Key:
Italics and underlined = language of The Empire
§These markers and italics§ = Parseltongue
-OxOxO-
Saturday, October 17th, 2020:
With a large sigh and yet another look at his ever-moving surroundings, Harry tried to relax just a bit more. It was hard, with how… hectic things had been in the last few years, not to remain constantly vigilant on the off chance something suddenly popped into existence in front of him, but he had managed to relax a bit in the last few weeks.
Of course, these years didn't have anything on trying to sort out Britain after Voldemort's fall… but they came damn close.
First, the Calamity. It had threatened to reveal the Wizarding World more than anything else, besides certain… incidents leading up to the Second World War.
Even Voldemort had been smart enough not to reveal himself to the Muggle World, as evidenced by the fact that the Obliviators were given pay raises during his time ruling from the shadows.
That the things they had to cover up were several dozen times more violent and hateful than before didn't really seem to matter that much to them. They had taken the increase in their salary and kept things looking presentable to the international community.
He scowled, for a moment. More than just what the Calamity had nearly meant for the Wizarding World at large, he had had memories ripped away from him, only to receive them back at odd hours or during private moments.
He had been forced to witness himself being attacked by Dementors, Ron by Boggarts, and Ginny by snakes.
He grimaced at the memories and thoughts of it happening again, but he kept up his pace, trying to avoid making too much eye contact with the people around him. He really wished he could Apparate in Japan…
The Calamity had far-flung consequences that even Fawley hadn't been able to predict, too.
Trolls had gotten loose in Edinburgh.
A Hippogriff had maimed a pair of Muggles.
A Horned Serpent had caused chaos all along the southern coast of Ireland.
Dementors had suddenly appeared at Hogwarts. Those soul-sucking monstrosities had gotten into the school, and if Harry hadn't splinched himself breaking through the wards, they could have killed many of the students benignly eating lunch that day.
Thankfully, that particular event was now wrapped up, even if it wasn't as neat as he would have liked.
Only half a year ago, they'd finally figured out what the Calamity was, and they had released a special edition of the Daily Prophet declaring that, among the growing fear of their world being revealed, the Ministry had brought 'new evidence' to light about the London Five and detailing the lives of each of the people missing.
Using the Foundables of the London Five that appeared due to the general public's focus on them, they had figured out that Fawley's wife and the other four missing witches and wizards had been kidnapped.
Not for anything as esoteric as a dark ritual, either. Plainly, the bastards – who weren't Death Eaters, surprisingly – had wanted to blackmail the well-connected loved ones of the kidnapped wizards and witches.
Harry blinked, and he smiled.
He… well, he hadn't had fun, per se, but he had relished the chance to strike down those criminals. It wasn't often that he had gotten hard evidence, during those days when anything and everything you tried to tie down for research could disappear in an instant, and fighting in Fortresses got pretty repetitive, if not outright boring.
When they had retrieved her and the others and held her for questioning, Grim Fawley had turned himself in not ten minutes after the announcement of their rescue. Tearfully reunited with his wife, he was sentenced to Azkaban for life in under a week of trials, with probation and visitation rights after five years.
Harry had hoped, after those long years of sleepless nights and trying to combat hundreds of Confoundables, that things would remain calm for at least a year.
He snorted. Yeah right.
Not two months after they'd wrapped that up, Delphini Riddle had popped up, caused the timeline to be shuffled a handful of times in ways that made the Calamity look like a regular, non-magical playing card deck, killed Craig Bowker Jr., and attempted to save her father.
He shook his head in an attempt to forget all of that for a few moments and sighed happily.
Now, it was all done. She was locked up in Azkaban, with a dozen Aurors on duty guarding her and at least one former DA member nearby at all times, in addition to the other, Dementor-less defenses of the prison. Fawley was making amends by helping the Unspeakables learn more about his spell, and Harry…
Harry was on vacation.
He had rarely taken his vacation days. Or, at least, he'd rarely taken them abroad. Some from Hogwarts would either accuse him of becoming a workaholic or being possessed by Hermione, with how little time he took off relative to those that had held the position of Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the past, but…
He'd tried travelling for his vacations.
He hadn't liked the experience all that much.
A year after Voldemort's fall, he'd been invited to Ministries around Europe to train their Aurors. He and Ron and Ginny seen it as a great opportunity for relaxation, and Hermione had reminded him to try and learn at least a bit from all the places he was going.
It had been a total, complete bust. Everyone had wanted him to head a crack team of Aurors, go around and mop up a few of the foreign holdouts of the Death Eaters, and look nice for the papers.
He'd gone all around Europe, and while he treasured a few moments and memories he'd created, most of it had been one flavor or another of being pointed at Death Eaters and told to sic 'em like an English Bulldog.
For a very large reason – Marge Dursley was probably still large, right? – he disliked the comparison greatly.
Then, nearly a decade later, he'd decided that America would be more his style… and again, it had been a total bust.
People had mobbed him wherever he went, amazed that someone related to their venerated twelve was there. He was more used to it by then – if he hadn't gotten used to the stares, he would have gone crazy – but the British public had largely calmed in its rabid lust over anything and everything related to him and his scar.
The Americans had no such exposure to him.
He wasn't able to stay anywhere for more than thirty minutes before someone would spread the word that he was there.
He sort of understood – if someone showed up in Britain who was the child of Dumbledore, there would be just as big a clamor to meet them – but just because he understood didn't mean he liked it anymore than he would have if he didn't.
He smiled. This time, this time, it was foolproof. He was in Japan, of all places.
While Magicals here had still heard of him – and damn, why must everyone know his name? – none of them expected that Harry Potter would be in Japan.
Harry Potter was a well-known figure, who was Very Important and wouldn't be somewhere he wasn't meant to be, like Japan. No one here expected to see Harry Potter here, which meant that, when they saw him, the most he got was a short comment about how he kinda looked like that British wizard.
And boy, had been it wonderful! He'd seen their magical school, he'd visited some of the most relaxing baths he'd ever felt, he'd participated in a few pickup games of Quidditch on the northernmost island, and he'd made some wonderful memories of their Ministry of Magic and their shopping district, despite its differences to what he knew.
He smiled. Of course, it wasn't all magic. He'd also visited some of the more Muggle areas of the country.
He looked around himself, smiling wistfully. Ginza was… not what he was used to.
He'd grown up in Surrey and at Hogwarts. While he had some small experience with skyscrapers – he lived in London, in a refurbished Grimmauld Place, and the things were also as common as daisies in America – he was wholly unprepared when he'd first taken a train l in the north to Tokyo proper.
And, while he did enjoy some of it – especially the part where the people didn't gawk at him – sometimes, everything – the products and amount of people and color and noise – got very… overwhelming.
He shook his head as he passed by yet another shop advertising… electronics, this time; he knew his kids would probably like the Muggle parts of Japan more than he did. James and Lily enjoyed a lot more Muggle stuff than he ever had, partly because he actually loved the wizards and witches living in his house, and partly because Harry was willing to try a lot of stuff in the name of pleasing his children.
He smiled.
It was amusing to see James and Lily – and even Albus, in his… move open moments – bond over the music and technology and products of the Muggles, and it was even nicer to see them have hobbies beyond Hogwarts and magic.
He looked around. People were crossing the street, and he couldn't see any cars. The brochure he'd read said something about 'pedestrian heaven,' and he supposed being able to walk anywhere without watching for traffic probably qualified for that definition.
He shook his head as he began to cross the street with the flood of others. He was glad he hadn't gone with his idea to drive everywhere – there was just so much to do on foot – even if it would have probably helped keep up his anonymity.
Wizards and witches rarely expected one of their own to be driving around, especially with the other, faster ways of traveling they had, and…
Well, getting a temporary apparition license required his full name, and while everyone might assume that he just shared the name an odd likeness to a famed hero, giving anyone his name would ensure that he'd be recognized by at least one other person.
That meant his being in Japan would be known by the whole country in approximately… five minutes, give or take a couple seconds depending on if Floo or the 'Zenko' that the Japanese magicals used instead of owls communicated that latest bit of gossip.
If word of him being here spread, he would probably be forced to meet and visit everything accompanied by a dozen guards to ensure that no one attempted to assassinate him.
He scowled and tried not to dismiss the possibility out of hand and believe that no one would do something like that so long after the war with Voldemort.
Oh, it hadn't happened much, but the Calamity showed that assassination and insurrection was possible, even if they weren't Death Eaters.
His scowl deepened as he remembered the most obvious sign that those were possible, even without the Death Eaters.
The registry was the case in point.
While they hadn't been able to do anything about it at the time of discovery, Hermione had gotten the Department Heads together in the months following the end of the Calamity and performed an audit on every level of the Ministry to find out why someone thought putting the symbol of the Deathly Hallows – the symbol of a Dark Lord – on the prestige levels of those pages was a good, sane idea.
When he'd first discovered the detail, Hermione had argued that the symbol meant more than what Grindelwald had twisted it into.
Harry had promptly reminded her of the fact that the swastika had meant a great many things before Hitler had twisted it.
During that investigation – which had revealed that Grindelwald's old cult might be trying to get back together and give Harry longer hours at work – she had wondered about how he'd known about that fact of Muggle history, and he'd reminded her that he had kept his promise to learn a bit about the countries he 'vacationed' in.
He shook his head again and looked around brightly. He wasn't here to worry about work, his family – who had assured him that yes, they'd be fine if he left for three weeks and that no, they didn't need him to assign an Auror patrol to their house and three of them to Hogwarts – or even the Wizarding World, as much as he loved all three with all his heart.
He was here to-
Suddenly, his watch began to vibrate. He looked down, and saw that it said 11:40.
He peered at the watch he'd been given on his seventeenth birthday curiously. The stars were literally aligned on its face, and his eyebrows furrowed. He didn't remember setting a time with it. He'd used that feature sparingly, if he was honest, because-
He snapped his fingers. Right, the scratched, aging watch malfunctioned a lot because it was so old. He'd been late to a fair number of meetings thanks to its newfound oddities, but…
He glanced down at it wistfully. He hadn't had the heart to Reparo it yet. He felt like taking the dents on the back and scratches on its face would take away from what Mrs. Weasley's gift meant, but it seemed like he might have to.
His eyebrows furrowed. Had he even set an alarm?
He groaned as he remembered. Right, he had avoided most of the security on his way there by taking a plane and keeping anything magical in the second and third sections of his suitcase, but he'd been met with a group of Aurors outside the airport.
Even if they disliked their Muggles more than most, the Japanese made sure to watch every possible way of travel for possible Dark Wizards.
And, apparently, celebrities.
One Portkey trip later, and he'd been in the office of the Minister for Magic of Japan. Thankfully, she had been understanding of his desire for anonymity and asked that he only attend a small press meeting extolling the virtues of Japan so they could use it for tourism in return for not being hounded by the Aurors he was supposed to have.
He had asked to be able to meet on Saturday, October 17th, at noon. The watch must have thought he wanted to be warned a bit earlier.
He smirked as he realized that he actually did.
His original plan – formed during a 15 minute trek from the woman's office to a half-abandoned train station that served as their Ministry's cover – had been to find as many Muggle things as he could and mention all of them. The Japanese Magicals, considered very skittish of their Muggles amongst the various Ministries and Congresses, would find his praise of their opposites, at the least, highly uncomfortable.
He began to look around as a small sigh escaped him. That meeting had been two and a half weeks ago, and it seemed he needed to pay his dues for being allowed to ignore the need for 'security.'
He smiled. With the extra bit of time his watch had provided him by ringing early, he could instead Apparate into the train station their Ministry hid inside.
Undoubtedly, he would be caught for not having a license and make his trip to the Ministry all the more impactful, even if everyone there would be exasperated.
No one would punish him. The Americans had figured out quickly that he could be annoyingly good at giving them loads of paperwork – which meant that the past two decades of filling out the stuff for his jobs in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was worth just slightly more than the parchment it was printed on.
He might be forced to give another interview or something, of course, but he didn't really mind them much these days. He'd learned that giving the public what they wanted usually got them off his back, at least for a little bit.
Then, after however many interviews he had to do, he could go back to the last of his vacation before traveling back home and making sure nothing had gone wrong in his absence, like Grindelwald's old followers trying to get back together or something equally as insane involving Delphini.
He scanned the horizon for that spot to Disapparate. No, just trees and people and families and a little girl staring at something behind him with the widest eyes he'd seen on something since his own children had been infants and-
As he continued to turn, muttering broke out around him as more people began to stare at whatever thing the little girl had seen.
He heard the sound of air blowing, just the tiniest bit reminiscent of flying through the air on a broom.
He felt a massive amount of magic begin to build up behind him.
Slowly, mechanically, he turned around, his squinting eyes searching for a place to duck into and puzzled frown shifting into resigned acceptance.
That was it. He was never going anywhere again. If he stayed in Britain, he at least knew what he was dealing with, whether it be petty criminals or Death Eaters or cults or dark wizards or backroom paperwork or pranks gone wrong.
Every time he'd dared to leave the British Isles, the universe had punished him with annoying interviews and fights he wasn't prepared for and politics.
He glared at the translucent building in front of him, as if just willing it to not have appeared would fix his problem.
It didn't, and, reluctantly, he drew his wand from the bag around his neck. He now had work to do. On his vacation.
Really, he should know better than to hope for the best. It was obviously all the more hilarious for whichever bored god had decided to pick on him.
-OxOxO-
Harry, still clad in a solid red t-shirt and beige shorts, ran his hands through his hair and made it even more unmanageable. He didn't give a damn, however.
He'd been standing still, waving his wand at the structure and using as many spells as he knew for five minutes, trying to figure out what had happened.
An Appare Vestigium had shown him that he was the only wizard that had been in the area for the last three weeks, no matter how much energy he poured into the spell.
That, hopefully, ruled out this being an attempt on his life, but it also made the question of what the hell it was all the more confusing.
He was sure it wasn't a Portkey. Something like this wouldn't be authorized, because no wizard or witch in their right mind would allow one to land in the middle of one of the busiest areas of Tokyo or make one out of a Roman temple.
It also couldn't be an unauthorized one, because the Ministry would be here by now if it were. Portkeys were some of the most easily traceable magic around, and if they weren't here, they hadn't detected it with the magic that tracked Portkeys.
He racked his brain. It couldn't have been disillusioned – a car or a person would have run into it by now.
He quickly backtracked. A Muggle-Repelling Charm might have stopped anyone from running into it, but…
He sighed. A Muggle-Repelling Charm in the middle of this place would have caused all sorts of electrical malfunctions in watches and cameras and cars. After the Calamity, the Ministries had been much better than before about going after reports of odd electrical outages in case magic was involved. That was out too, then. Maybe…
He shook his head. No, right now, he needed to figure out if this was dangerous, get the civilians away from it, and get Japan's Ministry of Magic here. This was a breach on par with anything the Calamity had thrown out into the world.
He turned to the crowd, who had been watching his light show with fascination. He scowled, and began to wave his wand around himself, changing his clothing.
The 'official' clothing of the Aurors had a long past, most of which revolved around people being peeved that they were another house's colors and not theirs.
Short, functional red robes had been used, only to be replaced by blue and bronze robes with pockets to hold anything and everything you might need for an investigation, then green, yellow, gold, and every other color.
Everyone, no matter how distant the relationship between colors and houses, could find some flaw that 'favored' one house over another, according to the records that Harry's predecessors had left him.
Some people had even preferred for the 'official' clothing being rainbow – no house preferences – but it had been quickly pointed out that putting such a thing on would have you seen as quite barmy, even by Dumbledore's standards.
Of course, none of the 'uniforms' were technically even official – Aurors were supposed to be able to conceal themselves, and part of that meant blending into a crowd, for those that weren't also world famous.
Harry had grown partial to a red-maroon color for the vest-like robe that covered up his shirt and flared out at his waist. It went from looking like a thick shirt near his chest to an actual robe as one went from his neck to the cloth that hung from his body.
He sighed as the people around him gasped.
Then, he blinked and made one last alteration. He transfigured his shorts into black jeans. Wearing shorts and a robe felt very odd indeed.
Then he turned around, placing his hands in front of his body. "Alright, everyone. You need to back away, now."
He made a show of waving his arms and gesturing down the street, away from the now nearly opaque temple. None of them took his advice, and continued to stare between him and the structure.
He waved his wand and muttered under his breath. "Repello Muggletum."
One or two seemed to suddenly back away, but nothing more than that. They didn't even pretend like the thing wasn't there or run away. They merely backed up a bit.
He frowned, wondering if he had miscast it, but no… he'd learned the spell during their hunt for the Horcruxes, and he'd perfected it during the Calamity.
Now that he thought about it, weren't his clothes just a bit stuffy at the moment?
He growled under his breath and turned to glare at the structure. The… archway seemed to be interfering with his attempts at keeping people away. Or maybe it was interfering with his magic?
He gulped. That was bad, if it was… trying to draw people in. He took a deep breath and sighed, glaring at it and wishing that it would disappear so he could call in an Obliviator squad
It still didn't change, besides growing yet more opaque. Harry could hardly make out the faces of the people on the other side now.
He groaned. Fine then. If he couldn't be persuaded away with less overt magic, then maybe…
He twirled around and pointed his wand at the ground. "Bombarda!"
A cloud of broken asphalt went up, and while people jumped back in shock for a moment, they soon resumed staring at the structure or even staring at him. He motioned for them to back away again…
Still, nothing. They stared at him politely, but not a one of them was moving away. He grimaced.
Then…
"Confundo."
That, at least, seemed to work. Harry grinned unhappily. He disliked messing with the mind of anyone, but if he had to get them to leave… "You need to leave. You've left something in the oven."
They blinked, and they looked around, but…
His unhappy grin faded completely. They were staring back at Harry, telling him that they didn't speak English.
Then, he stared up at the temple again, looking between it and Harry for a moment. He began to converse with the woman at his side, who was staring at Harry suspiciously.
Harry gulped. If nothing was working, then his only options were either dark magic – Imperio would probably work, but…
He spun around and looked up helplessly at the still-appearing temple. If he couldn't convince them in a good way…
His memories of the Calamity, fresh in his mind, reminded him that, even if they didn't know what a Troll or a Hippogriff was, Muggles knew to run from danger.
Danger…
He groaned. He wasn't supposed to use this joke of a plan, but… perhaps it was time to use Plan G.
But first…
He thought of the birth of his children, of taking James on brooms rides and teaching him how to prank people.
He thought of talking to Albus, and having him safe and away from Delphini, and of showing his children how he could still speak Parseltongue and how they might be able to too.
He thought of bringing Lily to a Muggle movie and how she was always the most excited to visit the Dursleys, even if he didn't get on very well with Dudley.
His Patronus burst to life in front of him.
"Minister Kondo, something is occurring in Ginza, something magical, in front of a lot of Muggles. My Magic is unable to repel them. Get some Aurors down here. Now."
With that, it shifted into a small ball of light and sped away. He turned back to the structure, his… memories of what Plan G was supposed to be replacing the memories of his children.
He had presented the idea to Hermione as a prank, and the rest of his department had had a good laugh at it as well, though Hermione had been very upset for his 'lack of sensitivity,' and Harry had promised not to use it.
He winced uncomfortably as he thought about what this might end up causing.
It seemed he'd actually have to use it now, despite his promise and how very… bad this was going to look.
He undid the clasp on the front of his robes and reached down his front, drawing out his Mokeskin pouch once more. It hadn't failed him yet, and he doubted it ever would.
From within, he drew out a pair of Decoy Detonators and began to quickly cast Gemino.
Soon, he had an armful of the devices. They were already trying to escape his arms, which was probably good for the plan and not for the Muggles.
He cast a look around. Some of the Muggles closest to him seemed either confused or… happy.
He nearly groaned. Did they think he was performing street magic? That he'd conjured the temple out of thin air? Even he-
He shook his head – he had to focus – and he released the Decoy Detonators and watched as they spread around the monument. He nodded grimly, determined and satisfied that they were doing as they were charmed.
Part one was complete.
He drew his wand to his chest, clasped in both hands, and began to envision an object.
Long, pointed, black and brown, with an orange tip at the end. It had been sat on and then placed on a shelf in a room Harry hadn't visited in over a decade.
He didn't even know if it still existed, or if he – or even one of the Dursleys – had thrown it out. He remembered it, though. That was required for Plan G.
When Harry had presented the plan of 'what to do if the Muggles aren't leaving a possibly volatile magical artifact alone and magic won't work on them,' Hermione had assumed that the G stood for the spell he used to create more of the Decoy Detonators.
It did not.
With a crack of air, Dudley's old air rifle, still bent like it had been all those years ago in the smallest bedroom of Number 4, Privet Drive, materialized in front of him.
He bent down, took off his shoe, and muttered Duro. His shoe turned to stone, and he struggled, for a moment, to life it above the gun.
He held the air gun against the ground and cast an Incendio at the portion that was bent. It quickly grew red hot, and, using his now hardened shoe, he bent it back into shape.
He cast a quick Finite at his shoe, slipped it back on, and took a deep breath. Hopefully, this would end better than Hermione had thought it would if he ever actually did it.
Not that she thought he would use it. Hell, even he hadn't ever thought he'd be in a situation where he would have to choose between dark magic and… this, but what was his life if not dangerous?
Finished, he held the air rifle up into the air, waiting for the noise to begin.
And then it did.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Smoke – mostly black, but he could spot a few colored red and purple – began to rise around the structure. Harry took in a deep breath…
And he turned around, aiming the air rifle at the crowd in front of him. His wand, held flush against the side of the rifle, created flashes of light with a simple Lumos.
He waited for the crowds to start running, and as they did, he turned, imagined himself being on another side of the structure, and really turned.
In an instant, he felt the same feeling of Apparition as he always did, and then he was there, staring down another portion of the crowd.
Twice more, he repeated the action, trying desperately to keep his face neutral.
Because he really, really wanted to wince horribly as people immediately labeled the foreign man with the untameable hair and odd clothing and the gun a terrorist.
He tried not to cry out in sympathy as some people stumbled. He cast Episkey at those he could see and then turned around to face the front of the archway once more.
He could hear the terrified screaming of the Muggles behind him, which meant he needed to get the Aurors here, and he needed to prepare for defense. There was a serious amount of magic, light and dark, emanating from the archway, and presuming the worst seemed like a very good idea.
He shook his head and began to destroy the street around him, preparing for battle. There was every chance that nothing would come out of the thing in front of him, and that it would explode or just take everything in a mile-wide radius with it somewhere else… but this seemed…
He blinked and stared at the thing in front of him. It reminded him of a Fortress, actually, and with the power it felt like it was putting out was anything to go by, it might spit out anything from a Dark Lord or two to a couple dozen Acromantulas on par with Aragog.
He took in another deep breath as he prepared to cast more spells. In the wake of Delphini almost undoing their lives – and succeeding once or twice, according to Scorpius and Albus – he'd trained himself harder than ever, shaking off the dust that had accumulated in the months since the Calamity and the years since the war.
Everyone in the Department had pointed out that he hadn't ever been as good as he was now – even back then – but he just pretended not to hear them and tried out another new spell.
A minute later saw most of the street in front of the archway cracked and reduced to rubble in a few places. He nodded, his eyebrows knit at the fact that he expected a lot more rubble for the number of Exploding Charms he'd sent at the ground, and set to work summoning snakes.
He might not have liked the ability, but he had learned that not utilizing everything he knew in the higher levels of the Fortress was a very good way to get himself a broken limb or two. Plus, Parseltongue had allowed him to take care of a surprising number of Confoundables easily enough.
Over and over and over, he repeated the movements for the snake summoning charm. Slowly, snakes began to accumulate, smaller than he thought they would be.
He grimaced. This thing was definitely affecting his spells, then. His spells… weren't working as well as usual…
He shrugged. What was one more complication in the face of this archway?
"§Surround the building. Wait for my order to attack and not kill. If I do not give the order in five hours, report back to me,§" he ordered, staring out at the assembled snakes.
As one, the snakes began to slither towards the archway, curling around pillars and hiding among the rocks and towards the ceiling. Many of them were poisonous, and very few of them were found in Japan.
With that done, he felt his eye twitch. Where was the Japanese Ministry? He'd sent them a Patronus and everything.
He looked down at his watch, and saw that it was 11:48. He wasn't sure it would happen at 12:00 – it was entirely possible that it would just fade away again at that time, or it might wait until 1:00 – but the energy it was still gathering and the fact that he couldn't see the other end of the street through it anymore were troubling.
He sighed. It seemed that he'd need to get someone here faster than even the Minister could manage, which meant…
He summoned another snake. He probably should have just used an Unforgivable on a Muggle to speed things up-
He shook off that thought. Even before he'd used it, he felt the pull.
He took in a deep breath. He wielded his magic, not the other way around. He waved his wand, and…
"Imperio."
Immediately, he felt the snake bend to his will. He blinked as he watching it still completely.
Just as quickly as it rose, he pushed down the thrill Dark Magic always gave its practitioners – just as potent as always – and waited. The Japanese, from what he'd seen of their school, hated Dark Magic more than even Britain did, which meant-
A crack split the air, and he grinned. Finally, they were-
"Bengku!"
Harry ducked under the unexpected spell and snapped off a Shield Charm. "Wait, wait! Hold up a minute. You've got to look!"
They didn't hear him, apparently. A wizard or two or more were all pounding down on his shield. With a sigh of frustration, he Apparated away. All of them recognized the sound and crouched down, looking around for him.
He wasn't hiding. He'd moved behind them, but his wand was still, producing the Shield Charm and not moving to attack them. "Would you lot wait a second? There's a huge magical artifact here, and we need-"
They – he had counted seven, but there could be more hiding out of sight – turned towards him, their wands lighting up. None of them cast a spell and instead gaped at the object behind him.
"Wonderful. We need to prepare for-"
With a sudden lurch behind his navel – was it a Portkey after all? – he knew it was too late. He let himself drop his gaze from the Japanese Aurors facing him and instead stared at the archway as a magic – more than earlier – began to build up.
He gaped as he felt more magic than he'd ever felt, even in the depths of the Ministry and at Hogwarts.
Just what the hell was this thing?
For a moment, he wished that he had taken more classes on Japanese, or that a spell could translate what he would say to them.
Unfortunately, such a handy spell didn't exist in any capacity that he knew, and if one had, Barty Crouch Sr. would have been out of a job, considering he had known some two hundred-
He shook his head. Not the time. "Hurry up! Call more Aurors!"
They blinked at him, but one of them did manage to Apparate away. Harry took another breath, hoping that the others also understood at least a little English, and turned to the… thing. There didn't seem to be any stopping it any more. It felt… stable.
He wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but at least it hadn't killed him or destroyed a good portion of Tokyo.
He tried to deploy a Muggle-Repelling Charm. It still didn't work.
"What… what is this?" asked one of them. Harry blinked at the accented English, and privately thanked Merlin, because this would be hard enough with only seven of them. He didn't want communication to inhibit him too.
Harry turned to see an Auror wearing gold and black robes. Unlike the robes back in Britain, these looked more like the Kimonos he'd seen some Muggles wearing when he'd visited the Muggle portion of Mt. Fuji.
Harry shrugged to answer them, uncomfortable uncertainty crossing his features. Usually, he vaguely knew what he was going up against, whether it be dragons or Voldemort or Death Eaters. Now, he had no-
KRAAAHHH!
Harry had only moments to duck, but even his time spent behind a desk hadn't dulled his seeker skills. He quickly moved down and spun around at what had nearly taken off his head.
He blinked in confusion. Someone was… riding a dragon?
Or was it even a dragon? It looked far too small for even a Peruvian Vipertooth, but it looked like a scaled-down dragon… or maybe a scaled-up Firedrake.
As it disappeared into the distance, Harry heard another cry and turned around. Another dragon was coming through, as was the sound of… marching?
Harry raised his wand. Even he would probably miss a Stupefy at the speed the man bearing down on him was travelling. However…
"Accio dragon rider!"
The man, who seemed to be staring resolutely forward and who was armed with a lance as long as Harry was tall, was sent careening towards Harry. The dragon's… reigns were dragged with him, and the pair of them were sent tumbling end over end.
Harry's eyes widened. He moved.
The six remaining Aurors seemed fine. He nodded and turned his head towards the sound of the marching. He could also hear… shouting.
He didn't have time to worry about the others. More… things were coming through the… temple.
They weren't travelling in cars or on brooms, carpets, or anything of the sort. Instead, men came marching through the archway or riding on top of… horses.
Harry was now confused. This… wasn't what he'd been expecting.
Well, he hadn't known what to expect, because expecting anything when magic was involved was a good way to get shocked by whatever decided to stomp on your puny expectations, but…
The gate was, without a doubt, magical – he didn't know if the Muggle's science had or could make things materialize out of thin air like in their TV shows that Lily liked – but the people that had come through didn't just look like Muggles. They looked like outdated Muggles.
Thanks to his early years in primary school, as well as a few classes during his vacations, Harry was well aware that Muggles hadn't seriously used swords – or even horses – in any strictly military capacity in over a century.
It was just a bit… well, pathetic, that that would have been an achievement for some wizards and witches coming out of Hogwarts before McGonagall had become Headmistress.
Though it was very little consolation, the people facing him looked just as confused as he was. In all likelihood, they were expecting more than seven people to be facing off against them.
Maybe they had expected the crowds of people that had been there minutes earlier?
Harry rolled his shoulders.
Whoever these… people were – because a lot of them at the front, ahead of the men on horseback, looked more like… goblins or trolls than humans – they were breaking the statute and had forced him to do the same. There wasn't any way that they were getting out of this without being hauled in for questioning first, at least.
Harry began to walk towards the roiling mass of not-goblins and… other well-armed beings as calmly as he could. He held his hands up, making slow, methodical-
They charged. Pig-faced, short beings with two swords; taller, blue-skined things that might have been trolls, if not for how short they were; even beings covered in fur, like werewolves, rushed towards him. Mallets and swords and spears and claws and-
Crack!
Harry Apparated away, taking stock of the situation. The other six of his allies quickly followed him, though he noted that they looked queasy from the sensation…
Harry felt the queasiness too, but lots and lots of experience in the Calamity meant he pushed past it to stare down the beings that had just tried to charge them.
They didn't seem too happy. They were casting their eyes about, and, when one noticed where they were now, Harry saw them looking between where he had been and where he was.
It might have been comical.
They had tried to kill them, though, which made their confused actions actions… useful. Harry grimaced, raised his wand, and…
"Depulso!"
The white light arced towards the beings, and Harry watched as a number of the ones standing where he had been flew backwards. Not enough to hurt them – much; he had torn up the ground around the temple – but enough to push them onto the ground.
The others, apparently, decided to follow his lead. They sent their own spells at them, and he saw more of them pushed back onto the ground. They even got creative by tying one or two of them up.
Unfortunately, this didn't seem to deter them too much. If anything, they seemed… enraged. They were gnashing their teeth at them, ready to-
And then, he heard a horn being sound. Once, twice, and a third time, the horn sounded. He looked behind the angry horde of beings, and he saw…
One of the men on horseback was staring straight at him as the horde of not-goblins and not-trolls fell back. Actually…
He frowned. A great many of the people in front of him were all staring at him instead of the others. He opened his mouth and began to speak as the seven of them picked their way across the torn-up asphalt.
"I'm going to stall. One of you report back, two of you get help and get that dragon."
For a moment, he feared that the remaining six Japanese wizards and witches didn't understand English. His fears were easily proven for naught when two of them began to speak with the other four. Three of them disappeared, leaving a total of three wizards and a witch to stand against…
Well, a lot more than four people, that was for sure.
Harry grimaced as the distant but distinct sound of screaming reached his ears. That dragon was clearly causing chaos, and though he wondered how in the hell someone had managed to get a saddle on one – even Charlie hadn't ever dared to suggest to put one on one, despite the fact that he probably dreamed about it – he put it out of his mind.
The man on the horse gestured forward, and Harry saw, through the horde of off-colored beings and – behind them – a wall of shields and spears, four men emerge,carrying a… flag.
The man on the horse glared at Harry for something he was sure he'd find out about later, and he began… to talk.
Harry blinked. Did he expect them to understand?
No, probably not. He seemed to be trying to… encourage his troops with his speech. Harry nodded; he'd made his fair share of speeches whenever he had to.
The leader shouted something else, and while the other magicals around him backed away as the horde of beings and… soldiers shouted, Harry's brow furrowed.
Was… he using Latin? Or something like it?
It wasn't quite a dead language yet – Hermione had complained that Magicals in the south of Italy still spoke with it in daytime conversation – but it was quite rare, according to her.
He didn't recognize nearly half of it, but a few things sounded like they might have made good names for spells…
And, as they continued to shout, and it looked like they might advance, and it seemed that the others standing with him might bow out, Harry cast a simple "Silencio!"
The shouting all died in an instant, as did any other sound coming from the assembled group of people. All that came from the sight before Harry was the thrum magic from the gate and some light at the end of… a tunnel.
Their leader's theatrical speech was obviously halted, and it seemed like he was beginning to choke. As one, many of the people before him also began to collapse. Harry just sighed at the usual response to being silenced for the first time without warning, waiting for them to recover.
When the apparent leader, seated on a horse wearing armor, was able to stop choking and simply looked confused at the lack of words coming from his mouth, Harry took a few more steps towards the line of shields.
He'd make his own speech that couldn't be understood by the people before him and continue to buy time for the still-missing Ministry of Magic.
"I am Harry Potter, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Magic of Great Britain and Ireland. The appearance and presence of an obviously magical structure in the middle of a highly-populated Muggle area is a flagrant breach of the International Statute of Secrecy."
They seemed to be blinking in surprise at Harry – did they expect him to cower and run? – who continued on as the other Aurors came to stand by his side. "As such, I am forced to take all of you into my custody. Please drop your… weapons," he said, almost stumbling over the word.
He usually said 'wands,' when he was talking down criminals hiding out in Diagon or Knockturn, but none of the people in front of him appeared to have any wands. Or even staffs…
They could be practitioners of wandless magic, but the weapons they were still pointing at him told a different story. A very… confusing story that Harry really wanted to finish sooner rather than later.
He waited for a moment. They seemed to understand, if the way the ones in the front were staring at him intently was anything to go by, but…
None of them were complying with his order…
The man on the horse rode his steed forward behind the formation of men, still glaring at Harry.
Harry glared back evenly.
The man's glare intensified, and Harry sighed. Perhaps…
Well, it wasn't guaranteed by any means, but…
He aimed his wand at the ground and focused on actively not doing magic.
"Stupefy. Depulso. Flipendo."
No magic came out of his wand, and Harry made obvious, waving motions with his hands towards the thing they had come out of. Maybe they would understand some of it?
He had no idea what the history of the spells were, besides them being related to Latin, in some capacity, but it seemed like his words and actions had done something.
Unfortunately, it was not the something he had wanted. The man on the horse drew his sword and pointed forward with it, shouting something that probably meant 'charge.'
Harry waited no longer. A grimace marked his face, but if they were going to attack – to attempt to kill him and everyone else they could get to before more Aurors arrived – then he needed to stop them here, no matter if they were just using blades and blunt force or magic too.
He grimaced as they began to move. He wasn't sure if the Ministry could contain this if it spiraled beyond here this gate, though the sound of the dragon in the distance told him that it might already be too late for that.
The forces arrayed in front of him moved forward. It didn't matter. "Sonorus. §Attack, do not kill.§"
As one, it seemed that the walls and the ground were writhing as snakes of all kinds rose from the cracked ground and fell from the ceiling and pillars. Many behind the front lines of the charging not-goblins and not-trolls and the men with the shields panicked, but those at the front were far enough out of the temple to ignore them.
Harry had a simple solution to that.
His left hand, already near the bag around his neck, quickly ducked into his Mokeskin pouch and pulled out a portable swamp. He tossed it forward.
Before they could realize what had happened, a swamp had appeared at their feet, sending many of them to the ground and leaving many more sinking into the muck.
He began to walk forward, casting as many Stunning Spells as he could. The Aurors behind him were following closely, preparing their own – painfully slow – spells. "Don't kill. Capture. We need to know where these people are from."
The man that could understand him relayed the orders to the others, while the woman gave him a skeptical look. "What else would I do?"
Harry opened his mouth to give that skeptical look back, but their general – that was about the only title Harry could ascribe to the man – was screaming something. From within the dark depths of the gate, gleaming projectiles shot forward.
"Protego!" "Baoho!"
Objects hit their shields, and he looked to the ground to see arrows hit the ground intimidatingly. He shook his head.
He fired a Confundo towards the general and watched his form – already struggling to contend with snakes landing on top of him – fall to the ground, bringing his horse down with him. Harry scowled as he continued to the edge of the portable swamp closest to him.
This demonstrated, if nothing else, why so many wizards had been feeling good about their chances in taking on all Muggles, back when the statute was first proposed. The books in Norway – one of the focal points of the International Confederation of Wizards – on the subject had said as much, anyway.
He fired off a few weak Arrow-shooting Spells into the crowd of people that was building up behind the general. It seemed they thought they'd be able to have some sort of… staging area to operate in, if so many were being pushed through so quickly.
He turned his attention to his current charges. The two that could speak enough English to understand him were protecting the other two as they pulled incapacitated men out of the swamp.
Harry shook his head and set about summoning them out and banishing them towards one of the buildings, where they crashed into the ground.
"GRAHH!"
Harry spun around, a spell already on his lips. "Expulso!"
The hulking being was sent backwards, and Harry took a moment to study it as it crashed to the ground, unconscious.
It looked, if he were honest with himself, like a pig with the body of a man. He tilted his head in confusion.
Were they from the Mediterraean, then? Southern Italy and, if Hermione was to believed, a few dozen islands that the Muggles didn't know about still spoke some form of Latin, and the thing in front of him certainly seemed to look like it had come out of Greece, with how very eager their Dark Wizards were to stick any beast together.
He shook his head and looked up to see that more of the not-goblins and not-trolls were charging forward. Harry sighed and began walking backwards, away from the front of the structure and behind the other Aurors.
They seemed to freeze, but Harry began to speak in the ear of the woman. "How many snakes are in Tokyo?"
That got her out of her daze, and the other three continued to shoot spells forward while backpedaling away from the things that had made it out of the swamp.
She finally had the time to pause and turn to Harry, and Harry shot a quick Lumos Maxima over her shoulder while shutting his eyes. A quick Nox saw the light go out, and he cast Stupefy at the… beings clutching their faces. "Don't look away!"
She hurriedly continued to cast at the people that were beginning to pour over their fallen brethren. They were beginning to get out of the gate. "Uh… there's probably a few, at least. How would I know?"
Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he cast an Amplifying Charm on himself once more, only he made sure it was even more powerful. "§I NEED YOUR HELP. PLEASE, COME TO MY AID IN THIS BATTLE.§"
Harry would have liked to end it there, but seeing as these weren't summoned snakes, he needed to include a bit more. "§ANY WHO SURVIVE WILL BE GIVEN AS MUCH FOOD AS THEY COULD EVER WANT, AS WELL AS HELP, SHOULD THEY DESIRE IT.§"
He had to work to convince snakes if they weren't summoned, especially since those snakes were generally much less smart than those conjured using magic.
Still, the aid would probably help. He rolled his shoulders once more, only to realize that things were still moving towards him. He began to move his wand.
"Accio!"
He pointed his wand at the men that filled the swamp that were now being trampled, sending them to lie in the pile of other wounded and incapacitated men.
Thunk.
He swiveled around to find that his Auror friend had been wounded by an arrow. He grimaced, but he didn't help the woman. He had to continue fighting.
He moved in front of the four, holding out his arms as he cast spells. They retreated behind him as he cast Blasting Curses and Incarceration Jinxes toward the hordes, tripping and injuring them.
Chunks of the road flew into the faces of the attackers from the Blasting Curses. The Japanese were using their own magic, and Harry watched the broken pieces of the road begin to change into animals and balls of pointy metal and… thumbtacks, if he wasn't mistaken.
Many were pushed down, but those that had already fallen were trampled.
He swore as he managed to hear the sound of yet more marching from behind the men on the horses, but what would only be described as the sound of a river reached his ears.
From the drains, the cracks that now littered the road, and even the alleyway Harry had been wanting to Disapparate from, snakes rose.
Harry didn't expect much from them. They were not likely to be able to do more than annoy anyone that was coming though, if they actually fought. However…
He smiled. There were several thousand of them heading towards the gate in every direction. As he stood from his crouching position next to the wounded Auror, she chose now, of all times, to get chatty.
"Why aren't you aiming at them? You could wipe them out easily!"
Harry just rolled his eyes and began to walk forward, along with a wave of snakes. The beings he was facing – more of the pig-like beings, along with a few fellows with dark red skin and not-goblins and not-trolls – all turned away, fleeing from… the image of a man leading an army of snakes towards them.
The snakes pushed forwards, over the swamp, until the retreating people couldn't be seen. He quickly called them back and then turned to the wounded Auror and her friends, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Well? Where is your Ministry! People could have died, and the Statute could have been revealed, and I get four Aurors – rookies, if I'm unmistaken – to help me fight! Sure, not a single one of them could use magic, but that doesn't mean-"
Thunk.
Pain burst to life in Harry's arm, and he looked at it to discover that he had been shot with an arrow, just like her. He spun around, barely able to make out the form of more advancing soldiers, protecting archers behind them and pushing the terrified not-goblins and not-trolls forward.
He took in a deep breath, even as he cast Protego to stop the next arrows. This next spell was tricky, but he'd been allowed to learn it after helping the Hellenic Ministry of Magic take down a number of Death Eaters that had fled there from Albania.
They said the honor was a sign of their appreciation. Harry thought they were just trying to apologize for being the first Ministry he'd touched down in during his vacation.
It had been hard, to work on separating this spell from both the Fire-Making and Water-Making Charms, but it worked wonders, when one wanted a particularly volatile fire that wasn't also intent on devouring the planet.
He opened his eyes and let his Protego take another two arrows before falling. He whipped his wand through the air. Both a triangle and a wave and-
"Incendiaguamenti!"
From the tip of his wand, the fabled liquid fire of the ancient Greeks burst to life, covering the inside of the temple. He directed it farther ahead, forcing the soldiers back farther, covering more and more of the temple with the fire, until ten feet of the ground was coated in flames that continued to spread.
Not one of them was covered with the light of day, and he could only make out their faces thanks to the light of the fire.
Then, a stalemate settled into place. They could not cross – only a fool would-
Harry's eyes widened. The not-goblins and not-trolls were being forced forward. "ACCIO!" he shouted.
From across the fire, the beings were flung across and behind him. He belted out a dozen Stunning Spells in rapid fashion, and the other four managed to get the rest of them.
He turned back, watching the tunnel and glaring at the remaining troops – they looked human enough, though they had shields and spears and armor that even wizards weren't backwards enough to wear, but they'd also tried to force their forward troops into crossing a flaming expanse of liquid fire.
Harry sighed as he stared at the fire coating the tunnel, waiting for them to try something else. According to the Hellenic wizards that had taught him the spell, the Muggles were quite peeved at not knowing where this fire came from.
Harry just wondered why the hell anyone thought that such a spell was a good idea, especially when Muggles were involved, but the Wizarding World hadn't always been in hiding.
He shook his head and cast a quick Episkey on the woman behind him before turning back to the soldiers still staring across the fire at him. The pain in his arm was now growing, and he was partially convinced it might have gotten into the bone or been coated with something.
The snakes were staying well away from the fire, and the soldiers on the other side seemed to be rather wary. Harry walked closer, taking care not to dislodge the arrow in his arm.
He wasn't one for intimidating opponents – it wasn't worth the effort, since anyone he was trying to catch usually knew it was him that was after them – but he knew how to do it.
He struck a pose with his wand pointed at them. "Stupefy. Depulso. Flipendo."
He didn't bother to use his flagging energy to stop the spells that leapt from his wand.
That, it seemed, convinced them to retreat. He was shot a fearful look by a few of the men with the shields, and a man – dressed differently compared to those around him – broke through their formation to stare at Harry.
"Apostonis?" he shouted over the sound of the roaring fire. Harry raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
The man said no more, though, retreating with the other troops towards the light at the far, far end of the… temple-tunnel.
Then, when he could see no one else, and when the only sound was the raging fire and the wind the tunnel seemed to create and the muttering of the wizards and witch behind him, he collapsed to his knees.
The adrenaline was beginning to wear off, but he still had work to do. He marched out of the front of gate, looked behind his allies…
Only to realize that his trouble had just begun. Police officers were beginning to surround the gate a block away from his current position, and none of them looked particularly happy.
He sighed tiredly and made sure to scratch his head with his right hand. Merlin, he wasn't ever taking a vacation again. He'd outshine Hermione with the work he would do, as long as it meant he never had to do anything like this again and the statute was repaired.
The line of police officers began to move forward, and Harry doubted very much that any such thing would be happening.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: Hello, one and all, once again.
I've had this stored in my backlog of writing for a good six months or more, mostly because I wasn't exactly sure where to go with it once it started. I think now, however, that I've got enough of an idea to start posting (and stealing any ideas from people who comment).
Now, while this crossover section has a few interesting stories in it, I have yet to see one staring a mostly-canon Harry. Is this because one of the points of GATE is to form a harem with fantasy girls?
Probably, but the opportunity for humor involving thirsty Falmart denizens and a polite, unyielding, happily-married Harry Potter is untapped and awesome.
And, if you thought that the JSDF were overpowered, wait until you see the Wizarding World hop through the GATE, because – if the wiki is to be trusted – GATE-world magic is based on understanding science while Wizarding World magic is… well…
The HP magic has some rules, sure, but an observance of physics is not one of them.
Oh, and while GATE's debate about the morality of killing people is pretty basic with soldiers and Rory kicking around, Harry's thoughts on that are demonstrated here, where he didn't try and kill anyone. His Arrow spells were weak, and he tries to make sure his opponents don't get trampled. He'll go into more detail at a later date, say, when he collides with the JSDF.
Other than that, I hope you all enjoyed!
A/N 2: If you haven't already realized, this takes the events of both the Cursed Child and Wizards Unite as canon. I've inserted my own interpretation of how the game will probably end, and both will have consequences, as already shown here.
A/N 3: Also, the spell names for Japanese magic is based on Chinese instead of Japanese because of the whole 'Japanese Kanji = imported Chinese from Korea.' I decided to extend it to magic to because… why not? It sounds plausible enough to me, anyway.