Diamond Bound
"Ahh, there's nothing like a good old fashioned game of golf, eh Harry?" the deep near giddy voice pierced into his dream like it belonged there. Tearing him from another image of Cedric falling to the floor and into something unlike anything else. An idealistic scene of a peaceful meadow; pure green grass, a flowing crystal river and candy floss trees that looked pulled right out of a cartoon.
"Hmm, a driver I think." In a heartbeat a man was before him, a tall striking fellow with a rugged handsome look was twirling a golf club and looking out into the distance.
"Hello?" Harry questioned and the man turned to him, exposing shoulder length brown stained hair, shining teeth and eyes that had been dipped in yellow.
"I've been waiting for this game you know, a good game of golf is just what the doctor ordered." In a flash the man was wearing a lab coat and nodding enthusiastically behind dark spectacles which vanishes just as quickly as they had appeared.
"Wait I know you." It was a statement Harry issued prompting a smile from his new-found companion. A look passed between them, for a moment the man's eyes were darker and then normality resumed. Or what passed for it.
"Of course you do, then again how old were you. Ten, eight, four, your human years are all mixed up. I can barely remember how old I am." Harry's mind focused, and unfocused and his dream state he could recall this man.
A bus stop, or a bench; whatever it was the man had been sitting looking ready to go and Harry had been there. Why? He could vaguely remember being chased by Dudley Or maybe his uncle kicked him out, an old habit of the man which died when they both realised if given the chance neither one of them would live with the other.
"Ten years, ahh those good old days when I was alive and well. Sort of, but then we met and everything worked itself out." The man was speaking again before lining his club with the tee, a white ball appeared afterwards.
"You weren't a dream?" Harry asked incredulously, yes he could remember everything now. The man had spoken to him, well not spoken to him explained to him. Fireworks, stars and other images filled his head.
"Nope, real almost a hundred percent so. Now shh, I need absolute quiet while I...swing." He trialled of into a shout and the golf ball flew into the air.
"Anyway what I was saying, damn retirement has made me slow. Oh yeah! Dreams. No I'm not a dream, well I am now but I wasn't then." He announced somewhat grandly. In his mind Harry saw a flash of purple light, it came back in the present; for then next thing he knew he was sitting in a coffee shop.
"Do you want, a latte , I want latte ." A click of the fingers later left two steaming cups on the table. Harry did not touch the drink.
"Now I suppose a number of oddly phrased questions are going through your mind right now. The first what the bloody hell is going on, secondly what the bloody hell is going and thirdly, does this café serve carrot cake and I'll spoil that now... yes it does." Carrot cake appeared next and Harry just watched.
"What..." He began coming out of what resembled shock, the man raised his eyebrows.
"Knew it, now let's talk shop. Well this is a great shop right? Now let's talk infinite power and endless life." The man announced in a casual tone as if the topic was no more than a trivial matter during coffee.
"Power?" Harry questioned and then it clicked, the man the first time they had met. Something about power and a necklace, he couldn't remember precisely.
"I forgot how long ten years is for you mortals, does it get boring? Let me know one of these days, now power. Do you recall a deal we made a long time ago?" He asked in a simple tone. Harry could not, it had been ten years after all and he assumed the last time he met this man it had been a dream. Then again wasn't this a dream?
"No." Harry stated and yet he could just remember some sort of contract, or could he? His mind was suddenly a mess.
"This'll will teach me to make binding agreements with a child, though hey it was better than the alternative..." His voice dipped, almost resembling something dark.
"So what was the deal?" Harry inquired seeing the man lost in thought,
"Oh yeah the deal, well ten years ago you signed a legally binding contract with all the..." he clicked his fingers and a woman in a long dark robe and horsehair wig appeared.
"Legality, Equity, mutuality and some other British contract law words." She spoke in a posh refined voice before handing him a golden scroll.
"Those things." The man commented waving his hand disinterestedly as the woman vanished.
"Look I'm getting the context but what I'm missing is the content." Harry remarked suddenly wondering if he was going to wake up any time soon.
"Calm down Napoleon, well Josephine is more accurate unless you're history. Anyway as we're on the topic let's move onto power and women. Though you're not getting either, ish." The man's coffee cup became a cloud which drifted away.
"You see a long time ago." That cloud became a vision of long meadows and rivers, "I was created, by what you ask. Well I could give you the origin of all species but boring. So instead I'll tell you this, I and now you; are creatures of supreme power."
"Supreme power?" Harry questioned hearing the words and assuring himself this was a dream. The man nodded but looked irked.
"Yes, you're not dreaming and shut up I'm talking. Questions answered. Anyhow, creatures of supreme power. Want a river?, it's there's, want a holiday galaxy to get away from it all? No problems, want to actually use this power for you? Problem." The man spoke almost eloquently and an image of diamond necklace smoked its way into existence.
"You see the power comes with a catch, this diamond necklace is part of you. It can't be destroyed or damaged but without it you only get a fraction of your power. Say you're as powerful as that Voldemort fellow." The man dismissed his name and Harry saw himself vanquishing Voldemort just as the man before him had banished the cup.
"But with the necklace you're a billion times more powerful. Though there's a catch, a big one." The man turned that necklace into the shadow of a woman.
"The amulet cannot give you power, not if you're holding it or indeed any male. Only when a female holds the amulet do you have full power. Sweet deal right?" Harry did not answer, instead he was debating if this was a dream or not.
"Still not a dream, and yes it kind of is. However when that girl touches the amulet, all that power and you... is completely subjected to her will and her will alone." Harry focused this time.
"Sorry?" he asked.
"Al that power, and everything about you, except what you say, is under her control. For example if she says build me an empire, you have no choice or control; you build it. If she says, walk on your knees in my presence! you do it. Whatever she orders you to do; has to be done. Literally no control, though she can't control what you say or kill you. Other than that; world is her oyster." The man explained as the room around them darkened.
"So I'm a slave" Harry demanded, the idea of this being a dream was back in full force.
"Not a dream for the last time! And more of a servant, you're at this woman's beck and call forever. Think of it as a marriage where you have unlimited power, which she can use whenever she wants and never runs out. Just replace divorce with another woman, and only woman, taking that necklace." The explanation was simple and yet Harry wondered; if this was all true. Couldn't he just give it to Hermione or someone?
"Terrible idea giving it to a friend." The man interjected,
"Why? I mean if this is true and I'm not convinced this isn't a dream. Why not give it to a friend?" He demanded wondering what the man was implying.
"It's not a damn dream! Secondly because I did. Let me tell you a story, when I was a young man in the sixth century, great time to live if you're all powerful by the way, my best friend was a young woman. Her name was Theodora, lovely girl. Or I thought." He spoke slowly, elegantly; treasuring a memory Harry suspected. One that soon turned sour.
"I gave her the necklace, she said I was free. So for a year or two I was, for the first time I was free with full power. Then she calls me back, it's an emergency and I have to help out. Then again, and again and on and on it goes. The next thing I know she's commanding me to build her an empire. It was nearly a thousand years before I escaped and she ruled in the shadows for that long, she made me do things to her and others which would make your skin crawl." He growled with more venom in his voice than Harry had heard in anyone.
"Now you might thing that would never happen with someone you know but know this, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So when you wake up and find that diamond necklace under your pillow. Hide it, or the consequences could be severe." His voice resonated control.
"Anyway, now questions." The man inquired and suddenly the little café was teeming with light.
"Ok, if this is all real." The man rolled his eyes "Then can I just destroy Voldemort the moment I wake up?"
"Oh yes, Voldemort. Well put simply no. You see Voldemort and his line, which includes you by the way, you're related somewhere along the line. Then again who isn't in your world, wizarding family trees are like a spider web but that spider web's doing his sister." The man remarked
"Anyway, you see Theodora... let us say she produced a line with me. A line which is born with more power, not even close to what I or she has but power. That means only when you are at full power you can do it and as a note, giving the necklace to a girl and destroying Voldemort than way would work. However the girl would instantly know what she had was powerful and find a better way to create an unbeatable dark lord then to give anyone unlimited power." The man's voice was almost tortured.
"Is this real?" Harry asked, the idea of unlimited power was somewhat exciting and beating back his urge to call this a dream.
"Yes."
"So is there a way I can be free of the necklace?" Harry asked and the man gave a chortle.
"Put simply no, put complexly not a chance in a thousand blue moons. The necklace is bound to you until death, as a note death only comes if you pass on your powers. Like I did to you,"
"Yes why did you do that?" Harry asked immediately, the man's eyes flashed.
"I've had a long life, very little of it good and even less I'm proud of. I needed to end it all and you were the one in a billion, because only one person every ten thousand years can take over, or something like that." Came his answer, Harry for his part had no idea how to feel.
"Look maybe it was wrong of me to target you as a child, but a few more years and she could have found me." His words sparked something in Harry.
"Wait her, you mean..." He began but was quickly cut off.
"Yes Theodora, her power is beyond the comprehension of all mortals. She can fight and maybe beat you if you're not at full power, same with me. She was closing in but she knew me, not you. You'll be fine." His assurances seemed almost token and sent ripples of unease through the dream-world itself.
"Well with that, it will simply have to do. I've got semi death retirement to enjoy and it's getting up time for you. So if you need help, I'll try to notice, Try and... oh no time." A white cloud sent a jolt through Harry.
His eyes opened, and he took a breath. Both relieved and disappointed the dream was over, until he caught a glimpse of a golden chain. He sat up and found a necklace on his pillow, with a jet black diamond at its core.