Disclaimer: All rights belong to Marvel and JK Rowling. No money is being made from this work of fiction.
A/N: Aren't you guys lucky, 3 days and 3 chapters. I finished work early and so finished this chapter early too :)
Chapter Two: Arrival
** "NO!" Harry heard Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! YOU CAN STILL SMELL HIM! KILL HIM!"
The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.
"Help me, help me," Harry muttered wildly, "someone — anyone —"
The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Harry ducked. Something soft hit his face. The basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms. Harry seized it. It was all he had left, his only chance — he rammed it onto his head and threw himself flat onto the floor as the basilisk's tail swung over him again.
'Help me — help me —' Harry thought, his eyes screwed tight under the hat. 'Please help me —' There was no answering voice. Instead, the hat contracted, as though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly. Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head, almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed the top of the hat to pull it off and felt something long and hard beneath it.
A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.
"KILL THE BOY! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU! SNIFF — SMELL HIM!"
Harry was on his feet, ready. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous. It lunged blindly. Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side.
He raised the sword in both his hands . The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true. Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth. But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.
Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it was too late. White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull colour.
A patch of scarlet swam past, and Harry heard a soft clatter of claws beside him.
"Fawkes," said Harry thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes. . . ." **
Just as Fawkes started to lower his head everything, the plumes on the top of his head twitched. Without warning he launched himself away from Harry. He had managed to get a good 20 feet away before everything froze in time, no sound could be heard or movement be seen. It was as if someone had pushed the pause button on life itself. The silence carried, and then, just faintly, a noise could be heard, it sounded like the wind blowing through the trees, gradually gaining in strength until it the sound resemble the winds of a hurricane.
A blinding flash lit up the chamber, when the bright light had faded a man was crouched on the floor, one knee down, his hands either side of him keeping his balance, workstations started materialising around the chamber before everything stilled again, the only sound now was of deep breaths.
"Sir, Operation: Back to the Future was a success. Scans suggest all but the mass travelling through the wormhole to be suspended in time. I have calculated a 10 minute window before things resume to normal time. Our arrival seems to have displaced the temporal field momentarily." a robotic human voice spoke, breaking the silence in the Chamber.
It was a few seconds before the man, still kneeling, lifted his head, green eyes sparkling in the dim light.
"Excellent. What did I tell you JARVIS!? Now, a small window of opportunity. JARVIS, scan young Harry, upload his DNA sequence into the Golem. Start powering the Arc, transfer the memories from the Memory Module to the Golem." the man said.
"Rendering Sir, completion in 7 minutes" Jarvis replied.
The man finally stood, examining his surroundings, he raised the wand in his hand, aiming at the young Ginny Weasley. A red light shot out and struck her, the man, not missing a step, walked towards Harry and knelt beside him.
"JARVIS, we have a small problem. We arrived a moment to early, precisely 32 seconds too early. Young Harry does not have Fawkes Tears running through his body to counteract the venom!" The man shouted.
"Sir, we have no Phoenix tears in stock. Our only source is currently outside of our influence, we cannot get a time frozen Phoenix to shed tears." was the response.
"Hmm, JARVIS, ready the new Core, his only way of survival is by receiving a slight modification. The time it would take to get Fawkes back here and heal him will be too late."
"Sir, I highly advise against this, all parameters we calculated for the addition of the core were with the inclusion of the Phoenix tears being fresh in his system to counteract the damage that will be caused. The chance of success Sir is 63.3%" JARVIS countered.
"Nevertheless, if we do not try he will die anyway. Let us hope that Harry is made of sterner stuff than most." The man replied, prying apart Harry's robes to reveal his skinny rib cage. With his wand he drew a perfect circle in the centre of Harry's Chest.
"The Core is ready Sir, Golem status: 5 minutes remaining. Time displacement will desist in 7 minutes. Sir, I must advise, once you have completed this procedure, your magic will have depleted to 0.24%"
"I know JARVIS, I know. It will be up to you to set everything in place for this whole trip to be a success. I'm counting on you old friend." The man said, as he rested the tip of his wand in the centre of Harry's chest.
"Partum a domum intra corpus" he intoned, the skin inside the circle on Harry's chest started to dissolve, the man lifted his hand, a hollow cylinder flew across the room into his hand, he slowly and carefully rested the cylinder on top of the dissolving skin, it hovered above suspended by magic, "Adaptare corpus tenere vas" he again intoned, the cylinder began descending into Harry's body until all 3 inches were embedded within. The man once again held his hand out and this time a glowing blue disc appeared in his hand, he placed this above the opening in Harry's chest, it one again hovering, suspended by magic.
"Adunare duo coros sicut unum!" he intoned this seven times, each time he had to push harder for the magic to work.
After the seventh repetition, the man, sweat dripping from his head, collapsed onto his hands and knees, panting heavily. He managed to lift his head slightly so that he could see the glowing disc upon Harry's chest, studying it intently. After a few moments his head dropped, eyes dimming to mirror the chest piece, slowly winking out.
"Scanning vitals... Sir, vitals have stopped. The merging has failed." JARVIS deadpanned.
"I know JARVIS, I failed! If only I ... wait, JARVIS, prepare the recordings for Harry's awakening. Set the illusions in place, Have the Golem take Harry's place ready for imitation. You know what to do, It's been a blast old friend!" The man said, a new fire alighting in his eyes as he placed one hand over Harry's head and the other on top of the Arc Reactor. Closing his eyes he smiled a smile as if remembering something from his past.
"SIR..." JARVIS' shout did not register with the man, a green and gold aura surrounded him, before funnelling down through his hands and into Harry, the smile never leaving his face, as the aura surrounding him began to fade he opened his eyes, now devoid of all life and any spark.
"I understand the time displacement now JARVIS, it was put into effect so that this would happen, there cannot be two Harry Potters on the same universe at the same time. I don't belong here. The future now rests in my younger self's hands and with your guidance. JARVIS, transfer all loyalty and control to this Harry when I am gone. I have infused him with the remaining of my magic, it should act the same as a Muggle defibulator. " Before he could say anymore Harry James Potter, genius, playboy and billionaire, faded from existence.
The moment he was gone, the Arc Reactor on Young Harry's chests began blinking like a heartbeat, slowly at first until eventually it was a constant and steady glow. When things seemed to have settled down a huge glow emanated from his chest before receding back into him. His cursed scar split open, a black inky substance oozing out before it re-sealed itself. The inky substance dissolving into nothing.
JARVIS ran a scan over Harry and confirmed all vitals were normal. He silently activated the systems set up in place, an shield surrounded all the equipment transported here and Harry before they disappeared from view, although a very real Harry remained, minus the glowing Arc Reactor from his chest. With a resounding POP all movement commenced again, Fawkes, continued his flight though looked around confused, seeing Harry laying motionless he swooped around and landed on his chest. Not seeing any wound, Fawkes lowered his head and dropped a few tears into Harry's mouth.
** "You're dead, Harry Potter," said Riddle's voice above him. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying."
Harry blinked. Fawkes's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers.
"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."
Harry felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning.
"So ends the famous Harry Potter," said Riddle's distant voice. "Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by his friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry. . . . She bought you twelve years of borrowed time . . . but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must. . . ."
'Systems activated, calibrating functions' something silently said in his mind.
'Functions calibrated, Golem online.' the voice said again in his mind. The Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. Harry gave his head a little shake and there was Fawkes.
"Get away, bird," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him — I said, get away —"
Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Fawkes; there was a bang like a gun, and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet.
"Phoenix tears . . ." said Riddle quietly, staring at Harry's arm.
"Of course . . . healing powers . . . I forgot . . ."
He looked into Harry's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter . . . you and me. . . ."
He raised the wand —
Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Harry's lap — the diary. For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then, without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.
There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then — He had gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.
Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he'd just travelled miles by Floo powder. Slowly, he gathered together his wand and the Sorting Hat, and, with a huge tug, retrieved the glittering sword from the roof of the basilisk's mouth.
Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes travelled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
"Harry — oh, Harry — I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy — it was me, Harry — but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over — and — how did you kill that — that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary —"
"It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here —" **
As they left the Chamber of Secrets, neither noticed the shimmering of a shield before some workstations and an exact copy of Harry Potter appeared in the Chamber, an exact copy except with the addition of a glowing disc visible upon his chest.
** Extracts taken from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling
A/N: Hopefully that cleared up the confusion from the last chapter, although the answering of those questions you may have had probably led to more questions regarding this chapter. Dont worry, there will not be a 12 year old Iron Teen Mage flying around saving the day, I have a plan for Harry before he gets to that point and he wont be in the suit for a couple of chappies yet. But it will be a different kind of Harry that dons the suit. A Tony Stark styled Harry.
Once again thanks for the reviews, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and stick with me to the next installment.
