Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction based on the Harry Potter Universe. All recognisable characters, plots, and settings are the exclusive property of Joanne Kathleen Rowling.
I make no claims to ownership, nor am I making any profit.
And that includes no donations for early chapters or shit like that. It's completely free.
Type:- Self-Insert OC Fanfic.
Genre:- Tragic Love Story involving Time Travel.
Pairings- Ares Alexander Potter/Daphne Greengrass. Haven't decided on the others yet.
Author's Notes: To be frank, I've completely fucked up canon.
Warning:-And this story mentions every possible dark thing that can be done in fanfiction. This involves blood, gore, depression, torture and mentions of sexual situations. NO LEMONS, HOWEVER. This sentence is bold, underlined and italicized. So I can't be blamed if you don't read the warning.So please don't read this story if you're sensitive.
This story has no beta since I wanted to try it on my own and secondly, my editors are underage.
So it's all me and my mediocre abilities. I would, however, welcome it if someone wants to offer their service. Contact me on Discord or FFN. I could use the extra help :)
Tales of a Dying Heart
by
Ares Alexander Peverell
Chapter 4
"AH! Alain Dimitrov. I would've said that it was a pleasure to meet you." Ares spoke, startling the man as he fell from his chair before scuttling to raise himself from the floor.
"Wh-Who are you?" The man questioned, slightly fearful before shouting, "Guards!"
"But then, I would've been lying." Ares continued, not giving even the slightest attention to the man. "It's certainly not been a pleasure to meet you."
Dimitrov somehow remembered that he was a wizard as he fumbled for his wand before firing several banishing and cutting curses towards him.
For a moment, the man thought that he had won as his curse collided with the cloaked figure. The hope was soon smashed to pieces as he heard a chilling laugh.
"Ouch! It didn't even hurt. I could perform better spells when I was in Hogwarts. Here, let me show you one of my signature spells," Ares whispered in a monotone, freaking the man even further.
Before Dimitrov had even blinked, a wand was pointed towards him.
"Transmogrificanso"
A magenta coloured light emerged from the tip of the wand before smashing into the wizard. The wizard's entire body immediately started trembling. But it was not pain or fear that caused it. His entire being was being ripped apart.
"Let's give you an impromptu Dark Arts lesson," he spoke, keeping the man under the curse.
"I call it the Transmogrificanso Curse. During the last war, most of Voldemort's Inner Circle was pretty used to the Cruciatus Torture. Not a surprise since Voldemort dished out Unforgivables like Dumbledore handed out Lemon Drops." Ares spoke, amusement clear in his eyes. The man's only response was a whimper of pain.
"Where was I? Oh yes! So being the sadistic genius I am, I devised a curse that heightened the nerves to their full capacity while giving me full control of their skeletal system. For example," Ares flicked his wand.
Two bony spikes emerged from the man's shoulders as his blood spurted out on his face.
"Or I could cause pain almost the same as the Cruciatus due to the heightened nerve flares." Another flick and the man's screams were echoing inside the enclosed office.
"And the best part is, you'll never pass out. It took me seven months to make it work. But this spell made even Bellatrix Lestrange sing like a siren."
Predictably, as soon as the curse was released, the man started talking like his life depended on it.
"What do you want? I'll give you anything. Take everything you want. My money, my information network, even my slaves. All are yours. I even have a delicious Veela girl in my collection," he blabbering on before signalling his ring towards a door.
Ares vaguely noticed that it had the same insignia that he was looking for. However, what attracted his attention was the insignia etched in the wall.
Ares felt a shiver down his spine on seeing those words. It was not the inscription itself that was the problem, rather the language they were written in.
"How do you know Illyrian?" Ares snapped at Dimitrov.
"Iloriora, What?" The man mumbled on.
"Illyrian, you idiot. This magical language has been dead for aeons. I killed the last vampire coven that knew it," Ares pondered upon the question, walking around the room.
"Dumbledore and Voldemort could've been the only ones I suspect that had some knowledge of it. But they are dead."
"I won't tell you anything, you dark scum of a wizard. It's the very reason that people like you get killed in the end. You just don't deserve the gift of magic." Dimitrov suddenly spoke, snapping out of the pain induced incoherence.
"People like me?" Ares questioned the man, tilting his head from side to side.
"Yes. Dark Wizards like you. We will annihilate you until even your existence would be a mere myth. Even if you kill me, I would be marked as a martyr, a saviour. The man who—"
"I've had enough of your speech." Ares cut him off.
"Legilimens"
Ares passed through the formidable shield of the man like a hot knife through butter. The man put quite a resistance, or at least much more than he did with his wand. Ares was sure that those shields were artificially installed and not conjured from his own mind.
But Ares wasn't one of the greatest practitioners of the Mind Arts for nothing. He had negated the call of a Siren, the allure of a full-blown Veela and the thrall of centuries-old Vampire women. This was a child's play.
He studied the shield for several minutes before sending a million probes all over the shield, but it withstood the attack.
Impressive shields. They are very strong. But are they flexible? Hmm, they're most likely runes in memory that have been etched onto the very surface of the mind. With just a fraction of power, Ares annihilated the shields and plunged into the depths of the mind in front of him.
Ares held no mercy for the man as he slammed through his mind. The things he saw truly disgusted him. Trafficking little girls, an absolute loathing of Dark Wizards, and his network of spies and the people he had interacted with. Ares used the same Illyrian shields to wrap the man's memories around his mind. However, he had no time to look through his entire options. Oh JOY! This is going to be fun.
"You're pathetic, Alain Dimitrov." Ares spat at the man. With some bit of effort, he extracted the entire memories of the man before pulling them towards him.
The body started thrashing as it struggled to keep hold of its mind. A reddish-white thread erupted from his eyes as they burst apart like a watermelon exploding. Instead of the two blue orbs, empty sockets were staring back at him. He conjured a big vial and added the entire silver matter into it before closing the lid.
The man's death had not been pretty. Honestly, it was one of the most painful ways to die. His body may have been alive, but his consciousness was dead.
"Corpus Perdere"
A silverish-orange spell erupted from his wand before striking the body, turning it into cinders in an instant. The smell of burnt corpses filled the air before dissolving away.
Never liked the smell, anyway. Although Dolohov's last moments were priceless as he was slowly roasted alive. Still, I could do some modifications to the spell. Ares mused, a crazed look on his face. He rarely dished out such brutal deaths, but the man's deeds were more than worth it.
Ares picked the ring before walking towards the insignia plastered across the wall. There was a little girl trapped here. He did not want to leave any evidence.
Ares entered the chamber and was immediately hit by the nauseating smell of vomit and urine. He absentmindedly vanished them as he entered deeper into the lair.
A little girl was lying on the ground: her blonde hair scattered all around her. The entire floor around her was stinking and was covered with bits and pieces of undigested food. She looked so fragile and innocent lying there, covered in bruises and cuts.
Don't be stupid, Ares! Just leave her here. A part of his mind told him.
But she's just a little girl. The last shreds of his humanity begged him to reconsider.
Do you honestly think that she is a little child after what has been done to her? Honestly, Death would only be a relief for her. Two words… and her misery will be gone forever. The voice whispered again, encouraging him to cast the spell.
Ares raised his wand. A jet of green light rushed towards the girl.
[Outside the Manor]
"Blaise. Take it and go. Make sure that you're not being tracked. Tori should take care of everything. She is a sufficient healer in her own right and would heal the injuries. Just stay alert." Ares spoke, more like commanded to the Italian man.
"What are you gonna do, milord?" Blaise questioned.
"Burn this whole place down to the ground," Ares answered honestly.
With a swish and a whoosh, Blaise took the portkey and disappeared from the place.
Ares took a deep breath. He raised his wand before starting a complicated set of movements. Each movement was crisp, precise, and to an outsider, would look pretty irrelevant.
"Conjice furorem, Domare corda, Vocate Fiendfyre,"
For some moments, nothing happened at all. The next instant, a humongous flaming Nundu appeared in front of the house before breaking into a charge and colliding with the estate, turning into a tempest of one of the deadliest flames in existence.
Ares watched, Eyes alight with curiosity and excitement as the spell kept devouring the place. When the place finally burned down to the ground, a sharp round of maniacal laughter could be heard all across the place.
And it was this scene that the Aurors would witness as they arrived on the scene.
[Neville Longbottom's POV]
These past few months could not have been worse for one Neville Longbottom. First, his relationship with his fiancee Hannah Abbott was not going well at all.
To add further fuel to the fire, there had been instances of murder all over the country. The insurgency was rapidly on the rise and there were even whispers of another Dark Lord rising. While all the happenings were in the shadows, these were very much the same tactics that were used in Voldemort's first rise to power. However, what was probably a relief was that the man was not intending to gain followers. He was on a killing spree.
Unfortunately, the wizard's success rate was astonishing. He had removed every trace of evidence. So far, this criminal's Modulus Operandi was working alone.
Neville was not afraid of the man. He knew it was most likely a powerful upstart dark wizard trying to fill in the power vacuum. The massacre had killed almost one-third of the Dark faction, including the most powerful wizard in Britain besides Harry himself.
Neville may not be fond of Ares' tactics, but the man and his inner circle were terrifying. Davis and Zabini were already powerful enough to fight them. Greengrass was almost as brilliant as Granger was and certainly not a slouch in the power department either.
How the hell they even managed to kill Harry's brother was an entirely different story. That man was certainly more knowledgeable in the applications of Magic than Granger and as powerful as Harry himself. Considering that he had trained with Harry regularly with the man in question since the last war, Harry at full power was like an unstoppable object. With the recent training Harry had received and the effort he had put in, he was already the second coming of Dumbledore, most likely.
It all went to shit since the Greengrass Massacre. The Wizengamot broke, Harry left and the instability is rising. I don't want to be the one to break the news to Harry that both the cases share a connection.
Harry was one of his primary concerns as well. Neville was acting as the Head of the DMLE instead of Harry since the incident. However, the man in question knew perfectly well that his contributions paled compared to what Harry had and could achieve. He just wanted to give his friend some time to recover.
A knock on the door interrupted his musings.
"Come in!" he spoke, leaning back into the chair.
"Neville," the tired but happy voices of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger greeted him.
"Ron, Hermione" Neville nodded, trying to project a friendly aura. He gestured for them to take a seat as he prepared his signature lemon tea.
The gesture was gratefully accepted as the two sipped the tea in the comfy chairs.
"So… How's Harry?" he inquired, breaking the hard topic.
"He's the same. Ares' death hasn't been very pleasant for him. He still blames himself for the massacre," Hermione spoke, sobering up a bit.
"Honestly, Mione! I know he's hurt. We all are. But that doesn't mean that we're all not saddened by his death. It's not his fault for this happening," Ronald interrupted.
The bushy-haired witch sent a glare towards the redhead before continuing, "I know. He thinks his brother got killed because we isolated him. Left him all alone to die. That had he discussed it instead of insulting Ares, he might have stayed instead of leaving the DMLE."
"That's bullshit!" Neville swiftly interrupted, his temper flaring a bit. "Greengrass, Davis and Zabini are almost as strong as the three of us. There's no way he was alone, weak and helpless. That guy killed more Death Eaters than most of us combined. Honestly, he had always been a significantly more powerful and dangerous version of Mad-Eye Moody."
The trio shivered a bit, remembering the false-eyed professor. While they had been taught by an imposter, Moody had later admitted that it was how he would've done.
"Exactly. But he's inconsolable. He has even broken off with Ginny and spends most of the day in the trophy room of the Potter Manor. Studying all the family tapestries or training like crazy." Ron spoke.
Neville hesitated a bit while replying a bit. He had no answer to that.
"Look, we all are rattled by his death. We may have not been very close but he was still's Harry's Brother. He risked his life, fought alongside us and without him, we would've likely been fighting more of Voldemort's army. All the disdains of his method aside. But he has to learn to move on-" Neville spoke.
BLARE-BLARE-BLARE-'Distress Call. Threat level Alpha.'
"Shit!" Neville cursed, jumping out of his chair.
"We'll come with you," both Weasley and Granger chimed in. Both of them knew what Alpha level threat was.
"Ron, call Dean and Seamus and bring the squadrons. We have to move fast. This time, he'll not escape," Neville ordered. He wanted to put an end to this case.
It had hardly taken the Auror department a few minutes to arrive at the scene. The scene they were met with was horrifying. A man draped in a black robe was laughing maniacally, smoking a cigarette from his left hand while controlling the flames with the wand in his right hand.
The entire group followed the protocols, surrounding the enemy. Before Neville could give a signal, it was Hermione's words that made him pale.
"He's controlling Fiendfyre," she said, her entire face going pale.
Neville's blood turned cold at the statement. "Don't attack him else the cursed flames would kill all of us." he hollered, making sure his command was followed by the other members of the team.
The man in question turned as if just noticing their arrival. His laughter stopped and the cigarette stem was thrown around casually.
"What? Are you afraid of a little fire?" the man questioned. However, the face remained hidden behind the black veil of magic.
"You're surrounded and the wards are up. Give yourself else we'll be forced to take action," Neville spoke, the voice carrying the threat towards the intended person.
Something in the posture of the wizard shifted as he casually reduced the Fiendfyre to ashes. Even the trio was amazed to see such a casual display of such advanced magic.
"Ah! The prodigal law arrives. How convenient it is that justice is served after the crime has been committed and the innocents have been killed or harmed. Is that what your system does? It's to benefit those that are in Power. Unfortunately for them, there's always someone more powerful." the man in question spoke, his voice sounding from all directions.
"Lethal Force. No holding back," Neville ordered, "Incendia Flagellum"
"Bombarda Maxima" Ron fired.
An Ancient Trapping Spell from Hermione joined several other varieties of lethal and semi-lethal spells as they rushed towards a single target. It seemed that the man was truly surrounded.
[Ares' POV]
A plethora of spells was launched towards Ares. He watched in amusement as the auror force finally used a lethal spell against murderers and criminals.
Had they taken my advice and used it while it was still not too late, my family wouldn't have been dead. Ares thought angrily.
The Earth itself came alive in front of him as he raised a quick Imprimis Shield.
Much to his surprise, the spells of the trio actually managed to hit him in his shield and he had to pump all of his power to hold the shield in place.
Well, looks like my brother's little circle members aren't so little and naive anymore. Ares thought bitterly. He had no ill feelings towards his brother, but that didn't mean that the resentment and betrayal did not hurt.
He shielded against several volleys of the same spells. It was most likely that they were using their most powerful or draining spells.
"Glacialis Caligo"
A chilling mist spread from his wand across the entire field. Ares smirked in amusement when he saw Granger's little banishing spell fail in front of the mist.
Granger thinks that she's too smart. Ares thought. Honestly, he had never liked the Muggleborn. She may have been brilliant, but bookish knowledge didn't necessarily equate to ability.
"Cast your most powerful fire spells," he heard Longbottom command his men.
Ares capitalized on the opportunity. A sweep of his wand and five Crucio spells were sent towards Longbottom's voice. Judging by the three simultaneous screams of agony, the spells had hit the mark. Since most of the other Aurors were busy trying to warm themselves and were clearly not suitable to fight him, they were firing blindly. Some were even hitting their own teammates.
No point in killing Aurors. They are not the enemy, Ares! He reminded himself.
"I don't want to kill you, Aurors. Remember that or else…" Ares let the threat hang in the air.
With a few murmured spells, he broke through the wards themselves before apparating away, disappearing the smoke and vanishing from their sight.
He did not want to kill Harry's friends as they were actually worth his respect. But that didn't mean that they would escape unscathed if they tried to stop him from his goal.
There would be hell to pay. He murmured to himself as he completed the final set of apparitions, before arriving at Malfoy Manor. His next target was going on a run and he had to capture his prey before it escaped.
Sorry for the delayed update. I've decided to enter college and therefore, I had to research the course and the colleges for my Bachelor's program. Expect no regular updates for this month and it's most likely that the update schedule would turn biweekly, albeit with much longer chapters. I'll still be working on Sortes Qui Facit and this story as well.
I have a Discord server where you can find me. Make sure to join from the link given below. It has spell effects and much more to offer, including talking to me or getting story update info in real-time.
Discord Link- /6ngeKHXktN
With love,
Ares.