Title: Master of War
Ships: Old Harry/Minerva McG, Young Harmony
Rating: M-Mature
Warnings: Mature Language and Situations, Suggested Adult Situations with Possible Lemons
Triggers: War Descriptions, Injury Descriptions
Synopsis: The war is over, the epilogue is well on its way but life doesn't always go the way you expect. Vampire Hybrid Harry travels from 2035 to 1987 to set not only his life right, but to save the world.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any other characters or situations that may occur in this story. All rights belong to their respective owners and I'm only using them because I thought they were cool enough to change to fit what I needed to make the story work.
A/N: This is a rewrite of Master of War by TheBlackHand724. The early chapters will be re-beta'd by me and tweaked. I realize I barely have Rules going at this point; I'm still debating the best way to keep it from generally being a paste job of JK's wonderful work. Neither story will be abandoned; work will simply be done when life and writer's block are out of the way. Enough babbling, let's get on with the show.
Key:
"Hi, I'm Harry." – Speech
'Oh my, it's the Boy Who Lived!' - Thoughts
"Avada Kedvara " – Spells/Magic laden speech
"§Speak to me oh Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four§" - Parseltongue
Chapter One: The Event
Sunday November 1, 1987 Time 13:42 Location: Transfiguration Classroom
Minerva McGonagall sat at her desk marking the latest third year essays, for the millionth time wishing there was a better way to determine a student's understanding that wouldn't require charming the parchment to the point its glowing with anti cheat spells. Her mind wasn't completely on the work in front of her, which became obvious when her eyes continued to glance over at that morning's Daily Prophet front page. With a sigh of relenting, she thought again about the disturbance in magic that she felt yesterday. Upon releasing her greying hair from its bun and unbuttoning the top two buttons of her strict teaching robes showed a clear sign to anyone that knew her that she was disturbed by yesterday's occurrence. On her off days Minerva tended to dress in less restricting clothes but this morning she was so flustered she put on the first thing she found.
In the Daily Prophet that morning there was a front page article about the apparently worldwide phenomenon. Wizards and witches from around the globe reported feeling the same thing. At around 5:37 PM London time every magical being felt like time just stopped for an instance and they felt a push on their magic. A wizard from the United States described it as someone shoving him out of the way to make room for someone else. A witch in London said it felt like someone was standing right behind her uncomfortably close for a split second, and then they were gone. A statement from the Unspeakables gave further credence to just how unknown it was because the head Unspeakable swore a binding oath to the Minster of Magic that their department had no hand in its occurrence and would be using the resources of the entire Department of Mysteries to figure it out.
Whatever it was Minerva knew it was important, and so did Albus, but unlike herself Albus didn't like the feeling one bit. She saw it in his face when it happened; everyone gathered in the great hall for dinner, and at 5:37, time stopped. She could not tell you for how long time stood still, but she did see the effect the Event had on everyone. For some it felt good, she heard a group of younger students later say they felt safe and warm. To others you could tell by the looks on their faces that they found the Event to be very unpleasant. Still others simply sat in confusion, listening to the explanations of others in the hopes of understanding exactly what they felt. Her greatest shock however was the look on Albus' face; he looked like he saw the Grim Reaper himself, scythe at the ready for the final strike. He was so uneasy about the whole Event that he started to hyperventilate. Poppy had to stun him and take him to the hospital wing before he scared the students. As of this morning he had yet to wake up, no matter how many times Poppy attempted to reenervate him.
She was startled from her thoughts by the flash of a phoenix appearing in front of her desk. It circled the room and landed on the desk, looking to be studying her. The phoenix was all white with jet-black tail feathers, an orange beak and the most intelligent amber eyes Minerva had ever seen on any animal. The bird seemed to have made up its mind as it stepped forward offering it's leg to her and Minerva finally noticed a rolled parchment clutched in its talons. Taking the note carefully she unrolled it and looked it over, it read:
Dear Minerva,
I have a story and a proposition for you. If you want to meet tell the phoenix and she will take you to the meeting place.
A Friend
So very confused about the note, Minerva didn't notice until it was too late, the phoenix had snuck up on her and took her finger into her talon. When she looked up from the note to question the bird the world around her burst into flame and before she could blink she found herself sitting in a wooden chair at a table in what she was sure had to be a private dining room at The Leaky Cauldron.
"Minerva, I'm so glad you could come and have a chat with Me.", said a man sitting on the other side of the table from her.
Without a thought and with one of her trademark frowns she replied "Not that I had much choice. Your bird grabbed me before I could say anything!"
"Ah, in that case I am so sorry Minnie, Hedwig's instructions were to take the note to you and wait till you chose to come, and then flash you in." Turning to the bird he sighed, "I told you to wait for her to say yes, how could you just snatch Minnie like that?" The bird simply tucked its head beneath her wing.
As he was chastising his bird, she took the opportunity to look him over. He was an older man of what she would guess mid sixties with short-cropped black hair just barely showing signs of grey at the temples. His eyes were a lifeless green and he had a strong square jaw. A long far scar started above his left eye to the middle of the cheek, and another that nearly astounded her on his throat, ear to ear. His tight black t-shirt showed he was a mass of muscle and the white lines running from the sleeves a mass of scars as well. Glancing at his right forearm gave her pause, seeing a black tattoo on its inside. Seeing where she was looking, he looked at his arm in confusion until the flash of understanding crossed his face.
"It's not a Dark Mark.", he said holding out his arm to show her. "It's my unit tat." Taking another look at his arm she saw it truly wasn't a Dark Mark, but rather a shield with two swords behind it with a flowing banner above it containing the words "THE FORGOTTEN" in blood red old English script. On the top of the shield itself was the letters "SAS-CTD" in black block lettering, under that was what looked like a large blood red teardrop. Under that was a large letter "A" in black and under that was a "1", also in black.
Looking up at her, he saw a look of confusion on her face and another look of understanding fluttered across his eyes.
Muttering softly he said, "I am sorry I am confusing you, this wasn't my intention." In a louder voice he continued, "Let me start with who I am, my name is Harry James Potter and I am from the year 2035. The disturbance in magic that is being called The Event was me arriving back in time."
Minerva's head jerked up sharply on hearing the name, but hearing the date nearly caused her to pass out. With a deep shaky breath she blurted out "WHAT?!"
"Look, I can't do much in the way of magic, but will a magical oath help you to believe me?" She simply nodded her head in shock. Putting his hand into the inside pocket of the black wool coat hanging off the back of his chair he pulled out what looked like a short, maybe seven inch shiny rod with what appeared to be tiny black and grey checkers on it. Seeing she was about to ask he cut her off. "This little guy is the wand the boys in R&D came up with for field team members that could do magic, it is a hollow tube of carbon fiber, they fill it with whatever works for you as a core."
"Carbon fiber?" she asked.
"It's a muggle material that can be shaped and hardened. It's as strong as steal but lightweight, it also bends a little so it won't break easily"
"Oh?" she replied, acting as though she understood but her glazed over eyes gave her away.
"Now, like I said I don't know if I have enough magic to make an oath, but let's try." taking a deep breath and holding his wand up he tries "I, Harry James Potter, do swear on my life and magic that what I tell Minerva McGonagall during this meeting is the truth!" a light flared and he was still there. Minerva starts to shake; Harry on the other hand looks down at his wand in surprise.
"Yes! That actually worked. I didn't think it would, it didn't last month. I wonder if the time jump fixed my core."
Minerva jerked at that last statement and asked, "What do you mean 'fixed your core'?"
"Minnie, I will cover that in time, let me start again. My name is Harry James Potter; I was born July 31, 1980 to James and Lilly Potter nee Evans. I am a vampire hybrid but you have nothing to fear. I eat normal food. What I need to go over first is some background, starting with what happened in 1940."
Lost again she asked, "1940? Why are you starting there?"
"Because that's when the grand manipulator first got a taste of power. In 1940 Albus Dumbledore took the job of Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts."
"Albus is the leader of the Light for Merlin's sake! He's a great man!" she protested.
"He's also the biggest manipulative old bastard on the planet!" Seeing her about to retort he cut her off. "He's the one that killed Shamus McGonagall! He killed your husband."
Shaking her head in shock, looking torn between wanting to see if he drops dead caught in a lie and running from the room, she couldn't help but question the statement. "WHAT? No that can't be, my Shamus was killed in a Death Eater attack."
Harry sighed, knowing the story but having to press on. "He went out on an Order mission to stop a raid on a muggleborn house and never came back, right? What did Albus tell you about his death?"
"Albus said he took a curse from one of the Death Eaters. My husband died a hero." Anger was beginning to flow into her voice.
"Minerva, I know you know this but let me remind you. I am under oath that if I lie to you I die. Your husband went on a raid with a group of Order members led by Albus. When they got to the house of the muggleborn student, Albus told them to storm the house. As the lot of them charged and spells started to fly, Albus stood back, took careful aim, and Shamus caught a high-powered diffindo that took his head clean off. THAT is what your leader of the Light did for you."
Harry's cold voice was like a dementor to Minerva's anger. She couldn't decide what was worse, the fact he was still sitting there, or the fact he could state all this as calmly as though he was giving her the recipe for ginger newts. Realization gripped her heart and she knew what this meant, everything she knew to be true was a lie. As this information settled in her mind and heart, Minerva did something she hadn't done since the night Lilly and James had died. She cried, not simple tears of remembrance, but the soul wrenching, choking sobs of loss too. Lost in her world of despair she felt strong arms go around her. Looking up to Harry's face, she saw sadness in those lifeless eyes and he was whispering to her softly.
"I'm sorry Minnie but you had to get it cold so you would understand just how bad he truly is. Don't worry though; I have a plan for him. The MoB won't live to see next week." Minerva simply buried her head deeper into his chest and continued to cry.
"Let's just skip ahead a bit, maybe one day we can look back and talk about just how bad the old man really is, OK?" Minerva just nodded. After what seemed like forever to her, but was no more than ten minutes to Harry, she pulled away from his chest, face becoming even redder from embarrassment. She started to apologise for falling apart and making a mess of his shirt but harry simply waved her off.
"It's OK Minerva; I can't tell how many times I cried on your shoulder after September of '96. Besides it looks like my core is working so i can just do a quick cleaning charm, see?" Harry performed a cleaning charm and nothing happened. "DAMN it all to HELL! I got my hopes up on doing magic again." Turning to Minerva, he asked, "Min, can you do that thing that tells you the level of a person's core please?"
Confused but nodding Minerva cast the spell and the number "271" floated from the tip of her wand. Harry simply swore under his breath.
"OK, that's another thing I'm still confused about. What in Merlin's name do you mean 'do magic again' and 'my core is fixed'? There no such thing as a repairable core, it breaks you're dead! Your core is your LIFE! We bloody well tested you when we dropped you off and you already scored over 600, now you barely rate over the squib level of 250. What the hell happened to your magic?" She slowly took her seat again watching him.
"If I'm going to give you an understandable answer I'll have to give you some background story up to the point of what in my time is known as the Day of the Downfall." With that, Harry launches into a cut down version of his life story. He walked her through the abuse he suffered at the Dursley's, coming into the magical world completely clueless of his titles and family history. Reaching the Hogwarts years he went through the highs and lows, making his first friends in Ron and Hermione , his annual brushes with death, ending with the moment he arrived in the Headmaster's office after the Battle of the DoM.
"Here's where it gets interesting Minnie. Dumbledore then tells me some made up prophesy, and the 'power the Dark Lord knows not' is love. My ASS! Back I go to Privet Prison, but this only lasts a week as I was summoned to Gringotts for the Will reading of my Godfather. Suddenly I find out I had millions of galleons, houses cars and titles. I'm Lord FUCKING Potter for Merlin's sake! I was completely clueless. This is where I got Hermione involved. The girl was a treasure, organized all the files and documents. She helped me move into Potter Manor, and in the process of working together and spending so much time alone we fell in love. We got engaged by the time school started and we avoided the old man as much as possible. Nevertheless, by the end of the first week he called us to his office.
~Flashback~
"Mi, I've got a bad feeling about this meeting with the old man." Harry said as he tightened his grip on Hermione.
"Harry there's nothing he can do to us. We're both emancipated minors and can leave the school if we want at any time." Hermione told him as she all but pulled him down the halls toward the old man's office.
"That's not what has me nervous about the meeting Mi. You know how I get that gut feeling when I'm about to step in to a life and death situation?" he stopped walking and asked her in a serious tone.
"Yes, it's the reason we are still alive to have this talk, why?" she asked trying to get him moving again.
"I'm having it really bad right now. Let's blow it off. Let's just leave now; we can hire tutors to pass the NEWTs. I just don't think we should go up to the old man's office." Harry said as he turned them around and started to pull her towards the front door.
"Harry, just relax he can't do anything to us. Let's just go to the meeting and if he says something we don't like we can leave. OK?" she said to him softly, trying to calm him down.
"OK love, but the second he says something we don't like we make a run for it. Deal?" he demanded.
"Deal!" she agreed.
They gave the password and entered the moving stairs. At the top they knocked on the door and were called in. Dumbledore was standing behind his desk waiting for them with his wand out. Snape was standing off to the left also with his wand drawn. The second they cleared the doorway they were both hit with an Imperio each. Dumbledore started giving orders to Harry. "You are to break the engagement to this mudblood whore and turn over power of emancipation to me now!"
Harry fought the spell and yelled out "NO!" but the old man put more force into the spell and gave the same orders again. This time Harry could barely mutter the word "n…nno." with that last refusal the old man order Snape to Crucio Hermione. As she screamed out in pain the old man put as much power as he could in to the spell and gave the order again this time the rage in Harry over the sight of his love getting tortured gave him a new power he screamed out "NO YOU FUCKER! NOW LET HER GO OR I'LL RIP YOU APART!" But the old man just laughed at him as he bound him to a chair. He turned to Snape.
"This is getting us nowhere Severus; do you still have that draught that makes the drinker act crazy?" Albus asked his accomplice.
"Yes, I do" Snape answered with glee, he liked where this was going.
"Good we will give it to the Potter brat and have the paperwork over turned, but let's give him something to rant and rave about." With that Dumbledore turned his wand on Hermione and cast a Reducto at her, leaving a big hole where her chest used to be. She died instantly.
It was at that moment that all of Dumbledore's plans went to hell. The six bindings on Harry's magical core to keep him weak exploded. Harry was suddenly out of his bindings and floating two feet off the floor. His irises expanded till his whole eyes were glowing killing curse green. He turned his head to look at Snape, and the potions teacher began to peel like an onion from the bottom up. He stayed conscious until the very end. Harry then turned to the old man. Dumbledore looked scared for a moment, and then fired a killing curse at Harry, who just caught it in his hand like a baseball. He lifted it to his mouth, and ate it with a smile. At the sight of this the old man shit himself. Harry lifted the old man off the ground with a wave of his hand to bring Albus up to eye level with him.
"You will tell me everything you know about Tom Riddle now old man!" said Harry in a voice that came from all around them, but the old man resisted. "Fine, I am getting tired of you resisting so I will take what I need from you!" With that he glanced into his eyes and downloaded the old man's entire mind. With a harder look Harry's power surged and burned him alive from the inside out. All that was left of the self stylized leader of the Light was an empty smoldering Albus skin suit.
Harry vanished the window behind the old man's desk and floated out of the tower and down to the ground, floating in front of the castle doors. He waved his arms and Tom Riddle stood in chains fifty feet away from him.
"What is the meaning of this!" screamed the Dark Lord
"This is the end Tom, how many horcruxes did you make?" Harry asked in disgust.
"POTTER? You're a dead man!" screamed the tied up dark lord.
With a put upon sigh like a teacher speaking to a vexing student Harry said, "Yes, I am. Hopefully it will be over soon so I can see Mi again, but before I go I am taking you out. Now let's see if this works for you too." Harry looked in to Tom's red eyes and found what he was looking for. Tom planned to make six horcruxes, but after making the first one, the diary, he felt weaker. So he stopped at one.
Harry came out of Tom's mind and opened his magical core up. Grabbing all the power in his core he channeled it in to Tom's causing an explosion not unlike one of the twin's fireworks that de-atomized the dark lord. Harry fell to the ground after that, and let the darkness take him.
Ten minutes earlier in the owlery;
Hedwig was sitting on her perch talking to Fawkes. She was telling him about her summer and about the room that Harry made just for her in Potter Manor when Fawkes fell over knocked out. Hedwig moved forwards to look him over in worry when Fawkes lifted his head and shook it. He turned to Hedwig and told her that the binding he was forced to live under was broken. Hedwig was happy for her friend because she knew that he hated Dumbledore. Then her head shot up, she looked around and took to the sky flying at top speed, Fawkes hot on her tail feathers. She made it to the front of the castle just as Harry fell to the ground. As she landed on him the wild magic still flowing from Harry's core grabbed Hedwig and Fawkes. The magic reacted to Fawkes' powers violently and Hedwig burst into flames. Fawkes saw this and started singing power into the flames and after the fire burnt out all that was left was a pile of ash, and a baby chick. Hedwig was reborn as a phoenix.