Check first chapter for disclaimers and warnings.
XX – JudgementSeven years of Hogwarts classes didn't teach Harry anything that would help defeating a wizard like Voldemort. With the help of Ron and Hermione, he tried to find ideas elsewhere.
Ron was of no help on the research itself, but he guarded their back when they were ensconced in books. And it was not an idle job, too, because he had had several scuffles on it.
Finally, they found something… in a muggle library, of all things. Armed with the proper name for the "final solution", they finally found it in the Ministry's hidden archives – which they penetrated easily: Voldemort was on the process of retaking the Ministry, and normal guards were either taken to other jobs or killed.
The Malleum Maleficarum, or the Hammer of Witches, is a spell designed to take care of truly powerful witches and wizards by having a Judgement performed on them. Generally, it required a ritual to increase the caster's power, involving the sacrifice of life, limb, or magic from people or powerful artifacts.
They suspected that the sacrifice of the Horcruxes were sufficient for their task.
No one really knew what happened when the Malleum was invoked, because either the target was dead, or the caster, but the survivor had nothing to say.
Harry invoked it. Everything went perfectly well. And Voldemort died. And Harry awoke with a smile, but no further explanation. However, Hermione noticed something: the boy was now more assertive, going even to the point of seducing her. Not that she minded, because she had wanted that for a long time, only keeping Ron as a last resort.
Ron left, then, and Harry waved him goodbye just as he took Hermione to bed. It was short, and quite painful for a first time. And he cast a couple of spells before, and after. Hermione could have thought it was to prevent pregnancies, or cleaning.
But no.
He did the same with other girls, and Hermione noticed a pattern. But it was already too late. Those spells were power enhancement rituals, using the obvious sacrifice taken from his companions – not that they complained, because was the vanquisher of the Big Bad Evil Guy, twice over.
And after noticing the pattern, and searching in her memories, she didn't see where Harry could have learned of such rituals.
She asked him.
He frowned. He looked at her carefully.
She noticed that his eyes were not the same green as before. Specks of red were starting to invade the irises. Her own eyes widened in shock.
His frown deepened and he sighed. "Hermione…" he whispered. "You are truly the genius Harry had mentioned. You are. But you are too good for your own good."
"Are you going to kill me… Tom?" she asked.
He shook his head. "No. Harry opened my eyes. As Lord Voldemort, my methods and my allies were all wrong. Thanks to you, I'm whole again, and I know of other ways. More pleasurable. I'll be Minister, in a few years. And you'll be beside me, heading the Research Section of the Unspeakables. Or the whole Department of Mysteries."
Honestly, without the revelation, she would have been interested. But now… "How can I? And what happened to Harry?"
"Call me Harry, please. For all intents and purposes, I am him, now. I tried signing my old name with a blood quill. A test. It refused." A pause. "You asked what happened. Know that you started the Malleum ritual with the sacrifice of my remaining Horcruxes. That was foolish."
"But…"
"It was foolish because you asked to sacrifice parts of my soul to judge me. It was never yours as a bargain chip to send my soul to hell. And that gave me quite an edge, asides from restoring my sanity."
"What happened?"
"The Malleum has one rule: you don't talk about what happens there. But since you participated, I can tell you at least this: Harry gambled in order to send me on my next great adventure. And he lost, because I'm way more powerful that he is. He's now dead, and quite happy to be reunited to his loved ones (even if they aren't since he lost), and I was offered the choice of returning to either my old body, a mismatched part of magic, of his, a young man in the prime of his life."
"And the others… but that means… they all became more powerful soon after…"
"You are right. Perhaps the Malleum doesn't actually judge the target, but is rather an elaborate form of suicide where the invoker offers his own body to the target if he wants it. Especially as it was often used to target already powerful ones."
"Oh, Harry… what have I done?" she wailed, crying in her hands.
"Shh, now, Hermione. I'm here. There's nothing to fear. Obliviate!"
To be continued in next chapter: The World