Luna appeared right in front of him.
As with almost all Air Nomads she was wearing a traditional glider suit. Her long blonde hair, currently blue in Spirit projection, was pulled back into a ponytail with the crown of her head shaved in traditional Air Nomad style. she had yet to create her own move to earn her tattoos but she had mastered all the moves required for an airbender master minus the creation of their own move.
"Yes I did it!" Luna squealed loud enough to hurt Harry's ears, "Sifu Jinora will be very pleased I finally managed project my spirit."
"Luna" Harry interrupted finally recovering from the shock of Luna's spirit form materializing in front of him, "What's up? I didn't know you were back or that you had mastered the art of spirit projection."
"I got back a few days ago Harry." Luna said, "I've been practicing this all summer but only now can I do it and hold it for longer than a few moments though my range isn't very far. I didn't think I could do this but Sifu Jinora had faith in me. Anyway she would like you to go see her in her office right away. Do you know why?"
"Yes I'm pretty sure I know why." Harry said, "However I'm not 100% certain and anyway I will wait to tell all of you when we catch up over dinner tomorrow. Do you know when everyone else getting in?"
"I don't know but I'll contact them tomorrow" Luna said as her form flickered, "I can't hold this much longer so I have to go now. Can't wait to see you and find out why a legendary airbending master would want to see an Earth student ASAFP."
"Go Luna" Harry laughed at his friend, "I will see y'all tomorrow."
Luna's form vanished. Harry had a feeling he knew what the High Chair of the Academy would want to see him about, he was just surprised but it was so soon.
Leaving his room Harry made his way along the hallway of year 4 rooms to central common room of the Earth Dorm. Standing in the center of the common room he raised his right arm and earthbent the ground up to the ceiling. As he reached the ceiling he raised his left hand create a hole to push himself through. In short order he was outside. Harry stood in the Earth House of the Academy. Split into four houses to represent the four elements, with a central communal area to represent the United Republic, the Earth House was on the side of the Academy that was located in the mountains of the United Republic. Most of the Earth House was underground with low buildings for classes that all, regardless of element, attended if their academic teacher was an earthbender. Harry headed towards the Air House of the Academy which comprised of tall towers built in the classic Air Nomad style. Heading to the tallest tower Harry earthbent himself into the air and landed on the outside platform near the top of the tower. The platform was usually reserved for flying bison to land and deposit their riders before flying of to the stables at the far end of the Air House but it's served the same purpose for Harry right now. Once inside Harry climbed the interior stairs to the top level where Jinora had her office. Once outside the office he knocked.
"Enter" came the voice of the High Chair of the Academy.
Harry entered and stood still. In the spartan office was Jinora as well as the four masters of the elemental houses. Jinora looked the same as she had when she was a teenager only with wrinkles and snow white hair. The air master tattoo on her forehead was still prominent. Despite her age she still wore the glider suit that she had created over 50 years ago though it was more loosely cut than one of the student's suits.
Next to her was Master Bolin the current Head of the Earth House and who had served as the first High Chair of the Academy when it was founded as Korra had wanted the next element in the Avatar Cycle to be the first High Chair. This represented that the Academy would serve the world and its youth for years to come. Bolin was still physically imposing, despite being 84 years old, he wore the same gray tunic and pants with green trim he had worn during his Team Avatar days before he joined Kuvira's army. His hair turned white but Harry knew could still fight as well as he had 50 years ago.
Next to Bolin was Master Albus the Head of the Fire House and the second High Chair of the Academy, who along with Bolin and Jinora had been with the Academy since the beginning. Harry knew that Bolin's brother Mako had been offered the position as Head of the Fire House by Korra when the Academy was founded but he had refused the offer having no desire to get into teaching, and King Wu didn't want to give up his favorite bodyguard/trainer/advisor. Albus was a tall and lean man with flowing waist length white beard, except for the top knot in a gold holder shaped like a flame, and hair half moon spectacles perched on a crooked nose. The firebending master wore the traditional robes of a noble from the Fire Nation. At 114 years old he was the oldest master at the Academy but still had the fire of youth in him even after over a century of life.
Then there was Master Filius the Head of the Air House. A short man less than 5 feet tall he was bald as was the custom for most male airbending masters and sported a thick white beard and the standard air master tattoos inked on his body. Unlike most modern Air Nomads however Master Filius wore the classic robes favored by the air masters of the past, those who had lived prior to the Air Nomad genocide at the start of the 100 year war.
Lastly there was Harry's least favorite Head of House, Master Severus, the Head of the Water House. While he did not know the waterbending master very well Harry had always gotten the feeling that Severus disliked him. The youngest of the four Heads of House by several decades and the only Head of House who had been a student at the Academy Severus was no less skilled in his element, hence why he was a Head of House at such a young age. He was also the most recent Head of House taking over the Water House a year before Harry's arrival at the Academy when the first Head of the Water House, a Master Horace, had retired. His greasy black hair hung around his shoulders and he always seemed to be looking down his hooked nose at Harry. Despite hailing from the Foggy Swamp Tribe Severus world robes of jet black cut in the style of a noble of the Northern Water Tribe. If Harry had had any doubts as to why he was here they were long gone now.
"Have seat Harry." Jinora said kindly indicating a wooden chair in front of her desk.
With no hesitation Harry walked to the chair and sat down. As he walked he examined Jinora's office. It was sparse in the classic Air Nomad spartan style. Just a desk, two chairs, one for Jinora and one for a visitor, and a few shelves filled with books, scrolls and Air Nomad antiquities. A few pictures graced her desk with their frames turned to Jinora so Harry could not see them.
"I know we have never met before but you know who I am, right?" Jinora said.
"Of course I do." Harry said, "You're Guru Jinora though you prefer the simple title of master. You're the second air master since the end of the 100 year war, the youngest ever recorded, spiritual guide to Avatar Korra, current leader of the Air Nation and current High Chair the Element Academy with three more years to serve in the current cycle."
"You've done your research I see." Jinora said, "Though I am not the current leader of the Air Nation I stood down 27 years ago when I accepted Korra's offer to be the Master of the Air House. My brother Milo currently serves as the head of the Air Temple Council that governs the Air Nation. We keep it quiet from the general public as Milo is known to be a little combative. As nomads we don't really have a central government or military and don't truly participate in international politics so I can understand the confusion as to who leads the Air Nation. As for the Guru title you are correct it is technically my title, only the second airbender to earn it, but I do find it pretentious and prefer master you are right."
"I'm a student of history and yours is one of the richest of any living person today." Harry said, "If it wasn't for you Zaheer may have ended the Avatar Cycle when he poisoned Korra and tried to kill her while she was in the Avatar State. Though I did not know that Milo is the current leader thank you for that brief lesson."
"Anyway you have hit the nail on the head there with the reference to Avatar Korra." Jinora said, "I assume that you know why you have been called here."
"Yes" Harry said as he confirmed his earlier suspicions. "I am the new Avatar."
Thank you for reading. Reviews are always welcome and if constructive they will be listened too. Next chapter will be uploaded next Sunday.
Stringdog
