AN: And another chapter's up fairly quickly! Woohoo! Anyway, just a note about Vritra and Herakles in this chapter: The former builds flesh of earth/stone/etcetera around the skeleton, and the latter looks like geodude the pokemon. That's all, and hopefully the next chapter is the last of this book. You'll get to see a spar between Harry, Reinforce, Loki, Isis, and Bast on one side, against Nanoha, Fate, Hayate, Yuuno, and Chrono during the summer break, okay?
Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN
Chapter 25 – Valentine's Day
Fate Testarossa Harlaown came downstairs one night - simply to get a mug of hot chocolate to help her sleep, her nightmares had been playing up again – to find her mother, Lindy and not Precia, still awake, seemingly writing up reports or something.
"Fate, is that you?" Lindy called out, having noticed her daughter was up and about.
"Yes, I was just going to put the kettle on and make some hot chocolate." She replied.
"Make one for me, would you?" Lindy requested. "I could do with taking a break from all this."
Fate nodded and went into the kitchen. She filled the kettle with water and turned it on, then grabbed two mugs, a spoon, and the hot chocolate powder. After putting four heaped spoonfuls of powder in each mug, she went to stand in the doorway so she could talk to Lindy while waiting for the water to boil.
"What is it you're doing, if I'm allowed to ask?" Fate wondered.
Lindy sighed. "A couple things, really. One is the report that I'm still putting together regarding Reinforce, including the situation she's in with Harry. The second report is on the 'Wizarding World' on Unadministrated World Number Ninety-Seven, and a third is about how it all ties together. Troublesome stuff, put simply."
Fate frowned, though there was a very slight tinge of pink to her cheeks at the mention of Harry. "Is it really that complicated? I remember my own... trial, and it was more focused on my intent during the incident, the conditioning my mother put me through, and what my sentence was to be."
"The TSAB is less than seventy years old, Fate, and that's rather young for something of its scale." Lindy explained. "Of course, this also means that the laws are open to interpretation, with no precedent to fall back on and compare it to. Added to that, things become even more murky as Reinforce, being a Unison Device, is classified as both a person in her own right as well as an advanced piece of technology. On Harry's part, he was exposed to Administrated Worlds, despite being a resident of an Unadministrated one, and there's the fact he's not part of an organisation at present, making him essentially freelance."
"Like myself, Nanoha, and Hayate are part of the TSAB now?" Fate asked. "Wouldn't Harry joining up solve that issue?"
"It's not that simple, Fate." Lindy shook her head tiredly. "Harry is thinking about joining the TSAB, though he is somewhat leery of some of its practises, hiring such young individuals for example, and I'll admit that things would be easier for me if he would just join up, but he can't."
"There's the proficiency tests you go through, I know about those." Fate commented. "And a criminal record is no barrier, my service is counted as part of my punishment for the Jewel Seed incident... Is it because he's connected to the currently unknown magical population of Earth?"
"Partially." Lindy replied. "It's also partially because Harry is somehow deeply connected to Reinforce, their cores almost being one, and thus his existence is hard to classify. On top of that, he is a major celebrity amongst 'wizards', and as a group the TSAB has no connections with, we have to tread carefully."
Lindy shook her head and yawned lightly. Fate disappeared into the kitchen, having heard the kettle boil, and soon returned with the hot chocolate for the both of them.
"Harry's also sent me a rather... disturbing report about something he found, and if he's right about certain things, it paints a pretty grim and unpleasant picture." Lindy continued, looking rather serious, and somewhat disgusted, by something.
"What was in the report?" Fate asked, concern showing in her voice.
Lindy clicked her tongue for a moment, considering whether to tell Fate or not. Then she considered things, if anyone would be able to understand Harry's problem, it would be Fate, especially given the circumstances surrounding her own existence.
"Alright, I'll tell you, but don't spread this around, okay?" Fate nodded. "Well, to begin with, despite the entire Wizarding World believing them dead, Harry's parents are apparently alive, and he has siblings. Now, this is where strange things begin; according to Harry's birth certificate, he was stillborn, born dead."
"But he's alive, isn't he? Was he revived somehow?" Fate questioned, but Lindy shook her head.
"No, when a magical midwife signs the certificate as dead, you can be damn well sure they are dead, but as you said, Harry is most definitely alive. Now, Harry, while he's been researching all sorts of regular and exotic magic, has also learned a lot of forbidden and restricted magic, particularly necromancy." Lindy winced at Fate's horrified expression.
"Harry believes that his parents used a necromantic art, one that he's thoroughly researched, to animate his newborn corpse and give it a semblance of life. They also, he thinks, created what are known as 'flesh golems' to stand in for themselves when Voldemort came and 'murdered' them. Now, for the next bit, you need to know about another revolting necromantic creation called a 'horcrux'." Lindy paused, giving her daughter a quick look over.
Fate looked slightly sickened at the thought of the Potters using necromancy on their own child, but she was still listening attentively, obviously wondering just what a 'horcrux' was.
"Now, a horcrux is a fragment of someone's soul. Via a ritual that requires the sacrifice of one deemed an 'innocent', which usually refers to a young child, one is able to rip a piece of your soul off and attach it to an object. As long as a horcrux still exists, the creator cannot die a true death, and a side-effect of creating a horcrux makes them nigh invulnerable, with only a few things able to damage or destroy them." Lindy grimaced at the thought.
"So Voldemort made a horcrux then?" Fate muttered.
"He made at least three that we are aware of for certain, and two are now being kept in Harry's possession. He intended to make six, and Harry's wondering if he was accidentally turned into one." At Fate's sharp look, Lindy elaborated.
"The necromantic spells that would have been used to animate Harry's body would only give the semblance of life, not actually creating it, yet Harry is truly alive, there's no denying that. Harry's theory is that the soul fragment that Voldemort accidentally embedded in him might have reacted to the necromancy, 'creating' a soul to make him alive. Now, the complicated bit comes when Harry and Reinforce first met." Lindy explained Harry's theory.
"The merging with Reinforce may have strained that fragment to breaking point, shattering it. However, with Reinforce around, there was a 'soul' of sorts in Harry's body still, hers. The fragment of Voldemort's soul, which could have become 'disconnected' from the whole, would still be around though, and it's his belief that it fused with the remains of NachtWal that Rein still possessed to create a rudimentary soul in and of itself. That still isn't quite enough to fully support a body though, not after the fragment had shattered, and Harry's core is now almost completely fused with Reinforce's own. It's one of the main reasons she can't unison with anyone but him." Lindy finished, knocking back the last of her hot chocolate.
"That's..." Fate began to speak, but trailed off, not quite sure what to say to that.
"Unpleasant and depressing, I know." Lindy finished dryly. "It also makes things a lot more complicated for my reports, as if they weren't bad enough already. Still, if I try and promote Harry as our primary, and actually only, contact with the Wizarding World at present, and he's a package deal with Rein... I think I can make things work."
Fate nodded her head. "I hope so too."
Lindy rolled her eyes and smirked slightly. "Doesn't stop the work being a pain in the ass though, does it?" She snorted.
xxxxx
Amelia Bones was, in a word, frustrated.
She had known since that morning that things wouldn't be easy that day, and by Merlin she was right. Her job was normally stressful enough, what with the inter-department politics that were a standard of the Ministry of Magic, the sometimes incompetent subordinates, and miscommunication between different parts of the DMLE. No, it was worse, and it had all started with a message from Harry Potter.
When later asked, Amelia would deny almost jumping out of her skin when she found Loki waiting for her in her office that morning – obviously, she had almost cursed him, and had held herself back admirably! Yes, that was the story, and she was sticking with it – but she would still admit it was a surprise.
Loki's expression though, made it abundantly clear this wasn't a friendly social visit. He had handed her a folder, before disappearing via a suddenly appearing magical triangle beneath his feet, claiming he had several tasks that he needed to get done.
Amelia had checked her inbox, and found that there thankfully hadn't been too much happening overnight. She decided to see just what this folder Loki had handed her had been all about, after checking it for curses and hexes of course, a sensible amount of paranoia never killed anyone.
What she'd found was rather disturbing. She'd been a little confused at first about why it was talking about 'Tom Riddle', at least until she found out that it was Voldemort's true name, at which point she went over everything in the folder with a sharp eye.
There were several sections that were fairly normal, detailing several parts of his schooling for some reason, with quite a focus on Horace Slughorn, and several sections devoted to his blood-related family, muggles with the surname 'Riddle', as well as the now extinct 'Gaunt' family.
It was when she came to, what she believed to be, the most important part of the folder that she had to read it again several times just to make sure she understood what she'd seen. Horcruxes, Voldemort had created horcruxes, plural! Of course, without the explanation, Amelia wouldn't have known what a horcrux was, nor the significance of it, but with it written right in front of her, there was simply no denying it.
With that bit of information now available to her, Amelia went back over earlier sections of the folder with a greater understanding. The sections about Riddle's schooling made frequent mention of names, most of them known Death Eaters, or 'Imperius victims'. Slughorn was highlighted as someone who may easily have had knowledge about the subject of horcruxes, and the file made it obvious that Tom was a favoured student of his, meaning the man may well know more about this.
After that, Amelia went over the records of the Riddle family again, specifically the part about their deaths, and how Morfin Gaunt, the last of his family, was believed to be the killer, though there notes there about several minor inconsistencies.
Amelia didn't know what to do about all of this. Obviously, they needed to hunt down these 'horcruxes' wherever and whatever they were, but just how did one go about doing something like that? How do you find a piece of someone's soul or the object that contained it?
Then there was the issue of the public, and whether to reveal this or not. For obvious reasons, the knowledge about horcruxes, even simply that such a thing can be made should not be broadcast to the world, but keeping it secret may do more harm than good.
On top of all that, there were all the Death Eaters that had either never been captured, or were released due to being 'under the imperius curse'. If word got out that their master was still around, and not actually dead, they may easily decide to step up their game, making things difficult, causing havoc, and goodness knows what else.
At present, it seemed like Harry Potter and his group were leading the charge. Somehow, they had managed to get their hands on two of the horcruxes Voldemort had created. Amelia was tempted to order him to hand them over to her, but honestly, what could she do with them?
Yes, she could destroy them, but Harry had just as much access to substances that could do as she did, and if the head of the DMLE was found looking for Basilisk venom, or was caught casting Fiendfyre... Yeah, that wouldn't be good, and Harry seemed to be able to stay under the radar in ways she couldn't.
Added to that, there was the simple fact that he'd managed to get hold of two of those creations, where Amelia wouldn't know how to go about finding even one. One of the horcruxes, a diary apparently, had been responsible for the attacks at Hogwarts, so that was another case she could close now, but how had he found the other one? Had he somehow used the diary to locate it?
Yes, perhaps it was best to leave the search for the horcruxes in Harry's hands. She would make it known to him that his group had her support, and if ever there was something she could do to assist in locating and acquiring the objects in question, he should come to her about it. So long as he kept her informed, he could keep going as he was.
Perhaps she should get in contact with Hound, see if anyone in the Department of Mysteries knew anything about horcruxes, how to track them down, how to destroy them, and anything else that might be relevant. Yes, she would do that as soon as she could, and hopefully this whole thing could be done without causing a panic.
Well, she could hope, couldn't she?
xxxxx
Harry yawned lightly.
It had been a little more than two months since he found both horcruxes, and the response he'd gotten from Shamal had been promising. While she had not been able to fully tear the core out of the diadem, she had managed to rip chunks of it out, though it did regenerate itself.
She was working on an improved version of the spell that removed Linker Cores, something that she had never envisioned herself doing, that would tear the whole thing out in one go, breaking the bindings anchoring it. This would, in a mage, cause a quick, but very painful death, and it wasn't something she was going to share with anyone other than Harry and Reinforce, so they could do the same to any more fragments they found, it was just too unpleasant.
Lindy had been in contact as well, and she had let them know that she'd been sending out feelers amongst the higher ups to see who would support Harry and Rein, and who would be against them. She was hopeful that, within the next few months, she could submit her reports and the two of them would get off lightly, at the very least, though there always was the potential for things to go south.
Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate had all been coming along nicely with their witch lessons. Given the fact that all three of them were intelligent girls, the theory had been very easy to get through, and at a very rapid pace too. The practicals, as well, were coming along fairly well too, the girls putting in the time to get the wand motions down and practising the spells until they could almost do them silently.
Walking into the Great Hall, Harry almost walked into the back of Loki who had frozen in front of him. Confused, Harry looked up at him, and at seeing his horrified expression, then looked forwards and into the hall. His reaction was very similar to his raven familiar's.
"What. The. Hell?" Harry's eye twitched.
"Yeah, talk about tacky." Isis commented.
~This is Lockhart's work, isn't it?~ Reinforce asked.
"Ugly." Was Bast's own opinion.
"Shall we just turn around now? It is a Sunday after all." Loki asked, not at all enjoying the looks some of the upper year girls were throwing in his direction. Harry, as well, was also warily looking around, seeing looks sent both at him, as well as Isis and Bast too.
"We need to eat like anyone else." Harry muttered. "However, I think I'll be taking my meals in the kitchen for the rest of the day."
"I think I'll be joining you, Harry, the only one allowed to look at me like that is you." Isis said, snuggling into Harry, earning herself some unpleasant looks from Harry's fans, and Harry earning some from Isis' fans as well. Harry himself could only roll his eyes at the scantily clad unicorn's affection.
"Let's just eat quickly before something happens to make it worse..." Harry began, but then sighed, palming his face. "And there goes that idea." He grumbled, seeing Gilderoy Lockhart get to his feet, the man's clothes matching the decorations in the hall.
Yes, that's right, the Great Hall was decorated, and not tastefully either. Everything was a lurid pink or a vivid red, and most of it was heart shaped. There was confetti being sprinkled down by cupids, getting in everyone's food and drink, and soft 'romantic' music was coming from somewhere.
"Good morning, everyone!" Lockhart smiled widely at the hall. Almost every boy there glared back at him, joined by some of the girls. The rest of the females in the room, to Harry's horror, were giggling and blushing. Some were even batting their eyelashes at the boys (and in some cases girls) who they had their attention on.
"As I'm sure you've noticed, the Great Hall has been appropriately decorated for today, what with it being Valentine's Day." Gildery grinned. "And may I say a quick thank you to the forty-six amongst you who have already sent me a card."
"Forty-six?" Harry choked. "And just amongst the Hogwarts lot? There's less than three hundred students attending! That's a third of the girls here, assuming he didn't get any from guys too."
Harry would have continued his muttering, but Lockhart had already continued speaking.
"This isn't everything, however!" Lockhart declared, completely missing how several people, Harry included, had begun to twitch. "I have hired a small group of dwarves to deliver your valentines to each other, and so may I introduce my friendly, card-carrying cupids."
Harry slowly turned around as a group of dwarves – short, burly, and heavily bearded people – walked into the room. They were wearing what was essentially a giant diaper each, and had harps on their backs. The look... well, it was one of the most mentally scarring things Harry had ever seen!
"Damn, I know the dwarves are having troubles right now, but for them to agree to this..." Loki shook his head. "I wonder how much he's paying them?"
"What was that about them having troubles?" Isis asked curiously.
Loki shrugged. "Well, dwarves are miners and blacksmiths primarily. However, they have to be careful their mines don't hit human ones, restricting them. On top of that, Goblins have kind of cornered the market in terms of blacksmithing, though the dwarves are much better at most aspects of crafting than they are. It's one of the major reasons that the dwarves and goblins fight so much."
"Yeah, nice explanation and all, but I think it's time to leave." Harry glanced at the dwarves. "I think one of them has already got something with my name on it given how he's looking right at me."
Isis and Bast also saw the looks, and proceeded to grab Harry and flee.
Loki shrugged his shoulders before speeding off after them.
xxxxx
"Summon: Beelzebub the Swarm." Harry muttered once they'd gotten themselves situated in the kitchens.
Suddenly, two thousand metal insect golems appeared around Harry, before flying off, earning Harry a few curious looks from his familiars. Isis was the one to ask why he had done it.
Harry shrugged. "Partially, it's a test. The swarm all shares one mind, so what one sees, they all do. I think that would make it a good summon for scouting. Given that they can also record what they see and hear only makes it better. Unfortunately, being so small, they can't handle too much magic, limiting what spells can be attached to their stingers. At the moment, they're only equipped with a wizard-style stunning spell."
"You're using them to keep an eye out for any dwarves heading this way, aren't you?" Loki asked, a small smirk of amusement on his face.
"Pretty much." Harry nodded. "Still a good test run for this particular summon, if I do say so myself."
"Sensible." Bast nodded. "They're small, making them difficult to see, and who really pays attention to insects? I approve, master."
Reinforce decided to make an appearance, and sat next to Harry, giving him a small smile of her own. "Yeah, and considering the metal they're made from generates a small AMF, it means purely magical shields aren't as effective against them as they should be. They're very much a scout/assassination style golem. How are the others coming along?"
Harry drew a handful of metal cards out of one of his belt pouches. "Well, Siegfried the Knight is done. That's a basic, humanoid golem with a shield and sword. Beelzebub the Swarm, as you can see, seems to be working fine. Dante the Cannon needs testing, that's basically a walking cannon with eight legs. Vritra the Serpent needs some work doing to it, and I need to finish making Herakles the Horde as well."
Isis raised an eyebrow. "What are those last two, I don't remember you working on them recently?"
"You know I've been etching runes into the basilisk skeleton I have, right?" There were several nods at Harry's question. "Well, that's the basis of Vritra. Essentially, the runes 'attract' material towards the skeleton, so the body is formed out of whatever materials are nearby, like earth for example, or stone. What I want with Vritra, is for it to 'attract' material at the front, and expel it at the back, essentially making it a nigh-undetectable tunneller."
"Useful, and with it forming its body out of what's around it, it can easily 'regenerate' from damage, and I'd imagine it takes a lot less mana to bring out, right?" Loki asked, getting agreement from Harry. "So, what's the 'Horde'?"
"Nothing special really. It's just a bunch of floating balls with arms. I made them to help me mark out alchemical arrays and for experiments I'd rather not be two close too, just in case something goes wrong. They are incredibly strong, and have amazing endurance, but they are very basic in their design. That, of course, means that I can produce a large number of them rather quickly, though I'm not really sure how many of them I'll make yet." Harry explained.
Isis was about to open her mouth and ask another question, but the door to the kitchen chose that moment to fly open, with a student, breathing heavily, quickly coming through and slamming it behind him. Seeing that Harry showed no surprise at the sight of him, the others guessed that Beelzebub had told him about the approaching kid.
The kid glanced around and saw Harry and his group there, before freezing.
"Sit down if you're going to." Harry called out to him. "The horde of females chasing you has been... redirected."
Truthfully, Harry had simply had some of Beelzebub's swarm gather between the kid and the girls chasing him, cutting them off until he was out of sight. Seeing that from the point of view of almost four hundred insects had been, one, confusing and slightly headache inducing, and two, rather amusing.
"Thank you." The kid sighed in relief, slumping down against the closed door.
"Who are you?" Bast asked, placing herself between him and Harry, just in case. She wished she had a device with which to fight, but she didn't have one yet. She had discussed designs with Harry, who had had Fawkes flame him to the guy who'd made his device, putting down an order. The guy was busy though, and had apparently had an increase in business, so she would have to wait until he got through it all, probably another month, before she got her device.
"Cedric Diggory." Loki answered in his place. "Hufflepuff fourth year, and likely candidate for Prefect next year. He actually has a fan club amongst the female students, quite a large one spread over all four houses, and has been marked down as 'perfect boyfriend material' by a lot of people. It doesn't hurt that he's from a fairly rich family and that his father, Amos Diggory, who works for the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, has a fair bit of influence to his name."
Cedric grimaced slightly at that. "Dad's always saying I should be glad of all the attention, it shows that I'm a 'man worth chasing'. It's even worse when he brags about it to his friends."
"Don't like the attention, huh?" Harry chuckled.
"And you don't seem to like yours either." Cedric commented right back. "There are rumours going around that you're building your own army of animals and transforming them into people."
"That's it? Huh, sounds rather tame for a rumour." Harry shook his head.
"Well... there are those that think you're building yourself, and I quote, 'a harem of sub-human filth to further betray the pureblood roots of the Potter family'." Cedric blinked, realising what he'd just said. "I don't mean anything by that, it's just what I heard." He hastened to add.
"Don't worry about it, you're not the one spreading those rumours, are you?" Cedric shook his head. "Then it isn't you who's at fault, and honestly, I can see how someone would think that, both Isis and Bast are rather attractive, though I'm sorry to say, Loki, you're just not my type." Harry directed that last bit at his only male familiar.
Loki gave a theatrical sigh and swoon. "Oh, woe is me, my master does not wish for the pleasures of my flesh, whatever shall I do?" He laughed, before patting Harry on the shoulder. "Don't worry though, I am sure I'll find another to lie with me, and maybe more than one."
"A ladies man, you are not." Isis shook her head at the raven.
"Try telling that to all the girls who were eyeing me like a slab of meat back in the Great Hall." Loki shot back.
Cedric's brow creased in confusion as he watched the interactions going on within Harry's group. This... wasn't what he thought things would be like with them. Everyone in Hogwarts thought that the familiars would be, well, deferential towards Harry, obedient.
Of course, Cedric imagined that if Harry gave an order, they would follow it, but without that, Loki was a somewhat sarcastic, sharp-witted guy, with a twinkle of humour and amusement in his eyes that reminded Cedric of Fred and George Weasley. Isis had obvious affection for Harry, and he wasn't ordering her to be that way like some of the rumours claimed, and from the looks of things, she enjoyed the battle of wits she was having with Loki.
Bast, the newest addition to Harry's little group, was no longer standing directly between Harry and himself, but Cedric could see she was keeping one eye on him and even the house elves at all times. She was also keeping rather close to Harry, like a bodyguard or something.
Wait... who was that silver-haired, red-eyed woman who was also with them?
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Cedric asked, looking directly at Reinforce. "I don't think I've seen you around, are you also a new familiar of Harry's?"
The group froze, having gotten so comfortable they had forgotten that Reinforce still wasn't known to the school at large, and she had been hiding herself from them.
"Not exactly." Reinforce replied. "I am, I suppose you could say, something of a... guardian to Harry?" She rapidly thought about how she should word this. "I've been with him for several years now, but I normally keep myself hidden, watching over him and helping him as I did so."
"You don't want me to tell people about this, do you?" Cedric bluntly stated.
Sighing, Reinforce decided to be just as blunt as he was. "No. While we're not going to try and mess with your head or memories, we really don't want my presence to become known. There are people here that I don't fully trust, and I like to think of myself as an 'ace up the sleeve' that would be able to tip things in Harry's favour."
"Okay." Cedric replied easily.
"Wait, what?" Loki asked. "You're going to just accept things like that?"
"She's been with Harry for years, right? That means she was here last year, true?" The fourth year questioned them.
"That is correct." Harry confirmed.
"And nothing bad happened to any of the students, and she didn't attack the staff either, did she?" Cedric pushed.
"She assisted me with the troll, and helped with other things, such as research." Harry admitted.
"So she actually helped keep the school safe." Cedric nodded.
"True..." Harry agreed. "She's still hiding herself, aren't you concerned about that?"
"No, I'm not." Cedric shook his head. "As long as she isn't doing anything bad, I see no reason to make trouble for her or you."
"That's a rather simple, though admittedly attractive, philosophy." Loki chuckled.
"I prefer the idea of 'If someone is trying to harm you, take preventative measures' myself." Harry shrugged, with Bast agreeing with Harry. "Still, it is a nice idea." He then remembered where they were and what day it was, before sighing. "And one of those 'preventative measures will be keeping valentines day cards and whatnot away from here, where I will be staying until evening."
"Do you mind if I join you? I'd rather not risk going back out there and running into a horde of fangirls." Cedric asked.
"Ones that Lockhart has whipped into a frenzy." Isis added on.
"Sure, come and sit with us. I'm just going over some designs and plans for some personal projects of mine, nothing much." Harry waved him over.
"And I've got some homework to get done, so I guess we'll both be busy." Cedric nodded, pulling things out of his bag and getting to work.
"Anything you need help with? I may not be in the same year as you, but with the amount I've read, I might have a few ideas about the theory at least." Harry offered.
"Harry, your already known for studying loads, not to mention already taking two electives. Any help you can give me will be much appreciated. I hate to admit it, but I'm pretty pants at Runes." Cedric accepted.
Harry chuckled. "Well, luckily for you, that's an area I excel in."