Chapter 8: The Sad, Sad Tale of Asriel Dreemurr
Meow meow meow meow disclaimer meow meow meow.
==oo00**00oo==
Harry sighed, sitting up slightly in his bed. He had just finished through his thirteenth round of 'count the ceiling irregularities' and he was officially bored with that game, and since sleep was not forthcoming, he figured he might as well give that up as a bad job as well. Rubbing his temples, he leaned over to the side table, grabbed his textbook, muttered a lumos to his staff, focusing on a dull light, and settled into reading a bit of charms. He had finished the first year book not more than a week and a half before, and had a good chunk of the second year solid in his mind, even finding a few pieces of magic that had not been covered in classes. He thought that he could finish out the entire second year curriculum and be ready to go for third year by the end of next week, especially since Asriel was being such a great help... And on that thought Harry gave up reading as well. Closing the book, he pinched the bridge of his nose, partly in frustration, partly to stem a developing headache. Things with Asriel had been surprisingly strained the last few days, and Harry honestly had to admit it was just as much his fault as Asriel's.
Things had been going well enough up until that night Asriel saw... whatever he saw a week before, and took off to look for something. Harry admitted to being somewhat concerned with his friend, probably more than he needed to be, obviously, but still concerned. He had settled himself in the chair by the fireplace and read through his books for a few hours after he left, made himself some food from the kitchen (something he had gotten fairly good at while still having to keep his staff nearby) and eventually fell asleep at the table while working through as much of his summer assignments as he was able with his limited resources. He was shaken awake by a clearly exhausted Asriel, who fondly called him an idiot while helping him peel his drool soaked homework off his face. Asriel apologized again, which Harry of course waved off, and they went their separate ways. On the way to his room, Harry asked Asriel if he found what he was looking for. Asriel paused, and responded without looking at him. "Yes, actually. Things aren't happening exactly as I expected, but the results are the same, so it's nothing for you to worry about." He then turned and smiled, they wished each other goodnight, and went to their rooms.
From the next morning on, however, things seemed to change. In the morning, rather than going through the same routines that they had been doing, Asriel had breakfast already waiting for Harry when he left the room, and Asriel was nowhere to be found, save a note saying to grab some food and that he would return shortly. Munching on what was probably some sort of cinnamon roll Harry walked over to the table, only to find most of his things set aside carefully, and the majority of the table taken up by a large map, seemingly partially finished, and heavily notated. Leaning down by the map curiously, he was startled when Asriel spoke up from behind him.
"Oh good, you're up and ready. Hurry up and finish your breakfast, we have a lot to do today."
Harry was confused, but complied, quickly finishing his sweet roll and grabbing his rucksack, following Asriel out to the ruins. He was surprised, then, when Asriel redirected him from walking to the same spot they ended their search the night before, and instead led him to some sort of training dummy placed off the end of the path. Harry set down his pack, confused, as Asriel walked up by the dummy. After a moment he regarded Harry critically, and said "Now, most of the monsters from the Underground are gone at this point, however, a few do still remain here for various reasons. Given the rather uncanny ability of humans to find themselves in trouble, I think it best I make sure you are capable of dealing with monsters if they do get in your way." He frowned a bit, then continued. "Now, given your magic, disabling monsters peacefully should be a fairly easy task, however, you need to note that most monsters are... generally more fragile than you would expect around humans. The monster SOUL reacts negatively to determination, to the desire to harm, so the more inclined you are to actually hurt a monster, even unconsciously, the more effective that hurt will be. This is why you need to be extra careful to ensure your intent is not hostile when restraining monsters. For practice here, I want you to attempt to subdue this training dummy... maybe use that paralysis spell to start out with."
A little shocked at Asriel's change in demeanor, Harry still faced the dummy and prepared himself. At Asriel's nod, he gathered his magic, his intent to restrain the dummy where it was at, and spoke the words, casting towards the oddly shaped training dummy. The Dummy shuddered a bit, but seemed to be restrained, and Harry smiled. Asriel nodded, clearly a bit mollified, and approved. Harry cancelled the spell, and the dummy sagged a bit. Asriel looked the dummy over and, finding nothing, nodded at Harry.
"That was very good, I hadn't expected you to do so well on the first try. However, that doesn't necessarily mean you have it down quite yet."
Harry frowned at that. "I.. don't quite understand."
Asriel smiled a bit at that. "Well, you certainly can control your magic well enough to restrain the dummy fine, however there is also-" and without skipping a beat, Asriel hefted the dummy up and threw it at Harry as hard as he was able. Harry's eyes widened, but his seeker skills kicked in almost immediately, and within half a heartbeat he had the staff up and was again casting the petrificus. Harry smiled as the magic wrapped around the dummy, and it actually froze in the air for half a moment, before suddenly...
|9465|
In a flash, the dummy shattered in Harry's face scattering wood and fluff in Harry's face, causing him to stumble backwards. Harry shook himself and stared at where the dummy broke around him, then at Asriel.
"W...what the bloody hell was that?"
Asriel's smile was perhaps just a bit vindictive when he replied. "That, Harry, was you accidentally killing a monster."
The next week was a rather more intensive exercise to Harry than he had expected. The mornings usually consisted of Asriel teaching Harry more and more about the underground, and specific monsters. Each day the map Asriel was making was more and more filled out, and he would have Harry memorize parts and pieces of it as he drew it and wrote notes on it. To Harry, it seemed a bit much in terms of effort, based on the distance, even in his injured state it wouldn't be more than a day's journey at most, but Asriel seemed driven to teach Harry, and he honestly couldn't really get a word in edgewise. In the afternoon, the two of them would spend some time back in the ruins looking for his invisibility cloak, though Asriel would often spend half of the time talking to him about ways to talk to and reason with the monsters in the underground (who, in Harry's opinion, seemed to be much less hostile than he had originally thought, more likely to attack based on a misunderstanding than any negative intent). The other half of the time was spent searching alone, as Asriel would often excuse himself. His excuses were reasonable enough, of course, but even so, he felt no small amount of concern for the situation, especially since his friend's absences became longer as the week went on, and he seemed more off upon returning afterwards each night. Finally, after nearly a week of this, and seeing his friend looking like he was going to fall apart at the seams if someone as much as flicked a bogey in his general direction, Harry felt like his concern had overridden his sense of decorum, and he attempted to get some more information out of Asriel as to his change in behavior.
Unfortunately, it didn't end up going well. Harry's concern was simply brushed aside by Asriel, and while he might have simply let something like that slide before, his recent brush with death, along with a surprising amount of self reflection he had gone through over the proceeding weeks, gave him a drive to help his friend regardless of Asriel's desire to be helped. This led to an argument that quickly escalated into a shouting match.
"Look, I just want to help you Asriel!" Harry yelled
"I don't need your help, Harry! I've been doing this on my own for a year now, plus you're still limping around, how do you think you can possibly help me!"
This caused Harry to react stronger than he had wanted to. The combination of Asriel calling out his still unhealed injury combined with poking at his (admittedly silly) problems with being unhelpful gave Harry an unexpected scowl. "Well I would know that if you would just stop being so damned secretive all the time. Quit being such an idiot and let someone else help you!"
That particular insult was paired with a crash, as one of the pictures along the mantle shattered and fell to the ground, Harry's magic swirling around him in his anger. Harry, wide eyed quickly struggled to get ahold of his magic as Asriel walked over to pick up the photo and put it back on the mantle. Harry quickly tried to apologize, but Asriel held up a hand to stop him, his back turned.
"Harry... I think... it's time for you to start your journey home. I... want you to know that it's been great having you here, but unfortunately, time has run out. Get a good night rest."
Harry opened his mouth to try and say something, anything. He came up short however, as Asriel walked down the hallway into his room and softly closed the door. And that led to Harry's current predicament, lying in bed staring at the ceiling, wondering where that particular conversation went wrong. Rubbing his temples, he decided that the best thing to do was not to focus on what happened, but instead to focus on tomorrow. In the morning he would apologize, and head out. Hopefully he would accept the apology, and they could remain friends, even if it meant he did have to leave. Resolute in that, Harry closed his eyes and cleared his mind of thoughts. It took a bit, but eventually he fell into an uneasy slumber.
==oo00**00oo==
The next morning when Harry awoke, however, Asriel was nowhere to be found. Instead, sitting on the table, he found a note and a small package. Opening the note, Harry read quickly.
Harry,
I apologize for my outburst yesterday evening, but unfortunately my time is short. I am sorry I was unable to see you off this morning, but my situation has now made that impossible. Please understand that you needing to leave today actually had nothing to do with our argument, but instead circumstances not related to you, but rather to my condition, necessitated your departure earlier than I had originally planned, and I was going to have to tell you as much yesterday evening regardless. I wish you the best of luck, and hope you find your way home safely.
Asriel
PS: I happened to stumble across this a couple of days ago, figured I would surprise you with it today.
Harry frowned as he turned to the package. Unwrapping the twine, and opening the wrapping paper, he gasped as he recognized the familiar shimmer of his invisibility cloak falling out. Harry was understandably ecstatic about this development, however he found his joy somewhat tempered by the fact that he wasn't able to celebrate this with his friend. In addition, he found that his desire to start on his journey home was actually taking less of a precedence in his mind over apologizing to his friend. If it really was just circumstances, why wouldn't he be here to see Harry off? And what was this about a condition? Harry frowned as he reread the letter. It seemed like Asriel was in some sort of trouble, he thought to himself. Maybe it was something he couldn't talk about, or something that he didn't want Harry to concern himself about. Either way, he had to say that it wasn't going to be enough to read this particular apology. He knew it might have been a little rash, but he wanted to talk to Asriel in person, to actually apologize in person, and maybe, just maybe, he could help his friend as well.
Finding a bit more conviction, Harry decided that he would get his pack together, but before he left, his first priority was going to be to find his friend. Spending a few moments eating a quick breakfast, and assembling the few things he hadn't already collected into his pack, he gently looped the invisibility cloak into a ring on the side of the pack, allowing him to easily access it if needed, and stepped out onto the landing. Gathering up his thoughts, he focused strongly on his memories of his friend, of the person who saved his life, and drove the end of the staff into the ground calling out to the open cave.
Point Me, Asriel Dreemurr
It seemed like the spell was going to fail again, like it had with the cloak, but Harry wouldn't have anything to do with that ending. Instead, he poured more of his effort into the spell, and the magic seemed to bend for a moment, before snapping into place, and Harry took off as fast as he could, back towards the entrance chasm. The point me was finicky, it seemed, and would occasionally fail, causing Harry to have to stop and reapply, but he could tell that with each time, he was getting closer. After the fourth recasting, the point me spell shuddered, and finally indicated he was within reach of his goal. With a smile of triumph, he looked up to find... an empty cave, save for a single flower in the middle of a grassy outcropping. Harry frowned. He didn't think that the spell could return a false result, so he cast again, moving slightly to the side of the cave, and found, yet again, that the point me spell was pointing to the center of the cave. Sweeping his eyes, looking for any sign of his friend, he could find none. Hesitantly, he called out to the empty space.
"Asriel? Asriel, I know you're there. If you think hiding... however you're hiding, is going to make me go away, you'll find I am surprisingly patient when I need to be."
He slowly walked around the cave, every few steps casting the point me spell, each time getting the same result. Taking a moment to think about the possibilities, he realized there were one of two likely solutions. Either Asriel thought he could stand in the middle of the room somehow completely invisible (he reached behind him to confirm that yes, his cloak was still there tied onto the side of his rucksack) or...
He suddenly turned towards the center of the cave and plodded slowly towards the center. Taking just a step onto the grassy knoll, he looked down towards the center, and the single sunflower there.
"You know you're not getting out of this that easily."
There was a pause, just long enough for Harry to start to wonder if maybe he had indeed gone round the bend, when softly, almost imperceptibly, he heard a response.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" Harry was surprised. It definitely was Asriel's voice, that's for sure, but it was... changed. It sounded just a bit more biting, more sharp and direct than his friends soft tones. This was a sound he really hadn't heard from Asriel while he was there.
"Right now? I do have other things to do, but better things? Not really. Im looking for a friend."
The flower scoffs. When he responds his tone is bitter enough to make Harry concerned. "Hnf. Your friend is gone. Well, more like he shouldn't have existed." In a single motion, the flower turned towards Harry, and Harry blinked. The flower had some of Asriel's features, but the expression wasn't something he had seen on the almost perpetually smiling face. "There isn't really an Asriel anymore. Only me." The flower turned on a plastic smile and winked at Harry. "I'm Flowey the Flower! Nice ta meetcha!"
Flowey knew that he was probably being a bit harsher than he needed to be, but he didn't see any reason to care about that. It was probably better this way anyway, Harry could get himself away as quickly as he was able, and knowing that he was okay was the only thing that was really of any interest to him for now. He wondered to himself then, for the first time, what exactly he was going to do after his fr-the stupid kid was gone. It's not like he was actually going to leave the underground. He was so caught up in that particular though that he nearly missed Harry's concerned question.
"Asriel? Is that really you? What happened?" Flowey frowned at this, the kid really didn't need to be wasting time asking questions, he was wasting time here.
"Ugh. I told you, Asriel was never here. It was just me. I tricked you, figured you'd be a load of laughs, someone I could manipulate for a while since I was bored." Flowey grinned his 'Nasty Grin #2' for the kid. He was particularly proud of that one, it always got the best response when betraying someone. What was odd, is that it didn't seem to have the same satisfaction it used to when he made it. "You were a toy for my amusement, nothing else." He hated the hesitation in his own voice. He hated the betrayed look that briefly flashed across Harry's features. He hated this whole situation. But really, there wasn't anything else to do at this point. He turned away from Harry and scoffed. "You're lucky I'm just letting you go, I could have kept you here and-woah!"
Asriel struggled as he suddenly found himself hanging upside down, dirt and all, in front of Harry, who was looking at him curiously, frowning slightly. Grunting, he struggled to move, but found whatever magic was holding him up had mostly immobilized him as well. Scowling he glared at Harry. "What? Did I upset you? Did I offend your delicate sensibilities or something?" Harry just continued to look at him, long enough to for Asriel to become uncomfortable, until suddenly Harry nodded and turned away. Asriel started to struggle. "Hey! Don't just leave me up here, put me down if you're gonna leave!" Harry, instead of leaving, simple bent down at retrieved something from his pack, and slowly walked back over to Asriel. He looked down, and saw the shimmering fabric of the invisibility cloak underneath him. Before he could comment, Harry flipped his body over, setting him down gently onto the cloak, and just as quickly wrapped up the ends around the base of his stem, effectively wrapping him up into the cloak itself.
"I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to find out, because you are going to be coming with me through the underground. I told you Asriel, I can be patient when I need to."
Asriel simply growled. "I told you, I'm Flowey, stop calling me Asriel." But he didn't struggle as Harry gently lifted him up, and settled him as securely as he could at the top of his pack. He found that he kept the straps loose enough that he could move around a bit to see, but he certainly wasn't getting out of the pack without causing a lot of trouble. Grumbling darkly and muttering various curses, he settled himself in for the ride as Harry picked the pack back up, and turned around heading back towards the home, and the rest of the Underground.
==oo00**00oo==
Harry walked back towards the house in silence, Asriel - he refused to call him Flowey - in tow, silent as well after his grumbling ended. He tried to think of something to say, but continuously came up short. He wasn't even sure if there was anything he could say at this point, he was completely out of his element in this case. Here he had his friend, somehow transformed into a flower, one with a very nasty attitude no less, who had basically just told him to abandon the new friendship they had formed and leave him there alone in the underground. Now, of course he wasn't going to do that, first of all because he was a friend, one of the few he had (regardless of what he said earlier). But more importantly, because he could, in some sense, understand where he was coming from. If Harry legitimately felt like he was dragging his friends down, he would likely end up trying to push them away, the same way Asriel tried to do. Of course, since Harry understood this, he wasn't about to let someone else close to him get away with it.
As he approached the place he had been calling home temporarily for the last month, from behind him, he was almost startled by Asriel's voice.
"You know, I wasn't really lying when I said Asriel died a long time ago. He... I... died. I remember most of it, actually. Wasn't necessarily the most painful thing I have felt, but it was bad enough that I don't like to recall the details though." Harry stayed silent. He got the feeling Asriel needed to get something off his chest, metaphorically speaking of course, as flowers don't have chests. He took a quick wander through the home, making sure he had everything gathered for his journey out of the ruins. Asriel continued to speak while he was working through the house.
"Heh, you know Mom really did work to make this place as homey as possible. I had thought about taking some of this stuff down in the year since they left, but it just didn't feel right, you know? That's her, that picture on the mantle on the right, the one you knocked over. Toriel was... a heck of a mom. If she were here, you'd have been mothered into near insanity." He told Harry a few stories about Toriel from what he assumed was his past. He could only chuckle at these, recalling another mother who had an uncanny habit of being a rather intense parent when she wanted to be. Once Harry had gotten everything together, he went back towards the entrance hall and down the stairway to the basement, down the hallway. Asriel had long since passed into silence, until they had gotten a ways down the hallway and were approaching a large doorway. A chilly wind blew through the doorway, so Harry stopped and gathered his borrowed coat around him and took a drink from his canteen, preparing to head forth into the underground. As he began head towards the doorway, Asriel spoke again. Harry hesitated for a moment, then simply continued to walk in silence, listening to his friend.
"A long time ago, there were two groups, Humans, and Monsters. As you can probably guess, there was a war, and the monsters were forced underground behind a magic barrier. Though those were difficult times, the strong will and heart of our king and queen helped the monsters persevere, and even prosper her in the underground. Not long after, I was born. Asriel Dreemurr, son of King Asgore and Queen Toriel of the underground. Some prince I turned out to be..."
And so he continued. Harry walked through the underground as Asriel started to tell his story, haltingly at first, but more and more came out as they journeyed through the nearly completely abandoned underground. He heard the tale of the first fallen child, his own adopted brother, their early lives as a family. He heard of Chara's fall from grace, his plan, and their eventual deaths. He expected some sort of sadness from Asriel, but instead the voice coming from Asriel was merely flat, as though he were reading from a phone book, though he did seem a slight bit wistful in the retelling.
Harry continued to remain silent, however, walking from Snowdin to Waterfall as Asriel's story moved onto his awakening as a flower. He heard of the power of Determination, of his arising as a flower, and of the saves. Harry blinked at this, trying to wrap his head around the idea of doing things over and over, so many times. The thought both fascinated and terrified him, stuck in a perpetual loop, living infinitely like that. Add to that Asriel's inability to feel emotion at the time, and things started clicking together in his mind.
He also heard about the other residents of the underground, of Undyne the Knight, of Sans and Papyrus, Dr. Alphys, and many others whose names he didn't think he would be able to recall. He also heard about Asriels mother and father, how the 'death' of their children, and Asgore's subsequent despair and rage changed everything, and caused the eventual rift between them. He could understand both reactions, certainly, however he found it surprising that, for someone who seemed as... nice as Asriel portrayed Asgore in the beginning, how the rest of the underground was unable to convince him otherwise. Perhaps it was similar to how wizards seemed to have no regards for anything outside their own perceptions.
He would have perhaps asked this question of Asriel at some point, but after resting and changing into lighter clothes, they moved on through hotland and the core while Asriel's story turned to the final fallen child, Frisk. As they went through the final leg of their journey, Harry heard how Frisk went through the underground, making friends as they went. How they managed to convince everyone that the best way to go about things was not to fight. Harry actually felt a bit of sadness at this, he wondered for a moment if that would be an option for someone like Voldemort, but quickly set it aside. Everyone Frisk was convincing were only doing what they were doing because they felt like they needed to, because there was no other option, or because they didn't understand. Frisk was giving them an alternative, something that accomplishes their goals without causing harm. Voldemort and people like him were something entirely different.
As they went past the Core and up an elevator, Asriel continued to tell the story of Frisk and of Asriel's eventual betrayal. Harry frowned a bit at this, but he could certainly see how the pattern of behavior made sense. For someone who didn't think anything made a difference anymore as things would just repeat...
"Wait."
Harry paused from his musing to look up and found himself in... what he could only describe as the entrance to a cathedral, Light from some unknown source shining through the stained glass, the Delta Rune casting odd patterns along the floors. He half turned towards the flower over his shoulder, but Asriel's attention was elsewhere.
==oo00**00oo==
"There it is." Asriel said, looking over Harry's shoulder to the right. "The last one." He noticed Harry turned to follow his gaze.
"What? I don't see anything." Harry replied, but really Asriel wasn't listening. Urging Harry forward slowly, they approached the glowing spark, until it was close enough for Asriel to touch. He stared into the soft yellow glow.
"This, this is all that's left of them. Everything that happened, all the monsters I killed. All the times I hurt people...all the times I hurt Frisk. I would always end up going back to one of these... and now, all that's left of them is this one tiny glowing speck." asriel reached out to the glowing speck, and as he reached closer, Harry gasped.
"Woah. I can... I can see-" and then both of them froze, as the save point sparked, seemed to shudder for a moment, then faded away, dissolving into sparkling motes of light that hung in the air, shimmering for a moment in the light through the windows, before fading away entirely. Harry stumbled backwards at that, nearly falling over but leaning heavily upon the staff. Wide eyed, he looked over his shoulder at the flower still staring at the space where the save point used to be.
"Shite... Um.. I'm sorry, I had no idea that-" Harry started to stammer out an apology before Asriel interrupted him.
"Don't worry about it. It really was a matter of time until it happened, not your fault. You know... before I... before I turned back I wondered how I would feel if they were all gone. I know I can't feel anything, but now... I guess I would feel... sad in a way, and happy. There really isn't any going back anymore." They both stood there for a moment until Asriel simply said "Let's go", and nudged Harry onwards through the great hallway.
==oo00**00oo==
They continued for a while in silence, until they came into another great hallway, this time clearly a throne room, covered in flowers, and generally a cheery looking place; their respective moods a contrast to the colors in the room though. Part way through the room Asriel spoke up, bringing Harry to a halt.
"This is it. Through that door and around the corner is where the barrier once was, and after that... the outside. You did good, making it all the way out here, by the way. For what it's worth, I'm glad i was able to help you get this far, to see you out."
Harry frowned. "What do you mean by that? You're coming with me, you know that right?" Asriel simply laughed bitterly.
"Look at me, Harry. I'm a flower without a soul. I may have been Asriel once, really I am nothing more than a flower now. There's nothing for me out there, just like there's nothing for me in here. It's best if I just stay."
"You don't really believe that Asriel, I know you don't."
"I told you, I'm not Asriel! I'm Flowey!" the flower replied, the heat building in his voice.
"But-"
"But Nothing! I am what happens when something that shouldn't be alive, is. I've killed people. I've killed everyone!"
"No you haven't, not this time! You said so yourself!" Harry began to shout at Asriel.
"That doesn't mean I wouldn't. I have no soul, remember? I have no reason not to kill, no conscience, no morals, nothing."
Harry turned to face Asriel with a frown. "I don't believe that." Asriel's face flashed something momentarily, then turned angry.
"Oh Really?" And Harry suddenly froze, as he felt a vine wrap around his neck, sharp thorns pressing up against his veins. Harry watched as the flower's face turned into a rictus of hatred. "It would be so easy, you know. Just a little twist, a bit of a tightening, and you'd be gone. I could make it quick for you, or maybe I could make it slow, just tighten a bit, slowly watch you suffocate. Watch as the life leaves your eyes. The last thing you would see would be your own misjudgement laughing in your face. Would be ironic too don't you think, to die right here, right at the end?" Asriel laughed the flower warping into a twisted parody of itself. Harry simply stared back struggling a bit to breathe, he choked out a response.
"If you're going to do it, get on with it."
Asriel reared up and Harry felt the vine tighten for a moment, felt the thorns just pierce his skin, a tiny bit of blood leaking through the vines. But he just stared at Asriel's eyes. For a moment, the vines stayed there.
Then they tightened a bit.
Then a bit more.
Then they trembled.
...
...
...
The vines slowly unwrapped from around Harry's neck, and he fell to one knee, catching a bit of breath while Asriel turned away from him. As Harry rubbed his neck and coughed a bit Asriel began to shake a bit.
"Why? Why does every human I meet always think so highly of me. I'm not... good, Harry. I'm not. I did so many horrible things. Why are you willing to do this?" Harry could hear the cracking of Asriels voice behind him. "Why?"
Harry finished catching his breath, shook himself out and started walking across the throne room. After a few steps, he responded.
"A few reasons. First, at the very least, you saved my life Asriel, and that counts for something, enough that I want to make it up to you." holding up a hand to forestall a response, Harry quickly continued "I know that I don't owe you anything for that, nor am I trying to say as much, mostly because I would have the same problem with the idea. Doesn't mean that it isn't right to want to do something for someone who does something for you."
"Second, " Harry continued, " I really can't hold you responsible for what you did in other... saves, or whatever you want to call them. Honestly, If I was in the same place, having to go through the same thing over and over again... I don't know that I wouldn't do the same, eventually. But, you said yourself, the first thing you tried to do was to help everyone. Over and over you tried. That counts for a lot as well. And this time, even with what happened at the end, you still did right by everyone, and that's important too. I can tell you still want to do right by everyone, so if I can help you do that, even better. Third, I don't care what you say about you not being Asriel, you are still that same... goat, person, whatever... that I know, I can hear it in there." Asriel scoffed at that, but let Harry continue. "And I don't know, but Magic is capable of doing a lot of things. Maybe we can find a way to.. fix you, get you your body back, and maybe let you feel again. It's happened already once with enough determination, so why not find a way to make it permanent?"
Asriel replied, "I've tried, Harry, I've tried everything I know, worked with the most brilliant scientists of the underground for reset after reset. It's probably not possible."
Harry walked through the caverns and up past the barrier. The smell of the outside was getting stronger, and a bit of sunlight was now visible ahead of them.
"I'm not saying it's a certainty, but it's worth a shot. I have another friend who is very good at finding obscure pieces of information, maybe she'll be able to find some way to help" After a moment, they found themselves at the entrance to the caves, the exit of the Underground. Harry paused for a moment here at the threshold, took a deep breath and looked back, down through the caverns back to the underground, and thought about everything that had happened over the last few weeks, and he couldn't help but smile.
"Besides all that though, there's one other reason why I want to help you."
"What's that?" This time, there was no sarcasm in the question, no edge. It sounded like Asriel again for the first time that day. Harry's smile widened.
"Because, Asriel, you're my friend. And friends help friends through the good and the bad."
For a moment Asriel froze, then Harry felt him shift, and he turned to see his friend smiling while shaking his head a bit.
"Heh. You really are an idiot."
They both laughed.
Harry stepped forward, across the threshold, and out into the sunlight.
==oo00**00oo==
Fade to white, Inverted cymbal noise... aaaaand.
FATE VERSUS DETERMINATION
AN UNDERTALE/HARRY POTTER STORY
==oo00**00oo==
Phew, that was longer than I expected. I thought about breaking it up into two chapters, but I wanted to get all of this done in one go.
And that concludes part one of the story. Part 2 is underway, and will continue here next week, starting with catching up with our friends from the liberated underground.
I have to say again and again and again, thanks to you folks, wonderful readers and fellow writers, for your reads, favorites, and comments. I'm glad can write something that other people enjoy :D
