Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Stargate SG-1. HP is the property of J. K. Rowling and is not my intellectual property. Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions and Gekko Productions. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.
A/N: So … I'm back? I kinda finally found both time and my muse and started writing again, this time a little crossover between HP/SG1. I will not abandon any of my stories, so anyone worried about that should calm down, but it may take me some time to finish or even upload my other fics. Sorry.
Edit: Made the story a crossover between HP/SG1. Maybe will get more traction ... I mean ... not even one Review. C'mon Guys ... a little love here.
ENJOY.
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§Testing§ - parseltongue
"Testing" – talking
"Testing" – Goa'uld voice/Eternal voice
'Testing' - inner voice
Testing - spells/letters
oOo - change of POV
xXx - scene break
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1. Bored Eternal.
He, a rather nondescript man, had just exited the mall with a busload of groceries when he caught a glimpse of his wristwatch. Startled he realised that if he doesn't seriously hurry he will be late for his bus, which would be the second time that day that that happened.
So he started to rather quickly run/walk to the nearest bus stop without paying much attention to his surroundings.
That would, unfortunately, cost him dearly.
Just as he was approaching the crosswalk, he heard a small commotion across the street that caused him to instinctively focused on it as he started to walk to the other site after checking that the light was still green. He forgot, in the commotion of some two strangers arguing, to look around for any vehicles that could cause him danger while crossing.
Just as he was approaching the middle of the crosswalk, bus stop that was his destination in his sights on the other side of the street, he heard a distinct sound of a car slamming its breaks.
Before he could as much as look at the sound, or even process what it could mean, he felt immense pressure on his left side and a quick stab of pain in his neck as his vision turned instantly black taking his consciousness with it.
xXx
Darkness slowly faded out as his consciousness sluggishly returned.
He managed to blink a few times after some time and took stock of himself, while also standing up from his previous laying position. He then finally remembered what had happened before he took his little nap.
"I …. Fuck … I was hit by a bloody car, on a crosswalk of all things…" he murmured disbelievingly as he once again checked himself over.
He couldn't find any damage to his body, not only that, but he was also wearing the same outfit as before passing out (just dark grey sweatpants, black T-shirt and a pair of cheap black trainers … and his wristwatch). The only difference was that he couldn't find his keys, wallet, cellphone and the bags containing the groceries he recently bought. Confused, he looked around for the first time and took in with dumbfounded expression his soundings.
The place he was in was rather small and straightforward. It was just a thirty square foot room with a black floor, ceiling and walls. He estimated that the ceiling was about eight feet from the floor. But most importantly, there was no door or window in sight. There was also no light sources which confused him to no end because he could see quite clearly, even with his surroundings being rather deep black colour.
"What the actual FUCK … what is going on! Shouldn't I be in a hospital or something?" He muttered to himself, slowly losing his composure, trying to figure out what has happened to him. "Maybe this is some kind of hallucination, and I'm in a coma?"
The coma scenario was starting to look more and more probable because while everything looked real, it also felt quite unreal at the same time.
"Good instincts Ephemeral, that is an entirely accurate description of this place." A sudden voice boomed all around him suddenly startling him so much that he actually fell on his arse. He noticed it had a posh British accent and belonged to a male.
"What! Who is it, where are you … and where the hell is this place, for that matter!" He shouted while quickly scrambling back to standing position, and trying desperately to calm down his rising panic.
"I am an Eternal, my name doesn't really matter, and I seriously doubt you would be even able to comprehend it, let alone pronounce it. Not only that but I couldn't even directly talk to you because you wouldn't be able to register that someone like me is communicating with you. You ephemerals are so … limited … that I need a specialised intermediary to even talk with you. I do hope that the translation is accurate..." He heard a distinct note of musing at the end from the so-called Eternal. "Oh well, I am sure that it will be sufficient. Now I need to tell you something before you start rambling some unnecessary questions at me once again …"
After what he could only assume to be a dramatic pause, the Eternal spoke once again. He couldn't fathom why the break lasted for about a minute, but he rolled with it to hear this supposedly vital information.
"You Ephemeral, as it is in your nature, are dead … mostly." Eternal finally announced pompously as if revealing some fundamental truth…
'Wait … What?' He mentally backpedalled in his head. 'Did I hear him correctly?'
"What do you mean I am dead? I am fairly certain that I'm alive …" As if the environment around him was trying to prove him wrong, it shivered, and suddenly everything rapidly disintegrated, including his body, leaving only his mind and bodyless feeling. That and quickly increasing panic.
Just as swiftly, the room returned to normal with the only difference being his now crumpled body on the floor. Trying to put his breath under control, he tried to stump his rising panic as his situation was finally dawning on him.
'I … did I die?' He thought with a cold feeling spreading through his body. 'The crosswalk … the car … it did run me over… it killed me, didn't it?'
"Indeed you did, and it was nearly instantaneous. And yes you were run over. Now that we have that covered, we should finally start on the reason for my intervention and rescuing your … soul, mind … essence? … I don't know how you ephemerals refer to your true self. Though your body is quite dead just so you know." The Eternal cheerfully proclaimed as if glad that they managed to get that sorted out … which ignited a new and welcome feeling inside of him. Anger.
"What! You … You … Where the fuck are you!? Show yourself!" He shouted at the black walls and channelling his anger which was preferable to the feeling of hopelessness he felt just seconds before.
Besides this, this Eternal was a bit of an asshole in his opinion.
"Oh my apologies, I forgot that your kind prefers to speak to a physical representation of a person. Here … let me provide you with a suitable avatar so you can talk to it." The Eternal sounded a little bit apologetic for forgetting something so basic, or at least he got that impression. Not that he cared about that at the moment.
He saw with a corner of his left eye that something appeared few feet to his side. Still fuelled with anger, he spun to face the avatar of Eternal and give him a piece of his mind.
The moment he saw it, he froze, and all his anger evaporated.
Replacing it was bemusement and momentary confusion.
Before himself stood generic female mannequin, without any clothes on and arranged in the famous Hamlet pose.
"What the …" he managed to finally stumble the worlds out but was interrupted.
"I acquired the likeness of this avatar from your own kin … I hope you like it. As I understand it is used to represent the likeness of your species, so I concluded it will be sufficient." Spoke Eternal, this time from the mannequin which was doubly confusing because it didn't move an inch. Nor did its plastic mouth so much as twitched.
He looked at the plastic annoyance with irritation and decided that he should finally start to decipher what exactly he was doing in this place and if he could go back. Or at the very least what that bloody Eternal wanted with him.
"Eh … I don't even know how to respond to that, but for supposedly higher being you are pretty annoying." He mumbled irritatedly at the mannequin. "But I would appreciate if you tell me why I am here if I am apparently dead. Shouldn't I go to some higher plane or an analogue to heaven or hell?"
He was an atheist in life, but you couldn't argue if there is something after death or not if you could actually think that after you died, kinda answering that question in the process. And he was so sure that there was nothing after death … not that he was going to complain.
"Oh … do you mean ephemeral silly superstitions about living after death? Don't be ridiculous, when your kind dies you die. That's it. I rescued your … essence? Yes, let's go with that … the essence from naturally dispersing. Which would have scrambled your unique pattern. You were quite lucky that I saved you, for my own purposes, of course … but still." Eternal explained distractedly as if the answer to one of the biggest questions humanity had ever asked warranted little more than a footnote.
"Oh …" he managed to weakly articulate, aptly describing his state of mind.
So it turns out that he was indeed right, after all, but for some reason, it only filled him with a hollow sensation. Before it was just a question, an exercise in a philosophy that you could argue about. Now that it was confirmed to be a truth, a consequence of that hit him like a train.
His very life was saved by chance by a being that needed a dumbing down intermediary (whatever it was) to even speak to him. And he was entirely at its mercy.
There was only one question that needed to be answered concerning his situation in his mind.
Well … OK … maybe more than one.
"Why? Why did you save me? Why me?" He asked the mannequin from lack of anything else to talk to.
"Because I am bored. Or at least that the closest I can call my state in your limited form of communication. And, as I require some entertainment, well … that's when you come in Ephemeral." The Eternal casually explained through mannequin. "And why you? Pure chance, nothing more. There were countless more that fit my criteria, and you just happened to be most convenient to grab. That's it."
'What?' he thought dumb folded by the response of the higher being.
"What?" He said, voicing his thoughts. "So what exactly am I to you? A toy or something? A pet?"
"More a means to an end really. But what's important to you is that you will be offered a second chance at being alive. And, as you don't have a body at the moment, I will even craft one to your specifications along with repositioning you to a "world" of your choice." The being patiently explained ignoring his accusations.
He immediately stopped his planned rant about the value of personal freedom and how lousy slavery is and actually took a moment to process what he was just told.
"Wait a moment … are you trying to tell me that this is basically a standard Isekai scenario setup … AND I get to choose the world that I can travel to? ANY reality?" He asked, excitedly. His former dread, anger and hopelessness evaporating entirely. "And what do you mean about a body? Don't I already have one?"
"What you experiencing right now is … for lack of better description … a virtual representation of reality created and upheld by me. That is also the case with your current body, it is essentially just an illusion. In fact, you are just a pure essence and only maintaining your pattern because I assist you. As maintaining it would be impossible for you without a body." The entity explained patiently through the mannequin with just a hint of exasperation. "And yes any Path, or as you would call it "world", is at your disposal to choose. If you are capable of imagining a setup, it most likely exists in that form somewhere. The universe is vast after all, and you ephemerals are too limited to think of something that even remotely approaches improbability."
He listened with growing excitement as Eternal explained his situation. It was basically a wet dream come true for someone like him. He loved the pure escapist experience that Isekai genre allowed him to fantasise about. And now he got the chance of a lifetime to actually experience it in person.
'Damn … now that I actually think about it, even the setting is so cliché. And here I thought that I will become some kind of pet to an alien for a second!' He mentally snorted at the concept while grinning like a madman at the plastic avatar of his benefactor.
"Ok … I think I get it. I get to choose the world, and you will also craft me a body to my liking. Will I be able to get any powers as well? For example, a body that can use magic or something like that?" He asked with hope tangible in his voice. It was his longtime fantasy to wield magic.
He was an avid fanfiction reader, and Harry Potter fandom nicely scratched his fantasy itch. Not that he didn't enjoy Sci-Fi setting, especially one of his favourite franchises being one … that being Stargate.
"I think I will limit the specifications for your new body to only physical aspects, as any supernatural … that you are unable to naturally produce … powers would have to be maintained by me. And my involvement will end with you deposited on your new Path." Eternal casually crushed his dreams. Then added as an afterthought. "It will also be more entertaining to me that way."
He experienced a wave of disappointment as the entity crushed his fantasy of being an overpowered Isekai protagonist that he was so fond of reading about. He ignored the comment about it being more entertaining as he figured that this whole thing was about some twisted alien reality TV show analogue to the Eternal. He didn't complain as long it didn't try spice things up and throw any hurdles his way.
Well … any more than "no powers" policy that is.
"OK … so no powers outside what my new body can produce naturally. Got it. And when it comes to the world of my choice … will Harry Poter setting be possible? Especially as compatible as possible with my own imagining of its setup? My "headcanon" if you will. Will that work?" He asked, hopefully getting over the first hurdle quickly. No point in crying over something he couldn't change.
He was sure that Eternal could read his mind due to their previous interactions and, while incredibly creepy, thanks to that he didn't have to meticulously describe what he wanted from it.
With that, hope arose that he would be able to go to a world of Harry Poter that closely followed what the perfect version of it in his head. At least perfect for him. Canon was frustratingly vague about the whole magic thing, and Runes being just analogue to foreign language class was downright annoying.
As long it had a hard magic system, alchemy from Fullmetal Alchemist (it was just awesome) and useful Runes (especially in enchanting and warding) he will be a happy man.
That is if he finds a workaround to the whole "no powers" issue. Because that would mean no magic for him.
And wouldn't that be annoying?
"I find nothing complicated with that request, and depositing you to a Path of your specifications lays within my powers." The Eternal spoke after short deliberation inducing a whoop of joy from him.
'Finally, something going smoothly for me.' He grinned to himself and started to walk around his little room while deliberating what to request for his body.
Movement always helped him think.
'OK … I could request standard superhuman abilities that deal with the physical. Enhanced strength, speed, reflexes, healing, intelligence etc. But that wouldn't help me with magic. If I can't figure it out, I would probably be better of choosing a world without supernatural abilities because going to the world of Harry Potter without magic would be just stupid. Even if I would love to go there.' He mused, walking left to right in front of the mannequin. 'If push comes to shove I will probably go to the Stargate universe. Lack of supernatural abilities wouldn't hurt me that much even if there are beings there with that kind of power. It will still give me a significant advantage to have superior physical stats. Or though, I will probably have to watch out for Goa'uld trying to take me as a host. I could just request immunity to possession by them … that would still count as physical power right?'
He was about to ask entity if a Stargate world would also be available to choose when he froze.
'Wait … possession!' His eyes almost popped out of his skull when he realised he might have just stumbled accidentally on a solution to "no powers" rule.
If he couldn't have the magic of his own, he could just possess someone with it.
"Do my body have to be human? Can it be a Goa'uld symbiote? And considering it is a physical characteristic of the species that they possess genetic memory … can I have it also? But with no emotional imprint, or whatever it is that is making them so dangerous and overpowering, I rather don't go insane from them." He asked, getting more and more excited about the idea by the second.
The symbiote could live for thousands of years, was more intelligent than human (he was reasonably confident of this) and had an eidetic memory. He remembered that Selmak died of old age at being about two thousand years old, and Tok'ra didn't use the insanity-inducing sarcophagus, so he estimated that this was roughly comparable to a natural lifespan of the symbiote.
But more importantly, the symbiote possessed genetic memory. A memory of technology far beyond current world (as in his original in year two thousand and nineteen) not to mention that of Harry Potter, which was at the beginning of the series almost thirty years behind technologically to what he was used to.
Just thought of such tech in his control while also having a host capable of wielding magic was sending shivers of excitement down his spine.
He didn't really think much about the moral implications of controlling a host. He could go with Tok'ra route if he possessed someone nice and Goa'uld with the rest.
"Your new body can be any species you want as long as it is capable of holding your pattern. A Goa'uld body can indeed do it and thus is acceptable as a choice. When it comes to symbiote racial memories, it is agreeable as well to transfer them to you considering their physical nature. I will even ensure the memories are from a line of scientists, as I see your desire for scientific knowledge, and ensure that the memories don't overwhelm you … which is more complicated than just erasing emotional imprint." The entity answered and agreed amicably to his question/request, it even sounded rather pleased to him. Unfortunately, it quickly added afterwards. "But due to significant advantage that will give you I will not allow any more changes to the symbiote that can increase its capabilities from its natural form if you go with that option. I would be less entertaining otherwise."
He was quite OK with a stock symbiote, so the Eternal ultimatum didn't phase him in the slightest. But as he started to think about it a little more, he decided that he needed to make two corrections to his request. One rather basic and another much more noteworthy.
He was debating himself for a while on the more noteworthy change, not even sure that it will be granted, as it carried some rather tricky to grasp connotations to him personally. On the other hand, it would significantly simplify the creation of his own power base with a loyal and "adjustable" army.
Or at least that what he understood were capabilities of a Goa'uld Queen.
"You said natural form, would another natural variant of the symbiote be OK? Could my body be that of a Goa'uld Queen? Oh … and if you don't mind, I would prefer the colour of the symbiote to be jet black." He asked tentatively pretty sure it would be rejected, but he wouldn't just throw away the ability to create an army of symbiotes that he could adjust to his heart desire.
He realised that that change would make him technically a female, at least that's what it felt to him, but as far as he could remember symbiotes were asexual beings and assigned themselves gender roles more due to their preferred host (usually first) than anything else.
'Well … I can just be a male Queen.' He thought to himself and cringed internally instantly. 'OK … first thing I do, if my request is granted, is changing the name to Goa'uld Royal or something. Fits both genders and don't invoke an image of myself wearing a ball gown and a tiara.'
And concerning the colour change … he just thought it would look cool. Black was his favourite colour.
"Goa'uld Queen is indeed a natural variant of Goa'uld species, but being a Queen would significantly increase your capabilities. I will allow this change on the condition that your body won't be able to produce new symbiotes until at least a year have passed since your arrival. Think of it as a time your body needs to reach a maturity level necessary to produce offspring." Eternal answered after a moment of deliberation surprising him with its answer. "The request for a different colour, as a cosmetic change, is also granted."
"Your condition is acceptable." He said dumbfounded, not bothered by the restriction after being completely surprised that his request was granted.
That and he gets to be a rather dashing colour too. Black is always in style, after all.
"Well … I guess that's the option I will go with when concerning my new body. To the word of Harry Potter as we discussed it." He said after a few moments of silence from the entity. "When it comes to the place and time of my arrival … I would like to be placed near the Dursley's home a day after Harry bought his supplies for the first year at Hogwarts with Hagrid."
"I see no problem with your specification for a place of arrival. Please note that my involvement will end with you being transported to a new Path. No help, communication or otherwise, will be possible. Also if you die, I won't save you for a second time. Do you understand?" Eternal asked casually but with a hint of finality in its voice.
"Yes, now let's get on with it. The sight of your avatar starts to really creep me out." He said with a lame attempt at humour that made him cringe slightly.
That would be so like him to anger his benefactor at the very end and make it consider the pet option after all.
"Splendid, now farewell Ephemeral and entertain me with your meagre existence." Entity spoke with a cheerful tone, and everything around him started to disintegrate.
Before he could even feel panic due to everything collapsing around him, his concusses started to fade as if quickly falling asleep.
The last thing he saw before he passed out was the avatar finally moving. Or more accurately, its mouth.
The mouth which morphed into a toothy smile.
xXx
'Ugh … well, that was creepy as fuck.' Was his first thought as his conciseness awoken once more. The image of smiling mannequin burned in his mind.
He then remembered what was supposed to happen and took stock of himself once again.
He moved his head and looked at his now serpentine body with a mixture of awe and confusion, noticing in the process that his vision had gotten worse. But on the other hand, his field of view tripled at the very least, so it didn't bother him that much. He saw a jet black body, which reminded him more of an eel than a serpent now that he thought about it, but the confusing part was that he could move so effortlessly. He was under the impression that he would need to relearn how to "walk" but that would bring a significant danger to himself, so he was glad that didn't happen. It felt as if he moved that kind of body his entire existence.
Now that he thought about it, it felt as if he was doing it for literally thousands of years.
'Wait … I have memories of a Goa'uld now!' He excitedly thought while also emitting a distinct hiss like sound.
Not paying much attention to it, he tried to remember some familiar tech from the show.
Thinking about Kara kesh, he was flooded with detailed memories, knowledge and schematics of the device. It felt as it should overwhelm him, but his mind quickly dealt with it, which surprised him. He had such detailed and intimate knowledge of the equipment that he felt as if he could soon build one effortlessly with the right materials.
He also became aware of a vast knowledge just at the tip of his mental fingertips wich caused him to hiss contently and smile internally.
'Yes! It worked! And I don't feel overwhelmed as promised, which I am grateful for. All this knowledge at my disposal … now to find a suitable host.' He thought with joy and started to look around himself for the first time since arrival.
He saw that he was laying in the wet grass on a patch of greenery surrounded by a wooden fence that most likely was a backyard of a house he could see in front of him. If Eternal followed his instructions, then it was probably Dursley's house. From a dim light around and a lack of anyone nearby, he got a feeling it was early in the morning.
His plan so far was to possess either Vernon, Petunia or Harry. With one of the Dursley's being subdued and use as a mere meatsuit or Harry with Tok'ra approach. The tyke could use a friend as far as he was concerned.
He was very cautious about possessing magical people though, especially powerful ones or knowledgeable in the Mind Arts because he now felt they could overpower him and took control instead. It was doubly worrying due to his new knowledge of powerful Hok'tar … which could do just that.
If he possessed one of the Dursley's, excluding Dudley (he wasn't so cruel as to take by force a body of a child), he would probably use the body as an intermediary for finding a more suitable magical host. Using a trip to Diagon Alley with Harry as a front for searching a new host. He seriously doubted that Harry would complain if faced with a chance to revisit the Alley, even so soon since last time.
He carefully slithered to the back door of the house, enjoying the sensation of wet grass underneath him.
Just as he was thinking about that he became aware of a rather big problem if he doesn't find a host soon.
'Fuck … I forgot that my new body is basically an amphibian or alien analogue of one. My skin actually needs to be wet to breathe … I dry up, and I die.' He focused on memories detailing his physiology prompted by his thoughts.
If he could, he would have shivered, finally realising just how vulnerable he was at the moment. Not only he would die if he dried up if he were to be attacked by a dog or a cat it would be over. He wasn't compatible with any host other than a human or Unas to any reasonable degree. He wasn't particularly strong either, especially on land. It was additionally middle of summer, and he figured the only reason for the grass being wet was a sprinkler system of some kind.
He needed to find a host … and do so fast.
Pushing any panic down, he quickly slithered to the back door, trying to find some way to enter the house. The grass ended few feet from home forming a cobbled space in front for garden furniture to rest, or so he assumed spotting a small round table with three chairs near the windows on the right of the door. The door was unfortunately locked or at least closed, so he looked around to see if there is a different way to get in.
He spotted that one of the windows was slightly open with a tilt, giving him just enough space to go inside. He launched himself, after coiling up, on the table that was beside the window to then propel himself inside the house. He looked inside the home through the window spotting what looked like a dining room, but more importantly, there was no one there.
He once again coiled and precisely launched himself through the gap to the dining room landing on the carpet with a soft thud.
Looking around, he spotted the door to the hall, which was thankfully open and proceded to move there to go upstairs. As far as he knew both Dursley's and Harry lived on the first floor at this point in time.
Just as he was about to proceed with a daunting task of climbing the stairs, he was surprised to hear a muffled voice from the famous (at least to him) cupboard under the stairs. The sound was similar to something between a choke and a groan.
With curiosity winning over his haste to find a host for a second, he decided to find out what that was all about and approached the cupboard door. Surprisingly the door wasn't locked all the way, leaving a small gap just big enough for him. Cautiously he made his way inside and looked around, his eyesight being rather weak compared to human but much better when seeing in the dark, helped him in determining what was inside.
He let out a surprised shriek/hiss at what sight welcomed him as he entered the cupboard.
He saw what was unmistakeably Harry Potter, which looked exactly like in the movies, lying on his small bed facing the door. His face was bruised, and he saw blood coming out from his open mouth, nose, eyes and ears in small amounts. His eyes open and starring into a distance looking empty and occasionally flashing red colour as if they were trying to change but couldn't. His breathing was irregular and shallow as if he could barely do it.
'What the fuck! He is dying! And it looks as if Tom is trying to possess him!' He thought in shock, and without much more thought, did the only thing he really could to help the kid.
Faster than he thought possible he slithered to the boy and launched himself inside the open and drolling mouth, letting instinct took over the process of possession. He effortlessly entered the boy body and quickly warped himself around Harry's spine and started to weave around the nervous system with thin filaments extended from his body, eventually reaching the brain itself. He felt himself realising a myriad of compounds into the bloodstream, including naquadah, to ease the process of possession and start the healing.
New sort of awareness exploded in his mind, suddenly gaining remarkable level of control over his new host body, but he ignored it at the moment focusing on something he knew he should already encounter but couldn't find.
He couldn't find Harry's mind.
As he assessed more and more control over the body almost automatically, he felt small resistance. He was nearly relieved that he finally found Harry inside this broken body but quickly noticed that the opposition to his possession felt off. As if coming from the outside of the body rather than inside of the brain, that he now saw was severely damaged due to a stroke. With a prefrontal cortex taking the brunt of the damage. He focused on trying to fix the damage and ignored the resistance.
He was now more than sure that it was Tom's Horcrux.
'Come on, Harry! You can do it, kid. Just hang in there, and I will fix it in a jiffy!' He sent thought in a way that you would if you were trying to communicate with a host. Hoping he could reach Harry in some way and reassure him.
He put Harry's body in overdrive to heal, determined that he would help the kid, focusing entirely on fixing the damage.
He knew it will take him hours to do so.
xXx
He failed.
After five hours of constant battle, he managed to fix the damage and got the body in working order … and he still failed.
To fix the brain, he needed to replace the dead brain tissue, due to lack of oxygen and ruptured blood vessels with new ones he built from pluripotent stem cells. Production of which he put in high gear to meet demand. Almost all of the prefrontal cortex was damaged beyond repair and needed to be replaced. With it taking what made Harry … Harry. Not to mention the damage to other areas of the brain which didn't help. Rest of the body was relatively OK besides some developmental problems due to lack of sufficient nutrition.
But Harry was basically dead. He was close to brain dead when he took over.
He managed to find a few memories, but most of even that was gone. But he extracted what Harry saw last.
The face of furious Vernon, reeking of alcohol, standing above Harry (from the perspective he figured he laid on the bed) in his upstairs bedroom in the dead of night preparing to strike him down.
Apparently, this version of Vernon didn't take it well that Harry will, after all, go to the "freak" school, so he decided to beat it out of him one last time. And based on the condition of the body, he tried a few times before.
'Focus! I can deal with Vernon later … I need to get out of here before I do something that will get me discovered.' He tried to calm himself after a wave of homicidal rage swept over him due to the fate of a child, body of which he now occupied. It wasn't easy, to say the least, to not just run upstairs and kill the monster outright.
So instead, for the first time since possessing the body, he moved it, changing his position to sitting and starring on the cupboard door. He blinked a few times and moved his new hands in front of him to check his control over them. Everything seemed to be okay.
Controlling host was both familiar, due to racial memories of Goa'uld, and alien compared to his own controlling his old body. He was using Harry's brain (cerebellum), so there was a degree of separation that was both new to him and familiar.
"Testing … I guess the voice works as well." He spoke using Harry's mouth, glad that it worked in the first place. Then just to see if he could he spoke in his "god" voice. "Vernon is going to die."
He stood up carefully, watching to not hit his head on the cupboard ceiling, and stepped out of Harry's former prison. He was wearing what he assumed were Harry's version of pyjamas (consisting of loose patched trousers and two sizes too big T-shirt) and was barefoot. He checked it once more to see if there is anything useful there, which there wasn't, and headed to what was obviously kitchen to his right.
He burned a lot of energy healing the host body to working condition, and he needed to replace it. And eating on Durlsley's tab was more than okay with him.
He located the fridge, opened it and proceded to eat as quickly as possible anything edible to fill his stomach. Not bothering with preparing the food in his haste to get out of this infernal place. During this, he spotted a wall clock that showed it was ten in the morning.
"Lazy arseholes didn't even wake up yet." He muttered between mouthfuls of food more to practise than anything else.
After finishing stuffing his new body to the brim with food, he decided to take Harry's … or now his, possessions from the upstairs bedroom, where he assumed they were, and afterwards use the Knight Bus to get to the Leaky Cauldron. Not bothering to even close the fridge he moved to the stairs.
He quickly traversed the stairs and arrived at the first-floor landing. He spotted a distinct bathroom door and decided to wash away the blood he remembered having on his new face. Both quickly and quietly, he entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
He stepped in front of the mirror, above the sink to see his new face for the first time from the first-person perspective. He immediately noticed that the bruising was gone, but he also had dried blood all over his face and T-shirt. Not only that but his first assessment was spot on concerning the appearance.
"I really do look like Daniel Radcliffe now … with green eyes, but still … I guess Eternal took even that detail from my mind and matched the world to reflect that." He muttered to himself using his new mouth. Out of curiosity, he tried to flash his eyes.
The reflection eyes flashed brightly with emerald green shining through his irises. The effect was quite intimidating and impressive, primarily due to his expressionless face. He tried to put a smile on, but the result looked eerily similar to the mannequin he saw before arriving here.
"OK … I need to work on that. I guess the damage to the brain had some consequences. I don't remember expressing emotions being this hard for other Goa'uld from my memory. Even if just to deceive others." He mused aloud getting more comfortable with the body. The difficulty in controlling facial expressions was a minor setback at most, so he didn't really get bothered by it.
"So … I am Harry Potter now, huh." He enunciated to the mirror, looking at his bloody face. It didn't feel right to him the moment he spoke it.
From the moment he read the books, he was fantasising about being Harry … true … but he wasn't. Reading fanfiction, he wanted to also take a different approach to what was in the canon, to change Harry into someone cool, but not like that. He was acutely aware that he was wearing a child's body that was basically his hero from childhood. Murdered before he could experience life.
He wasn't Harry Potter. Even if he had to lie to others, he wouldn't lie to himself.
"Then who I am?" He asked his reflection in the mirror with a stone-cold face.
His old name didn't feel right anymore, and he wouldn't use Harry's as his own … outside to upholding the ruse to everyone around that the mind of the last Potter was still in, now his, head.
He suddenly remembered his favourite online handle, and that he always wanted to change his name to match it. Now that he thought about it, it fitted him perfectly, especially with his symbiote body being jet black.
Black was always in style, after all.
"My name is Ater." He spoke in Goa'uld voice, flashing his eyes for effect while also twisting his face into a sharp and dangerous-looking toothy grin. He still needed to work on that, but it worked well enough.
As newly minted Ater, he proceeded to wash his face and hair from blood and in the process, finally noticing that he didn't wear any glasses. He shrugged it off considering he could see better than even in his old human body (which had 20/20 vision) and attributed this to healing properties of the symbiote. He wasn't always aware of what he fixed, especially so if he focused so much on the brain like before. And considering that he flooded his host circulatory system with pluripotent stem cells, it wasn't that hard to believe that some fixes missed his awareness.
Finishing his wash, Ater decided to finally go to take his (as in Harry's former) stuff from his bedroom. He exited the bathroom and taking a hunch, he chose a battered door on the left of the staircase and walked in.
His gut turned out to be true when he entered a room that was unmistakenly Harry's. It looked very similar to what he saw in the movies with minor differences. He instantly spotted the trunk which contained his new belongings and approached it.
The trunk thankfully looked more like an actual trunk, unlike a glorified briefcase like in the movies, fitting what he always imagined it looked like. Outside of that, it was very unassuming.
He approached it and opened the lid to see if the most crucial staff was still inside, that being the Holly wand and Potter vault Gringotts key. He immediately spotted the distinct long box which could only contain one thing … that and "Ollivander Wands" was clearly written on the lid of the box in loopy stylised writing. He reached out and removed the top.
The sight that welcomed him was both familiar and not. The wand looked differently from its appearance in the movies for sure, it didn't have the handle that always annoyed him and looked exactly as he imagined a wand would look like. It was straight, polished to a gloss warm brown wooden stick … it didn't have any markings and seemed quite dull.
What worried him is that it didn't … feel magical, for lack of a better description. He was counting on some feeling of being drawn to it or something at least.
Yet he felt nothing.
On one hand that wasn't surprising, it was Harry's wand, not his. But he counted on feeling at least something from Harry's body.
'I really hope that this body didn't lose the ability to cast magic. That would be … problematic.' He thought with trepanation.
He knew that in that scenario he would have to abandon Harry's body, at least after finding a new host, as his inability to cast magic would be a significant red flag to anyone interested in Harry Potter. And that would bring unwanted attention and undoubtedly lead to the discovery of his actual body, leading most likely to his death.
Unfortunately for him, everyone even remotely magical was interested in Harry Potter.
'Well … there is only one way to find out for sure.' He thought, and after mentally steeling himself, he reached for the wand.
The moment his fingers touched the wand, the cold wood caused a lurch inside his host body, pushing through the feeling he grabbed the wand and raised it from the box.
Before he could do anything else, he felt a great wave of pressure and heat travel from the wand through his veins alongside an utterly strange feeling, one he had never encountered before … as a human or a Goa'uld. The sensation was immediately joined by one similar yet much stronger emanating this time from his host body.
The strange feeling was unlike anything he has ever encountered and beyond his ability to describe. What he could do was ascertain what it … "carried" with it.
It made him feel powerful and in control. Like anything was possible if his will was strong enough. For the first time in his life, he could understand what real unabashed power feels like, even memories of his Goa'uld ancestors didn't come close to it with their control over vast expanses of space and countless people.
What he could experience right now was power over reality itself.
Lost in this euphoric and overwhelming feeling it took him quite a few seconds to notice that something was not right.
His first clue was finally being aware of a significant amount of pain his host body was experiencing, that and pain his real body was slowly starting to feel too. Thankfully he could easily adjust the sensations from the host body, effectively turning off the pain he felt that way. And the pain he experienced as a symbiote was manageable.
His second clue was the fact that he was glowing.
'What the … what is going on?!' Ater thought shocked, finally snapping from being overwhelmed by the experience. 'That can't be good.'
He noticed that the wand ejected a steady stream of gold and black sparks disappearing after a few inches from the tip, he then focused on his glowing hand. He saw that while his whole body was glowing, his veins seemed to radiate the most.
This quickly reminded him of a trope he regularly encountered when reading any fanfiction dealing with a wizard being possessed by a symbiote, a trope that looked to be quite right in its premise.
Apparently, naquadah really did amplify magic.
He could even understand why that is, as naquadah amplify any energy that passes through it. Add to it the fact that the miraculous material was also room temperature superconductor and could store a ridiculous amount of energy you ended up with something that could, in theory, enhance the magic. As long as magic was a form of energy that could interact with the naquadah.
'And apparently, it is.' Ater thought annoyed at the whole situation. 'I should have predicted it, but that is a matter for another time. How do I stop myself from blowing up?'
Ater decided to count on the assumption that the trope is more or less accurate in this world, so he chose to deal with it the same way he read it was dealt with. Which was controlling your magic and calming it down, usually done so using Mind Arts or sheer force of will.
And while he, unfortunately, didn't know any Mind Arts (which he was going to correct as soon as possible) he reasoned that he knew the next best thing and in combination with a strong will to survive it should work.
He was thankful that one of his Goa'uld ancestors possessed a Jaffa, and was forced to live as one for a few years before he could escape as that gave him the knowledge how to perform Kelno'reem. He was pretty sure that it will help him to overcome this "magical surge". If not, he will be forced to abandon Harry's body, and he was loath to do so. He might have failed to save him, but at least Harry's body survived. And he would do his damn best to ensure that it will remain so for a very, very long time.
Besides, he planned to kill that obese monster for killing his childhood hero, using this body to make sure that Vernon knows precisely why he was going to die. He didn't even acknowledge how easy it was to him to not only contemplate murder but also ruthlessly plan it with all the intention of going through with it. As far as he was concerned, the monster deserved it, and while he wouldn't do so before, when he was human, he was now a Goa'uld in the body if not in mind.
He might as well live up to the reputation.
'Now focus and control this bloody surge.' Ater thought to himself as he sat with great difficulty on the floor still clutching the wand, he noticed that he no longer felt the hand holding the wand and trying to drop it resulted in just weekly waving the thing back and forth.
He became acutely aware that he was losing his grasp on the motor functions of the host body and that the pain felt by his true self was increasing, and he couldn't turn off the pain this time as he did before.
Oh … and he was glowing even more now.
Not wanting to waste even more time he closed his host eyes and focused all his attention inward. Usually, the state of Kelno'reem would take some time to induce and even with knowing how to do it, he would have to practice a lot to do it right, so he cheated. He simply manipulated the brain chemistry and body to the same state that would be achieved during deep meditative state and allowed himself to truly and deeply connect to the mind of his host. He imagined that Tok'ra used a similar technique during their blending but doing so with an empty mind was a weird feeling.
Notably, since he suppressed brain activity, in the same way, Goa'uld would usually do to host mind just in case some newborn-like consciousness arose. Even if that was extremely unlikely, he didn't want to deal with such a scenario, and he had tentative plans already in place for what he was going to do with the "mental real estate" that was vacant.
Focusing inwards, he examined the sensations of the body and tried to determinate from where exactly did magic come from and if he could somehow control it mentally. He studied his memories of how magic emerged within his host body and from what he could tell it came from … well … everywhere at the same time. It was like his whole body was an opening to the place where the power is usually stored. And now that he got a good "look" of how it felt he would be probably able to at the very least detect even small amounts of it in the body.
As far the control goes logic dictated that he would be able to do so, as he controlled the brain and wizards could control magic with their will … that is the brain. The problem was he didn't have any baseline for how magical people control their magic. If he possessed some wizard and he would cast a spell or do any form of magic he would be able to see how it is done so he could replicate it.
He didn't have such a luxury and still needed to figure it out on his own. And fast.
He decided to go with another trope that was most likely also accurate here, or at least he hoped it would be. He always enjoyed reading stories where Harry had to "find" his magical core to unlock something, usually an ability or some such. And it involved diving deep into his mind and finding a mental representation of his core. The way magical energy appeared from within his body he figured that it was stored in some extra dimension or something, which would fit the definition of magical core. But if wizards could summon this power at will, it meant that there was some kind of two-way communication going on between the magical core and a wizard.
If he could tap into that communication directly, he could possibly control the flow of energy. Maybe even amount of it, so next time he uses a wand, he wouldn't glow and emulate a flash grenade.
He figured that this was instinctual, so hidden deep within the mind and thus hard to reach. Thankfully he was a Goa'uld and both controlling and manoeuvring inside a mind was his bread and butter. With that he focused entirely on the task mentally diving inside the mind of his host to the deepest reaches of it, feeling the intoxicating sensations he now associated with magic but this time not submitting to them.
Ater followed the feeling when he realised that he no longer could detect his body or feel any pain and now felt the familiar bodyless detachment that he remembered from his interaction with Eternal. Thankfully he could still sense the magic and willed himself to "travel" farther yet. As he travelled, he tried to will a mental representation of a body around himself so he could centre his thoughts and soothe his mind with something to grab on other than a feeling of magic that was becoming overwhelming once more.
He became aware that he unexpectedly succeeded when he felt a familiar sensation of a body around him which made him smile as he now had something to anchor his thoughts once more outside of the magical trail he was following. Magic also become less overwhelming, which allowed him to continue without the fear of losing himself in it.
He then realised that he actually felt himself smile and raised his hand in front of him to look at it. As if something clicked in his awareness, he could suddenly perceive everything visually rather than just by feeling it. He looked at his hand and saw human limb with jet black skin like his real symbiote body, but this time instead of a degree of separation he felt when controlling a host, he moved the same way he did as a human.
"Well, that's nice." He spoke at loud and surprised himself by speaking in a combination of his old voice, a young child, that he recognised as Harry's voice when he spoke it and a noticeable background of Goa'uld voice. "But that voice is freaky."
Looking around, he saw a vast borderless space that he was floating in, filled with what looked like glowing dense fog that he somehow recognised as magic. He noticed that the mist moved upwards with respectable speed and away from the direction he was moving towards. Not seeing any reason in just floating there, he dived to the course that most likely contained the source of magic. He enjoyed the ease with he was flying when he both saw and felt something different.
He saw a bright light shining through the already glowing mist looking like a sun behind an obscuring fog. But it was what he felt that told him that he found what he was looking for, the feeling he associated with magic has grown to a level he could bearly withstand, and it took all of his focus to not just get swept away with it. He concentrated on the thought of his survival and his impending death if he doesn't resolve the magical surge he was experiencing, and that if he doesn't gain control over the magic, he will likely experience it again if he survives this one.
With that in mind, Ater steeled himself and dived in the direction of the magical core. As he was approaching the visibility suddenly improved along with a feeling similar to being submerged in water, and for a second, he thought that he accidentally flew inside the core. The sight in front of him quickly dissuaded him of that idea as an impossibly bright sphere was right in front of him invoking an image of the sun even if much smaller.
The light was so bright that he was surprised for a second that it didn't just outright blind him, but then he remembered that he didn't see with his eyes right now. All the things he was seeing were only how his mind interpreted what he was experiencing and translating it into visual cacophony in front of him.
He was also acutely aware that the only reason he was able to resist and not lose his mind in the feelings magic invoked in him was that the sensations were now so intense they actually hurt. It was not a pain in a physical sense either but a mental equivalent of one … It was like something screamed POWER and was showing forcefully all that was associated with that inside his mind. Ironically this made it easier to deal with the feeling and not to lose himself in it, on the other hand, the mental pain was making it hard to think and was quickly approaching the point that his mind would be more than likely in danger of collapsing.
He didn't have much more time. Ether his mind would snap, or his body explodes as naquadah had a nasty habit of exploding when reaching full energy saturation and you tried to shove even more into it.
In the stories, he read that by interacting with a core directly, one could control it. So that translated to touching the core and trying to will it to stop spewing so much magic around. That was the idea at least and his plan of action. He just hoped that touching the core will connect him to it in a way that allows control, instead of just burning his mind out with magic.
At this point, he didn't have a choice but to take a leap and hope for the best.
He approached the sphere that he now realised was a hundred feet in diameter at the very least and looked smaller because of a distance between it and him. As he flew to the core, the pressure increased the closer he was to it, like he was diving into the depths of an ocean. With increased pressure came more of the mental pain, and he was starting to experiencing it as an actual pain … like a massive headache, awareness of which was slowly coming into focus.
Finally, he came within a reaching distance of the core at which point he was feeling as if being squeezed by a massive force, it wasn't a painful sensation per se, but it was uncomfortable and brought a suffocating feeling with it. What was painfull was the gigantic headache he was experiencing, and he was barely able to think due to his mind being blasted with the feelings magic brought with it.
He was starting to regret having a body at the moment, even if an imaginary one. The pain was real enough.
Not sure if he would last much longer, he unceremoniously showed his jet black hand into the sphere momentarily surprised by a lack of noticeable resistance.
Then came the real pain.
Ater didn't even notice when he started screaming.
It took all that he was to even focus beyond experiencing the pain and putting all of his available mental facilities into willing the core to just stop. At first, there was no noticeable change when he suddenly became aware of something new. It was as if part of his body melted and merged with the magic of the core, while not ceasing to be connected to him … while he could still feel it.
And just like that new awareness expanded inside his mind and the pain, while still there, became much more manageable. He no longer only experienced the effects of magic, now he could actually feel it as if it was part of him. Now he felt he could control it.
Now that he could think more clearly, he doubled his efforts in willing the core to stop spewing out magical energy like it was going out of style. While doing so and seeing that he was finally having some success, noticing even the feeling of pressure subsiding slightly, he felt resistance.
He felt a spike of panic at the resistance, thinking it may be Horcrux trying to gain control once more, but he quickly realised that it wasn't the case. It felt different, like a sucking force from within his host body keeping the magic from subsiding.
It was definitely the naquadah in his host blood.
With a pained groan, he focused even more on stoping the surge and closing the core at the very least enough to make the flow of magic manageable. He showed his other hand into it and ignoring a spike in pain purred his will into the magic commanding it to stop, to close the magical core and shut down the surge that was killing both him and his host body.
With a great effort, he slowly pushed trough the effects of naquadah, and after what felt to be hours, he finally managed to close the magical core enough to stop the surge. The feeling of pressure and heat subsided to comfortable levels, and the blindingly bright light that was previously emanating from the core dimmed to a soft glow.
Looking at it, he saw a web of faint black lines on a surprisingly metallic-looking surface that had a colour of gold and consistency of a dense liquid. As he removed his hands from the sphere, he noticed a web of gold lines marring his jet black skin, looking at his imaginary body, he saw that they extended to cover all of his skin.
Looking back at the mental representation of the magical core, he saw his reflection on the metallic surface. Both his face and hair were jet black, and the only reason he could differentiate between the two was the web of gold lines that had a vain pattern on his skin. He could recognise some of the features of his former face alongside what looked like Harry's characteristics.
But the real defining feature and the one attracting attention were his eyes. They were iris-less and completely red, the same colour that his eyes were as a symbiote.
"I guess that I win the "evilest eyes" contest Tom," Ater spoke in his weird gestalt voice with a snort, "suck on that!"
His appearance didn't bother him much due to being just a mental image of himself. In the real world, he still looked like a normal Goa'uld outside of colour. And he knew his host will grow to be a rather handsome bloke, so no complains there.
With his task done, he didn't see the point of staying there any longer, so he ventured to depart from the depths of his host mind.
He quickly traversed from the core to what he perceived as up and was soon surrounded by magical mist once more, looking far less agitated and lazily moving in the same direction as him.
His vision started to waver, and suddenly he was subjected to a familiar bodyless feeling that he ignored and continued to travel where he sensed magic was moving.
Just as he predicted, he became aware of both his symbiote and host bodies and quickly retracted mentally to his real body and took stock of his and his host health.
The only damage he could detect was minor and comparable with an injury caused by a heat stroke and small radiation damage. Both were thankfully easily fixed and primarily contained to his host body.
What he didn't expect was an overall sense of wellness and health that he didn't detect before, even the small developmental problems he identified previously seemed to be gone.
That and he could sense now the magic that was coursing through his body, the amount of which was far smaller than during the surge but definitely noticeable. Magic seemed to be centred on his veins travelling alongside it. He didn't know if the amount was comparable to previous levels, but it didn't hurt him any longer and judging by his newfound health it was beneficial, so he let it be.
Now confident that there was no longer any danger he waked his host from an artificially induced state of Kelno'reem and opened his eyes.
He didn't know how long he was occupied with dealing with the surge, but there didn't seem to be anyone around him, and light level didn't change noticeably from before he started glowing. He was also in lying position, presumably falling from sitting in front of the trunk when he lost control of the body.
Thankfully he quickly determined he wasn't glowing anymore by moving his hand in front of him, and while he was still holding the wand, it didn't produce the same effect as before.
"So far so good," Ater spoke relived that his host body seemed to work just fine and that his voice was back to normal. "Now, where was I?"
He carefully stood up and walked back to the trunk. As he stood in front of it, he frowned slightly, actually taking an effort to twist his host face into the expression.
He needed the practice, after all.
"That seemed … off somehow," Ater spoke, reflecting on the way he walked. "And the view has a different perspective, even if only slightly."
He estimated that the perspective was off by about two inches. Which would mean that he grew up two inches in a matter of what he presumed were … minutes? Maybe even less time.
Curiously he lifted the T-shirt up and saw that any signs of lack of nourishment were gone, he now was nicely filled in and looking like a normal healthy eleven-year-old boy. There weren't any six-packs unfortunately but this he could fix on his own when the body was ready for some conditioning.
He also noticed that he was famished. Again.
"Well … perks of surviving a magical surge, I guess?" Ater mused lifting his T-shirt down and focusing once again on the trunk. "And another raid on the fridge is in my future it seems, tough luck for the Dursley's."
With a vindictive smirk, he started to rummage through the staff in the trunk looking for Gringotts key and hopefully money pouch with some galleons. He quickly found the pouch and looked inside, he was satisfied to see a respectable amount of not only galleons but also sickles and knuts. Putting it aside, he continued his search.
He finally found the key hidden in some socks at the bottom of the trunk, clearly done so to prevent Dursley's from seeing it. It was slightly larger than his hand and intricately carved at the handle. He put it alongside the money pouch and fished out some clothes to wear from the trunk, choosing what was most likely the uniform. Thankfully it looked like the one from the movies rather than books, so without the cloak, he would look relatively muggle.
He stripped down from Harry's pyjamas and put on the uniform leaving the cloak, thankful that Harry apparently bought both underwear and socks for Hogwarts as he didn't fancy wearing Dudley's castoffs.
When he finished changing, he saw that his sudden grow burst had made the clothes slightly too short, but before he could do anything more, he felt foreign magic invade his body from all around him. It thankfully quickly retreated before he could do anything else than feel a spike of panic, the reason for the magical scan (he assumed) became apparent when his clothes grew slightly to cover for the difference in the size.
"That's nifty … resizing enchantment or something similar?" Ater spoke eyeing the clothes curiously and not finding anything unusual.
Shrugging it off he proceeded to look for an appropriate way to stash his wand in but not finding anything even remotely resembling wand holster. Frowning, he looked around and spied a small closet near the door, so he opened it. It was filed what was obviously haphazardly thrown in castoffs previously belonging Harry's cousin.
He quickly searched through the pile and find what he was looking for in a pair of old trainers. He extracted the pair of shoelaces in relatively good shape and discarded the shoes on the castoffs. He then proceeded to tie them on his left forearm after pulling up the shirt sleeve to expose the naked skin. One tied up near the wrist and another near the elbow. He then picked up the wand and stashed it in between the two loops created by the shoelaces on the inside of his forearm.
"Good enough, for now, I guess. Better that than blown up buttocks … or so Moody claimed in the books. Either way, it is faster to draw than from the pockets." Ater murmured to himself while testing the draw.
It worked well enough aside from the resistance from the flesh, making it slightly challenging to draw out the wand, but it worked as intended and was temporary ether way. Besides, he didn't know any spells.
He just didn't want his host buttocks all over the new trousers.
"Maybe I can test the spellcasting too? Casting Lumos shouldn't send a bunch of Aurors my way, and even if it's detected, I will at least know that the Trace is still a problem. Not only that but also confirm if I can even cast spells in the first place." Ater spoke to himself, vocalising his thoughts and trying to convince himself to go with trying out spellcasting for the first time in his life.
He suspected that a magical signature was a thing here as it was something he considered his headcanon for Harry Potter universe. In his mind, it made sense, especially since he favoured the hard magic system with defined rules and logical use and application. That's why he liked Runes so much, it was like a way to program magic, and that appealed to him very much. At least the kind of Runes portraited in most fanfictions.
He was pretty sure his host magical signature was different now, not only due to naquadah in his blood but also because of what he saw in a mental representation of the core. The black web on the golden sphere probably represented his influence on his host magic. It wasn't his per se, but it now listened to him.
One of his primary goals when in Hogwarts will be finding a way to somehow make this magic properly his. Because he could sense magic now he knew that his real body didn't produce any unlike his host, it was travelling through and saturating the symbiote for sure, but magic appeared from the core everywhere but his body.
If he were to change hosts, he would most likely lose magic too, and if he possessed another wizard, he would have to deal with another surge the moment the host used his magic. And he would have to let the host use magic and calm the surge because he now understood that the connection to the core was facilitated by the will of the wielder. So to wield another's magic, he would have to subdue the mind of a new host and do the whole dance with the core all over again.
And he barely survived last time.
Ater sighted and pulled his thoughts away from the sidetrack he put himself on to stall on his first casting. He was surprisingly nervous but put himself together and decided to just get it over with and move on.
He raised the Holly wand up, and before he could cast, he remembered something that gave him pause.
Dobby.
The crazy elf put Harry in trouble by doing magic, his elven and wandless magic, and somehow Ministry pinned it on Harry.
How?
It was evident that the Ministry must have some way to detect magic use beside Trace, or Trace is sensitive enough to trigger when a spell is cast nearby enough. Either way, it is something that is not reliant on a magical signature.
Ater remembered that he rationalised it by thinking there must be some kind of non-specific Trace, outside of more focused and powerfull signature (or wand, or both) specific Trace, over all of UK that was easy to ward off and was used to detect magic in area of heavy Muggle presence. Places like Hogwarts and magical villages, alleys and households were probably warded against it to shield from triggering it.
And because it was something that he considered to be true in his mind, it was probably how it worked here in this world. He did tell Eternal to match the destination of his arrival to his headcanon after all.
He also strongly suspected that the Dursley's house was especially carefully watched because Harry Potter was living here, either by the Ministry, Dumbledore or both.
Knowing his luck probably both. And he more than likely inherited the famous Potter luck too.
Oh, joy.
"Dammit, there is no point in testing the casting in here. The better place would be Diagon when I get there … Eh … now I am a little disappointed that I didn't get to do it now." Ater murmured with annoyance and stashed the Holly wand in his DIY holster.
He quickly walked back to the trunk, and after some deliberation, he fished out one of the few cloaks and closed the lid. He wouldn't wear the cloak near here, but before he entered the Knight Bus it would be better to have it on as with it and the hood on he was covered enough to conceal his identity.
And Harry Potter was bloody famous so that will be a must.
Not seeing any reason to stay here any longer he tied the money pouch to his belt and stuffed the Gringotts key to his right trouser pocket. Grabbing the cloak in his left hand, he effortlessly lifted the trunk with his right.
It was nice to be a Goa'uld sometimes.
xXx
A/N: So … what do you think? And don't worry, I did not forget about Hedwig. Don't know when will upload the next chapter but it will probably be more than a month. Sorry for lack of a more concrete timeline but I don't want to promise more than I can deliver … again that is. R&R Please!
And see you next time.