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Fate: Emiya Night

Chapter38: Grim Old Place

July 1994
England: London
Grimmauld Place

It wasn't long before the summer holidays started and the school year came to a close. Sadly not everything was sunshine and rainbows despite what some would have you believe. The funeral for Remus Lupin came around and went as a quiet affair with only close friends attending. Hari was there of course despite not really knowing the man other than being his teacher and that he was apparently a close friend of his father and godfather. It wasn't long before Sirius claimed his lordship over the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black along with their family household in London known as Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. It was a dark and dirty house that was covered in dozens of interlocking wards though thankfully Sirius had powered them down so as not to harm anyone not of the Black bloodline.

Of course they needed to clean up the place first before even thinking about moving in…

"Fuck," Rin cursed harshly while holding her nose and leaning back away from the smell that lingered in the room in front of them. "What did you say your family did again?"

"You don't want to know," Sirius replied simply. "You really don't want to know."

"This is going to take forever to go through," Shirou said with a grimace as he too leaned away from the source of the smell.

"How did you even live in this house when you were a kid?" Rin asked the former criminal.

"It wasn't always this bad," Sirius answered with a disgruntled look. "My father had Kreacher regularly clean the place but when he died, my mother completely took over and it just went downhill from there."

"Maybe you shouldn't have freed Kreacher after all," Rin grumbled as she peered inside the room at the large assortment of dark artefacts littering the room. "A House-elf would certainly come in handy when getting rid of all this junk."

"Are you kidding? I'm glad that I got rid of him when I did," Sirius countered. "The little bugger can go and die for all I care. Speaking of people that can go and die, thank you Shirou for getting rid of my loving mother's portrait. I really didn't want to deal with her ever again, especially after she died back in eighty-five."

"You're welcome," Shirou nodded back as he recalled the moving and talking portrait of Walburga Black. That woman wasn't the most pleasant of people and it had taken Rulebreaker to remove the enchantments the portrait had on it just to get it off of the wall though it had the unanticipated side effect of 'stopping' her from moving and talking afterwards but no one was really complaining about that.

"So, who's going in first?" Rin asked the question while gesturing into the room. "Shirou?"

"…Fine," Shirou bowed his head in acceptance of his fate. 'Remember Shirou, there is nothing wrong with helping someone.'

Such is the fate of a hero…

Astoria Greengrass groaned in disgust as she put down a large box filled with all kinds of dark junk that they had found littering the cupboards on the higher floors. Her sister Daphne and Hari were on the other side of the room shifting through the piles of artefacts and sorting them into what was being kept and what was being sold off. They'd been that this on and off since they first entered this Merlin-forsaken house and it was starting to weigh on her.

After the whole incident with Riddle being fully incarnated and 'killing' Hari, Astoria had promised herself that she would help the youngest of the Emiya brothers. She and her sister had talked to Rin about it and the new Head of the Tohsaka Family had told them that the Emiya brothers didn't think like regular people. Rin had explained to them about what happened to Shirou and Hari thirteen years ago at the end of the Fourth Grail War. She'd told them about the fire that claimed most of Fuyuki city and how their father had rescued them from the blaze only to die five years later after entrusting his ideals to them.

Where Shirou inherited their father's ideal of 'Salvation,' Hari had instead mutated the man's ideal into that of 'Protection' of those around him. The Greengrass sisters had accepted that and vowed to keep Hari from losing himself. Rin had told them that she and the rest of the Fuyuki group had done the same thing for Shirou. There was no changing them, they could only do what they could for them and try to help out whenever possible.

"I can't believe that I'm related to these people," Hari spoke up as he picked up a box filled with what looked like someone's intestines and then placed it down with the rest of the 'thrown out' items. "What kind of family does stuff like this?"

"The worst of the pureblood families," Daphne answered replied with a disgusted look. It was families like the Blacks and Malfoys that gave all purebloods a bad name. "Don't you agree Astoria?" she asked but received no reply. "Astoria?"

Astoria herself wasn't really paying attention to them but was instead looking over at glass case with a small green and silver locket inside it. Her mind started to become a haze as she took a step towards it and then another. It felt like Tom Riddle's diary with that same luring temptation that lingered at the back of her mind, whispering sweet nothings in her ear and telling her to do something. She reached out towards the glass case and the locket within as her mind went black.

"Astoria!" Hari's shout brought her back to reality and she realised that Daphne had grabbed her hand.

"Are you okay?" Daphne asked worriedly.

"N-no," Astoria responded as she shook herself and stepped back. "T-that locket, it's the same as Riddle's diary."

"The diary?" Hari blinked in surprise before looking over at the locket. "A Horcrux? Here?"

"We need to tell the others about this."

July 1994
England: London
Diagon Alley

Tom Marvolo Riddle walked quickly, striding through Diagon Alley and forcing himself not to sneer at the number of Mudblood filth investing the area. It had been three months since his escape from Hogwarts and since then he had spent most of his days at the Gaunt Shack in Little Hangleton where his mother's family had lived while they were alive. Though he had no knowledge of other Horcruxes that his main self may have created after him, he recalled that Slytherin's Ring resided at the Gaunt Shack and had decided to use it as a temporary base of operations for the time being.

Of course it wasn't long before he started venturing out into London and discovered that somehow the accursed brat Harry Potter had survived the killing curse that Tom had cast on him during his escape. Tom had been infuriated that the brat still refused to die when he was supposed to and recalled the brief battle between them. Tom had known that something strange was going on when their wands had somehow connected in a spiritual sense when they tried casting at each other and he was determined to find out why it occurred.

That's why he was here in Diagon Alley today…

He knew only one man that might have the answers to his questions…

Tom stood in front of the Ollivanders wand shop and cast a concealment charm on himself before stepping inside. The old shop itself was rather dusty and filled with hundreds of wands, seemingly of every kind available. In his youth Tom had gotten the wand that he currently held in his hand right now from this shop and the same man who had sold it to him was standing behind the counter. Ollivander looked up in surprise and took note of Tom's presence a moment too late.

"Crucio," Riddle incanted as he raised his wand and struck the old man with the Cruciatus curse.

Garrick Ollivander didn't know what was going on; one moment he was surprised to feel his shop's wards register someone entering but were unable to detect their name and the next moment he was on his back screaming at the indescribable pain that had consumed him. He was only under the curse for a few seconds before it ended but to him it had felt like an eternity. When it was over, he looked up at his attacker and strained as his eyes widened at seeing a face that he recognised.

"Y-you-" Garrick struggled to get out in fear.

"Hello Mister Ollivander," Riddle sneered down at him. "I have a few questions for you, and you will answer them."

"H-how a-are y-you h-here?" Garrick rasped out. "W-why h-have y-you c-come b-back?"

"I am the one in need of answers, not you," Riddle responded before grabbing the man's neck and hauling him into the back of the shop. "This is what is going to happen, if you tell me what I want to know then you live, and if you don't then I will torture you until your mind breaks before killing you."

"T-Tom-" Garrick started only to start screaming as the torture curse struck him again.

"Crucio," Riddle snarled hatefully. "Never use that name," he told the old man before releasing the curse. He may be Tom Riddle but he was only using that name to differentiate himself from his main soul piece. He considered himself to be the 'real' Lord Voldemort and wouldn't allow anyone to get away with calling him by that filthy muggle name. "Now, I recently tried to kill Harry Potter and for some reason our wands connected at the spiritual level. What do you know of it?"

"A c-connection y-you s-say? I-it i-is m-most l-likely t-to b-be t-the P-priori I-incantatem e-effect," Garrick gasped out in response. "I-it h-happens w-when t-two w-wands w-with c-cores f-from t-the s-same s-source c-clash a-again e-each o-other a-and t-try t-to f-force t-the o-other t-two s-submit."

"I see," Riddle mused. "Can it be overcome?"

"Y-you m-must s-simply u-use a-another w-wand," Garrick answered truthfully. It was such a rare phenomenon that he had never even heard of anyone developing a way to work around it other than simply getting another wand that didn't have a core from the same source in it.

"Good," Riddle smiled knowing that there were plenty wands in the shop that he could take right now. "Avada Kedavra," he incanted as a flash of green light snuffed the life out of the old shop-owner.

Riddle took his time combing the shop for the wand that worked just right for him, even going so far as to try out Garrick's own wand. In the end he decided on a wand with a dragon heartstring core and then proceeded to set the shop on fire to cover up his latest crime. He left the blazing building before the Aurors showed up and knew that when they inspected the area they would presume that Garrick caught in it and died instead of being murdered with a killing curse.

Deciding that he needed a place to stay for a while and that the Gaunt Shack was far too close to Riddle Manor for his liking, he entered Knockturn Alley. His destination was Borgin & Burkes, a shop that he used to work at before when he was searching for any information on artefacts that were once owned by the Four Founders of Hogwarts. Riddle proceeded to have a brief discussion with Mister Borgin and then moved into the flat above the shop soon after.

July 1994
Scotland: Forbidden Forest
Acromantula Colony

Altrouge Brunestud smiled widely as her claws swiped down and tore through the head of the last Acromantula that inhabited the Forbidden Forest. The leaders of the colony, Aragog and Mosag lay dead behind her as pieces of Acromantula were scattered all around the area. They may have bred themselves an army but to her, they were nothing more than an afternoon's entertainment, and not that much of one either. She'd slaughtered them all, crushing them like they were regular bugs, and hadn't even needed to call forth Primate Murder to aid her.

"I thought that I'd find you here," an amused voice spoke up from behind her. "You're a difficult person to track down, Altrouge."

"Kishur Zelretch Schweinorg," Altrouge mused as she half-turned to face him. "What brings the Kaleidoscope to my neck of the woods?"

"I was stopping by to say hello," Zelretch answered with a smile.

"I was wondering when you would," Altrouge said having guessed that the old man would track her down eventually.

"How've you been?" Zelretch asked her. "Keeping yourself entertained I hope?"

"Yes," Altrouge replied with a grin. "I've found this rather interesting little mortal that simply refuses to die when he should."

"Harry Potter I presume?" Zelretch mused. "Or should that be Hari Emiya? I've seen a few realities where he wasn't taken in by the Magus Killer and was forced to grow up with his magic-hating mundane aunt's family. He's an interesting one no doubt, but he is more often than not lied to and misled, surviving only by dumb luck."

"So what makes this one so different, I wonder?" Altrouge chuckled knowingly.

"The Fuyuki city fire," Zelretch answered having long since deduced just what had happened to the boy. "Like Fiendfyre, the fire itself was tainted by corruption and darkness. Though unlike that curse, the fire was born from Angra Mainyu, the Dark God that embodied all the world's evil. It attached itself to the soul fragment belonging to Voldemort within the boy and changed him. His brother Shirou would have suffered a similar fate had the Magus Killer not sealed Avalon within him."

"You mean Ahura Mazda's incarnation," Altrouge shot back. "Shirou Emiya, the newest Sorcerer of the First Magic and the man responsible for the merging of the two worlds."

"You are well informed," Zelretch nodded in confirmation.

"Gaia wasn't happy about what happened," Altrouge shrugged seemingly unconcerned.

"And Alaya?" Zelretch inquired further.

"Was pissed beyond belief but thankfully her Counter Force fixed the mess," Altrouge answered with a wide smile.

"The Counter Force is still active even with everything that has happened," Zelretch sighed. "Angra Mainyu may have been neutralised by Shirou but that was just one of the many threats currently working to bring an end to the human race and the world. Voldemort is the most dangerous at the moment and of course Hari is the one that Alaya chose to take care of him."

"It's only a matter of time," Altrouge responded. "The Sixth Holy Grail War is only a year away, and I want to see what little Hari-kun does when the time comes."

"While I do not completely understand your fascination with the boy," Zelretch started with his own smile. "My bet is placed on another."

"Another?" Altrouge narrowed her eyes and Zelretch's smile widened. "You mean the werewolf girl?"

"You'll have to wait and see, my little Eclipse Princess."

Author's Notes:

That's the third year finished and a bit of the summer holidays too. As you can see Sirius has attained his lordship of the Black family and the Fuyuki group in Britain have moved into Grimmauld Place. Of course it needs a bit of cleaning done, and of course we get a look at what good old Tom has been up to since his escape from Hogwarts. On another note Zelretch has finally been able to track down Altrouge and talk to her, something that he's been trying to do since he first heard the goblins mention her ages ago.

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