Of Lightning Bolts, Half-Ghosts & Time Pieces
By Twin Kats
Beta'd by FlyonSilverWings
Chapter Six
He's Got Nothin' On Pariah
Two months went by without incident. It was rather...unsettling. At least once a week Harry would rage or laugh hysterically, but since the Yule Ball all there was...was silence.
Either pair of twins that constantly followed the young Potter around were subject to a more...frightening truth. Harry wasn't silent, he wasn't moody or emo (although the times he sat on the roof staring at the slowly healing wreckage of the First Task begged to differ) no...he was sadistic.
The twins didn't know how, nor when, nor why, but somehow Harry had another ghost similar to himself trapped in a room created by the Room of Requirement. This ghost Harry had called 'Ghost Writer' and he'd taken to tormenting said ghost by randomly saying "orange" when speaking to him.
Both pair of twins were shocked to see Ghost Writer fall into hysterics at the mere mention, with Harry grinning rather sadistically.
"It sucks, doesn't it?" he asked Ghost Writer one day. "That your weakness is a simple, round piece of fruit?"
Ghost Writer sniffled slightly, curled up in a corner created by two bookshelves.
"Are you sorry yet for that debacle known as Christmas?" Harry would always ask and Ghost Writer would always glare, green eyes mutinous.
"Orange."
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Yes, the two set of twins decided: Harry was a scary sadist.
To be fair, Harry hadn't wanted to let Diggory in on how to discover the clue for the second task, but fair is fair after all.
"Have sex with it in the tub."
Well, that and screwing with people too.
"HARRY!"
The day of the second task dawned without incident. The twins were still horrified when Harry wandered off to the Room that contained Ghost Writer. They no longer entered the room itself but instead remained outside. It didn't stop the hysterical screams from piercing through the door and forcing them to wince.
Still Harry calmly and indifferently made his way to the lake. Dobby had tried to foist some gillyweed into his hands but the teen just ignored the batty house elf with practiced ease.
Of course getting there had actually almost cost Dobby a limb, but they don't speak of that. Ever.
Harry, to be honest, wasn't even paying attention when the Judges announced just what was to be retrieved from the bottom of the lake (although he did wonder how they got Hedwig to agree to this shenanigan) despite looking as attentive as ever. No, his mind was, yet again, elsewhere.
To be specific it (his mind) was wondering just what Daniel saw in Valerie Gray, and why he wanted to do...that...with her. He was really trying hard not to puke at the mere thought.
(the Clockwork clone twitched slightly and swiftly raced over to the thermos and began to furiously shake the damn thing; as the screams wound up a relaxed smile fell across blue lips. Ah, bliss...)
When the whistle sounded Harry began walking into the lake. He continued walking, even when the water went over his head and he should have floated.
All of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang watched in wonder as the boy-who-lived (to be Clockwork) walked along the lake bottom, to his owl, and back out again none-the-worse for wear.
It was the only task where nothing happened.
Time passed, as it always does, and Harry was finally back to 'normal' excluding his continued presence in the Room filled with Ghost Writer's hysterical screaming.
The Twins (both pairs) were sure that Ghost Writer was practically a brainless blubbering mess by now.
The fact remained however that time had passed. It had gone from the nice day of February all the way to June now. In fact it was the day of the final task. It bares not to mention that the discovery of the maze was completely un-noteworthy for once. Seriously, nothing happened, get over it.
So on the day of the last Task Harry stood with his fellow campions outside the maze. Amazingly enough Harry was not in first place. He was last, mostly because the other judges were sure he cheated somehow. They just couldn't prove it. Yet.
Ignoring the fact that Harry did not, in fact, cheat. Unless you count having ghostly abilities as cheating. And foreknowledge of the events. And-okay he cheated.
But hey, he usually cheats anyway! Remember Ygraine Pendragon? Yeah, his fault she bore no children. And that whole thing with Daniel and Dan? He so cheated there, even the Observants said so!
Granted the Observants are piss poor examples really; they're nothing but whiny bitches. Seriously.
("Clockwork, this fashion of thinking is not fair!"
"Precisely why I think it," Clockwork mumbled, eye twitching as he tried to ignore the walking talking eyestalks whose presence he was forced to endure.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!")
Harry twitched.
'Must. Not. Kill. Eyestalks.'
Oh, look at that, time to enter the maze!
"Avada Kedavra!"
Harry hadn't wanted Cedric to die. Really, he hadn't. It was nothing personal. Seriously. There was no secret hidden vendetta at all. It was just how it was supposed to be.
For once.
And so upon Cedric's valiant death-
("Goddammit I did not die valiantly!"
"Sigh please stop whining; I get enough of it from the Observants."
"GRAH!")
-Harry actually shed a tear. Then he grinned. Now at least his lair had a housemaid!
Yup, no vendetta against Cedric at all.
("You so did this on purpose."
"Smirk maybe, maybe not."
"I hate you."
"Many ghosts do.")
Harry was continuously smirking even as Wormtail warily approached him, bound him to the headstone, and performed the ritual that brought Voldemort back to life. In fact he remained smirking through out Voldemort's introduction, a fact which unnerved everyone of the Death Eaters present and simply enraged the Dark Lord.
"CRUCIO!"
Harry twitched but didn't so much as scream. High pain tolerance: comes with being ghostly. Or part ghostly, at least. Except for Daniel and Vlad, they were really wimps.
'I should really pay attention now,' Harry thought to himself as Voldemort attempted to throw curse after curse at the teen. He mostly just dodged, except for the stray crucio sent his way. Those usually met their mark. 'But really...this guy ain't got nothin' on Pariah. Now who is Pariah again...?'
Harry frowned, side stepped the next crucio, and ended up right next to the cup and Cedric's body. He blinked almost glowing green eyes at the Dark Lord and said two words.
"You suck."
Then he was gone.
ONWARDS TO THE AUTHORS NOTE!
Anti-climatic, much?
Yeah...I figured Voldemort has nothing on Pariah Dark, considering Pariah Dark was so feared the whole of the ghost zone bound him in a coffin of Forever Sleep or whatnot. Seriously. Voldemort ain't got nothin' on that. He was killed by a baby and not six or seven dudes binding him in a coffin like Pariah. The guys a wimp. Nuff said.
And no, Ghosts don't have a higher pain tolerance. Clockwork, and by default Harry, are just different. Clockwork however doesn't seem to get this. I swear sometimes he's half senile. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if he forgot that Dan was in the thermos and let him out on accident thinking it was really a soup can.
Okay there I jest but you get the picture!
And yes, Clockwork/Harry shall torture Ghost Writer until he arrives in Amity. Why? He really hated the rhyming.
I actually pity Ghost Writer. He's one of my favorite characters. Maybe that's why I dump on him...I tend to do it a lot with my favorite characters. Ghost Writer has even made it to my top 3!
Clockwork, Dan Phantom, Ghost Writer, Danny, Vlad, Technus, Skulker, Dani, Valerie, Jack.
Seriously. That's my top ten. No joke. Dan rates above Danny. Sorry guys, but I'm into the14-year-old children. Thus Dan. He's 24, more my age range XD And older!Danny however...now that might be drool-worthy. If he looks anything like Dan. Heheh...
But I do like Danny. Enough to get him in 4th, at least. His quips amuse me so...
And I tend to pity Vlad, really. For such a horrible influence he's such a lovable villian too. Well...love and hate, really. Skukler is cool, and Technus is just EPIC. He'd be in my top five if I didn't love Danny and Vlad as much as I do. Danielle/Dani is there because...well Butch was awesome to give us genderbent Danny in the form of the ONLY female clone. Sweet, huh? Valaier pwns and Jack...is Jack. 'Nuff said. XD
And yes, Harry/Clockwork now has an aversion to anything sexual, if you didn't get the above where Clockwork needed to go to his happy place (in other words: shake the thermos! I swear he jacks off to it or something...good lord it's practically the same motion! If he were a sexual creature...guh! Dirty thoughts!) Anyway if you didn't get why Clockwork needed to destress it was simple: Danny was wanting to jump Valaries bones. Teenage hormones and all. Harry got a super-dose of it and...well, it unnerved him. Which Clone!Clockwork was watching and got unnerved too. Enough to need happy place.
I think he's getting a bit too unhinged as a human now. Hm, must reign him in somehow...I swear since Christmas and Dan Clockwork's gotten...battier. Whoops...oh well! Next chapter: Amity Park!
Enjoy~
Edit: beta'd by FlyonSilverWings
