A/N: Next chapter! Oh, and I want to point out that I'm still figuring some
things out and I recently realized that most of the stuff I originally put
in italics is, in fact, not in italics. I'm jut going to go with it for now
and if it gets terribly confusing, just tell me. I'll try to do something
to correct it.
Chapter 4: Back to Diagon Alley
It's all shallow and all so appealing
I'm up to my ankles and I'm drowning anyway
In a sea of sarcastic faces, familiar places
Where everything looks quite the same here
It's all confusingly amusing, bitter and tainted
The picture you painted to me
-Life House
He moved again. Any day now he could run into a pack of Death Eaters, waiting to bring them to their master-waiting to catch the weak person they expected.
Harry smirked to himself. Sometimes he almost wished they would catch him, just to see the looks on their faces when Harry walked away from their bound and gagged forms unharmed.
His visit to his younger self had been completely unplanned. Even now he couldn't quite explain why he'd gone in the first place. He had awoken from his sleep with the old visions of Voldemort's actions echoing in his head and wondering if perhaps the dreams did not belong to him. His visit to the dormitory proved as much.
Harry had awoken that morning aching all over and in an exceptionally bad mood from lack of sleep. He forced down some breakfast in the hotel lobby and went to check out. He couldn't be in the same spot twice-he couldn't be caught. Voldemort knew he existed and that alone seemed far too much. Any amount of powerful magic could be felt by all those with enough power. He had no doubt he had sensed his dramatic entrance, not to mention the undisguised power that had undoubtedly radiated off him like some sort of beacon before he had regained consciousness.
He Apparated around for a while, making sure his trail would be difficult to follow if anyone came close to tracking him. He finally Apparated to Diagon Alley to find a book explaining how to open another portal and take him back to his own time.
"Can I help you?"
Harry glanced up, amused. "Help? Oh, no. I'm fine, thanks."
"Are you sure? Is there something in particular you're looking for?"
Harry decided to humor this annoying saleswoman. "Yeah, I'm looking for a book on time-travel."
"Ah," the woman said knowingly. "Trying to undo a mistake? You might be careful about that sort of thing. Rewriting time is tricky business-"
"-Thanks for the warning," Harry said, cutting her off. "But I'm not going back in time."
The woman looked confused just as Harry had known she would. "I'm not sure we have anything-"
"-I'll just look a little longer on my own then, shall I?" Harry said. He pulled down another book and opened it to a random page. "Time-Turners, Frozen-for-a-Moment Lasting Moment potion." Harry read down the Table of Contents, dismissing the woman without words. She took the hint.
When he saw no one near enough to see anything, he muttered a quick spell. Three books on the shelves began to glow. He quickly grabbed these three books and took them to the counter.
"Is this everything?" asked the saleswoman.
"Yes," Harry said impatiently.
The woman wrote a receipt and put it in the bag along with Harry's three books. Harry only realized then that he had no money. Summoning money from his Gringotts account, Harry flicked his wrist, and a few galleons appeared in his open palm.
He was just heading to the Apothecary to buy the ingredients for his energy potion (which he found actually had more effect than he had previously noticed) when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around, a defensive spell on his lips to face the owner of the offending hand.
"Excuse me," said a woman dressed in Muggle clothing. "I'm very sorry about this, but I'm having a spot of trouble finding my way around and you seem to know where everything is. I wonder if you could point me in the direction of Grin-gotts."
"Down the street," Harry said stiffly, not used to be spoken to like an ordinary stranger. "It's a big marble building. You can't miss it."
"Thank you!" The woman said happily. She skipped off in the other direction.
Harry turned on his heal and continued to the apothecary wondering about the strange-yet probably perfectly ordinary-behavior.
A sudden, desperate wish to return to his own time seized him, but he pushed it away as well. Carelessness could be the only result of rashness. He had to take everything one thing at a time.
Life certainly didn't look very good at the moment. Maybe he could pay someone to look up that spell for him.He hated studying.
He sighed as he reached the Apothecary. Things were different. He'd probably have to wait in line. He entered and looked around for the ingredients needed for the potions he made to make up for his lack of sleep.
He had no sooner struggled through the crowd to his first ingredient, armadillo bile, when he felt another hand on his shoulder. He whirled around but saw no one. Concentrating on the place the hand had doubtlessly been, he caught a vague trial of magic. It had a spell on it. Frowning and concentrating harder, Harry identified the tale-tell trace of a charm to move faster. This person's attempt to lure him somewhere seemed very pathetic.
Harry sighed. Probably a Death Eater. It would seem he had been slacking off in his attempt to keep them off his trail.
Turning around, he felt the anticipated hand on his shoulder again. Closing his eyes, he felt the magic speeding outside. Turning around he walked out of the apothecary. He knew good and well that he was being led into a probably poorly done trap.
The hand came to his shoulder again. He followed it, moving as fast as it now, to a small alley where he met, face to face, with the hand's unfortunate keeper. The person looked surprised to see him there so suddenly that Harry found his grim humor in the look on her face-Bellatrix Lestrange.
She recovered quickly. A smile played on her lips. "Ah, look! The little bitty Harry Potter is all grown up!" She used that baby voice yet again. The whole concept of his being helpless seemed so ludicrous to Harry that he threw his head back and laughed. Laughing did not appear to be the anticipated results. Harry could tell that without trying. Pathetic. She wore every emotion right on her sleeve. Foolish woman. She seemed hardly worth his time.
"What's wrong, Lestrange?" Harry asked, his laughter dying out. "Don't try to tell me that you don't see the humor in this!"
"I see nothing funny!" Bellatrix snarled. She snapped her fingers and 3 other figures materialized from the shadows where Harry had already sensed them. Despite the amused look Harry still wore on his face, Bellatrix's confidence seemed to have doubled. "My master would like a word with you."
"Then perhaps he should go to Azkaban to wait for you," Harry returned pleasantly. "Because when I'm done with you, the officials will find your unconscious forms first and take you straight back to that hell hole. It would probably be a whole lot easier for Voldemort to simply break you out before they place all those hexes and defensive spells on your prison cell."
"I'm afraid you over estimate your abilities," Bellatrix said, obviously barely even hearing what Harry was saying. "I've seen you in action. I know what you're capable of doing. It's pathetic. You don't stand a chance."
"That's where you're wrong," Harry said. "Because when I attack, you still won't be able to boast that you've seen me in action, because your pathetic reflexes are so slow, your eyes probably won't even be able to follow me."
Bellatrix looked livid at the insult. "I'm only going to give you one more chance because my master seems convinced that you will come on your own. I will not-"
"Your master is a fool," Harry said bluntly. "He has no idea what I can do. He has no idea what he's up against and he sent his most worthless followers to find out for him."
"You'll pay for that!" Bellatrix said. She appeared ridiculously angry. She appeared to be so completely off her game that Harry couldn't even look forward to such a fight, but Bellatrix had finished talking. Raising her wand, she shouted her curse. It hit the empty place Harry had been standing seconds before and exploded into the wall.
"Nice shot," Harry said sarcastically from his new position-directly behind her. "Try this on for size." Grabbing her shoulder, he summoned electricity. It shot through her body, paralyzing her. When he removed his hand she fell unconscious to the ground.
"Now," Harry said, completely unfazed. He turned to the other three. They had been so confident before. "Any questions? A challenge perhaps?"
The three other Death Eaters appeared torn between fear of Harry and fear of their master's anger. The latter of the two won out. Three hexes shot at Harry's head. Morphing smoothly into a cobra, the spells went over his head. Harry then morphed directly from the snake into a giant Nundu.
Only one of the wizards seemed to recognize it. He yelled and tried to run while the other two, thinking it a mere Muggle leopard, started shouting curses.
"Get back here!" Yelled one of the Death Eaters still fighting. "Master will be displeased!"
The man stopped in his tracks, he took a terrified look at Harry's Nundu form that dodged the spells with considerable ease and, deciding it better not to endure his master's wrath, returned to the fight.
Harry landed in front of them and allowed the men to hit him with a curse. The curse had no effect, since his hide was close to impervious against many magics. Harry stumbled for a moment, as though injured. The Death Eaters dropped their guard. Harry pounced.
He knocked two of them down and allowed his momentum to carry his past them. He rolled to his feet at the same time the other two got to theirs while the man still standing shot a useless spell at him.
Harry felt his stomach churning. Seconds later, a small amount of poisonous fumes shot out of his mouth and straight at the Death Eaters. They stood there for a moment and then, as one, fell to the ground unconscious.
Deciding it would look bad on his already tarnished record to leave them to die of the disease that the fumes inflicted, he morphed to human and yelled, "Someone come quick! These people are injured!" People ran in from the street.
Yells of, "Someone call St. Mungos!" and, "We need a doctor!" filled the air as people looked in to find out what had happened. In all the confusion Harry slipped silently and unnoticed from the scene.
A/N: Another chapter done! My friend told me she thinks Harry is too powerful, but think about it! He's had 10 years to get more powerful. Plus, I'm thinking that after he learns how to become an Animagus the first time, it should be easier the next and eventually he learned a variety of different ones that could help in different battle situations. Anyway.yeah.that's it really. Review!
Chapter 4: Back to Diagon Alley
It's all shallow and all so appealing
I'm up to my ankles and I'm drowning anyway
In a sea of sarcastic faces, familiar places
Where everything looks quite the same here
It's all confusingly amusing, bitter and tainted
The picture you painted to me
-Life House
He moved again. Any day now he could run into a pack of Death Eaters, waiting to bring them to their master-waiting to catch the weak person they expected.
Harry smirked to himself. Sometimes he almost wished they would catch him, just to see the looks on their faces when Harry walked away from their bound and gagged forms unharmed.
His visit to his younger self had been completely unplanned. Even now he couldn't quite explain why he'd gone in the first place. He had awoken from his sleep with the old visions of Voldemort's actions echoing in his head and wondering if perhaps the dreams did not belong to him. His visit to the dormitory proved as much.
Harry had awoken that morning aching all over and in an exceptionally bad mood from lack of sleep. He forced down some breakfast in the hotel lobby and went to check out. He couldn't be in the same spot twice-he couldn't be caught. Voldemort knew he existed and that alone seemed far too much. Any amount of powerful magic could be felt by all those with enough power. He had no doubt he had sensed his dramatic entrance, not to mention the undisguised power that had undoubtedly radiated off him like some sort of beacon before he had regained consciousness.
He Apparated around for a while, making sure his trail would be difficult to follow if anyone came close to tracking him. He finally Apparated to Diagon Alley to find a book explaining how to open another portal and take him back to his own time.
"Can I help you?"
Harry glanced up, amused. "Help? Oh, no. I'm fine, thanks."
"Are you sure? Is there something in particular you're looking for?"
Harry decided to humor this annoying saleswoman. "Yeah, I'm looking for a book on time-travel."
"Ah," the woman said knowingly. "Trying to undo a mistake? You might be careful about that sort of thing. Rewriting time is tricky business-"
"-Thanks for the warning," Harry said, cutting her off. "But I'm not going back in time."
The woman looked confused just as Harry had known she would. "I'm not sure we have anything-"
"-I'll just look a little longer on my own then, shall I?" Harry said. He pulled down another book and opened it to a random page. "Time-Turners, Frozen-for-a-Moment Lasting Moment potion." Harry read down the Table of Contents, dismissing the woman without words. She took the hint.
When he saw no one near enough to see anything, he muttered a quick spell. Three books on the shelves began to glow. He quickly grabbed these three books and took them to the counter.
"Is this everything?" asked the saleswoman.
"Yes," Harry said impatiently.
The woman wrote a receipt and put it in the bag along with Harry's three books. Harry only realized then that he had no money. Summoning money from his Gringotts account, Harry flicked his wrist, and a few galleons appeared in his open palm.
He was just heading to the Apothecary to buy the ingredients for his energy potion (which he found actually had more effect than he had previously noticed) when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around, a defensive spell on his lips to face the owner of the offending hand.
"Excuse me," said a woman dressed in Muggle clothing. "I'm very sorry about this, but I'm having a spot of trouble finding my way around and you seem to know where everything is. I wonder if you could point me in the direction of Grin-gotts."
"Down the street," Harry said stiffly, not used to be spoken to like an ordinary stranger. "It's a big marble building. You can't miss it."
"Thank you!" The woman said happily. She skipped off in the other direction.
Harry turned on his heal and continued to the apothecary wondering about the strange-yet probably perfectly ordinary-behavior.
A sudden, desperate wish to return to his own time seized him, but he pushed it away as well. Carelessness could be the only result of rashness. He had to take everything one thing at a time.
Life certainly didn't look very good at the moment. Maybe he could pay someone to look up that spell for him.He hated studying.
He sighed as he reached the Apothecary. Things were different. He'd probably have to wait in line. He entered and looked around for the ingredients needed for the potions he made to make up for his lack of sleep.
He had no sooner struggled through the crowd to his first ingredient, armadillo bile, when he felt another hand on his shoulder. He whirled around but saw no one. Concentrating on the place the hand had doubtlessly been, he caught a vague trial of magic. It had a spell on it. Frowning and concentrating harder, Harry identified the tale-tell trace of a charm to move faster. This person's attempt to lure him somewhere seemed very pathetic.
Harry sighed. Probably a Death Eater. It would seem he had been slacking off in his attempt to keep them off his trail.
Turning around, he felt the anticipated hand on his shoulder again. Closing his eyes, he felt the magic speeding outside. Turning around he walked out of the apothecary. He knew good and well that he was being led into a probably poorly done trap.
The hand came to his shoulder again. He followed it, moving as fast as it now, to a small alley where he met, face to face, with the hand's unfortunate keeper. The person looked surprised to see him there so suddenly that Harry found his grim humor in the look on her face-Bellatrix Lestrange.
She recovered quickly. A smile played on her lips. "Ah, look! The little bitty Harry Potter is all grown up!" She used that baby voice yet again. The whole concept of his being helpless seemed so ludicrous to Harry that he threw his head back and laughed. Laughing did not appear to be the anticipated results. Harry could tell that without trying. Pathetic. She wore every emotion right on her sleeve. Foolish woman. She seemed hardly worth his time.
"What's wrong, Lestrange?" Harry asked, his laughter dying out. "Don't try to tell me that you don't see the humor in this!"
"I see nothing funny!" Bellatrix snarled. She snapped her fingers and 3 other figures materialized from the shadows where Harry had already sensed them. Despite the amused look Harry still wore on his face, Bellatrix's confidence seemed to have doubled. "My master would like a word with you."
"Then perhaps he should go to Azkaban to wait for you," Harry returned pleasantly. "Because when I'm done with you, the officials will find your unconscious forms first and take you straight back to that hell hole. It would probably be a whole lot easier for Voldemort to simply break you out before they place all those hexes and defensive spells on your prison cell."
"I'm afraid you over estimate your abilities," Bellatrix said, obviously barely even hearing what Harry was saying. "I've seen you in action. I know what you're capable of doing. It's pathetic. You don't stand a chance."
"That's where you're wrong," Harry said. "Because when I attack, you still won't be able to boast that you've seen me in action, because your pathetic reflexes are so slow, your eyes probably won't even be able to follow me."
Bellatrix looked livid at the insult. "I'm only going to give you one more chance because my master seems convinced that you will come on your own. I will not-"
"Your master is a fool," Harry said bluntly. "He has no idea what I can do. He has no idea what he's up against and he sent his most worthless followers to find out for him."
"You'll pay for that!" Bellatrix said. She appeared ridiculously angry. She appeared to be so completely off her game that Harry couldn't even look forward to such a fight, but Bellatrix had finished talking. Raising her wand, she shouted her curse. It hit the empty place Harry had been standing seconds before and exploded into the wall.
"Nice shot," Harry said sarcastically from his new position-directly behind her. "Try this on for size." Grabbing her shoulder, he summoned electricity. It shot through her body, paralyzing her. When he removed his hand she fell unconscious to the ground.
"Now," Harry said, completely unfazed. He turned to the other three. They had been so confident before. "Any questions? A challenge perhaps?"
The three other Death Eaters appeared torn between fear of Harry and fear of their master's anger. The latter of the two won out. Three hexes shot at Harry's head. Morphing smoothly into a cobra, the spells went over his head. Harry then morphed directly from the snake into a giant Nundu.
Only one of the wizards seemed to recognize it. He yelled and tried to run while the other two, thinking it a mere Muggle leopard, started shouting curses.
"Get back here!" Yelled one of the Death Eaters still fighting. "Master will be displeased!"
The man stopped in his tracks, he took a terrified look at Harry's Nundu form that dodged the spells with considerable ease and, deciding it better not to endure his master's wrath, returned to the fight.
Harry landed in front of them and allowed the men to hit him with a curse. The curse had no effect, since his hide was close to impervious against many magics. Harry stumbled for a moment, as though injured. The Death Eaters dropped their guard. Harry pounced.
He knocked two of them down and allowed his momentum to carry his past them. He rolled to his feet at the same time the other two got to theirs while the man still standing shot a useless spell at him.
Harry felt his stomach churning. Seconds later, a small amount of poisonous fumes shot out of his mouth and straight at the Death Eaters. They stood there for a moment and then, as one, fell to the ground unconscious.
Deciding it would look bad on his already tarnished record to leave them to die of the disease that the fumes inflicted, he morphed to human and yelled, "Someone come quick! These people are injured!" People ran in from the street.
Yells of, "Someone call St. Mungos!" and, "We need a doctor!" filled the air as people looked in to find out what had happened. In all the confusion Harry slipped silently and unnoticed from the scene.
A/N: Another chapter done! My friend told me she thinks Harry is too powerful, but think about it! He's had 10 years to get more powerful. Plus, I'm thinking that after he learns how to become an Animagus the first time, it should be easier the next and eventually he learned a variety of different ones that could help in different battle situations. Anyway.yeah.that's it really. Review!