Chapter 5: Seeking - Finding
Disclaimers: See ch1
Quick pre chapter A/N: So this story has received more favorites in just one month than my other major story received in more than a year of updates. I want to thank each and every one of you for reading, and a double thank you to commenters! I'm actually having a lot of fun writing this one, and plan to do so for the forseeable future. Now, onto the story!
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Obviously, stating something like 'you are currently holding the tangible representation of your SOUL in your hand right now' was enough to elicit a much longer, more involved, and if Asriel was honest with himself, exciting conversation about magic, monsters, and SOULs. Asriel realized, of course, that he really shouldn't be surprised that he would be extremely receptive to any sort of conversation, considering how reclusive he had been over the last months, with only sparing conversations with the occasional visitor to keep him company. It was actually an interesting experience for someone who had spent so much time having the same information around him, being able to exchange information with someone who was from so far outside his bounds of experience and knowledge. Asriel actually learned plenty from the conversation as well- though Harry was clearly a bit reserved, he seemed to enjoy spending time talking about basically anything, and certainly displayed a keen mind for many things, though he would often be a bit shy on details, sheepishly grinning and apologizing whenever Asriel would begin getting more technical in his questioning. He would also tend to avoid anything about himself personally, though Asriel thought that was probably just a comfort thing, which he could completely understand, there were a few things he would rather not discuss with anyone about his own personal history.
The back and forth question and answers about their respective worlds continued for a time until, in the middle of a rather long explanation about various magical creature, Harry had to stop to yawn. Asriel giggled a bit as Harry sheepishly smiled.
"Sorry, it seems I'm a bit knackered."
Asriel smiled back at the boy "Not a problem. How about we call it a night? Get some rest, and we can talk some more in the morning, maybe see if we can get you up and out of bed." Harry laughed a bit at that.
"That is something I would definitely enjoy." Asriel nodded, bid Harry a good night and walked out of the bedroom towards his own room. He was just at the doorway when Harry called out to him.
"Hey... Asriel?"
"Yes?"
"... Um... Thanks. You know... for saving me and all that." Asriel just turned and smiled at him.
"Glad I could help you Harry. Talk to you tomorrow, ok?" At Harry's nod, he turned and continued to his room. Walking into his room to prepare for bed, Asriel contemplated the last few hours with a small smile. He was surprised how easy it was to talk to Harry. It had been years, in a way, since he had been able to talk to someone new without any real veneer or hedging as he used to have to do during the cycle of resets. Talking to Harry was something new; he couldn't predict how the conversation would go, and that was incredibly exciting to him. Even if there wasn't a huge amount of personal information being exchanged, just the exchange of basic information on their worlds, their respective magicks, was more than enough to form a bond between the two of them. He went to bed, for the first time in he didn't know how long, truly excited to waken and start the next day. What he didn't realize at the time, but would only realize later when he thought about it, was that it was also the first time since the liberation that he hadn't fallen asleep fearful that he wouldn't wake up as he was.
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Harry sat back against the bed as Asriel left the room. He knew he was exhausted, but his mind was racing so much that he really couldn't quite settle enough to sleep quite yet. A whole world living underground! He may not have been as academically inclined as Hermione, but even he could see the implications of this was staggering. To be honest, he was surprised that he hadn't heard of the monster liberation over the course of the last year, and he wondered if the magic users even knew that the monsters had even shown up. He made a note to himself to see if Asriel could find out who this Frisk was working as ambassador to.
Trying to roll over and rest his eyes, he tried to sort out his thoughts and plan for tomorrow in his head. He knew Asriel tried to play down the condition of his things, but he had a feeling that he probably wouldn't have much to his own name when he eventually took inventory of his things. He could live without most of the things he kept with him in his trunk; the only three items that he really were interested in were his wand, the invisibility cloak his father passed onto him, and his photo album. If he could at least know what happened to those, he would be able to make the rest work. Even the wand wasn't particularly necessary, as if he needed to he could replace that, though the thought did depress him, he had found himself attached to his wand after the last two years at Hogwarts. The cloak was bloody useful, of course, but really as it was the only thing he had of his parents, it had just as much sentimental value as functional. The photo album, of course, was also important for sentimental reasons. He had also added a few photos into the second half of the album of his new friends over the course of the last year, and it was one of the few reminders he had of his friends.
And thinking about his friends was a depressing thought. He wondered if any of them would be concerned by this point. He knew Hermione occasionally wrote to him over the summer, but he didn't think she would be concerned by a lack of response for at least another couple weeks, and hopefully he would be recovered enough to leave for the surface before then. Asriel seemed to be of the opinion that he was healing surprisingly quickly, though once Harry had mentioned magic and how it had sped his healing before, he seemed to come to a better understanding of the situation. Feeling the twinge in his leg as he shifted positions though had him somewhat concerned. What if some of the damage was too much for his magic to heal? Would it just take longer as he healed like a muggle? Would he ever recover completely?
Hearing the glass on the nightstand rattle again, Harry took a deep breath to steady himself. No sense in concerning himself about that now, he thought. He had certainly been through worse, and at the very least he was certain enough to be alive, and hopefully anything serious that Asriel couldn't fix he could take to Madam Pomfrey. And at the very least, even with a potentially injured leg, he could certainly still play quidditch. He knew that specific idea was silly in the long run, but it was enough to help him calm down a bit more. As the items on the table settled, he felt sleep finally start to come. He made one last mental note to make sure he did something nice for Asriel when he was able. Someone who would be as good a person... goat... whatever, as he was, deserves at least the same in return.
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When it came down to it, Asriel thought, this was really about as good as anyone could expect given the circumstances. Thinking that, though, didn't really help ease the slight squeeze he felt in his heart at Harry's currently downcast expression. He knew, from their conversations the day before that the wand was apparently the source of power for the magic that Harry's kin used (though he honestly doubted that, given Harry's rather interesting displays), but to see him so sad as he held the broken and splintered pieces of wood in his hands made him feel like the wand was perhaps a bit more to Harry than a simple focus for power. He felt himself wishing he could do more, and found himself in the rare position of being unable to do anything to help. Instead, he simply laid a hand on his shoulder, offering silent support. Harry looked up at him, and gave him a sad, almost wistful smile, then sighed.
"Not much to do about it now, is there?" Harry nodded. "Well, there's a lot here to go through still, lets see if I can find anything else worth keeping."
Asriel smiled encouragingly, glad the moment had passed, at least for now. "Absolutely. I took the time to sort out as much as I could. Books and papers and such are all over on this side of the table, clothes and such are over there by the wall. I left most of the scraps of wood and anything I didn't know what to do with over there in the corner. What do you want to go over first?"
Harry thought for a moment, then nodded. "Let's go through the books first." With that he went to stand up, immediately hissing in pain as his leg gave out and he plopped back onto the dining room chair. Asriel rushed over to him and steadied him lest he fall out of the chair. "Damn. Sorry about that, Asriel. Have to get used to that still"
Asriel smiled at him, and supported him while he stood up and went around to the other side of the table. "Not a problem, Harry. Hopefully in a few days you'll be good enough to keep up on your own. Either way, we'll figure something out." He stepped back while Harry carefully lowered himself into the chair and started going through the books. Most of the outsides and edges of the books had been scorched, so it was difficult to tell what books were until they were opened. Asriel had opened a few of the books to find a lot of educational material - he had actually taken the time to read through some of the standard book of spells for grade 2, and was surprised by the variety of magic that these 'wizards' were capable of. As he thought over this, he helped Harry by taking the books and sorting them, placing the useless ones in a pile with other obvious garbage to be disposed of later, and trying to clean up any of the books that Harry had deemed still useful for him. He kept an eye on Harry while doing so, and noticed as he went through the pile, he began to grow more and more agitated. Fearing another magical accident, he considered saying something to try and calm him, but stopped himself. In the end, these were his things, and he had a right to be upset over them being in such a state. He vowed to keep an eye on him, and be ready to talk to him if he needed it, but otherwise to let him at least handle this on his own. His concern changed quickly, however, as one of the last few books gave Harry pause. Looking up in concern, he found that Harry wasn't upset, but rather was smiling, and laughing, though he did still seem a bit teary eyed. He had a book open in his lap and was looking down at an open page fondly. Unable to resist he stood from his work and walked over. "What is it?"
Harry could only smile and look up. "These... these are my parents." Asriel looked down at Harry's lap, and saw there, centered on the page in what he could now see was a burnt, but mostly intact, photo album, were a couple dancing in a square. Asriel froze at the sight. The two were clearly Harry's parents - the resemblance was uncanny. The fact that the were happy was also obvious, almost painfully obvious. For the first time in many many years, in fact in lifetimes really, Asriel vividly recalled the moments he had with his own family. At first just himself and his mother and father, and afterwards with Chara, his all but adopted sibling. He found himself lost for a moment in his own memories, tears falling unbidden down his face. After a moment, he realized that Harry had not noticed this, but instead had begun speaking. Quickly wiping the tears from his eyes, he focused on the tales Harry told him as he flipped through the charred photobook.
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Harry wasn't sure really why he told Asriel as much as he did. It was like a waterfall really, once he started, he found himself unable, and really unwilling, to stop. He told Asriel what he knew about his parents, about their death. He told Asriel about his first year at Hogwarts, about how he found out he was famous for something he could never remember, about how he made his first friends, about his struggle with Voldemort in his first year, and with the shade of Tom Riddle the year afterwards. He told stories for who knows how long, until he got up to the point where he recalled tumbling over the cliff to the underground, and suddenly realized how long he had been monologuing and looked up at Asriel apologetically, saying "... hehe, sorry about that. I was really worried that this album was going to be gone as well. Got a bit carried away." Asriel only smiled back at him.
"Don't worry about it, Harry. It's nice to remember family. It's... well it's been awhile since I've seen mine, and it's nice to think about them occasionally. We... haven't been getting along recently, kinda my fault."
Harry looked at him curiously. "What happened?" He quickly realized how rude that particular question was and started to apologize, but Asriel waved it off.
"It's actually hard for me to talk about, though I should I guess. The short version for now is that... well, the magic in this place before the barrier fell gave me some... rather special powers. Well, really it gave the power to Chara, the first human who fell after the barrier went up. They... died... a long time ago, and gave that power to me. The whole story is still a bit hard for me to tell, but in the end, I realize that I didn't really know how to use the power, and ended up hurting a lot of people, though they don't know it, because Frisk fixed it. Frisk even sort of fixed me... or at least made me realize exactly how wrong I was. I helped break the barrier after that, and Frisk took all the monsters to the outside world. I... stayed, for a few reasons." Asriel sighed, his face a bit sad. "But in the end, it really doesn't matter. The monsters are all now free, and from what Frisk has told me, everything's looking good." He looked down. "No need to mess that up by bringing back old memories for them."
Harry wasn't sure what to say about that, though he could at least empathize. As someone who spend a good amount of time feeling like a burden, he did understand how separating yourself from others like that could make things seem better, even if he was smart enough now to understand that it wasn't supposed to be like that. He reached up and placed his hand on Asriel's arm, giving a silent show of support, which Asriel seemed to accept. Taking a deep breath, he continued.
"Anyway, enough of that. Ill tell you the long version later when there is literally nothing else left to do. For now, I believe you have two more piles of things to go though, if you are still interested." Both of the boys smiled and set to work picking through the remains of Harry's things.
It took another hour and change, but they managed to get through the remainder of Harry's things, the pile of things being kept being pitifully small in comparison to the pile of things that were junk. Harry had yet to find the last thing on his list, and decided to ask Asriel about it. Asriel took the idea of an invisibility cloak in stride, but frowned at Harry's explanation of it's description.
"Well, that's going to be a tough order." he said after a bit of thought. "If it fell in the right way, it's entirely possible that it's laying face up on the floor of the cavern someplace, or along one of the rock foundations. That cavern isn't the largest down here by far, but it could take a week or more to search it that thoroughly, and that's if we search all day every day." Harry's face turned down at this news, but Asriel was quick to continue. "But, I think we can narrow down the search area a bit based on where I found everything else. I wouldn't expect it to fall much farther away from the rest of the things that fell. We can start there tomorrow morning if you'd like. Maybe we can even get you out there on your own two feet, if the way you are bouncing your leg like that shows how much you've recovered." Harry looked down and noticed he was indeed moving his leg. He looked up at Asriel with a smile and opened his mouth to reply when his stomach let out a loud growl. The two of them laughed together, and unilaterally decided food should come before anything else.
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The next morning Asriel found Harry already awake and in the dining room making breakfast. He tried to step forward and insist, but Harry waved him off, saying he wanted to properly test his leg that morning, as he limped from the fridge to the stove making what Harry said was "probably an omelette, though he wasn't sure what exactly he was pulling from the fridge". Regardless of the dubious source, the food was delicious, and the both enjoyed the meal in relative silence. After finishing up, Asriel led a (significantly slower) Harry out the main door of the home and back towards the cavern. As Asriel walked with Harry down the staircase, he became increasingly concerned. Harry's expression became more determined as he walked, but it was clear he was struggling with it. About two thirds of the way down the staircase, Harry stumbled as his leg seemed to crumple under him. Asriel barely managed to catch Harry, and as it was they both stumbled down a few stairs before recovering. Harry swore and sat down on the steps, rubbing his injured leg.
Asriel looked down at his new friend concerned. "Are you still hurting?" Harry shook his head.
"Not at all, actually, it's just hard to put any weight onto it, it sort of gives out under me." He sighed. "Sorry, thought I could handle it."
Asriel shook his head and replied. "It's alright. At least it's just when you put weight on it... if only." Asriel thought to himself for a moment, then suddenly inspiration struck. He told Harry to stay where he was, and bolted back into the house. Running to his room he started digging through the closet, shuffling through the various keepsakes and mementos he had collected over the last year from his journies through the underground as himself. After a moment, he found what he was looking for, and having confirmed it would be nearly perfect for the task, he jogged it back to Harry, who had settled himself on the bottom stairway of the home. As he came down, Harry stood up with a bit of a struggle, looking curiously at the ornate staff in Asriel's hand. Seeing his confusion, Asriel explained.
"When my f... King Asgore left the underground for the surface, he made a vow that he would never strike out in anger again. He took his trident, the weapon he had used for so many years, and broke it over his knee, discarding the pieces. This is a part of the staff, and it's just about the right height for you to use as a walking staff, at least until you get back under your own power."
Harry looked at the ornate staff in Asriel's hand as he leaned it towards him, and he smiled. Harry reached out and grasped at the staff, his hand closing around it just above where Asriel was holding it. At the moment of contact, several things happened.
First, Asriel lurched back as though he was shocked - effectively he was, as something ran from the staff into his hand and up his arm, making all his hair stand up on end, his ears twitching and a peculiar feeling in his head. He could only stare wide eyed at the scene in front of him, as even moving appeared out of the question, the power around him swirling almost as strong as when Harry was having the first of his attacks.
Second, Harry stood up ramrod straight, the staff digging hard into the ground as wind and sound and magic itself seemed to wind around him and the staff, his eyes wide on the object thrumming with power in his hand.
Third, from somewhere completely unknown to either of the boys, a short skeleton was momentarily woken from a snooze. He blinked a couple of times, frowned slightly, sniffed a bit, then shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes, falling immediately back to sleep with a grin on this face.
After a moment, the buzzing and howling died down, though Asriel could tell that there was still something going on between Asgore's trident and his new friend as both of them seemed to still glow a bit with a power he had never really seen before. He wondered to himself exactly what it was he was getting himself into by helping this particular human, when suddenly the Human broke out into a huge grin. He met Asriel's eyes, and at his questioning gaze, responded with only one word, and a smile that looked like it would never go away.
"Wicked."
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A/N: Many thanks once again to readers, favorite-rs and reviewers. Glad I can write something that you folks enjoy enough to pay attention to. A couple of questions for the audience here, things to think about.
What do you think Harry's theme is? I've had a few possibilities running through my head, but I have yet to decide on anything particular.
Is there any particular character you would like to know about? I have a few interludes and asides planned, but in general I want to know who you would like to know about I think.
Please feel free to comment on these questions or anything else really. As always, these are un-betad, so please let me know if you find some sort of terrible error or such. Till next time!
