Redemption of a Fallen Angel
A Final Fantasy and Harry Potter Fanfiction
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.
Authors Note: thanks to everyone who reviewed you input is greatly appreciated.
Chapter 2: The Return
Harry walked through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾. His hair pulled back into a ponytail by a black ribbon leaving his arched bangs to frame his face. He wore a black leather trench coat over a black t-shirt and leather trousers. He pulled his trunk of belongings behind him onto the train and set up in a compartment towards the back of the Hogwarts Express.
He sat, a book perched in his hands, reflecting on the events of waking up in the mako spring. The reclamations of his past memories and actions as Sephiroth, weighed heavily upon him as Gnarlblade and Jareth helped him to cope with his past life by testing his various physical capabilities. Harry discovered at their hands that he retained all of his capabilities from his past life as the General of SOLDIER. Minus the ability to use the magic granted by Materia.
The main change experienced when his bodies were fused was Jenova being able to communicate with him once more. She had been reincarnated along with him when he was born to James and Lilly Potter, spending his childhood whispering thoughts of her love of him, teaching him to control his emotions properly, and healing him from his beatings. Giving him all the love and comfort she could through his formative years.
Harry was shaken from his thoughts as a bushy haired schoolgirl opened his compartment door.
"Excuse me." She said when he locked his eyes with her's. "I thought you were someone else, sorry for bothering you."
He smirked slightly.
"It's no problem Hermione, you are more than welcome to join me."
Her eyes widened.
"Harry?"
At his nod she launched forward, embracing him as sobs rocked her body.
"Oh Harry I was so worried. How could you leave like that I was so worried for you. And that letter you left are you really dieing?"
Harry ran his hand over her hair.
"Yes, I really was dieing. But its OK I'm all better now."
Shushing he rocked the sobbing girl, trying to calm her down.
"I wont leave like that again. It will be alright. I promise."
That seemed to work because she slowly stopped crying as the train began it's journey to Hogwarts. Hermione pulled herself back from his embrace as she wiped her eyes.
"Thank you Harry. How did you get cured, I thought that form of venom was especially deadly?"
He nodded.
"Yes, it is. I had a great deal of help from the goblins."
Hermione cocked her head to the side.
"But how."
Harry smiled fondly.
"I'm sorry Mione, but part of my agreement with the goblins was to keep the method of my cure to myself."
She nodded reluctantly, agreeing not to push anymore. Allowing Harry to relax back into his seat.
"So, what happened after I left last year?"
Hermione slumped into the seat across from him.
"Well, after you left, things were rather confusing. Professor Dumbledore was visibly stressed for a few days and no one could find you. Eventually the rumors of you being mortally wounded started circulating. At some point Lavender found your note and told everyone what had happened to you in the chamber of secrets. Shortly before we left Hogwarts I ah... I caught Ron bragging in the common room. Saying that he was the one that had really saved the sorcerer's stone, That he was the one that saved Ginny, and slayed the basilisk. I confronted him in front of the whole house and he called me a... a mudblood!"
Her tears flowed anew.
"What is worse, is that nobody tried to stop him as he continued degrading me."
Harry's eyes Narrowed briefly before he pulled Hermione into another hug.
"Why did they do that Harry? I thought they were my friends."
He sighed.
"Shh, its alright. Its their loss. Your a beautiful young woman and a brilliant friend. They're not worthy of your tears. You are my friend and I would storm the very gates of hell to keep you safe. And as for Ron, well I will have to break ties with him if this is how he treats my dearest friend."
She looked at him with hope in her eyes.
"You'd do that for me Harry."
"In a Heartbeat."
They remained in this position till the door was rudely slammed open by a ginger haired idiot.
"So this is where you are, you bucktoothed mudblood."
Harry's eyes began to glow as his rage returned in full.
"Who are you to come into my compartment and insult my best friend?"
The stupid fool, squared his shoulders in an arrogant pose.
"I was Harry Potter's best friend, I saved his life countless times. Who do you think you are?"
Harry gently moved Hermione from his arms, and stood before the revealed bully.
"well, mate. I'm Harry Potter."
His fist flashed forward, hitting Ron in the chest and slamming him into the door of the opposite compartment. The redhead gasped painfully from the hit as Harry slammed the door shut, locking it.
He turned to a wide eyed Hermione. He smiled at her, earning a hesitant smile in return. Thankfully, there were no more interruptions for the rest of the trip.
Harry looked up at the castle with a new appreciation. His Jenova and Mako enhanced vision taking in the sheer majesty and life the castle teemed with. He was just glad they were able to fix the damage he had inflicted when he left last year.
"Mr. Potter." He Looked up into the stern yet relieved face of Professor McGonagall.
"The headmaster would like to see you after the feast."
He nodded.
"Of course Professor."
She nodded in turn.
"It's good to have you back Mr. Potter."
Harry smiled at his favorite teacher as he entered the Great Hall, taking a seat at the Gryffindor table. To the confusion of some of the less intelligent students.
The sorting proceeded as normal, the first years soaked to the bone were sorted into their requisite houses. Once that was finished Dumbledore stood from his seat, visibly older though Harry could see a small amount of relief when they locked gazes.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. First years should note that the Forbidden Forest is just that. A list of forbidden objects can be found posted outside of Mr. Filches office. And finally I regret to inform you that the Quidditch Cup shall be canceled this year to make time for Hogwarts to host the first Tri-wizard Tournament in the last two hundred years."
Amidst the cries of out rage and surprise, Fred and George could be clearly heard across the Great Hall.
"You're Joking."
The Headmaster Chuckled.
"I assure you, Mr. Weasley, This is no joke. Representatives from Beaxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive on October the 29th. And without further adieu, tuck in."
Harry shook his head at the headmasters theatrics and dug in to his meal with impeccable manners. The conversations around him centered on the tournament's history but he ignored it, as he watched the Ravenclaw table where he could feel a familiar magic.
The feeling was centered on a silver blond headed girl whose wide innocent eyes glowed an ethereal blue. She wore a necklace of butterbeer corks and had radish shaped earrings. She met his gaze with a wide knowing smile and waved happily. He awkwardly waved back, uncertain of the sudden surge of guilt he felt from this brief interaction.
Dinner passed quickly, and soon Harry found himself standing before the Gargoyle Guarding the Headmaster's office.
"The headmaster wishes to see me."
The stone statue nodded before leaping aside allowing the staircase to ascend to the office door.
Upon entering Harry locked his glowing eyes onto Dumbledore's twinkling ones.
The slightest pressure on the edge of his mind provoked an aura of green and blue tinted in black to flash protecting him, and startling the Headmaster.
"I wouldn't try that again, if I were you. She doesn't appreciate manipulation by anyone."
Dumbledore's eyes widened.
"I'm sorry Harry, I only wanted to know what happened after you left last year. And who is she?"
"The best way to find answers is to ask the right questions. She, is the only reason I am who I am today."
"That doesn't explain what happened this summer. Are you healed, How were you cured?"
"Yes I was cured, and I swore to secrecy as to how. Suffice it to say I am now who I once was."
Dumbledore leaned forward in his golden seat.
"Who is this woman you spoke of? What is her name?"
A smirk graced Harry's face.
"She has many names. Mother, Sister, Jenova, The Calamity."
The headmaster's eyes widened in recognition.
"And who were you?"
"I was The Heartless Angel, and the son of Jenova. My name was Sephiroth."
The old man jumped from his chair with agility that belied his age. Aiming his wand at his student.
"What have you done with Harry you monster."
"Weren't you listening Headmaster. I am Harry. I was reborn as Hadrian James Potter, Son of James and Lilly Potter. The Fact that I can now remember who I once was is only due to how I survived the tempered basilisk venom."
Fawkes flamed into the room at that moment his song calming Dumbledore's nerves. The legendary bird flew around the room and perched himself on Harry's shoulder, nuzzling the young wizards hair. Seeing this touching scene the elder wizard slumped back into his chair, his relief visible.
"I am sorry, my boy. I jumped to conclusions. Not only that but I have greatly wronged you."
Harry sighed, wishing he could take his anger out on the old man before him. However he knew that Dumbledore was just a man. A man burdened by too much power.
"I accept your apologies, Professor. You are a man burdened by responsibilities. If I might make a suggestion."
The bearded man nodded in response.
"As Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, you are able to choose a successor to the title from the various nations represented in it's body. As Chief warlock you have a similar option.
My advice is that you use those privileges soon and focus on molding young minds here at Hogwarts."
He shook his head.
"I cant do that harry the people need me."
"No they don't. They need To be taught to stand on their own feet, Otherwise they will fall as soon as they can no longer lean on your shoulders."
Dumbledore sat back in his throne thinking over the suggestion.
"So you are saying by maintaining my positions I'm weakening our world."
"Not so much, but you split your focus on to three of the most important positions in our world. Each position has tremendous amounts of responsibilities that sometimes conflict with each other. Each is a full time job, and to be frank even with a time turner no one person can accomplish that without the individual position suffering."
"I... I believe you are right. You have certainly given me much to think about. Is there anything else I can do for you Harry?"
Harry relaxed thankful his words had at least been heard.
"Yes, you need to hear some of the consequences of my cure. You might even be able to help me with a few important matters."
Dumbledore once again looked carefully at his young protege.
"I will help if I can."
"What the cure is called is an Awakening. It allows you to remember and retain the abilities of a past life. It also removes all harmful effects from your person. My awakening was more complex than that, but this will at least give you some understanding of what I went through."
Harry continued after he received the headmaster's nod of understanding.
"From your reaction earlier, you recognize some of the names I gave you. I guess this is because our story has survived the ages it has been since my death. Could you tell me how that story goes... Just so I don't have to explain my entire life."
The twinkle came back to the wizened wizard's eyes.
"Certainly. A long time ago, a Calamity fell from the sky, and set forth to burn and consume the world. For years a war was fought ending only when the ancients sacrificed themselves to seal her away forever. But it was not meant to be she was released years later to another form of captivity. There she bore a son who became a great general and championed the world's inhabitants. He became known as the One Winged Angel. Time passed once more as the world was inhabited by peace, until the Angel discovered his Mother. Together they set out to destroy all things, Man, Beast, Woman, and Child. Madness roamed the land until a chosen few stood to fight the Calamity and her son. Together those few destroyed the evil creatures and brought peace once more."
Harry nodded a slight smile on his face.
"Well, the story holds more truth then I thought it would. In actuality Jenova, The Calamity, never caused any damage on purpose. The damage that she is credited with was merely a side effect of how she arrived on this planet. She arrived on a meteorite that crash landed in what was then the northern continent, destroying half of said continent. The Cetra, or Ancients, in your story feared her differences to them and imprisoned her in the crater. She was driven mad by being alone for several millenniums. When she was discovered by the Shinra Electric Company, who thought she was an Ancient and began to experiment on her. Those experiments eventually fell into the hands of a scientist by the name of Hojo."
Harry pulled a butterbeer from his coat and took a sip.
"Hojo, insane bastard that he was, was married to a brilliant woman by the name of Lucrecia Crescent. She and her bodyguard were very close, and when she became pregnant, Hojo injected Jenova's genetic material into Lucrecia's womb. Seven moths later I was born and immediately taken from my birth mother's arms and given to Shinra to be trained as a super soldier. I was raised to believe that my mother's name was Jenova and that she had died in child birth. By the time I was ten I was a fully trained killer, by nineteen I was entitled SOLDIER 1st class, and by twenty-five I became general of the Shinra military force."
Harry looked deep into the Headmaster's eyes conveying the torment that came from the next part of the story.
"At around Thirty I discovered how I came to be by reading Hojo's research notes. It documented the twisted truth of my birth and what became of my birth mother and father. Lucrecia was horrified by what she was used for and ran deep into the wilds where she supposedly died and my father was dragged into Hojo's lab where he was implanted with several powerful spirits and nearly died if not for Lucrecia's intervention. He was then locked in a coffin for nearly four decades. I lost what remained of my sanity and destroyed the town that surrounded the Shinra Mansion. I made my way to the mountains north of town where I discovered the facility that held Jenova. I died for the first time in the room that held her."
"Years passed and my body was encased in crystal by the life force of the planet and taken to the northern crater where Jenova first landed. Driven by my madness I eventually possessed Jenova's body and used it to lure the hero's you mentioned to where my body was frozen in time. I manipulated them into freeing me and I unleashed the planets own protectors to destroy Shinra and all it's corruption. I continued to manipulate the heroes as they discovered the means by which I could destroy the world and wipe humanity from existence. I personally killed the last surviving Cetra as she prayed for the planet to save them."
Tears of remorse streamed from slitted green eyes as he continued.
"After that, The heroes broke free from my control. Gathering strength and allies as they made their way toward a final confrontation with my monstrous form. I am happy that they were able to defeat me, though not before I had summoned a meteor that would destroy the world. In the end it was the planet itself that used the lifestream as a weapon and destroyed the meteor."
Harry wiped his tears away this time not meeting Dumbledore's eyes.
"If only that was the end of the troubles I brought to the world. After what became known as meteor fall, a sickness spread across the land infecting everyone who has even a miniscule amount of Jenova cells in their body. They called it Geostigma, and because of Shinra's experiments one out of every fifty people had black scars that oozed black fluid and caused great amounts of pain. Those who were infected were children nine times out of ten. After two years of hardship and misery the people were again blighted by my legacy. Three remnants had formed from my destruction and they sought out our mother's remains in order to receive her genetic legacy and bring me back to life once more. They succeeded and I once more fought the Hero that had slayed me, and again I was destroyed, only this time for good. In the aftermath the Spirits of the Cetra brought forth a healing rain across the world that healed everyone of the Geostigma. That event also gathered all of Jenova's cells and fused them together with me encasing us together in crystal for eternity."
Sensing that Harry was finished with his tale Dumbledore offered him a lemon drop, that was graciously rejected.
"As informative as that is, why did you tell it to me?"
Harry shrugged.
"So you can understand what it is that drives me forward. All these years I have been seeking redemption and I didn't understand until this summer when I awakened. I believe I know how I can earn that redemption and I need you to be honest with me. Why did Voldemort come after me as a child?"
It was Dumbledore's turn to sigh once more.
"Before your birth I was interviewing a potential teacher when she gave me a prophecy."
He waved his wand causing his pensieve to fly to sit on his desk. From it rose a ghostly for of the divination teacher.
The one with the power to defeat the dark lord shall be born as the seventh month dies.
The dark lord shall mark him as his equal.
But he will possess a power the dark lord knows not.
And either must die at the hand of the other for neither shall live as the other survives.
The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord shall be born as the seventh month dies.
Harry nodded in understanding.
"I had guessed as much. I am glad to know I can save you from an evil that echos what I once became."
The headmaster sat in slight shock.
"You accept this so easily?"
"Yes."
"Do you know what the power is?"
"I would guess that it would be the reason my magic is so potent."
"What do you mean?"
Harry arched an eyebrow.
"You didn't find the fact I had a dual colored aura odd."
He nodded.
"It was dual colored because of the excess of bindings on my magic. I discovered after my awakening that my aura had changed from the blue and green you witnessed last year to a very dark violet. This was because of the bindings both you and my parents placed on me to prevent my harming people being constantly strengthened by a fragment of soul that leached off my magic. Before the leach and bindings were removed by my awakening I only had access to around twenty percent of my magical potential."
The Headmaster's eyes widened.
"Twenty percent? But you had about half as much magic as I do."
Harry chuckled.
"Yeah, With the bindings removed the amount of magic I possess is only slightly more than you. However my magic is much denser, roughly ten times as dense."
"How powerful are you?"
"Let me put it this way. Myrrdin Emrys and Morganna Le Fey had magical cores twice the size of yours and about ten times as dense."
Realization fluttered across the headmaster's face.
"The Goblins told me this state is called Transcendence. Merlin and Morganna were the only ones in this age to achieve it due to their Fae heritage. Though the founders were borderline as well. However because of my becoming Transcendent, I can no longer use magic as you do. When you transcend your magic becomes super specialized, like Merlin with enchantments and Morganna with the manipulation of raw magic."
"My own magic is specialized toward battle primarily toward offense with lesser ability in defense and support. I cant even use a wand anymore, I tried to use it shortly after my awakening and it literally exploded as soon as I touched it."
"So how can you continue your education? If you cannot use a wand and are unable to learn from us."
Harry Smirked
"That is where my last favor comes in I need a teacher in battle magic."
Dumbledore rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"And who did you think could teach it to you?"
"I have it in good authority that Professor Flitwick is a licensed battle master."
"If he accepts you as his apprentice I will make sure the paperwork goes through."
Harry stood from his seat.
"Thank you Headmaster. I will see you soon, enjoy the rest of your night."
As soon as the door closed Dumbledore reached underneath his desk and pulled a dusty bottle of Firewiskey out on to his desk taking a long pull from the bottle.
"I'm getting too old for this shit."
**End**
AN: Thank you for reading please leave a review they help me out greatly.