AN: This story is based off my "Son of Potter, Daughter of Black" story. Unlike with SoPDoB, this universe never got its happy ending. You don't have to know anything about "Son of Potter" as the most important part of that story (Harry/Melania) is explained in this chapter.

The following story is going to be a Harry Potter/Marvel crossover with various inclusions of DC concepts and characters as well as similar from other fictions. I own no rights to any of it.

The story world is mainly set in Marvel's MCU universe with their main 616 reality merged into MCU (not the other way around). It was initially inspired by Vimesenthusiast's "A Third Path to the Future." I have some issues with how that story is told and so this was born. The merging of different fictions is inspired by the beautiful way Nimbus Lleweyln did similar in"Child of the Storm."

This story is going to span the majority of the MCU timeline as well have a large number of X-Men comic stories. It starts in 2008, the year before Iron Man 1 and Giant Sized X-Men 1 which introduced the second team (Colossus, Thunderbird, Nightcrawler, Storm, Banshee, Sunfire and Wolverine). The only X-Men film that is relevant to this story is X-Men: First Class.

This story will have superhero action but also plenty of business and political action as well. It has at least one Multi/Harem relationship with various mentions of same-sex relationships either in the multi or independent. I have not decided if there will be lemons but you will be warned if there are. As of writing this, the current plans of relationships are:

Harry/Melania - Psylocke (friends with benefits), Daphne Greengrass (friends with benefits). In future, it will be a serious relationship with Jean Grey, Susan Storm, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maxmimoff and perhaps adult Katherine "Kitty" Pryde. I have not decided if anyone else will be involved.

Neville - Married to Luna

Blaise Zabini - Natasha Romanov

I'll keep a note of any relationship changes in later Author Notes.

I have a Patre0n account for anyone wishing to put a tip in the jar for my original concepts. Just search for DaSalvatore.


A Fresh Start

"I am the Watcher. In the reality you know, the history of the X-Men balanced on their fight against Krakoa the Living Island.

In another, there are no mutants. Instead, there are extraordinary people with the power of magic.

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. Where a group of wizards and witches have permission to leave their dying world and join one with mutants. It is an act that changes the entire fabric of everything.

I am Uatu the Watcher and this is the story of what I see."

Melania Cassiopeia Lilith Black, sometimes known as Harry James Potter, stood atop an indiscriminate mountain in the Scottish Highlands and stared down at the flooded plain that once contained 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 the world. A 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. Lily Potter had refused to accept that as a reality. Lily had Potter been a genius of the highest order.

She had used a combination of magic and genetics, taking the illegal Blood-Adoption as a foundation. It enabled a child to have three parents or completely override the child's biology with a new set of donors but only worked once the child was born. She would find a way to combine the potion with the Black family's Metamorphmagi ability. The result was a child of two fathers whose magic and genes swapped faster than the curse could follow.

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. 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 making up the unique child came from powerful bloodlines. She 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 her 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.

Melania had moved beyond the hardships of her young life as Harry Potter, coming into her own when Nymphadora Tonks taught the Binary Metamorph how to be a young woman. The connection turned to love and eventual marriage but the world was not all sunshine and roses. Both the Light and Dark rebelled against House Black's leadership of the Grey.

The two sides complained for years until the first strike began a war without end. Throughout its false peaceful dawns and restarts, the end of the world started with the murder of Remus Lupin, her werewolf uncle. The world would experience the full might of Melania's rage after Dora's assassination on their five-year wedding anniversary.

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 crumbled beneath their clashing wills. Harry himself had been forced to Scorched Earth part of North America in order stop a runaway horde of demonic forces. Not that he cared at that point.

He cared for very little after burying her wife and unborn child.

Her team did their best to save those they could, avenging those they couldn't. Victories came but their defeats added another loved one to the pile of dead. They fought when and where no one else would. They drove back two insane monsters and their unending supply of fanatical followers and creatures at their command. They refused to concede, refused to allow the innocent blood spilt to go unpunished. But they were never enough.

Melania's patron Goddess would 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. She confessed that the Earth was no more. There had been too many nuclear weapons and too much magical energy used in the insanity.

The planet was doomed.

The Goddess admitted that the world would have survived the nuclear winter currently held back by magic. It might even have survived the rupturing of reality that the two insane warlocks had caused in their final battle. But the two dangerous forces had locked themselves into an apocalyptic spiral dance, a deadly symbiotic relationship ripping the Earth apart.

The Goddess had given Melania a ritual and a place to perform, promising her small group would be able to escape the dying planet for a new dimension. The runic arrays were designed in such a way that would enable the goddess to piggy-back the journey and merge with her counterpart in their new home.

Melania sighed within her protective magical bubble. The air was lethal to anyone not mutated by the radiation and Wild Magic. She tried imagining Hogwarts was whole, that it was the home and safe haven it had once been, but its grounds were now flooded by putrid, poisonousness water that 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.

She turned away from the first place Harry had called home. She had found what she came from and had somewhere else to be. Melania was gone between one step and the next.

The third most powerful being on the plant reappeared deep within the catacombs beneath the Almendres Cromlech menhir circle of Evora, Portugal. With the loss of Hogwarts and Stonehenge, the circle at Almendres had the highest intersection of Ley Lines available. It was a Major Lunar Standstill, the exact event the Cromlech menhir was built for, and would aid in powering the ritual.

Melania's dragonhide boots echoed through the caverns as she 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 still couldn't stop the swell in her breast at the thought of them being together at the very end.

The energy requirements of the ritual had been horrifying to calculate. There had been almost no chance of surviving the strain. Not until she remembered the legacy of the Potter and Black families. It was their final "Screw You" to their enemies by passing on their power the other bloodline.

Her friends were aghast at the idea of using one ritual to power another. But the theory was sound, the calculations matched, and that was all Melania needed to know. She entered the ritual cavern and her waiting friends and marvelled at their work. They had spent days covering floor to ceiling with runes, many of which Gaia had revealed to Melania. Her remaining family were already standing in their required positions, ready for the end. Each carried shrunken trunks containing everything they possessed or had managed to salvage. The Coven was determined not to be found wanting in their new lives.

The man standing at the head of the seven-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 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 wore loose clothes that reminded all of their once Divination teacher. Her slender fingers were wrapped around what had once been the tibia of a half-giant, the brother of the man who had introduced Harry back into the magical world. 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. Only the cursed scars from their removal were visible on her pale skin.

Those who escaped the furious duo of her best friend and future husband died a most horrible death when the woman known as Snorkack called upon the horror of the Many-Angled Ones.

Next was the 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 which had also stolen his right arm. He had been accepted beneath the wings of the Weasley twins and their teachings sent him to American. He returned 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 designer of all things needed to live and destroy.

Melania walked between the two who stood at the bottom of the seven points and the woman on Melania's right returned Gryffindor's hard gaze with one of her own. 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 her leader that kept War from ending it all.

The other spot held another silvery blonde. Far curvier 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 fragility. It was a weakness that the rest of the strange Coven had managed to bury behind blank masks.

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. The curvy 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. It was only by her hand that the demonic forces called up by their enemy had been defeated.

Melania stopped in the centre of the configuration where a table sat ready. It was a perfectly square table 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. The third Hallow hung from Melania's shoulders, creating a connection between the Mistress of Death and Death's gifts. It had been a long time since she had needed to use the objects, their power being 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.

The Potter Book, given to Gwydion fab Don's first true disciple, had been bled upon by untold generations. Within its pages contained the true depths of the Peverell and Potter magic, including the very methods that had forged the Hallows. On the other side of the bowl was an item equally 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 it had tested. The two had been separated since their creation and Melania was about to combine them for one last hurrah.

There was a shift in the air 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.

"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 she 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 at 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 at 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. The pages ripped open to reveal pure, undiluted Wild Magic.

The idea of the fail-safe was as simple as it was deadly. In the event that the two Houses were falling against overwhelming odds, the Head of one could hand the power of their House to the Head of the other. A true merger of magic to give the remaining House the power and skills required to take their enemies with them to the grave.

Before the ritual could 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. She had managed to provide an offering of blood and sacrifice twice over before the ritual could close. That was her last thought before her world became nothing but pain. 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, only for their screams to cut off, the lack of oxygen in their lungs keeping them silent. 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 to consume them within the raw power released in the feedback loop. The Black Knife had absorbed the skills and knowledge of all those who tested themselves on its edge and continued to draw it from them until their deaths. 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, without affecting the core of her personality.

The ritual was the last Fuck You to their enemies but was not designed for the jury-rigged addition. 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 below 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 burn to ash, while that which lived crumbled into nothingness as they ceased to be.

The ritual was far more powerful than those involved had expected. It was Gaia herself rather than the smaller 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 of the Potter Book and across the table until the crimson liquid covered both Wand and Stone.

The offerings were the last stage of the ritual. The moon blazed, a shining beacon seen across the universe. It began to descend, drawn down to its host planet as Portugal erupted in a pulse of magic that destroyed half of Europe. The Earth's seas boiled as tectonic plates cracked beneath the energy the Ley Lines put them under. The planet collapsed under the moon's 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 aside from the powerful black born where one small marble of a world had once been.

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OoOoO

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1st May (Beltane) 2008 – Another reality, Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Westchester, New York

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 comfortable for the rest of his life without being a drain on the land. 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 the Headmaster of his School for Gifted Youngsters. It was an idea born after his days working with a CIA team in the sixties. Xavier was a mutant, someone who possessed unique abilities that activated sometime after birth, and his school focused on finding young adults to teach them how to harness and control their abilities.

Xavier's mutant ability meant he was one of the most powerful telepaths 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 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 disaster struck. They had almost 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. The two had 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 to his school and learned about his ideas. Instead, they were adults in their own right 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. He was smiling even before he lifted his head to look at the speaker.

Xavier's paralysis from the waist down had not resulted in the loss of his athletic build. Some even saw his baldness as appealing. One who had never considered him in that light was Jean Grey. Standing, or in this case leaning, against the door-frame at five foot six, 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 and the one weakness of psionics was their mental health. 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 instantly responded to. It was only luck that blood hadn't been spilt over the lady's honour. "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?" Xavier leaned back in his chair to look at one of his favourite students. He was completely surprised by her words, never expecting 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 the body as she was in heart and mind, and moved to the window. She could see a clear reflection of herself on 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, 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 with 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 or 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 when balanced against his dream of a peaceful 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, Cerebra. 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 warmed, 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 and 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 spent the past year researching the dimension known as the Negative Zone, a dimension that was now coming apart on a fundamental level.

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 while beings 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 on 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 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 quickly moved out of his way. "I will find you and I will kill you as I once swore to do."

The Sky-Father would find it wasn't that easy and that Heimdall's vision had been temporarily 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 completely new lives. To the sheer 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 divided. Another, far larger numbered reality did the same, and the two new realities then merged. This merging pulled together fragments from others to birth a brand new reality. 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 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 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 words 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

Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts, stood a little over 6'2 and possessed the body of someone highly skilled in martial arts. He appeared within the cave and was almost immediately blinded by the blazing power emanating from the walls. Strange waved a hand in front of his eyes and they glowed, mystical powers changing them to filter out the painful energies.

"What are you doing here, Sorcerer?" a terse and very feminine voice demanded. 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 to almost where her belly button would be. If she had one as such things did not belong on a being that had never been born. The dress brushed her slender ankles with wide slits up the side that revealed 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 once been hunted, chased out of this dimension and into ones of their own making. They then spread their awarenesses and powers across time, space and all of Reality. In some way, this weakened them as much as it did show their immense power. 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 waved a hand and the intense power of the cave condensed 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. Strange realised he was looking into the Negative Zone. His eyebrows rose at what he was seeing. Something was emerging from the Crossroads of Reality deep within the dimension and was heading towards their world. Its very presence destabilising the structural integrity of the Negative Zone.

"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 to what 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. What remained was the vast nothingness between realities. Strange knew there were things that lived in that void and hoped none joined the part.

"Stephen Strange, protector against the Darkness," Gaia smiled. She placed a protective palm on the floating body that he could see was another woman. The body had a mass of black lying across her chest that he couldn't identify. "Meet my protector against the Darkness."

And like that Doctor 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 announce, Her 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 slowly 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?" Stephen asked, already afraid of the answer.

"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 what the Elder Goddesses had planned.

Back in the cave, the two versions of the same deity looked at each other and stepped closer until they stood in the same space. 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 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. 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 from the realm of dreams.

"It worked," she croaked with a 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. 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 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 other important information about their new world was 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 serenely with her hands clasped around Gwamp's bone and 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 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 about either account. The chorus of 'yes' that followed had everyone 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 sliced open her palm, noticing that the wounds from the ritual had healed without a scar. She pressed the bleeding wound to the wards and spoke in a clear voice. She used the words from their old world and hoped 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 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 claiming the castle 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 happening.

The small group of survivors stood and waited for an attack to appear as was their usual luck. 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. 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, castle was still in working order with no sign of whether 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 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. They possessed knowledge of the new world, including knowing that magic was still possible and the growing "mutant problem" that Luna called a gift from Gaea, but lacked specifics. It was 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 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 beyond the Ragnarök foretelling 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 said, shaking her head. Some of the others shared her surprise. "Were hunky dory with wand users until this prophecy. Suddenly entire communities are disappearing off the map until only the four lines are left standing."

"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 a strategy they had both suffered from and committed onto others.

"Three of the four lines give up their magic while all four tied 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 at Melania even without her eyes. "Their lands would be safe havens, their magic turned inward and becoming benign. Healers, carers, maybe even mutations 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. She knew 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. Her words held not a hint of French accent to suggest her homeland. "And it is a god."

"But we also have an ally. Well two, really," Dennis Creevey spoke up. His sharp mind was already running through the information provided. Everyone looked at him in surprise. "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. "Fenris Wolf would be chained up somewhere, the World Serpent was just discarded in a body of water, and Hel is forced to be the Norse goddess of Death. 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 one though. 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 being forced to see their children treated in such a way.

"Exactly," he nodded before turning back to Melania. "And then there are 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. They knew 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 being an issue.

"We can't do anything about the one-eyed giant," she announced. Her 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. I for one am I'm not about to let a stuck up panicking god ruin that for any of us."

She spoke 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 left the Coven to set up their rooms and stock the larder with food from their trunks. While the castle had been cared for by the magical protections, it was still centuries out of date and lacked any semblance of modern amenities. It was the latter that was driving poor Dennis crazy.

She had decided to visit the local village 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 aware that the locals were 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 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 and she mentally winced. Such formal, High Magical Society self-introductions were overly wordy and pompous. 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 say 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 knew 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..." The barman immediately responded, the words coming before he realised he was speaking them.

"...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 descendant of their patron family had come back. All were happy and freely offering advice. Samuel the Barman had his wife, cook the entire Coven a small meal once it was known that Melania had friends up at the castle.

The group of friends felt something shift within them at the welcoming and knew they had found something special. It was only the beginning and would take time, but it was the beginning of their healing process.

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. While others began planning on involving the Coven in yet more struggles.

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OoOoO


SN: Last Edited 24th Nov 2017