Harry Evans Potter, an Earthborn Asgardian Tale

Chapter 7

Harry followed Tonks down the street, eyes flicking to people as they surveyed her leather outfit. He had to admit, she certainly did look good in leather.

It began misting rain, covering everything in a layer of moisture.

It was an odd feeling to have a layer of water covering his smooth scalp.

The people thinned as they turned down a street with slowly decaying buildings.

Flaring his power, Harry wrapped them in a psionic cocoon of ignore us, before turning to Tonks, "So, how long have you known you were a mutant?"

Tonks stiffened, cautious dark eyes finding his, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do, you may say you don't, but your body language tells me otherwise."

Harry raised his shoulders, "It's not like I really care, I'm not exactly normal myself, I was just curious."

Tonks stared at him for a long moment, "How did you know?" She asked an edge of panic in her voice, "Is it something someone else can pick up?"

Harry raised his hands, "Relax, I realized that when I tried to enter your mind, a mutant's brainwave patterns are slightly different. A telepath may be able to tell the difference, but a wizard using their magic can't."

Tonks glanced around her, eyeing Jackson and Sons locksmith shop at the far end of the street, "I'm not sure this is the best place to talk about this."

Harry reached towards the shop with his mind; he found an old man dozing behind a well-worn wooden counter, his head propped up on his hand.

With the force of will, the door the shop clicked. No need for the old man getting robbed while he was asleep.

He swept the rest of the street with his eyes and mind, the rest of the buildings on the right hand side will boarded up and had been for a long time, the paint was faded and flaking off.

Magic wards shone from a clothing store on the left-hand side of the street, the manikins behind the dirty glass dressed in clothes from the 1950s.

"The only one on the street besides us is Mr. Jackson," he nodded towards the locksmith shop, "and he is asleep right now. Besides that, I have wrapped us in a bubble of ignore us."

Tonks stared at him for a long moment, envious of how easily he used his powers. Swallowing, she opened her mouth then paused.

Why was she telling him this? Sure they spent time together as kids, but that was a long time ago. She barely knew him now.

Sensing hesitation, Harry opened his mouth. At first he was questioning why he wanted to start a conversation with Tonks. He quickly realized that she was like himself, unique.

"Sixteen years ago, my mother summoned a powerful psychic force, called the Phoenix to help her conceive a child after being made barren by a curse from Bellatrix Lestrange."

Tonks flinched at the name.

Harry ignored her reaction, "At that same moment, my father summoned Odin, the King of Asgard, who had just entered the Odin sleep. The end result of these two actions is me, a son of Odin and the Phoenix force."

Harry gestured at her with a raised eyebrow, his message clear; I have told you my story now it's your turn.

Tonks stared at him for a long moment, thinking back to his true form, his broad shoulders packed with lean muscle, shaggy dark hair curving around his ears, and striking green eyes.

She had seen Thor on the telly. They were similar, Harry didn't have his large build, but they had the same strong jaw, and both had eyes that resonated with power.

"I discovered my differences when I was sixteen, the black family performed the ritual a millennia ago to gain the powers of vampires and the shape shifting magical abilities of the Fay, the families magic is still running strong after centuries, the Fays ability to shape shift getting rid of any downsides to inbreeding," she shuddered, "my mother caused the slight scandal when she married a mutant magic user, Ted Tonks, breaking her marriage contract to a powerful magical family."

"My father kept his mutant ability a secret from mother's family, it's a shame because if they knew what he can do, they would've probably allowed the marriage to go through, and wouldn't have cast my mother out of the family for marrying someone that was not of a noble line."

She stared towards the end of the street, her gaze becoming lost in the past, "My father can manipulate living matter with a touch, nothing really spectacular, but enough to become a skilled healer at St Mungo's."

She turned back to Harry, "He is where I got the X gene from, as far as I can tell, the X gene augmented my Fay genes, giving me very powerful shape shifting abilities. The rest of the black family cannot change their body into any earthly mineral, they say it has something to do with iron, a Fay weakness, but I don't buy that since they can't change their body into bronze or diamond either, I think it's just an unexpected limitation from the ritual."

Tonks raised both hands, the left one became covered in silver metal, while the right became glittering diamond. "I however do not have that weakness."

Harry inclined his head, "Thank you for sharing this with me, it's nice to know I'm not the only unique person in Britain, I promise if it is your wish, I will take your secret to my grave."

The corner of Tonks's lips quirked upward, "I don't think we need anything that serious, I'm not the only one of our kind, but I am one of the few not scared to use my abilities."

Harry shook his head, "It's sad that the work my parents did before that night fell short, and mutants are still persecuted."

"They're not exactly persecuted."

Harry cocked his head to the side, a bit of confusion shining in his eyes.

"Mutants are actually sought out to add their X gene into a family line, since it has been proven if a mutant breeds with the Homo Magi, that child will carry an active X gene, and pass that active X gene on to their children potentially strengthening that family line well beyond anything we've seen in recent history."

"Sure there is some persecution, but nothing as bad as what happens in the mundane world."

"Then why do they hide?"

Tonks's hands curled into fists. "There have been cases where mutants have been assaulted in order to gain their X gene into a family line, so the weaker mutants hide their abilities. Sure they have to register as mutants to live in the magical world, but as of right now the ministry does not require them to list their ability, since doing so would mean magical families would have to disclose their abilities as well. Without knowing what that ability is, wizards are wary to attack one."

The shape shifter clapped her hands together. "Now is fun is this history lesson has been, I believe we have work to do."

"Right, thank you Tonks."

They made their way towards a bright red phone booth at the corner of the alley.

"Out of curiosity, is your mother still banished from the family?"

"No, once Sirius became head of the family, he reinstated my mother and my father, along with passing them a healthy delayed dowry."

"I imagine your mother wasn't too happy about that?"

"She liked being reinstated to the family, but the dowry made her feel like cattle, or a possession."

They stepped into the phone booth, both trying to ignore the way their bodies pressed together, it was easier for Tonks since there was no way she was going to find Mundungus Fletcher attractive.

"So did she give the money back?"

Tonks smirked. her eyes shining, "Of course not, she called it compensation for her pain-and-suffering."

Punching a series of numbers on the phone, Tonks held the receiver to her ear.

"Welcome to the ministry of magic," a smooth female voice said, "please state your purpose for being here."

"Officer Tonks bringing in Mundungus Fletcher," she glanced at Harry, "for trying to sell substandard cauldrons."

The change return clicked and Tonks removed a silver badge, "Put this on," she said handing him the badge as the floor began to descend.

XX –

Harry took the badge in his thick tan fingers clipping it to the front of his dark brown wool robes. The moment he did, a minor ward settled on his shoulders, dampening his magical powers just a fraction. He looked up as bright light filled his vision.

Grabbing him by the arm, Tonks led him out of the car into a wide open space with the high arched ceiling.

Large grey stone fireplaces line the walls off to his left. Lines of people crossed in front of him, some leaving the fireplaces, others headed towards them. They would've reminded Harry of ants working for their colony, if it wasn't for their brightly colored robes.

A large fountain stood in the center of the room, gold, silver, and bronze coins glittering beneath the water. A wizards stood in the center of the fountain, light shining off his marble form, his greenish copper wand raised high in the air. His other arm was wrapped around a woman, her hair molded to look like it was blowing in the breeze.

Water cascaded down from the wizard's wand, flowing across the woman's form. Wherever the water touched golden scales shimmered into existence. The words etched into the base where the statue stood read, Equality for all, mutants and wizard kind stand together.

Tonks moved up beside him, "They change the statue after your parents fight for mutant rights. It used to be a symbol of enslavement, now it gives me hope that what I do here may actually be making a difference."

Harry stared at the fountain. This was his parent's real legacy; they had made the world a better place. Mutants were now safe in the wizarding world, even wanted. What legacy would he leave behind?

"Come on."

Tonks led Harry past the fountain towards a set of bronze doors set into the wall.

Harry kept his head on a swivel, taking in everything. Staircases disappeared into arched tunnels on the right side of the room. Light shone down from high arched Windows enchanted to bring light from the world above.

'Okay, I've got to give wizards this they have style.'

Reaching the bronze doors, Tonks pressed the down arrow in a rectangular panel sitting beside the doors. The doors slid open, revealing wood-paneled walls with a bronze railing wrapping around the inside of the elevator.

Tonks stepped inside, leaning her back against the wall. She exhaled the tension draining from her body as the doors slid shut. "Well, that was easier than I thought it would be." Leaning forward, she stabbed her pointer finger into a button. The label beside it read, Department of mysteries and morgue.

Harry's skin rippled as his body grew taller, his chest broadened, and black hair extruded from his scalp. Excess skin withdrew back into his face as his features broadened. Dark brown eyes became an Emerald green.

The silver badge pinned to his chest clunked the floor as his transformation finished, sparking as the magic within shorted out.

Tonks slowly shook her head, "It's so strange to see someone else do that."

"I wouldn't know," Harry commented brushing off the sleeve of his dark suit, "I've never seen anyone else shape shift before."

Empathy ached inside Tonks, she knew what it was like to be different, and Harry was the most different of them all. She shook her head, "Still you did well, but it's a good thing we didn't see any of Mundungus's acquaintances. I wouldn't fancy you trying to answer any personal questions."

"I have telepathy. I would know what they know."

"That may not have been enough," she looked up at the ceiling, "as a matter of fact I'm surprised people didn't stop us on the way here, if not questioning what Mundungus was here for, just to talk."

A tinge of pink filled Harry's cheeks, "That may be my fault," he began rubbing the back of his neck, "I kind of forgot to take my psychic ignore us down."

"Well keep it up, Mundungus is a fixture around here with his petty crimes, but he would have never been allowed in the morgue."

"That's what I thought, that's why I change back. Now, a bigger question, why is the morgue in the basement of the ministry, shouldn't it be at the hospital?"

"It used to be in St Mungo's, but with the tensions between humans and mutants rising in the mundane world, and more and more mutants moving into the magical communities, the powers that be thought it would be safer to have the bodies of mutants in a more secure area," she shook her head, "not to mention some of the unspeakables like to examine the bodies."

"I can't imagine the mutant's families like that."

"Those that cause a stink are paid handsomely to keep their mouths shut, but most don't care as long as the body isn't mutilated and respected once the work is done."

Harry shook his head, "I guess a little after death examination is a small price to pay for a job, and safety from persecution because of something you can't control."

The bronze doors slid open, revealing a stark white hallway with black doors lining either side. Copper plates gleamed in the center of the doors.

Heavy wards settled on their shoulders as they stepped out of the elevator. Harry glanced at the bronze nameplates on the doors lining either side of him, finding strange symbols instead of names.

"Well that's confusing."

"Welcome to the Department of mysteries. Don't try to go into any of the rooms, it's rumored they lead to pocket dimensions were the unspeakables continue most of the research."

"I guess wizarding society wouldn't be comfortable with finding out that unspeakables perform experiments on the dead, even if they're not magical."

"It still unethical," Tonks growled leading the way out of the elevator.

"I agree, but it's not like we can do anything about it right now. For now we need to focus on finding the person responsible for those deaths in Diagon Alley."

"Agreed."

Harry's gaze flicked up to the florescent bulbs lining the ceiling, "You have electricity down here."

"A Meta Magi named Hermione Granger figured out how to convert magical energy into electricity to power mundane technology."

"A lot of the older generation doesn't like it, but the newer generation has taken to it like a fish to water. It certainly cuts down on our parchment use, but heavily magical areas like Hogwarts, Stonehenge, and Diagon Alley, are still causing problems. There's too much magic there and when converted to electrical energy it causes power surges."

"Meta Magi?"

"That's what a Homo Magi that has an X gene is called."

"Tell me about this Hermione Granger."

A wide grin spread across Tonks's face as she pushed the doors to the morgue open, "Why are you looking for a girlfriend?"

"Officer Tonks, what are you doing down here?" Asked a round woman in a white lab coat.

"Unspeakable Warren, I'm just here to look over the body Amelia Bones sent you."

The woman's Hazel eyes narrowed behind her dark round glasses. She moved forward with surprising grace, the tips of her short brown hair brushing her shoulders, "That's head coroner Warren, and I'm not so sure about that," she said waving a stubby finger at Tonks, "Amelia told me to keep all this hush-hush."

"I'm sure she did Myrtle, but I am on the case."

Myrtle's eyes flicked back and forth between the two, "Maybe I should just give Amelia a call."

"You don't really want to do that," Harry said moving around Tonks to stare Myrtle in the eye, "after all with a monster like that thing running around, we really need to find out who created it."

Myrtle opened her mouth to say something. Then her eyes glazed over. She fell backwards, her lab coat opening to reveal the red blouse and dark skirt beneath.

Catching the woman, Harry gently lowered her to the floor.

"Is she alright?" Tonks asked, moving to stand at Harry's shoulder.

Harry raised an eyebrow, his lips turning down into a frown, "I just put her to sleep," he said a bit of incredulity in his voice, "What kind of person do you think I am?"

"I don't know you did attack me in Sirius."

"You were tromping around in my house, uninvited I might add!"

Tonks crossed her arms, one corner of her mouth curling, "A likely story."

"You were!" Harry exclaimed rising to his feet.

"Whatever let's just do what we came here to do and be gone before she wakes up. I just hope she doesn't remember me being down here."

"She won't," Harry grunted as Tonks led the way to the metal table in the room with a body on it.

"Thanks for that."

Harry looked around him, he was in a large room, an orb of light hovered near the ceiling in a circle of runes.

There were only two other tables in the room. Both were empty.

A small cabinet set against the far wall.

Harry sniffed the air, finding the heavy scent of flowers, "You know this is not what I expected of a coroner's office, I thought there would be a heavy smell of antiseptic, more tools, and a lot more bodies."

"Myrtle doesn't need them. She was one of the first Meta Magi to emerge back in nineteen forty-one. Only the unique cases are assigned here, most are solved by the magical law enforcement office."

Harry glanced back at the woman, "She looks good for her age."

"That's magic for you."

"So how exactly can Myrtle perform autopsies without equipment?"

"Unspeakable Myrtle Warren has the unique ability to be able to touch someone and know everything about their physical condition, when someone dies, she can immediately tell you how, and sometimes who did it just by a touch, that makes the people in the law enforcement office jealous. The other unspeakables are unnerved by her abilities with the dead, which is saying something, so she was relegated here."

"Sucks for her, but remind me never to commit a crime here."

"It really sucks for all of us. Her abilities could be useful to the magical law enforcement office, but their stigma with her powers revolving around the dad, so they keep her here. I wonder what she would see; if she could get to the bodies while they were in their natural environment."

Tonks stopped at the gurney. Leaning towards the top of it, she grabbed the edge of the sheet covering the body, "Are you ready for this?"

"I should be asking you that, I fought these things before."

Nodding, Tonks slowly pulled back the sheet.

The creature's cloak had been removed, revealing the broad but thin emaciated frame hidden beneath. Dark gray skin was stretched taut over bone. Dark claws glistened at the end of long fingers on large hands. More claws glistened on large long toed feet.

Tonks shuddered at the empty eye sockets, covered by dark discolored skin.

Ignoring Tonks, Harry pulled back the creature's upper lip, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth with two sets of pronounced canines jutting from the top and bottom of its mouth.

"Well it has characteristics of a vampire, but its body gives off a cold aura that would make people want to avoid it." He glanced at Tonks, an image of her being cornered by boys in a stone hallway filtering into his mind, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Tonks replied shaking her head, "the aura this thing gives off reminds me of a Dementor, but as far as I know Dementor's can't breed outside their species."

Harry nodded. That would explain the bit of memory he saw. It was so full of fear that Tonks was practically broadcasting it to anyone with a strong enough mind.

"You are right. It does share characteristics with vampires and Dementors, especially since both creatures absorb the life force."

Flipping over its hand, he revealed the hole in the center of its palm. Folding down its ring and middle finger, a sharp spike slowly emerged from the hole, "However, unlike vampires and Dementors, it uses this to draw the life force from its victims."

"So what we're looking at is an amalgamation of three different creatures?"

"It looks that way, but there's only one way to be sure. Before that there's something I need to see."

Harry ran his fingers along the underside of the creatures left forearm coming to a bulge. Raising his right hand he concentrated. Ribbons of orange energy flowed from his hand twisting into a Psionic energy scalpel.

Starting at the creature's wrist, Harry cut a straight line. Small amounts of silver blood flowed as Harry cut a straight line from the creature's wrist to the bulge.

With a line complete, he pushed the skin apart with the tip of his blade, revealing a glass orb connected to the other end of the spike.

"Well that confirms one thing."

"What is that?"

"These creatures are definitely man-made, if I had to hazard a guess when they were created, there was a sack here," he pointed at the orb with the top of the scalpel, "so they could digest the life force they took. Whoever created them replaced it with this, so they could remove the stolen life force and use it for their own ends."

"How is it possible for something like this to be created?"

"If I was in the mundane world, I would say it was done with technology, but since we're in the magical world, and the parts come from magical creatures, I would say it was done with alchemy."

Sitting down his scalpel, Harry flicked his left hand conjuring a quill and a piece of parchment. "Now, let's find out what this creature is made of."

Putting the quill to parchment, he drew a rectangular rune in the pages four corners. He then drew a series of serpent like runes towards the center of the page. He stopped when they were about four inches apart. He then drew a circle of interconnecting runes that grew smaller towards the center, stopping when there was an open space in the center no bigger than a dime.

"What is that?"

"A variation on the inheritance tests that Gringotts uses," Harry replied grateful for the knowledge of runes he inherited from Grindelwald.

Picking up the scalpel, Harry smeared silver blood on its tip into the circle in the center of the runes.

The runes flared with white light, swirling as they rearrange themselves into a three-pronged line graph. Dementor was written in gold at the very bottom, with vampires shining silver on the left branch of the graph. Wraith was written in elegant black on the right.

Banishing the quill, Harry pointed to Dementor with the top end of the scalpel, "Dementor is its base," he pointed to vampire, "with vampire being its neck strongest component, and wraith making up the rest of its body."

Tonks stared at the parchment before glancing at Harry. "How is it possible for someone to perform such complex magic with so little?" Her gaze flicked to the parchment, "Why choose these creatures? I mean vampire and Dementor I get, they both feed off life force, but why wraith."

A wraith is a very unique creature. Its touch can instill fear in others, by secreting a unique compound from its skin. It can then absorb the fluids produced by the brain and store them for later consumption. I'm guessing the storage ability is what the creator wanted.

"So what do we do now?"

"You're asking me."

"Sue me this is my first investigation that didn't involve missing money or a cat."

Shaking his head, Harry placed a hand on Tonks's shoulder. The world spun, and when it cleared Tonks found herself standing outside the ministry building.

Her gaze snapped to Harry, her eyes wide, "You teleported us through the ministry wards!"

Harry inclined his head, "I did."

"But that's impossible!"

"If you say so," Harry said turning to walk away while folding the parchment with the creature's heritage and sticking it into the inner pocket of his jacket.

Tonks stood there for a long moment, before a scowl wormed its way onto her features. Turning, she sprinted after Harry, punching him in the arm when she drew close enough.

Harry looked at her, one eyebrow raised, "Ow."

Tonks ignored him, "If you could teleport, what was all this cloak and dagger stuff?"

"My powers are still developing, I can only teleport two places I've been, or places I have a mental picture of. With the ministry morgue I had neither."

"You could've picked it out of my mind."

Harry inwardly cursed himself for not thinking of that. Then smiled at Tonks, "But then we wouldn't have gotten to know more about each other."

Tonks stared at him for a long moment, wondering if he was being sincere. In the end she shook her head focusing on the task at hand, "So what do we do now?"

"You use your connections to find the Flamels, while I investigate other avenues," Harry replied thinking of the ledgers he found on Albus Dumbledore.

"Ignoring the fact you think I have connections, why the Flamels?"

Harry's gaze hardened, his lips forming into a thin line, "Because if anyone would know who had the skill to create a creature like that, it would be them."