, After that last chapter of AMH, I need something of a pallet cleanser, so back to a happy home life Harry in The Boy Who Vanished!
Welcome back to the third chapter where we finish the meeting in the office and Professor Twist being Professor Twist. No idea how long this chapter is gonna be but it should be fun.
Now, on with the show!
Harry Potter, Headmaster's office.
"It's…complicated," Harry says with a grimace, confusing most of the men in the room.
"Can you simplify it for us, Harry?" Asks the headmaster with a raised brow, and Harry sighs.
"Not really," Harry says, "at least not without permission from my birth dad, it's all types of complicated and it was explained to me slowly and I still don't understand it," he says with a shrug as the men in the room look at each other with narrowed eyes. "But, hey, if you want the full story, you can ask them when they show up," Harry tells the men.
Dumbledore's eyebrows shoot up in surprise, "He'll be paying a visit to the school?" The old Headmaster asks.
"Yeah," Harry says with a nod of his head, "they'll be showing up on the solstice, err, Christmas, I mean," the boy says, quickly correcting his words.
"Excellent!" Dumbledore says with a bit of cheer as the other three man shuffle in place for their own reasons, "I look forward to meeting him then, but for now, I think we would all like a few questions answer, Harry, if you don't mind," the headmaster says before pulling out his wand and waving it making another chair appear in front of his desk, Harry's eyes follow the wand, narrowing at it as he tilts his head just before seeing a chair fold itself into existence.
"That's so cool," Harry says with a grin as he moves around the headmaster's desk and inspects the new chair, he pokes the padded seat and back, shifts it back and forth, and knocks on the wood all with a smile on his face and his eyes alight with wonder, he had seen a few gods do the same thing but for a mortal to do it! Now that was awesome, this magic stuff was gonna be fun to learn.
Dumbledore chuckles at the boy's reaction, "Why thank you, my dear boy," he tells Harry with a smile and a twinkle in his eye, "while not the most impressive thing, it is quite handy," the headmaster says as the boy takes a seat followed by Remus and Sirius.
"Are you willing to answer some questions, Harry?" Albus asks the boy as Harry's eyes jump from one thing to another in his office, the boy looks back at him with a smile.
"Sure, so long as it's not about my bio-dad, because like I said that's complicated, but we kinda expected this to happen," Harry tells the headmaster to the older man's surprise.
"Well then, let's start with the biggest question," Albus says, "Where have you been these last ten years?" The headmaster asks as he leans forward, interlocking his fingers and placing his arms on the desk.
"Oh, America," Harry says with a smile as three heads all turn to look at a scowling Snape, "What?" Harry asks, confused.
"Well, that's embarrassing for you Snape," Sirius says with a mocking smile, "Didn't you go to the states to look and come back empty-handed?" Sirius asks.
"You did?" Harry asks, looking at his head of house confused, "Where did you look?"
Still scowling and glaring at Sirius, Snape answers, "New York, Massachusetts, the Carolinas, and a few states around New York, and I found not a whisper of you being in any of the magical communities there," he says.
"Oh, you check the East Coast, I was over on the West Coast, Los Angeles to be specific," Harry says with a smile, nodding his head.
"That's not the point, Harry, the point is that he was in the right country and still couldn't find you," Sirius said with a glare at Snape.
"Do you know just how big the states are?" Harry asks Sirius, "Like, the whole of England can fit into one state, and that's not even the biggest state, kinda unfair to say that," he says as Sirius looks at him with a hurt look on his face as Snape smiles at Sirius viciously.
"But I've been living in California but I spend summers in Long Island, New York, there's a summer camp that I go to there," Harry says with a smile to the headmaster.
"And who has been taking care of you all this time, if not your mysterious birth father?" Albus asks, "You've mentioned them before," the Headmaster says inspecting the boy, he seemed happy, healthy, and whole, but Albus knows that first impressions don't normally sum up everyone you meet.
"Their names are Kore and Amenthes, my adopted mom and step-dad," Harry informs them, the smile never wavering as he kicks his feet back and forth, "Their awesome, Amenthes runs a big record company in L.A called D.O.A records,"
"D.O.A?" Remus asks, being a half-blood himself, he knew muggle entertainment, but he never heard of D.O.A records, then again he didn't pay a lot of attention to it.
"Dead on Arrival," Harry says looking at Remus with a huge grin as if there was a joke in it that none of the men got.
"And they've been…good? To you?" Sirius asks, eyeing Harry with a bit of concern, and Harry looks at him a bit confused.
"Well, yeah, why would they adopt me if they weren't going to be good to me?" Harry asks, "I mean, mom can be scary at times and Amenthes has a temper, but he never takes it out on us, only his office," Harry says with a shrug.
"Us?" The headmaster asks, a brow raising with the question.
"Oh, they have kids of their own, but we all treat each other like brothers and sisters, I have two older sisters and a younger brother," Harry says turning to the headmaster while tapping a rhythm on his thighs with his hands, technically Nico was older than him, but they were in the Lotus Hotel and Casino frozen in time, so it didn't count but these guys didn't need to know that.
"And how did you come to Hogwarts?" The headmaster asks as he leans back in his chair.
"Well, I got a letter saying I was accepted here, and my Ilvermorny letter, mom wanted me to go to Ilvermorny because it was closer but I knew Lily and James went here, and I kinda wanted to follow in their footsteps," Harry says with a shrug with a somewhat sad look coming over his face, "I never knew them, and I wanted to honor them in some way, this was the best way I could think of, so we wrote back saying I would be attending, went to the Alley place and got all my school stuff before staying in No-Maj London for a few weeks," he says, though most of that wasn't true, Melonë swiped his letter from the castle and they never wrote to anyone telling them he was coming, but with international mail, you never know what could happen. So Harry watches the old headmaster tap his fingers on the arm of his chair looking at him, Harry prayed to Hermes his fast talk wouldn't be questioned.
"Why were you not raised by your, ah, birth father?" Remus asks before Albus could continue with his own line of questions, and Harry turns back to the man.
"Like I said, it's complicated, their real busy most of the time so they asked their sister to raise me, and Kore agreed," Harry tells the man, and Remus frowns but leans back, looking over to the headmaster catching his eye, something to the men wasn't adding up.
"So, they told you everything?" Albus asks, and Harry nods.
"They never lied to me or left anything they knew was important out," Harry says with a shrug.
"Even the fact they kidnapped you?" Sirius asks in a grim tone, looking at the boy, causing Harry's head to snap to him.
"I wasn't kidnapped," Harry defends, but looking into the grim face of Sirius, he could tell the man thought differently before turning to the Headmaster who had the same look on his face, "I wasn't!" Harry says, leaning forward, gripping the arms of the chair.
"My dear boy," The headmaster starts with a sigh, "I'm afraid that is, in fact, what happened, you were to go somewhere else, your aunt and uncle's for a short while before Sirius here could safely claim you in the aftermath of the war with Lady Voldemort," as the Headmaster says the name, most of the men in the room flinched at the sound of it, small ones, but they were still there.
"I was left on a doorstep, Headmaster, that's child abandonment, I was lucky my birth dad picked me up and left with me, you have no idea what could have happened to me if they hadn't," Harry argues back, he's been told this story by Kore, he knew where she had found him.
"You would have been protected, Harry," Remus says softly, "What that man did was Kidnapping, he had no legal custody of you, no right to take you, but he did," he tells the boy.
"You don't know that! None of you do!" Harry yells after turning to Remus.
"It doesn't change the fact with what he did was illegal, Harry," Dumbledore says, "It will be seen as kidnapping here in the Wixen Islands, and why I do hate to be the bearer of bad news, you will not be returning to America after this school year is over, we will be pushing for you to be placed with who you should have been with these last ten years," the headmaster says in a stern voice and Harry narrows his eyes at him.
"Headmaster, I don't think you realize just how much of a bad idea that is," Harry says very calmly, but on the inside, he was freaking out a bit, he really wanted to come to Hogwarts, as Lily and James did, but he knew for a fact that if Kore had one excuse she'd pull him from the school in a heartbeat, and that's not even touching what Persephone would do if anyone thought they could just take Harry from her. Kore was scary, But Persephone was another level of fear that not even Hades would cross when she was in a bad mood.
"Then please Harry, explain it to me," Dumbledore says to the boy, looking him in the eye, seeing the anxiety building in the boy.
Harry hops off his seat before pulling out his shrunken trunk and placing it on the ground before enlarging it back to its normal size and opening it; he doesn't dig in the trunk itself but pouches that line the underside of the lid. As three of the adults in the room were watching the boy with interest, something else caught Sirius' attention, a black leather jacket.
As Harry keeps digging into pouches, cursing under his breath, Sirius gets up from his seat and walks over to the trunk before leaning down, brushing his fingers against the old leather Jacket, "You kept it," he says breathlessly before Harry turns to him with a confused look on his face before sees what Sirius was touching.
"Oi!" Harry yells before slapping Sirius' hand away from his jacket, "Paws to yourself buddy, you've got your own jacket," he tells the man, anger in his voice, as he looks at Sirius with a glare.
Sirius just chuckles, "I know I have one, they came in a set after all," Sirius tells the young boy, Harry's eyes narrowing at him, "You don't know, do you?" He asks Harry, much to the boy's confusion.
"Know what?" Harry asks, curious about it all, it had started when the man saw his jacket, the jacket that his mother had found him wrapped in on the front steps Of the porch she found him on, she had no clue who had done it or why.
"When a Wixen child is born, it's an old tradition of the noble houses to name Caomhnóir or Godparents to the child," Sirius explains, "They're chosen from family or close friends that are like family, each parent chooses the Godparent of the opposite sex, the father chooses a female, and the mother chooses a male, Lily chose me to be your Caomhnóir," he says with a smile and a shake of his head as Harry was looking at him with wide eyes, "shocked the hell out of me when she did, 'I can think of no better guard dog than you, Sirius,' she told me," he tells the boy in front of him who was looking at him in a shock as Sirius' face turns in a sad and mournful look as he continues, "I was the first to arrive on the scene after, after what happened happen, I pulled you out of the crib, and you were bloody freezing and I, I didn't want you to catch a cold, so I did the only thing I could think of and I wrapped you up in my jacket," Sirius says with a sigh as he picks up the old leather from the trunk, turning it over in his hands with a sad smile before pulling out his wand.
"You're mother, Lily, had sown runes inside the hem of it, so no matter the weather I would always be able to wear it," Sirius says in a soft whisper, before drawing his wand across the hem of the jacket and pulling back the lining to reveal runes threaded in gold on the inside before showing them to Harry. Harry swallows before taking the jacket, running his fingers over the runes before turning back to Sirius.
"Can, can you, ah, …" Harry is able to get out, gesturing to the split hem, because he didn't expect this, he had always thought it was James' jacket that he had somehow gotten a hold of, not the man standing in front of him.
"Oh, right, sorry," Sirius says as he waves his wand over the split hem, repairing it, "Just, just wanted to show you, to, ah, prove to you I guess," Sirius says, Rubbing the back of his head.
"No, no, it's cool," Harry says awkwardly before putting the jacket back into the trunk, pushing it from his mind as he goes back to digging through the pouches.
"When, when you disappeared," Sirius begins again, watching Harry stop looking for whatever he was looking for for a second, his emerald green eyes flick to Sirius to show him he was listening as he was digging, "I turned the islands upside down looking for you, when I couldn't find you I put a reward out for your safe return, it's never been claimed, and I, it felt like I had failed them, Lily and James, I wasn't the guard dog that she thought I was," He says sadly before Harry exclaims in victory, pulling out a bundle of papers before turning to Sirius.
Harry opens his mouth, before closing it a few times, pressing his lips together and furrowing his brow so much like Lily's that it almost hurts as three men look upon the missing child finally found.
"I'm, I'm sorry," Harry finally says, "My birth dad didn't know, s-They, they thought there was no one else, or they would have contacted you, I swear they would have, we always thought the jacket belonged to James," Harry says in a whisper looking at Sirius' feet.
Sirius reaches out, putting both hands on his shoulders and kneeling down to eye level with the boy, and Harry looks at him in the eyes "Listen Kiddo, I don't blame you, you didn't have a choice in the matter, I blame the man who took you off that porch," Sirius tells him, "I have a few choice words for him and maybe a few curses, but your back now, that's all that matters, if you'd like, because I know I would, to get to know each other I'm here for it, I have ten years to make up to you kiddo, starting now, if you want," Sirius says with such honesty and emotion that Harry can't help but to tear up a bit, he already thinks that Kore is gonna love this guy, like her, Sirius wore his heart on his sleeve and refused to apologize for it.
"Will, will you tell me about them?" Harry asks Sirius.
"Of course, kiddo," Sirius says with a lopsided grin, and Harry smiles back at Sirius before the boy does an unexpected thing and launches himself at Sirius and wrapping his arms around his neck hugging him. From his reaction earlier, Sirius didn't think Harry would do this but doesn't miss the opportunity to wrap his arms around the boy and hugs him close as Remus looks on with a soft smile, after a moment or two, a small coff could be heard from the headmaster, to which Sirius answers, "Shut the fuck up, Albus, I've waited ten years for this, you can wait two minutes," he says to the scoff of Snape and the chuckle from Remus.
The Headmaster chuckles himself, "I suppose I can, I just wish to remind you that curfew is soon, Sirius," Albus says, and the two break from their embrace.
"He is right, it's getting late and I'd rather get this over with now, so I can get some sleep for class tomorrow," Harry tells Sirius and the man nods, retaking his seat as Harry reshrinks his trunk before walking up to the headmaster's desk and handing the man the large bundle of paperwork.
Dumbledore takes the paperwork with a curious look on his face before opening it and begins reading it as Harry explains.
"It's all legal, all official, signed, stamped, and dated by both the mundane and magical government in America, my legal guardian is Kore Despoina," Harry tells the Headmaster, "She's been taking care of me ever since March of 82, she sees me as one of her kids if you try to force the issue not only is she going to push back but she will pull me from Hogwarts, and I really wanted to come here," Harry says with a sigh as he runs a hand through his hair, "besides if Kore gets involved that means my Step-dad will, and that is one guy you do not want to cross, and that's not even mentioning my birth dad, because if they get involved they'll turn the islands upside down and start shaking till I come out," Harry says meaning every word, because Hades would get involved if Kore gets upset, and that would be very bad for everyone involved in it. He didn't stand around and do nothing when someone causes his wife distress, he normally started nuking people and did not care about collateral damage in the process. And if they kept at it until Persephone was fully awake, well, what Harry said wasn't an exaggeration.
Harry waits as the old Headmaster scans each page of the documents he had handed him, once done with one he would lay it face down on the desk to read through the next as Harry stood and fidgetted and shuffled his feet. Halfway through Dumbledore sets the rest of the paperwork down before rubbing his eyes and sighing.
"Harry," the Headmaster says, "The paperwork, while in order, does not take into account that you were kidnapped," he says as he turns to look at the boy in question, and before he can get another word out, Harry cuts him off.
"Fine, whatever, best kidnapping ever," Harry says throwing his hands in the air, "but what does it matter, they didn't hurt me, they didn't starve me, they set me to school, they tucked me in at night, they send me to a summer camp on the other side of the country because I like it there!" Harry yells, before turning to Sirius, "I'm sorry you didn't know, but my birth dad didn't know I had a godparent or they would have contacted you, but they're not bad people, they love me and I love them back, so what does it matter if I was kidnapped! I'm here now, they let me come here knowing this was going to happen and they still let me come Hades! My stepdad even paid for all my school stuff without batting an eye! Just talk to them, please!" Harry says, desperation crawling into his voice as he looked back and forth between Dumbledore and Sirius, trying to make them understand, hoping they would so none of the God's of the underworld show up to tear the school apart, because no one, not Harry, not Hades, not Kore wanted to see what would happen if Persephone woke up in a bad mood.
Because the Queen of the Dead did not take disrespect lightly.
Slytherin Common Room.
The meeting had run late, with the adults undecided on what to do at the time, Dumbledore had wanted to move forward with a meeting with some wizing-thing to get custody turned over to Sirius, but the other man had listened to Harry and told Dumbledore to hold off on it as much as possible and asked Harry if he could set up a meeting with Kore, he wanted to meet her and see if they could come to some agreement between the two before the courts got involved. Harry was relieved when the older man told him this and promised to write to Kore first thing in the morning, lying a bit by telling them she was still in Londen for a few more days just in case.
With that, Snape, who had not said a word through most of the conversation, had escorted him back to the Slytherin common room just a few minutes before curfew. No last words, no comments, nothing from the man, he was like a brick wall. All he did after getting Harry to the secret entrance was turn on his heel and leave him there, Harry had just shrugged before turning to the entrance and realizing he didn't remember the password. Looking up and down the corridor to make sure he was alone, he places his hand on the entrance before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
He could see them, little flickers of the light of life behind his closed eyes, all deep in the dungeons that they slept in, there were still a few souls in the common room and hopefully, they wouldn't see what Harry was about to do. Taking another deep breath, Harry draws on the domain of the dead, his charcoal gray hair begins to fade to a grayish-white before, much like a ghost, he slips through the solid stone as if it was air. He pokes his head through first to check to see if anyone was watching the entrance, luckily no one was, so he slips the rest of the way through. On the other side of the entrance, he lets out his held breath, it comes out as a white mist like on a cold winter day as his hair fades back to it's normal color for him.
Harry idly rubs his chest as he walks through the common room, avoiding the attention of the few older students that were hanging out in it, willing his heart to start beating faster again. The one downside of Persephone's domains was one has to be close to death to use them to great effect, but Ghost form was far too useful and outweighed the consequences of calling upon it, but still, Harry much preferred Kore's domains over Persephone's, not that he'd ever tell either of them that.
Harry walks down the corridor that leads into the boy's dorms, and true to Snape's word, one door holds a small plack with "Year One" hanging on the door, so shrugging he turns the handle and pushes the door open. The room was large and well-lit by torches and candles, it was more of a hall with six four-poster beds lining the walls, three on either side, with small writing desks and plush high back chairs to one side of each bed. Dark stone walls led up to a low-hanging ceiling, there was a door to the far back that possibly led to a bathroom that all the boys would share, other than dark stone and stained wood everything else was in the house colors of green and silver. Which was fine with Harry, they were nice colors, but he would prefer maybe some blues, reds, and white thrown in to give it a bit more color, but he wasn't a decorator of any kind so all he could do was shrug and walk over to the only need that didn't have a trunk in front of it.
The other boys in the room had stopped what they were doing to look over at him as he walked in and looked around with a smile on his face, three of them had dragged the chairs by their beds to the middle of the room and were talking in quiet voices, one was on his bed writing what looks to be a letter, and the fifth boy was laying in bed reading a book. The blond boy with the two large boys stopped talking as soon as he walked in, the boy writing the letter looked up at him, and the other dark-skinned boy looked over at him before turning back to his book with disinterest.
Harry digs into his pocket and pulls out his trunk before placing it on the ground and enlarging it before he starts to dig through it for his pajamas, and continues to do so when the blond boy begins to talk to him.
"So, you're him," the blond boy says, "You're Harry Potter," he says this as a statement and not a question.
Harry, not looking up, answers him, "That's what it says on the birth certificate," he says before digging in another part of his trunk, he knows he packed them, so, where the hell are they, "and surprisingly not dead from the crazy dark witch," he says with a smirk as the blonde boy blushes.
The blonde boy stands, straightening his robes, before walking over to Harry, and the two other boys stand to follow, he reaches Harry as he exclaims in victory and pulls out his Pajamas, and turns to the blonde boy.
"Malfoy," the blonde boy introduces himself, tilting his head back and standing straighter, trying to make himself look taller, "Draco Malfoy, you'll find that some families are better to know than others, I think I could help you with that ," He tells Harry, and Harry looks down to his hand with a raised brow, before looking back to the boy.
"Don't know about that last part, but it's nice to meet you Draco, I'm Harry," Harry says with a smile as he takes the boy's hand and shakes it, Draco smiles politely back before introducing him to Crabb and Goyle, before turning and pointing out the boy writing the letter and introducing him as Theodore Nott and the boy reading the book as Blasie Zambini, both who nod politely at Harry and he waves back at both of them with a smile.
He excuses himself to change into his pajamas before crawling into bed for the night, he couldn't wait to get started with classes in the morning, but first, he pulls out a small black journal and begins to write down everything that had happened today, like the fact he had a godfather, so when his two months are up there would be a record, he would write Kore in the morning about Sirius. When he was done he tucks away the book under his pillow and closes his eyes with a smile.
Hogwarts Courtyard.
Harry Potter's last few days have been interesting, to say the least, between his first transfiguration class where he saw Professor McGonagall transform from a cat on a desk to a human and scolded a late student, to the tiny Charms Professor whose introduction to his class was teaching them all the color changing charm and had them battling it out in class before with a swipe of his wand had cleaned the room that looked like a rainbow exploded in it and put everything back into its place with a smile before doing a lecture on his subject. Professor Snape was the least fun, but boy did the guy know how to command his class with a few interesting questions and a small speech he had set them to work with a word of warning about fooling around in class, one student didn't take the warning seriously enough and his cauldron exploded and Snape was mad.
Herbology was possibly one of, if not, his favorite classes, it was all about magical plants and what they could be, and how they were used. Harry didn't have the power to control plants like the children of his grandmother Demeter, but they did bloom and grow faster with him around, and boy did magical plants grow wild. The screaming shrooms and Shrivelfig were twice their sizes when Harry got done handing them, it was so cool! The other classes were great as well, a bit boring, but just as cool, the best thing was finding out a Ghost was teaching history, when Professor Binns looked at him Harry had thought he would flee, much like the castle poltergeist did when it ran across Harry, but this Ghost had more nerve than most and just bowed his head respectfully to him before continuing on with his lesson.
But then there was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and the ever-enigmatic Professor of the class, the school's very own wraith in a rotting body, Professor Olivia Twist. The woman was a complete mystery to Harry, with a personality that was as clashing as the clothes she wore. One minute she would be a strict taskmaster expecting obedience from the class, the next she was this goofy teacher who would poke fun at anyone she saw fit in that moment, to someone whose breath and depth of the magical arts border on genius from what Harry could decipher from the small tangents she would go off on when explaining something. The thing Harry didn't like about her is how often she would call on him in class, from simple questions to things Harry had no idea what she was talking about, to her using him as target practice with some of the more basic spells they were learning such as the knockback jinx's, she really liked using that on him. She would needle him and set up almost impossible tasks for Harry to do in class, but Harry was a demigod, and was trained to overcome whatever obstacle was set in front of him. When he would succeed she would smile at him, but it would always put him on edge, there was an unspeakable malice to it that none of his classmates saw, but then again, none of his classmates had faced down a cyclops before. It was like she wanted to eat him or something.
He had made a few friends while here, but oddly enough none from Slytherin, Hermione was one of them, Harry had taken the chance to sit with her during their first Transfiguration class, but he had forgotten her name but she took no offense to it and reminded him of it, she had called him out of his "little prank" which got Harry laughing and her demeanor cracking a little as she smiled and shook her head when he explained what had happened and how didn't expect for Professor McGonagall to skip his name. They got on pretty well with their shared excitement over learning magic, actual magic! In an old castle, she had made a joke about it being like something out of a myth that got Harry to giggle.
Draco had tried to tell him to stay away from her because she was of "lesser blood" or something stupid like that, Harry had told him that he didn't know or care about what he was talking about, Draco had gotten all red face and stormed away from him in the common room where some students spent the night scowling at him for what he had said, but most had left him alone.
Then there was the pair of twins that he had met while exploring the old castle, Fred and George Weasley, Harry couldn't tell them apart to save his life, even their souls were the same, which was just awesome! Much like Harry, they had a love for harmless pranks, and Harry had eagerly joined them in setting up a few. So far they had charmed a doorway to change the color of the robes of anyone who walks through it into bright pinks and purples, charmed random chairs in all the classes and great hall to make loud farting noises when someone sat down in them, they also somehow found their way into the kitchen to charm the some of the goblets to cause uncontrollable yodeling for a full minute after someone drank from it, they even got the Headmaster with that one, who got a good laugh out of it as well.
They weren't the only twins Harry had noticed, there was another set in Slytherin that would watch him when they thought he wasn't paying attention, they were a year or two older than him, The Carrow twins, Hestia and Flora, but so far all they've done is watch him, which granted was a bit creepy, but harmless.
Harry had written all of this down in his journal and to Kore along with Sirius wanting to meet her, Sirius had written to him once asking how he was settling in, sharing little stories about James and Lily that made Harry laugh and smile, he had also written him a letter but was going to send that with a school owl, he didn't want to scare the man with his own owl, because Harry's owl was a little…unique.
Which is why Harry found himself alone during dinner out in the courtyard just under the astronomy tower, fewer witnesses to see him call her. Holding out his arm at chest level, Harry reaches into himself as he closes his eyes, holding his breath as his hair rapidly turns to white before he whispers to the cold winds of the Scottish highlands, "Come to me, Eurydice,".
It starts with a flicker of white just above his arm, before a white haze of mist begins to twist and turn around his arm, before coalescing in white wings and luminous yellow eyes as Harry feels the ice-cold grip of her talons on his arm. Harry opens his eyes and smiles softly at her as she hoots softly to him turning her head to him as Harry's hair fades back to the charcoal grey color his hair normally was.
" Hey, girl," Harry says as he scratches under her chin as she coos softly at his touch, "Here, I need you to take this to Kore, Okay?" Harry tells her as he pulls out the rolled-up letter, Eurydice bobs her head in understanding before grasping the letter in her ghostly talons before stretching her wings and taking off. Harry watches her fly straight into the air, before tucking her wings and dropping from the sky, she plummets toward the ground before she hits the stone of the courtyard and slips through to the underworld. Harry smiles as she does before shaking his head, what a show-off.
Harry stands there, enjoying the cold wind of the changing seasons with a small smile and closed eyes, Persephone will be awake soon, and Harry can't help but to wonder if he'll be alive when she raises from her slumber deep inside of Kore. It's happened before, only a few times, and he'd love to see his mom again before he ships off for the big sleep, but His thoughts were interrupted by the voice of a Professor he didn't know if he liked or hated.
"Mister Potter, whatever are you doing out here?" The thick New York accent gave away who it was immediately, "You do know dinner is going on right now, correct?" Professor Twist says as the Click, Click, Click of her polished shoes echo throughout the courtyard.
Harry turns around with a smile on his face, "Hey Professor Twist, I was just sending off a letter, I was about to head down to dinner now," Harry says, the smile never leaving his face.
Professor Twist makes a show of scanning the skyline before turning back to him with a raised eyebrow, "I'm sure you were, Mister Potter, and certainly not up to any mischief at all, hmm?" She says, looking at him, her eyes drifting up to his bangs that hid his famous scar.
"Why Professor, I haven't caused any mischief," Harry says, pausing for a moment before saying "That you can prove," which causes the Professor to smirk down at him.
"Why, Mister Potter, you assume I need evidence of you causing mischief to punish you for mischief," Professor Twist says, turning her head slightly keeping the smirk on her face, almost matching Harry's smile. For a moment Harry thought the odd Professor was going to give him detention just to prove her point, but all she does is jerk her head and say, "Come along Mister Potter, I'll walk you to the Great Hall just to make sure," before she turns on the spot, hands in her pocket, walking away from Harry.
Harry jogs to catch up to the Professor, not wanting to get in any trouble (yet) for disobeying a teacher, when he finally catches up with her, Professor Twist had her passive grumpy look on, the one she wore when the class was reading from their books and she was grading at her desk, or looking out the window, or looking at Him.
"So, …" Harry begins with, "How's your day been, Professor Twist?" He asks with a bright smile.
"Benignly boring," she answered in a flat tone that sounded like it was a truth of her life she couldn't escape.
"Oh, that sucks," Harry says, before they fall into an awkward quiet as they walk through the school, before long Harry speaks up again, "Why was it so boring?" He asks.
"Because outside of teaching first years what end of a wand points what way, all my other years are revising what we had covered at the end of last year," Professor Twist says, "Which reminds me, where did you get your training from?" She asks, looking down at Harry with a raised brow.
"My training?" Harry asks back looking confused, but freaking out a bit on the inside, did she know something about Camp Half-Blood? She was from New York, and he knew the Magical and Divine worlds mixed a little bit at the edges, but didn't know how much.
"You have excellent wand control," Twist says as she pulls her hand from her pocket and moves her wrist around to show what she means, "Someone must have taught you that, I was wondering if I knew who," she says.
"Oh!" Harry exclaims, understanding what she was getting at, "It wasn't anything magical, my mom wanted me to learn self-defense so I could fight back if anyone tried something," Harry says with a smile.
"Self-Defense?" Professor Twist asks, hoping the boy would elaborate, and he does.
"I know karate," Harry says before making quick chopping motions with his hands and throwing an awkward kick with a "hi-ya!" Thrown in, Olivia couldn't help it, she started laughing at the child flailing awkwardly beside her. Professor Twist shakes her head as she continues to walk down the corridor, heading to the Grand Staircase.
"Hey, I got you to Laugh, and here I thought you hated me," Harry says as he catches up with her after his awesome high kick.
Professor Twist turns her head to Harry, "You think I hate you?" She asks with an amused look on her face.
"Well, yeah," Harry says like it was obvious, "What with picking on me in class and following me around to hopefully catch me doing mischief," he tells her, the smile never leaving his face.
Twist rolls her eyes and sighs, "I don't pick on you in class Mister Potter, I just…" she trails off as if looking for the right words, "want to see what the big deal is about you that everyone makes, and I must say, you've been exceeding all my expectations thus far," she tells him with a nod.
"And the following me around bit?" Harry asks with a cheeky smile.
"I'm not following you around, Mister Potter," Professor Twist says rolling her eyes again, "This is the first time we've met outside of class, who do you think I am, Snape?" She says with a scoff.
"Snape follows people around?" Harry asks.
"Like a lost puppy, or a giant bat, can never tell which," Twist says with a shrug and a grin as Harry starts to laugh.
"Hey, I thought he looked like a giant bat too, especially with that huge cloak he wears!" Harry says with a grin as they finally make it to the Great Hall, "But it's good to know you don't hate me I guess," Harry admits as he stops to look up at Professor Twist, as she too stops to look back at the boy.
"Well, here's a little spoiler for you Mister Potter, it's not that I hate you," the professor in clashing colors says, "It's that I hate everyone equally," before a cruel smirk blooms on her face.
"Hmmm," Harry says as he squints at her, thinking for a moment, "I don't believe that," he says after a moment making Olivia raise a brow in question at the boy.
"Oh, and why is that?" She asks.
Harry just shrugs and says, "Because we all have to like someone, if not, life wouldn't be worth living, can you imagine living forever without anyone to care about?" Harry says with a smile before thanking her and running off to the Gryffindor Table to eat with Hermione like he said he would earlier in the day.
A rotting body walking around.
Cheeky little shit was the thought on Lady Voldemort's mind as she relaxes in a hot bath after dinner, she had used the excuse of the curse that had once ravaged the body of the former Olivia Twist to get out of her patrols that night, dumping it on the great black bat that was Severus Snape. The fucker deserved it and much more for daring to touch her as she sat down at the high table, Stay away from my Slytherins, Twist! He had hissed into her ear after grabbing her shoulder, cunt.
She lays back in the hot soapy water, in one hand Olivia's wand, and a glass of fire whiskey in the other. It was the cheaper stuff, but right now she just wants some to wash down the taste of the unicorn blood potion she had just taken, she shifts in the tube and hisses in pain, and looks down before waving the wand in her hand to clear the bubbles. The black necrotic flesh had crawled up another inch or so, it started about a month or two after subsiding what was left of Olivia Twist's broken soul, a small sore black spot near her hips and had grown over the last year to cover most of her hips and upper thighs, which was just a shame, Olivia had a great body and Voldemort was hoping to at least get laid before the rot spread too far, but that was off the table now. Soon the rot would spread up to her torso and that was gonna suck, which means no more eating food or getting sloshed for the pain, she'd probably gonna have to remove her internal organs as well, which is a whole other type of pain to do.
But that was later, now her mind was working out the problem that was getting to the philosopher's stone, she could easily undo her protections on it, a curse disguised as a ward that was disguised as a simple logic puzzle of two doors, she had told the old goat one door kills while the other lets them through, but in truth, Both were cursed to wither the body. So long as the other teachers' defenses weren't designed to waste her time as much as possible, she should be able to snatch the stone and leave quickly, but she would have to poke around soon and find out. There was also the other problem of not knowing what the goat was gonna set up, knowing him, it was going stupidly complex but with a simple solution. Dumbledore wasn't hailed for his mind for no reason, the man had an infuriating ability to think so far outside of the box that the box wasn't even in view, the cunt.
Then there was the boy, she still wasn't sure if the boy was actually Harry Potter, or another one of Dumbledore's schemes, whoever the brat was, he was interesting at least. Every challenge in class he had met and surpassed her expectations of him, didn't matter what she had set up, multiple moving targets, bouncing cantrips off the floor, hitting three targets with one spell, knocking back heavier items over longer distances than the other students. Then there was that neat little trick with the owl and his hair, she still couldn't figure out how he did that one, unless the boy was a Necromancer, she laughs at that thought and dismisses it immediately. The last Necromancer on the Wixen Islands died over five hundred years ago, and the Potter bloodline shared nothing in common with that man.
So, the body of Olivia Twist knocks back the glass of fire whiskey and pours another glass before tapping her wand against the tub, reheating the water and sinking deeper into the hot soapy water, it really was the simple things in life.
"Because we all have to like someone, if not, life wouldn't be worth living, can you imagine living forever without anyone to care about?"
She scoffs again, "Cheeky little shit," she says out loud to no one but to the raising steam and her cheap whiskey, he didn't get it, and after she gets her body back, he won't live long enough to learn, it was lonely at the top because the top was upon the mountain of corpus that you had to pile up to get there, and that's where she stood, at top, as a god among mortals and the common rabble of the world she wanted to burn.
One way or another, Harry Potter or not, she was going to kill the brat and show him that life was only worth living alone.
Fuck I love Twist and her unapologetic hatred for every other living being in the world.
While canon Voldemort just wanted power, My Voldemort just wants everyone else dead because she hates everyone, and the scary thing is, she has the power to do it and she knows it.
But explanation time!
In this chapter we got another taste of Harry's demigod abilities, let's go by the order they appear in, shall we?
Ghost form: apart of the divine domain of the dead, when Harry uses this ability he becomes like a Ghost and everything that it entails, the downside is the longer he stays in it the closer to becoming a Ghost he gets and that means he dies, he can stay in it for about 30 seconds before he has to drop or risk that happening.
Necromancy: this one is self-explanatory, being a child of Persephone he has control over the dead, and he can summon them, command them, send them to the underworld etc, etc,
How does Hades feel about Harry?
He likes him, he doesn't love him like he does his own children, but he likes him well enough.
In this D.O.A is an actual recording studio that's run by a bunch of dead businessmen that sign on now and upcoming artists because why not?
Eurydice is Hedwig in this, why the name change? Simple, because Harry isn't an orphan in this, he named her after a myth his mother played a central role in, Eurydice is also a gift from Melionë, who we will be meeting in the next chapter.
I don't remember if that's everything, but that will do for now.
Next time on the boy who vanished, Kore meets Sirius, winter arrives early for Hogwarts, Melionë puts on a show, and Harry Potter dies.
Kingsaxcul, Out!