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Merlin's Law
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"True knowledge stems, not from the authority of others, nor from a blind allegiance to antiquated dogmas.It is a highly personal experience - a light that is communicated only to the innermost privacy of the individual through the impartial channels of all knowledge and of all thought."
- Roger Bacon (1214 - 1294)
Forbidden Forest
Friday, 13th of August 2023
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Ragged breaths echoing, ragged breaths steaming in the cold clear darkening night. Wet and cloth-like, the clouds of billowing steam rising from his shoulders, air like spun sugar, wafting lazily to the stars as though in an act of contrition. Odd, to be thinking about regret in a time like this... it must be the exhaustion. Black, crumbling cracking black, the charred remains of the old wand, secure and snug in the green clear cool grass.
Heavy, so heavy, to just close one's eyes and embrace the night time silence. How Harry longed for it, but knew it wasn't yet time. No, they would be here soon – perhaps they would even have backup this time.
"Ahh,"
The back of his head still hurt. A small reminder of what he truly was. The deep, they called it. Such a strange way of describing it, though perhaps appt under the correct circumstances. Then again, there was no way of knowing what the correct circumstances might be, not anymore.
His vision blurred, shaking ones head after a discharge was clearly not advisable.
The sweet aroma of ozone and that peculiar smell of runic artefacts... still glowing, glowing that eerie and hollow kedavra green - tiring to look at, tiring to remember.
How many years was it now ten, twenty? So long ago now, it felt like a hundred... maybe that was more correct, maybe a hundred. No matter, he was happy then, pivoting between the living and the dead. Why hadn't he said anything?
"I crave your pardon, Harry. I have known, for some time now, that you are the better man."
The words of his old mentor echoed from somewhere far away, like a memory of a lost dream. From that station, that platform that wasn't a platform, where trains didn't leave and people could come, where he had last seen Dumbledore.
The humming returned. Blackened hands reached up to the ache. Memories returning, shifting in the hollow, in the dark and empty places – they always went there, to the dark.
"...the better man."
He had been happy for a time. When before was... crumbling... no, that came with the humming. He was happy there, being younger. No cares, none of the worries that so plagued him of late.
The forest around him did not seem to sense his state of mind, it's quiet and silence didn't reflect the turmoil of emotions that relentlessly cursed his every breath. The moon, glorious moon, mixed with the crowning trees and prickling stars. It came from within, a taint of old with a pain that was fresh.
"Human..."
Harry barely blinked at the new-comer. He had sensed him long before he had begun his task. He briefly wondered why the other had not tried to stop him. He looked up into the serene face of the centaur.
"Firenze," Harry said, giving the other a half-nod.
The half-man half-horse strode quietly out between the thick trees and hanging foliage, his body luminescent and his face, hidden in shadow, looked to the stars.
"Mars brightens this night..." he said.
"Yes," Harry agreed looking up at the red star.
"I think this is your doing, Harry Potter." It wasn't an accusation.
"Probably,"
He was tired, tired of hiding it. There was no point in being coy about what he had done. There were traces all over.
"The winds grow restless, time approaches." Firenze said.
Harry rubbed at his aching head, he was growing hungry.
"Why didn't you stop me?" he asked.
"I could not have, nor would I wish to."
Harry snorted, his legs giving off a dull snap as he stretched them out before him.
"Are you that tired of this place?" Harry asked.
"The stars are not themselves, Harry Potter, and while they are not, nor can we be."
Swirling, the ache of the eyes, told him of their approach. Distinct popping noises could be heard in the forest around them.
"I wish they wouldn't do that..." Harry grumbled.
"It is the way of humans, not to heed their betters."
Harry glared good naturedly at him as his form seemed to mist.
"Harry!" a familiar voice called.
His eyebrows rose.
"Over here, Arthur!" he called.
The crunching of leaves and snapping of twigs spoke of their approach long before they entered the clearing. Men and women in red flowing robes, their wands out, stepped slowly into the clearing - The Order of the Phoenix.
A tall lanky man stepped slowly forward, tucking his wand away.
"Harry, son, what are you doing?" Arthur sounded tired, as though he didn't really have the strength to berate Harry.
"Waiting for you." Harry said simply.
Arthur frowned and several of the order members threw wary glances around themselves.
"May I sit with you?" Arthur asked.
Harry smiled.
"I don't think the forest would mind, we won't be staying."
Arthur paused slightly on his way to the grassy floor, but resignedly slumped down all the same.
"We won't?" he asked quietly.
"No," Harry said, smiling, "we have less than an hour, I'd say."
"But we, we will still have time to talk?" Arthur asked.
Somewhere in the back one of the members sniffed and the man next to her put his arm around her, both lowered their wands.
"I hope so. Firenze says the winds are changing. I know what he means but Hermione should really be the one to explain it to you."
Arthur looked slightly sick for a minute.
"You're still travelling with Firenze, then?" he asked mournfully.
Thoughts of confusion swirled closer to the dark, something forgotten was lost.
Harry nodded.
"I travel where I travel... and he... Yes, Mars is bright tonight."
Arthur frowned and looked back at the people behind him as though asking a question. The upset woman stepped forward.
"It's what the centaurs used to say when we were in school." She said, her voice trembling. "It had something to do with, Harry and you-know-who."
"Voldemort, Hermione." Harry said frowning. "Fear of a name increases the fear of a thing itself."
"We never really understood what it meant." She continued to Arthur, as though Harry hadn't said anything.
Arthur nodded thoughtfully and turned back to Harry.
"Is Voldemort coming back then, Harry?" he asked carefully.
Harry frowned.
"No, I killed him years ago. Dumbledore wouldn't have lied to me. He was gone, he wouldn't have lied."
Hermione twitched and Arthur gave a sigh of relief.
"Well that's good news at least," Arthur said, "Did Albus tell you anything else?"
Harry looked at Arthur. So strange, the stars made everyone so very wrong.
"I've already told you that story, Arthur," Harry said, "remember, at mine and Ginny's wedding?"
Arthur stiffened.
"So you remember Ginny?"
Harry looked away from the accusations of memory, accusations of forgetfulness. It went to the dark, always to the dark.
"It's hard to forget one's wife..." he said evasively. "But that's not what we should be talking about."
Hermione put a consoling hand on Arthurs shoulder. It seemed to relax him some.
Perhaps they had practised, but why would they?
"I'm sorry, Harry," Arthur said, "What should we be talking about?"
Harry smiled.
"Merlin's law."
Arthur looked confused.
"Which one?" Hermione snapped.
Harry looked up at her, her bushy hair was quite the mess and her eyes seemed red and puffy.
"No need to be unpleasant Hermione," Harry said. "If the paradox exists, then the paradox is true."
Harry leaned closer to Arthur and whispered conspiratorially.
"I changed it, you see."
"The law?" Arthur asked.
Harry frowned.
"What? No, the paradox, I changed the paradox."
Arthur sighed as he rubbed his neck.
"A paradox?"
Harry nodded solemnly.
"I was quite lost on what to do until I figured that out."
Arthur looked around from the glowing runes on the rocks to the fire they were sitting by and finally to the charred remains on the ground.
"You've destroyed another wand, Harry." He said pointedly.
Harry shrugged.
"Had to, was the only way to make the ritual work."
Arthur's eyes took on a hollow look.
"So you've started to use rituals now?" he asked in a defeated voice.
The dark swirling - swirling in the mind of it, it went to the dark, to the forgotten.
"It was the only way to change the paradox. I don't want to fight you over it."
Arthur was about to ask something else when Hermione's question cut him off.
"Wait, you mean you're not going to fight us?"
Arthur swung his head back to Harry, hope evident in his features. Harry shook his head.
"Why would I? I want to go home. I've always wanted to go home."
There was a huge sigh of relief going through the throng of Order members around the clearing. Some even put their wands away.
"You didn't have to do all this, son," Arthur told him, "you could have just come to the Burrow...."
Harry cut him off.
"But that's not home, Arthur."
Arthur looked as though he'd been slapped.
"It's not?" he asked, stiffly.
"No, it never really was." Harry said, shaking his head sadly. Then he smiled. "But perhaps this time it will be."
"This time?" Hermione asked wearily.
Harry nodded, looking up at her.
"The paradox."
Arthur lifted his glasses of their perch on his nose and rubbed at his eyes.
"Alright, son," he said as he looked at Harry again, "what is this paradox of yours going to do?"
"It will make everything right. The way it's supposed to be." Harry said as though talking to a three year old.
Arthur's lips narrowed and he looked quite stern for a moment before he forced a smile to relax his features.
"And how are things suppose to be, Harry?" he asked patiently.
"How should I know? I've never been where it is the way it's supposed to be. I just know it's wrong here. I'm looking forward to it. The only sad part really is, not knowing if we will actually meet when we get home. I suppose I'd miss Ginny and the boys, but I don't think we need to worry about that."
Arthur stood, rubbing a hand over his face as he walked over to the glowing rune-stones, shaking his head.
"It's not fair to do this to us, Harry!" Hermione said, trying to keep herself from crying or throwing herself at him. "Just because you've lost touch with reality, doesn't mean you can keep playing with us like this!"
Harry shook his head sadly.
"It doesn't matter what you think, Hermione. That my magic has driven me insane, I'm quite sure, makes me harder to understand, but I'm not crazy. You're the ones who aren't willing to see reason."
Hermione slumped down, tears silently running down her cheeks.
"But I am!" she cried.
Harry shook his head.
"You want to understand what happened to me, Hermione, not to understand what I'm talking about."
Hermione looked furious.
"Fine!" she said angrily, "explain it to me."
"To put it bluntly," Harry said, "I created a ritual, as to achieve an interdimensional tunnel through the space-time continuum, with the expressed intent to create a paradox within an already existing paradox, thus forcing them both into reality in accordance with Marlin's law."
Hermione blinked as she processed the implication. As researchers for the Department of Mysteries, both she and Harry had worked on the processes of time and while Hermione may have out-performed everyone at Hogwarts, time soon proved that it hadn't been enough to keep up with Harry's advancing mind.
"How..." Hermione's voice trembled
"By creating a point in space-time where a possible parallel past-time could intersect with our own."
Hermione shook her head.
"But then, then it would already have happened." she argued.
"You are forgetting the dimensional aspect of the ritual. The possible parallel past-time is not yet active past-time. It is still parallel to our present-time."
Hermione frowned and leaned forward.
"Then how can you say that it will happen? The past-time can't be in the past if it parallel to our now."
The rest of the clearing looked to each other as though wondering if anyone else understood what the two former friends were talking about.
"Space-time, Hermione."
"You can't account for that, Harry!"
"Not by isometric or linear definition, but once you take Merlin's law into the extra-dimensional aspect, it's fully possible to achieve understandable quotations."
Hermione was staring at Harry as though he had truly lost it.
"But that has no real world application..."
Harry sighed, rubbing at his aching head. The humming was growing louder, the swirling darkening want, magic seed of magic deed.
"That was always your problem, Hermione." Harry said tiredly. "You couldn't think outside the box, or in this case: outside our planetary sphere of influence."
Hermione's eyes widened.
"What are you talking about, Harry?" sounding frightened.
Harry sighed and took a deep breath.
"In order to avoid the temporal paradox, so that the space-time paradox could be intertwined with the existing actuality-paradox, one is forced to go outside the boundaries of planetary influence. That part was sufficiently easy, since that was the purpose for creating said paradox in the first place."
"You actually made contact with another planet?" Hermione shrieked, standing up.
Harry winced. This was not making his headache any better. There was a general shocked murmur around the clearing, riddles in the dark.
"Incorrect. I made contact with another planetary sphere of past space-time influence. Thus, paralleling its past-time with our present time and allowing for the allocation of its past-time-space to intersect with our past-time-space, at some unknown past-time point, in our joined space-time continuum."
"But how can you be so sure the allocation will even occur!" Hermione asked shocked.
"By as I said before, utilizing Merlin's law interdimensionally."
"Real-world application?" Hermione asked habitually.
"A specific magical signature, that both collaborates with the existence of life giving energy and sustains particle-magic, which in turn redirects to the point of past-time convergence. Hence, a Paradox within a Paradox with Merlin's law applied."
Hermione was shaking as she sat down.
"If the paradox exists..."
"Then the paradox is true." Harry finished, smiling.
One of the order members shuffled forwards, putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder.
"And in lawyer-men's terms, Harry?" he asked.
"Laymen's." Hermione corrected automatically.
"Yeah, those." Ron agreed.
Harry smiled.
"I sent a magical signature through a tear in space, where it landed on another planet. We're sitting around, waiting for the magic of that planet to hitch a ride on my signature as it comes back here."
Ron frowned, thinking.
"So..." he said thoughtfully. "We're waiting for a planet to show up?"
Harry shook his head.
"No, when the two planets decide to play magic ball toss with each other, it will do so sometime in our past, which will basically destroy the world as you know it."
Ron blinked.
"What?"
"I'm sorry Ron," Harry said, "but it can't be helped, this present time line is wrong. It has to be undone, to set things right."
Ron looked at the glowing rocks, then to Harry's hands and finally squinted towards the stars above him.
"But..." he said slowly, "maybe it won't decide to play?"
"The ritual doesn't work like that."
"What do you mean, Harry?" Ron asked. His anger barely restrained.
"I sent a signature of my own magic that was connected to the taste of the magic on this planet, so that the magic there would connect to ours, supposing that I'm right about the structure of our planetary magic, which I am."
Ron's knuckles whitened as he stared at Harry.
"That's not possible to know!" Hermione said crossly.
"I have performed the ritual. You already knew that when you came looking. Just because it deals with conclusions beyond your understanding isn't my fault. You have chosen to ignore evidence. Yelling isn't going change the outcome, the winds are already changing. The ritual was successful."
"Harry," Hermione said, trying again, "you can't really expect..."
The rumbling caught her off guard, clouds were swirling above them and even the moon seemed to be moving from one place to another in the heavens. Then the lightning came, each strike a different colour – howls in the wind. The ground under them was bucking and waving, trees were becoming see-through. Hermione turned fearful eyes to Harry who simply smiled back at her.
I'm going home.
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Author's Note
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I was going to use this scene as a precursor to a redo fic I had planned, however my plans since then have changed rather drastically, several times actually. I'm rather proud of this little piece of writing and I thought it sad it should whither away on my harddrive. So, I decided it might work as a one-shot.
It's nothing really fancy, I just thought I would share what my mind has been comming up with, and perhaps it will tingle someone's creative ideas into making their own redo.
I encurage anyone to use this little one-shot as a template for their own preface, or even as it is. All I ask is that you give me my due, for having helped you along.
On a side note, am I the only one who thinks the FF uploader is shit? I had to use dots in order to have any resembalance of my layout left.
Sant