I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.
I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.
The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.
There was no "Release spirit?" prompt this time.
He looked down as his body quietly slumped next to Nagini.
He was about to shout in anger when he saw the unraveling thread from Nagini's body.
It seemed to go north and west towards London.
It was the silver of a patronus or a memory from the pensieve in his black and white death vision.
With a thought Harry floated to the thread and as it was about to snap grabbed a hold of it.
It felt like a Wronski feint as he was suddenly dragged up and out over the air.
The thread was obviously being retracted to wherever it originated as Harry was dragged along.
It was almost like a portkey that he flew above London and started descending into what looked like a manor in west Cambridge.
Harry was still holding on to it when the thread snapped into the head of Voldemort.
Even with all his powers Harry couldn't help but stop short in front of the inhuman monster.
Tom obviously couldn't see him as he sat on his throne.
There were 6 witches and wizards sitting around the table.
Harry was standing immaterial halfway through the table but no one was paying attention.
There seemed to be no sound even though Bellatrix had just opened her mouth.
-'Well Damn, that would have been a good spying method.' Harry said dejectedly.
He slapped his hands over his mouth to try to catch the words back.
He stood still for a minute in the hopes that they hadn't heard him.
When it was obvious that the silence went both ways he moved again.
Trying not to touch anyone he gingerly stepped out of the ghostly table.
HE recognized some of the people sitting around as the ones that attacked them at the ministry but most of them were complete strangers.
He was turning back to Tom when he noticed them.
There were four other strings floating from Tom's chest.
Each one was going in a different direction but they all angled more or less sharply from his body towards the north and west.
Could those be the soul shards Hermione had talked about?
Harry stepped slowly forward and extended his hand to the tallest one.
He froze has Tom turned his head in is direction.
If he hadn't been already dead he would have held his breath.
As it was he turned slowly to see a ghostly hand pass through his torso.
Someone had entered the room with a message.
Once Tom had passed his hand through Harry's heart and retrieved it he turned back to the assembled people before him and started speaking.
Steeling himself Harry grabbed a hold of the thread.
The room around him stayed the same but he could see a sort of tunnel o silvery light speeding over England.
It was spinning and speeding ever north until Harry Harry noticed a distinct deja vu to the landscape.
It was the track that the Hogwarts express took.
He was gratified to see the lake then the castle spin into view.
The tunnel seemed to slow down as it stopped on the seventh floor.
The door was not there but the thread seemed to pass through the wall and into a room full of junk and other unnameable things.
The spinning ended as a small headband cam into view.
It was a band of silver with an emerald set in the front a small dangle in white crystal.
In his spirit form it was obvious that his was one of the links that Tom had used to keep himself alive.
Letting go of the thread Harry quickly grabbed hold of the next one.
The trip was quicker and unfamiliar.
It was only when the tunnel descended over a village that Harry was able to judge his location.
This was little hangleton. The manor stood at the end of town but unlike what he expected the thread went into the woods on the other side.
He was trying to memorize the landmarks when they stopped in a clearing.
The shack they entered had obviously not been designed to stand the rigors of time.
He passed through the walls then the floor into a dirt floor basement.
The thread continued into a cauldron at the far end of the room and as Harry watched the gray liquid parted to reveal a small onyx ring.
A diadem, an Onyx ring.
The third thread was a short flight it seemed.
It skimmed over London until Harry noticed that Diagon Alley was coming up. Skimming low over the shops they entered Gringotts through the ceiling and started going down.
Harry gaped when he noticed the shafts that seemed to go directly from the offices down to the vaults.
He turned around just in time to see the vault number flash before him. Vault 362. Good to know he thought.
The vault itself was a simple affair with mostly gold and golden items.
What really drew his attention was of course the goblet sitting on the floor.
The thread attached o it firmly.
A diadem, an Onyx ring, A golden cup.
Time to find out what the last one was.
Harry gripped the last thread with determination.
He was shocked to see the tunnel extend into London proper.
He couldn't stop the look of surprise as he saw Grimmauld Place come into view.
He was just as stumped when he entered the house and stopped on the third floor.
The curio cabinet from last year was still there.
And in it was a locket with a gray S on the cover.
Harry let go of the thread and took a step back.
The arrogance of his enemy was beyond anything he could have imagined. He had actually hidden one of his prized anchors inside the headquarters of his enemies.
And not just in some vault somewhere, no. He had put it on display in the middle of the house.
-'Oh well Tom, I guess you couldn't have seen that one coming.' Harry grinned as he opened his backpack.
The hearthstone was sitting there just like he left it. Still keyed to Dalaran.
With a thought he activated it. In the game he couldn't have since he was dead but it looked like here the rules were just a bit different.
With a flash Harry found himself in the inn.
The droning of hundreds of players made a reassuring background noise as he turned to the door.
Obviously he was still a ghost here but there were spirit healers in Dalaran.
He started running through the street. There was still time hopefully to get back to the world and warn them.
The hunt itself should be easy. I could teleport … No, apparate, he mentally corrected, to those locations I just saw. Ironically the hardest one will be the Hogwarts one.
He stopped in front of the spirit healer and quickly thought at the flying angel.
With a brief flash of colors he found himself standing back in the colored world.
First repair my armor then go.
Pulling his backpack out of the nether he rode to the armorer near the flight point.
Almost 50 gold coins later he was standing once again in pristine armor.
-'Now the moment of truth.' Harry pulled out his backpack and selected the Dean's laptop item in it.
He grinned as the light coalesced around him and he disappeared again.
The light disappeared and once again he felt the real air brush over his body.
Harry looked down.
-'At least this time I checked before traveling halfway through England on a dragon.' He chuckled.
Opening his backpack he once again materialized the normal clothing Ron had given him.
Opening his spellbook he used the teleport spell directly to Grimmauld place.
The living room was reasonably crowded as he materialized by the fireplace.
-'Harry!' Mrs Weasley was only beat by a fraction of a second as Hermione exclaimed.
-'Hey guys.' Harry grinned at both women.
-'Where were you?' Ron asked anxiously.
-'Believe it or not I just got killed by Nagini.' He gently pushed Hermione away so he could make his way to the door.
-'What?'
He idly wondered how many people in the room had used magic in their voice to shout this.
-'Snape came here earlier,' He paused to gauge the expressions around him. 'And he told me how Voldemort became immortal.' He made his way to the door. 'It's a bit complex but essentially he made anchors for his soul.' He opened it and gestured for everyone to follow him. 'Those can actually be destroyed and when that happens he can be killed and won't be able to come back.' He made his way up the stairs to where he knew the curio cabinet was. He turned once on the landing to check that everyone was following him with curious faces.
-'But how did you die?' Remus asked from right behind him.
-'Well Professor Snape told me that Nagini was one of those anchors and he also told me how I could get to it.' He opened the room to the room and made a bee line for the curio cabinet.
-'Was it a trap?' Hermione asked suspiciously.
-'What?' He half turned to her. 'Oh no, no it wasn't he warned me of exactly who there would be but Nagini got a bite in before I could finish her so I died from the poison.'
-'I think the …'
-'...question everyone wants ….'
-'...to ask Harry is how ….'
-'... did you manage to ….'
-'... Come back from the dead?'
-'Again.' Ginny added meaningfully.
-'Same as last time actually, I arrived in my spirit form in Dalaran. I just asked a spirit healer to resurrect me.' He carefully opened the cabinet. Right there in front of him was the next piece of that puzzle.
-'And you used Dean's laptop to come back?' Hermione tried to see what he was looking at.
-'Exactly.' He used his sleeve to grab the locket. Closing the door he turned around. 'You'll be happy to know that I arrived naked again so it wasn't a one time thing.'
-'What's that Harry?' Remus stared at the gingerly held locket.
-'Believe it or not Tom actually put a piece of his soul here.' Harry answered grimly.
Ron and his mother took a hurried step back at this.
It was George and Fred's admiring looks that surprised him the most.
-'No way!' They said in unison.
-'Harry, he wouldn't hide a piece of his soul in the middle of his enemies strong...' Hermione trailed off.
-'Of course he would Hermione.' Fred answered.
-'We hate him as much as you do of course,' George continued.
-'But this is exactly like him.'
-'They're right Hermione. As a matter of fact they're even more right then you think since another one's hidden inside Hogwarts.'
-'No way!' Ron exclaimed.
Grinning at the siblings similarity he turned to his best friend.
-'Yup, now we need to destroy this one and then we need to get the others as fast as we can.' He made his was gingerly to the door.
-'Why would we need to hurry Harry?' Mrs Weasley asked from behind Ron and Ginny.
-'Because Voldemort might know what we're up to and try to stop us.' Remus opened the door to let Harry through.
-'You think Snape will have told him?' Ginny asked as she pushed back from the thing in Harry's hand.
-'No, Professor Snape and I have a clear understanding. But we both agree that it's unlikely that he can't sense the fact that pieces of his soul are being destroyed one by one.' He smiled as Remus nodded along with this.
-'So how are you going to destroy this one Harry?'
-'I was thinking of going to the backyard, layering every single protection I know on myself and then hit with arcane blasts and missiles until it's a cloud of slowly expanding atoms.'
-'Sounds like a plan, do you need any help?' Fred asked as he followed him down the stairs.
-'Just be ready to move as soon as we're done with this. There are 3 others and one of them is in Gringotts.' He continued down the stairs as he heard the shocked gasps behind him.
They had managed to catch up to him as he stepped into the small backyard of the property.
The noon light shone down on him as he set the necklace on a handy log roughly in the middle of the yard.
Harry opened his backpack and started putting on his armor.
Once the blue cloth totally encased him he opened his spell book and layered the armors and protections he had learned.
The raised intellect came as a welcome addition. It let his thoughts slide as if on oil casters. He could remember the flight through the upper layers of Gringotts and as he looked at the necklace a plan began to form.