Previously
Then the chains broke, the suitcase burst open revealing a shadowy cloak floating in the middle of the hallway. Harrison stared at it in surprise, 'a Lethifold? But those are only found in the tropics...' he thought. Harrison glanced at Hagrid, he was the closest to the Lethifold. Harry shoved the larger boy out of the way, flinging him down the hallway painfully. "Harrison!" A voice yelled from around where Hagrid had landed, Harry look at the source of the sound. 'Tom? What's he doing here..." and then the Lethifold wrapped around him.
Harrison couldn't move, he couldn't see. 'Help' he wanted to scream, but he knew that right now he had to conserve the air in his lungs. He tried to relax, 'Tom's your friend, he's going to cast a Patronus and help you.' Harry reassured himself. The Lethifold was suffocating him, Harrison could feel his heart beat quicken slightly with each passing second. 'Tom, where are you?!' He wanted to shout. Was this seriously how he was going to die? Killed by a cloak? Then he blacked out from lack of oxygen.
"Harrison!" Tom yelled, staring at his friend. Harrison turned around, his eyes widening in surprise. Tom watched as Harry was swallowed, helpless to stop it. He felt like he was dying. His life long friend was gone, killed by some first year's stupid actions. He felt tears sting his cheeks, he had never cried before. Not even when he thought the priests were going to exorcise him. Not when he thought he wouldn't be able to go to Hogwarts because he couldn't get on the train. Not even when he found out about Harrison's marriage contract.
'No, no!' He shouted in his head, Harrison needs you, he struggled. "Expecto Patronum," he shouted, thinking about when he had received his Hogwarts letter. Not even a thin wisp of smoke. "Expect Patronum!" He yelled, recalling when Harrison had told him he was related to Salazar Slytherin. A shapeless form of mist came from his wand, disappearing before even reaching the Lethifold. "E-expecto Patro-patronum," he gasped, remembering when Harrison had jumped onto his window. He clutched himself, his wand falling to the floor, his robes wet with his tears. 'No, put yourself together, Harrison NEEDS you.' He yelled at himself. He took a deep rattling breath, "Expecto Patronum," he whispered hoarsely, reliving the moment when he asked Harry if he would ever see him again.
"Harrison, is this your last year at Hogwarts?" Harry nodded, "yeah, but don't worry, we'll see each other again. We're friends after all."
Mist came from his wand, collecting itself in front of him. He thought of the time when Harrison had told him that he was a wizard.
"Tom, what you're doing, it's not because your some sort of freak of nature, it's because there's a world you don't know about. Tom, you're a wizard." Harrison said, pausing just enough to meet his eyes.
The memory of holding his wand the first time, feeling the warmth and power flooding through him.
As soon as Tom touched it, the room flared with a sudden light and warmth emanating from the wand.
The feeling of satisfaction when he threw the quaffle into the hoop, to hear Raymond's joking voice say, "and Riddle scores!"
He kept thinking of every single happy memory he had until he heard something fall to the floor. His corporeal patrons started fading, but Tom could clearly see that it looked like a leopard except larger and more vicious looking. Tom looked around for the Lethifold, it was gone. Tom noticed a pitch black cloak move across the grounds before disappearing into the Forbidden Forest. He ran over to Harrison. "Go get the nurse!" Tom yelled at Hagrid who started sprinting away. He collapsed next to his friend.
February 15th 1940
"He's very lucky you were there," the nurse at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries commented, "no one's actually survived being swallowed by a Lethifold before. Do you know how it got here?" She asked. Tom's expression soured, "yes, a 1st year at Hogwarts by the name of Rubeas Hagrid." She glanced at her sheet before muttering, "he'll probably end up expelled depending on if his family presses charges and if there is long term damage." Tom's left eye twitched, "long term damage?" He asked, his voice dangerously low. The nurse nodded, "but we won't know until he wakes up, which should be happening just about now." Right when she said it, Harrison's eyes started fluttering open.
"Where am I?" He asked, glancing at the nurse.
"St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries," she spoke briskly, taking out her wand and casting Lumos, "good, your pupil's are responsive. What is your name?"
"Harrison Black," Harry replied automatically.
"How old are you?"
"13." He said questioningly, he looked behind her. There stood Tom Riddle, but instead of the cold, emotionless face Harrison had attributed to him. Tom seemed to almost be concerned from the expression on his face.
"What's he doing here?" Harrison asked, it should be his parents or one of his friends. Perhaps Riddle was the one who found him.
"He saved your life, are you not friends?" She asked, perplexed.
"I don't know who he is..." Harry lied, he only knew Riddle from back in his old universe, here they had yet to meet.
"Do you remember being swallowed by the Lethifold?" She questioned.
"Yes." He said, it had felt horrible.
The nurse continued to question him about his life, friends, and recent experiences. In the end, she was able to determine that he remembered everything except for Tom. She asked him to stay outside because it seemed that Harrison didn't feel comfortable around him. After his parents and siblings left, Harry turned to his friends.
"Am I friends with Riddle?" He asked, delving into their minds slightly with Legilimency. While all pureblood children were taught the basics, at least, at a very young age, Harry was able to slip by unnoticed.
"Yes." Harrison found that they were being truthful. He sighed, they talked for a while before he told them that he was tired. As soon as they left the room, he sank into the bed. 'The man who killed my parents is apparently my best friend, what was I thinking?' He thought.
Harry woke up to find Riddle sitting in a chair, looking at him with a faraway expression on his face. "So, we're friends..." Harrison whispered, snapping Tom out of his thoughts.
"Yeah..."
"I'm sorry, that I don't remember you..." Harry said weakly.
Tom scowled, "it's not your fault."
Harrison shrugged. They sat there for a while. Wondering what to say next.
"I have a theory about why I don't remember you." Harrison said, breaking the silence.
Riddle gestured for him to continue. "Lethifold has Lethe in it, similar to the river of Lethe in Greek Mythology. The river of Lethe was used to let spirits-"
"Forget their memories..." Tom finished. "Since you were apparently there, it wouldn't be farfetched to say that I was thinking about you when I was swallowed." Tom's eyes widened.
"Harrison!" Tom yelled, staring at his friend. Harrison turned around, his eyes widening in surprise. Tom watched as Harry was swallowed, helpless to stop it.
"Maybe the Lethifold made me forget about what I was thinking at the time, and since that was you..." They stared at each other before Harrison spoke. "I was friends with you once, perhaps we can become friends again."
Tom smiled, "I'd like that." Then the nurse came in and shoo'd Tom out. Tom smiled the same bittersweet smile to himself. Before slamming his fist onto the armrest of his chair. 'Why is the world so cruel, that my first and only friend had to get ripped away from me in some impossibly unlikely accident?' He asked himself. A single tear fell from his eye before he hastily wiped it away.
March 9th 1940
Harrison stepped into the Atrium of the Ministry. He walked up to one of the workers behind the glass. "Excuse me, I'm here for an interview." The man took one look at the 13 year old in front of him before glancing at his papers. "Name?"
"Harrison Black."
The worker sighed, "conference room 12, level 10."
He could feel the worker watching him as Harry walked towards the elevators. When he finally found conference room 12, it was 2:00 pm exactly. "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic Mr. Black, tell me about yourself." The man who Harry assumed was his interviewer walked in.
"I'm 13 years old, in my free time I enjoy reading and working on potions or spells." Harrison began.
The worker nodded, making a few notes on the paper in front of him. "What is your favorite subject at school?"
"My favorite subject at school would probably be charms, however that is quickly followed up by Care of Magical Creatures." Harry answered.
"Why are you applying for the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures? More specifically, the Goblin Liaison Office?"
"I've always liked working with Magical Creatures, they're so fascinating. But I want to work in the Goblin Liaison Office because I think that our relations with Goblins are currently horrible and we need to improve them."
"What will you do if you don't get this internship?"
"I'll probably try going abroad to learn from professionals."
He nodded at Harrison after a few more questions, "I believe that's all the time we have here today-"
"Wait a second," a person in a black cloak stepped out from the corner of the room. Harry hadn't noticed him. "We'll take him." The interviewer nodded and hurried out. The figure turned to Harrison. "I am the head of the Unspeakables, we wish to recruit you." Harry's eyes widened. "Why?"
"As you may know, there's a war going on, it has suddenly become the Ministry's top priority to locate and assassinate the dark wizard by the name of Gellert Grindelwald."
"What if I don't want to become an Unspeakable?" Harrison asked.
"Then your memory will be wiped of this entire conversation, you will be hired for the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures for internship." The Unspeakable said in the same even tone.
"What about my family and friends? What do I tell them?"
"Everyone will think that Harrison Black was denied from the Goblin Liaison Office and is currently in Russia, researching Pogrebins because the Ministry is considering changing them to classification XXXX instead of XXX."
"But I'm in the middle of the school year..."
"You were graduated by the Minister himself, approved this morning. He has changed the law so if a student has a mastery in every subject that their school requires, then they may be graduated early."
Harrison nodded, before asking, "is the Ministry really changing the classification for the Pogrebin?"
A large exhale followed by a sort of cough that sounded more like a laugh came from the Unspeakable. "Of course not, they're as harmful as a Golden Snidget."
They looked at each other for a long time. The room so quiet that Harrison could hear his heart beating in his chest. "Will you take the oath Mr. Black?" The Unspeakable asked.
"Yes."
The Unspeakable nodded, "swear upon your magic, your life, and your honor."
"I, Harrison Phineas Lycoris Black, swear upon my magic, my life, and my honor as heir of House Black. To be a an Unspeakable. I will never speak to anyone about my work as an Unspeakable unless they themselves are one." Harry vowed, holding his wand over his heart. He could feel it, an aversion to speak to anyone about what had just happened.
"Take this Mr. Black," The Unspeakable said, holding out a cloak the same as his own except slightly different. As Harry put it own, he explained. "The cloak has high level protection, magic resistance, invisibility, notice me not, and camouflage charms and runes on it. Most wizards don't know that the Graphorn has stronger, more magically resistant skin than that of a dragon so that is the material of the cloak. Should your cloak ever be removed in the presence of anyone else, you will be terminated from this operation. Now come with me."
The Unspeakable led Harrison silently to the elevator, where they went to the 9th floor. He took Harry to a room which had a lot of privacy wards on it. "I and your team leader are the only ones who know who you really are. It will stay that way for your own safety and privacy. Since the point of that privacy is obviously defeated if we let you use your own name. To answer the problem, we use codenames, mine is Re'em. Yours is Nundu." Harrison froze, did they know that his animagus was a Nundu? Or was it some coincidence?
Re'em led Harrison to another room with 4 other people in it, they were all ignoring each other.
"Your last member is here, introduce yourselves." Re'em spoke before walking swiftly out. Harry approached the others. The tallest one spoke first, a male. "My name is Quintaped, I'm the leader." Next was a female who introduced herself as Tebo. After that was Occamy, but she sounded older than Tebo. The final person was Threstral. Harrison noticed that he was the youngest person here, his voice would stand out a lot. "My name is Nundu," he said. If Harry had to guess, he would say that Tebo was the youngest after him, then Threstral, then Quintaped, and finally Occamy. "Well, you all have 10 minutes to pack before we're taking a portkey to Russia."
Glenn was 28 years old when the Unspeakable, Re'em, recruited him from the Auror Office. For 3 months, he trained to lead a group of 4 others to kill Grindelwald. Everything was for this moment, when the first guy walked in.
"Hello, I'm Quintaped-" Glenn started, holding his hand out. "I don't care," the other Unspeakable said, turning his back to him and looking out the window. Quintaped took a surprised step back, he supposed that Re'em had a reason for putting the guy on the team. Also, being on the team to assassinate a dark wizard probably doesn't require high social skills to join. Even so, Quintaped's doubt was like a rock in his stomach.
The rest of the 2 Unspeakable came in and seeing how no one was talking to each other, they sat slightly apart, staring quietly at the wall, ceiling, or floor. Then the door opened to reveal Re'em and a slightly short Unspeakable. "Your last member is here," he said, looking at Quintaped carefully, "introduce yourselves." Glenn almost smiled, finally they would be able to get down to work. "My name is Quintaped, I'm the leader," he began, nodding at the person to his right. She was a girl who sounded young, late teens or early twenties he figured. The guy who was terse with him earlier said he was Threstral. Then there was Occamy, she seemed to be the oldest in her forties. At last was the Unspeakable Re'em had brought in, "my name is Nundu," at that moment, Glenn was endlessly grateful for his hood covering his features. He sounded like he was in his early years in Hogwarts. Quintaped noticed how Threstral seemed to almost not react to Nundu's obvious young age. While Occamy had let out an almost illegible gasp. "Well, you all have 10 minutes to pack before we're taking a portkey to Russia." Quintaped said seriously, it didn't matter what their age was, they were picked for the job.
9 minutes later, everyone had gathered in front of Quintaped, he held the midnight black feather out to each of them. They grabbed it, their hands covered by black gloves that were dragon hide, practically fire proof. For a moment, nothing happened. "I guess that this portkey is broken-" Tebo began before they started to feel something almost pulling them into the portkey.
Quintaped found himself lying in snow on the ground, staring up at a dreary grey sky. He sat up quickly to see Tebo throwing up and the other Unspeakables seemed very queasy. Glenn himself felt horrible, but he pushed the feeling down as he took note of the landscape. "It seems we have reached our destination, Kirvosk Russia."
They found an inn and applied a slight notice me not charm so the muggles wouldn't notice the strange cloaked people. Until their mission was complete, they were not allowed to leave.
March 10th 1940
Dear Headmaster Armando Dippet of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry,
Under the new law of Exceptional Witches and Wizards, students with a mastery in all subjects of your school may graduate prematurely. The following student[s] under that category is Harrison Black, Slytherin 3rd year.
Sincerely,
The Department of Magical Education
Dear Mr. Black,
Your son, Harrison Black, has been accepted as an intern for the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. If there are any problems please contact us.
Sincerely,
The Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
November 27th 1941
Quintaped was beyond frustrated. For the first month, his team simply couldn't get along. Occamy would constantly belittle Nundu for sounding young. Threstral would keep telling her to act her age, which he reminded her, was quite old compared to the rest of the group. Tebo liked to criticize what Glenn himself, was doing. After a while, they were able to tolerate each other's odd quirks. How Threstral would blank out for large periods of time. He was informed by Tebo that Occamy snored.
The bickering had only gotten worse recently due to the dead ends the team kept reaching. Quintaped knew that it was only a matter of time before the Ministry would consider pulling them from Russia. In fact, when Quintaped had picked up the phone, he was expecting to be told that he was a failure and that the mission would be given to a more competent group. Instead, it was a young wizard by the name of Andrei who was an auror in training. The Russian Ministry of Magic had been informed of a muggle seeing Grindelwald. (They had told muggles that Grindelwald was a murderer so they would alert the authorities if they saw him). As soon as Quintaped finished the phone call, he nodded at his colleagues. "This is what we've been working on for 8 months, let's stop this bloody dark wizard!"
Gellert Grindelwald watched as Albus Dumbledore crashed through the anti-apparation wards and appeared in the middle of the room. His followers noted the disturbance and were going to enter the house but Grindelwald signaled not to, telling them to keep on the lookout in case the Ministry shows up. "Albus, how are you? No longer cowering in Hogwarts I see..." he smirked, watching Dumbledore's pained expression. "I cannot allow you to continue as you are," Albus said sadly. Grindelwald nodded slowly, seeming to be lost in thought. "I'm sorry it had to come to this then- Confingo!" He shouted, mid-sentence.
The house exploded in a shower of smoldering rubble. Projectiles of metal, brick, and wood flew in all directions. The frigid air was alive with magic. When the dust cleared, there stood Dumbledore. 'A protego charm,' Grindelwald evaluated, 'simple yet effective.' They stared each other in the eyes, "don't make me do this Gellert," the blonde wizard smiled grimly. "Don't hesitate old friend! You could be avenging your sister's death!" Shock, remorse, and anger flood Albus' gaze. Grindelwald grinned, "or you could be killing the last person who really knows the truth of what happened that night." 'Oppungo' he cast silently, the metal shrapnels rose from the ground and flew at Dumbledore, with a wave of Albus' wand, they vanished. Albus Dumbledore nodded grimly, "let us end this." Gellert let out an insane laugh, "now we shall find which one of us is more worthy to master Death, Albus."
The Unforgivables were rushed by Grindelwald's followers the second they triggered the intruder wards. They were severely outnumbered, Glenn didn't expect the 5 of them to come out unscathed. All he could hope for was that they finished him, ending the war. The cloaks were very helpful, it made them harder to see so 10% of the curses ended up flying past them. Flashing lights of blue, red, and green lit the smoking wreckage of the house.
In Quintaped's peripheral vision he saw Threstral walking at the same pace towards the oncoming barrage of spells, jinxes, hexes, and curses. 'Wow, impressive, a standing Protego while casting spells.' Glenn thought. Tebo wasn't taking on as many head on, casting at opportune moments so that it would catch her opponent off guard. Occamy seemed to be having the most trouble, she kept having to recast Protego after each spell, weakening her magic reserves each time. Finally, there was Nundu, the exact opposite of the approach Threstral was taking. He was dancing under curses, dodging spells even at the last second. That's when Quintaped saw it, a man sneaking behind them, the man raised his wand, pointing it at Occamy. The second the fiery red spell touched her, she disintegrated into nothing.
Before Quintaped could cast something in response, Nundu waved his hand at the person who killed Occamy and long bloody wounds appeared on the man. It was as if he was being cut by a sword. Then it sliced across his throat and the man fell to the ground dead. They kept fighting even though they slowly were losing hope. The overwhelming numbers had the upper hand. Soon, the Unspeakables found themselves weak and exhausted and a steady flow of enemies still coming. Glenn was prepared to call an emergency disapparation when Nundu came up to Quintaped. "Quin, I can create an opening so you can get to Grindelwald, but you have to trust me." The leader looked at the small figure, 'he's so young, I can't just leave him to deal with all of these enemies.' Quintaped stared at Threstral, the before mighty force was clearly approaching his final magical reserves. Tebo's movements were slower, less graceful. 'No," he decided, 'I'm the leader, I'm the one who makes the difficult choices. He's an Unspeakable regardless his age, Nundu knew what he was getting himself into.'
"Fine, what's the plan?" Quin asked.
"Tell Threstral to create a huge bubble-head charm around the 3 of you, then head straight to Grindelwald. Run as fast as you can away when I say go." Nundu was crouching on the ground, taking deep breaths.
Quintaped nodded, about to run and inform the others but then he remembered. "Do you have anything you want to say, to anyone? If you die?" Quin asked.
Nundu just looked up at Quin. "I'm not afraid of Death."
Glenn ran to the others. They all ducked behind the wreckage of one of the houses. "Nundu has an idea, Threstral, you have to create a large bubble-head charm that encases all of us. Then we run for the exploded house."
Threstral and Tebo nodded in understanding. Yells started coming in the direction of the enemies. Tebo peeped her head over the small stone structure but was forced to crouch not a second later to avoid an Entrail Expelling Curse. Long moments passed of them straining to hear what was going on. Quintaped realized he was gasping for air, his heart beating furiously in his chest. Glancing at the others, they were the same. Adrenaline and magic had kept them from feeling their exhaustion. 'You can rest when you complete your job,' Glenn reminded himself.
"GO!" Nundu roared, his voice echoing across the bleak battleground.
"Blase cap." Threstral shouted, a thin, nearly transparent mist spreading over them in a sphere. Then they ran, heading straight into the line of fire, but none of the wizards were paying attention to them. Twin shouts of Expelliarmus came from next to him, the scarlet jets whizzed past him to hit two of the wizards who had noticed them in their peripheral vision. "Stupefy!" Glenn thought, flicking his wand at the last wizard who was turning to face them. The red spell streaked at the wizard, hitting him in the chest and causing him to crumple to the ground.
A thin wizard raced towards them, wearing the characteristic all black robes that most of the Grindelwald supporters were. Quin raised his wand, about to Stupefy the wizard but he just raced by them instead. Not even looking at them twice. That's when the shouts around them registered. Wizards and witches screaming to retreat. Glenn spared a glance over his shoulder.
It was a beast. Most similar to a leopard because of its golden fur and black spots but much larger and more frightening. Then, the thing roared. Black, smoky vapor spilled out his mouth. Quickly creeping across the ground spreading outwards. A wizard had a fully body bubble-head charm on (like the Unspeakables), he was waving his wand at it but to no avail. It kept coming at the same rate. He stared at the gas as it slid around the nearly invisible bubble. A pop resounded loudly before a muffled, strangled scream and the dark fog moved, undisturbed. Not a second after, a witch who was casting Avada Kedavra's at the creature started choking despite the gas not having reached her yet. She did the sensible thing and ran away but not before it touched her leg. Glenn could see that her leg was blackened, diseased. Almost melted at some points. It was spreading too, a second later, and her entire leg looked like it had died. Then she started coughing up blood, falling to the ground. When she looked up, Glenn saw that her neck and parts of her arms were blackened. Her mouth open in a silent, unbelievably painful scream before it covered her twitching body. A Nundu. He realized. Nundu was an animagus, a Nundu. Classified XXXXX, it takes at least 100 skilled wizards to take one down.
Then he ran, he focused on running, nothing else. Running from the screams behind him. A tear slipped from his eye onto the ground. Remorse filling him. 'They were going to kill you! You, every muggle, and every muggleborn out there. Still,' he thought to himself, 'couldn't we have done it in a non-horrific manner? Solved this war in a way that didn't require so many wizards and witches dying?' Glenn looked behind him one last time to see the gigantic Nundu lit up with Avada Kedavra's. The unearthly vapor slowly dissipating behind Nundu, leaving a wasteland of corpses and burnt looking grass behind. They looked each other for a moment in the eyes. Glenn turned away, he had known that agreeing to be an Unspeakable would mean doing things that the average wizard was magically, emotionally, and mentally unable to do. But when he closed his eyes, he could see the woman's face, hear the man's screams. 'No! They were evil,' Glenn tried to convince himself. 'Were they really?' A voice in his head said, 'they were just on the opposite side of the war than you, what if you're the one who's wrong? But don't worry, no one will ever know that you had a hand in massacring these people. It will be written down as casualties of war. Empty numbers on a page.' Quintaped opened his eyes.
Tebo was beside him, he knew she had saw what happened too but she seemed completely unaffected. Was her bright, cheerful personality an act? Even Threstral was behaving in a more saddened way. Quin shook his head, this isn't the time to have second thoughts about his teammates or mission.
They stopped running, in a large cleared out area the Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore was dueling Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald.
"Do you have anything you want to say, to anyone? If you die?" Quintaped said suddenly, as Harrison turned to leave.
Harry smiled grimly at Quin. "I'm not afraid of Death." He knew he wasn't going to die but he said it anyway
Quintaped ran to inform the others. Harrison stepped out from behind the stone structure. Instantly, some of the spells were directed towards him. He dodged them effortlessly. Silently casting jinxes and hexes at them. He waited a little while. Gathering his energy.
"GO!" Harrison yelled, already feeling his mouth change as he said the word. He charged at the wizards, feeling nothing as spell after spell hit his fur. Then he took in a deep breath. Closing his eyes. 'I'm sorry,' Harry thought, before he roared.
Harry sat there, closing his eyes. Screams filled his highly sensitive ears. A loud, ear piercing scream came from a man before he was silent. Harrison opened his eyes tentatively. The smell of death felt like it was smothering his enhanced nose. He looked for the 3 Unspeakables. Quintaped was staring back at him. A haunted look filled with remorse and disgust. 'I'm sorry,' Harry tried to convey. But Quin turned away and despite how much Harrison stared at his back, he didn't turn around again. He could feel Tebo's eyes on him, instead of fear or hatred, he was met with emotionless eyes. Threstral was glaring at him, hatred emanating from him, but it was clear to Harry that the anger was due to sadness.
Harrison watched as they disappeared behind a destroyed building. Harry waited for the vapor to clear. Once it did he shifted back. Walking past the mangled corpses, trying to ignore them. A wizard jumped at him, but Harrison deflected him with his arms. Using the man's momentum to send him crashing to floor. The man's leg was blackened but had a sort of spell around it, slowing the spreading process down. Still, Harry could see it move upwards slowly.
"You're a monster," the man whispered hoarsely. "We're trying to save the world, and you slaughter us. You're heartless, cold. My cousin was here, she died, I wasn't able to cast the stasis spell fast enough. This..." he gestured to his leg, "works fast, but slow enough that it is painful."
Harrison stared at the man, remembering how it felt when Ginny was captured by Voldemort. Tortured to the point that she killed herself, not a day before they were about to rescue her. The unfairness of it all. But that was war. It was unfair. It was brutal. There were casualties.
"Y-you know I have a kid, 5 years old and h-he is going to grow up without his parents now," the man was gasping now, his breaths coming short and raspy. "Does that mean anything to you? Do you have kids?"
Harry remembered what it was like to grow up at the Dursley's, alone in the cupboard. Wondering who his parents were. How they could die drunk in a car crash when he needed them. In a way, he had it easier. He had never met his parents. Sure, he saw how other parents loved their children but it wasn't the same as feeling it.
"Answer me!" The wizard choked angrily, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. Harrison grabbed him, trying to help him sit up.
The man looked at him incredulously, "are you mute? Or just taking the Unspeakable thing to heart?" Then he looked at Harry determinedly. Grabbing Harry's cloak, and ripping it off with all his strength left. "You're a boy," then he started sniggering, "the person who ended the war, is a boy who doesn't even look like he should be out of Hogwarts."
"Do me a favor," Harrison asked slowly and quietly.
The wizard scoffed, "do you a favor?"
"If you swear on your magic to never mention anything that happened to you personally during this war, I'll heal you." Harrison spoke softly.
"I don't believe you," the man said, "you're a murderer."
Harry shook his head, "no, I'm sorry, so I want to make it up to you."
The man started coughing up blood.
"Swear it, and I'll heal you. You can raise your son!" Harrison urged him.
The wizard laughed, "fine, I, Walter Snape, swear on my magic to never mention anything that happened to me during this war."
Harrison's eyes widened in surprise. He was the father of Tobias Snape! Tobias was a halfblood but raised as a muggle. Eileen Prince probably never thought to have a Magical Quotient test done on him. The again, Severus probably won't even have the last name Snape because Eileen only married Tobias because he was a muggle.
"What's with the look? Thought I would rather die?" Walter questioned.
Harry grabbed his cloak and put it on. Reaching into one of the inner pockets he found his vial of Phoenix Tears. Then he proceeded to allow one drop to fall onto Walter's leg. The disease stopped spreading, then it started fading until it was gone.
Walter Snape was about to get up to find Harrison standing over him. "Just a precaution, you just won't remember my face or this entire conversation." With that, Harrison cast a stupefy and Legillimenced him. He removed memories of being hit by the smoke and the conversation, making him think that he fainted from magical exhaustion but the vapor had dissipated by then.
After that, Harry walked in the direction of the duel to find all his teammates Stupefied except for Quintaped. Quin was behind held at wand point by one of Grindelwald's followers, there were only 7 followers. Harry watched from his hiding space as Gellert sent an Avada Kedavra at Dumbledore, while casting another spell silently and wandlessly with his other hand. The blinding green flash made it impossible to see the fiery red light of the Draconifors spell. It hit a tree behind Dumbledore, the tree turned into a dragon. The dragon started fly towards Dumbledore. "Expelliarmus!" Dumbledore shouted, but Grindelwald easily blocked it with a wave of his arm. Then the dragon hit Dumbledore in the back of his head, knocking him out. Gellert grinned, striding over to his old friend. He kicked his wand away. "Rennervate," he laughed, pointing his wand at Dumbledore's neck. Harrison watched, he would wait for the most opportune time for him to intervene.
Albus Dumbledore was exhausted, the duel had been going on a lot longer than he wanted and Gellert was much more duel ready than him. Having been experiencing war instead of teaching students. The familiar green light of an Avada Kedavra sailed towards Dumbledore, but he dodged out of the way. "Expelliarmus," he yelled, but Grindelwald used a shielding charm to block it. Then the world went black.
He woke up to Gellert laughing, "Albus...Albus...Albus, I must admit that I didn't expect you for another... 3 years at least.
Groaning, he started to stand up but then he felt polished bark agains this throat.
"Tsk...Tsk...Tsk," Gellert shook his head, "now Albus, I feel incredibly torn yet elated at the same time. You were my best friend, it's wonderful to see you. Yet, you came here to kill me, I could just reciprocate in turn."
Pressure was applied to Albus' throat from the wand. "I'm surprised you can feel anything at all," Dumbledore said, staring up at the Dark Lord.
"I'm hurt you think that Albus," Gellert said almost sullenly.
Dumbledore stared into Gellert's eyes for a while before looking away. "Just do it already, unlike you, I longer fear Death. Instead, it is the next great adventure for me." Albus lied.
"I don't believe that. But I am short for time, and this has dragged on long enough." Gellert nodded, turning his head at the group of Unspeakables who had tried to interfere sometime during the fight. "Si hei til døden, til meg, min tapre venn." (Say hello to Death, for me, my brave friend). He raised his dark green twisted wand.
"Hold up, hold up," a voice echoed across the silent wreckage. Albus noticed that the voice sounded very familiar. But he couldn't quite place it. He squirmed under Grindelwald's hand that was pushing his face against the ground.
"Who are you? Another Unspeakable?" Gellert asked, confused.
Whoever it was ignored his question, walking steadily closer. "Now, you want to kill every wizard and witch, for what, the greater good?"
Gellert frowned, "I'm not trying to kill every single wizard and witch, I'm trying to convince the world that we have magic, therefore we're better than muggles!"
The Unspeakable took another step closer, tucking his wand away. Gellert visibly relaxed at this. But the person kept speaking, "you're a wizard, how are you better than an muggle?"
Grindelwald looked incredulous, "of course, look what muggles did to Albus' sister. They made it impossible for her to use her magic."
"Look at what you're doing, you're worse than muggles. You were given power, you're expected to make moral decisions with it."
The Dark Lord smiled, running a hand through his hair. "I'm doing all of this for the greater good! It's not right that wizards and witches have to hide while muggles are polluting this world, they're ruining it. It's far better if we were in charge!"
"You're delusional, you claim your doing this for the greater good. However the greater good would technically be muggles, they outnumber us by a great deal. Not only that, but wizards are destroying the magical world at the same rate muggles are destroying Earth. We're creating laws to restrict Goblin territories, limit Giant inhabited areas, cut down on Centaur occupied forests. We were going to pass a law to regulate Werewolves! In a few years, we'll be passing laws to control magical creature breeding!" The cloaked person countered.
"I-I-I..." Grindelwald gazed past the Unspeakable, at the smoking devastation one duel between 2 wizards had brought onto a village.
Albus Dumbledore looked up to see the Unspeakable wandlessly and nonverbally cast a Stupefy that hit Grindelwald in the heart, making him topple over. He proceeded to help the Unspeakable stun the rest of Grindelwald's followers.
"You've done the Wizarding World a great service-" Albus began but the Unspeakable cut him off.
"While you have done it a great disservice, if you think someone is becoming dark, don't just cut off all communication to them. Don't take the phrase 'keep your friends close but your enemies closer' to heart either. If someone is on the road to darkness, they need someone, a light at the end, to keep them from following the path. This entire war could've never happened if you had encouraged your friend to do this nonviolently. To not start a war. He didn't even have to become light, there's a grey line, difficult to walk but not everyone is an extreme. Some people are a mix between the two, everyone has their light moments and their darker moments."
The Unspeakable looked at the crumpled form of Gellert Grindelwald. "He'll get a life sentence in Nuremgard."
Albus didn't reply, lost in thought.
Harrison looked at the two Unspeakables, "Rennervate," he said. Then he untied Quintaped.
"Aurors will be here in ten seconds, we're to apparate Grindelwald to Nuremgard, he doesn't have to stand trial." Quintaped informed an unresponsive Dumbledore. Then they apparated out.
10 seconds later, Aurors apparated into the area. They restrained Grindelwald's followers while having a nurse check Dumbledore over.
"Well done," Re'em said to the 4 Unspeakables. "I'm afraid you don't get any medals but 100,000 galleons have been deposited in each of your accounts under war reparations-" the Unspeakable started saying before Glenn cut him off.
"I wish to resign," he said confidently. Re'em nodded, "you're allowed to keep your cloak, it's charmed so only other Unspeakables can see it when it's not on anyway."
"I as well," Harrison said, before following Glenn out the door.
Threstral walked out soon after, leaving Tebo and Re'em to talk about her next mission.
Harrison stepped out of the building in his cloak, heading towards the nearest public floo to get home when someone grabbed him.
A familiar voice whispered.
"We need to talk."
Author's Note:
- Harry's animagus was originally a owl during his war with Voldemort, but it changed afterwards because who he was changed too. Same with his patronus
- Harry Potter Wikia doesn't have the incantation for the Bubble-Head Charm, so it's bubble in German and head in Romanian
- The current description for a Nundu may not match up to what it looks like in the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but the 2 pictures on Harry Potter Wikia are vastly different so I guessed
- I just noticed that I write so many double entendres
- EQ is Emotional Quotient, IQ is Intelligence Quotient, so MQ is Magical Quotient (IQ as in an IQ test)
- The Draconifor spell is actually the coolest thing ever
- Gellert went to Durmstrang, which is most likely in Norway (they speak Norwegian in Norway, I'm hoping that that's not a new fact for you)
- For and to translates to til in Norwegian
- Grindelwald's wand before the Elder wand was weird. It was basically bark twisted into a cylindrical shape
- One big chapter, to express my apologies for not updating, once again ending on a cliff hanger