Summary: Continues right after HBP (including spoilers). Harry is about to leave Hogwarts for good by himself against the will of his friends when a memory of something Dumbledore said before pops into his mind. Deciding to take action based on this memory, Harry decides to remain at Hogwarts for a while longer and train a bit more before going into the world on his own. What he discovers afterwards about himself and the world marks the beginning of a war of unimaginable proportions. This is a story inspired by Warcraft 3, Reign of Chaos. Also, a bit of other shows and books are involved such as Magic the Gathering, and Naruto (not enough to actually make it a crossover) is used.
Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter
Arthur's Note: Hello everyone, I guess once again I am probably late for the update. To be honest, I just couldn't decide where to go with Harry from here. I want to advance the plot much quicker, and I want to get to some parts where the… romance-driven readers want to be, but I'm not sure about how rated "R" scenes work on fanfiction (dot) net since I've talked so much about pairings and so far hadn't really gotten far amongst any of them. Is it enough to just give a warning? Anyways, this is a filler chapter with a bit of a time skip because I don't want to have to describe everything Harry learns and his self-training. Since last chapter was action-packed, this chapter had to be a bit more peaceful. Hence, we have this semi-filler chapter. It's still focused on Harry, which I've decided will be mostly how this story will be written. So, enjoy for now. After this chapter, I'll probably be able to update faster because it's more action coming up (I figured out that I like action scenes a lot and seem to have somewhat of an affinity for them).
The Gathering Series Book One
The Gathering Twilight
Chapter Eleven:
Goblins Are Annoying Little CreaturesHarry sighed as he looked over the fields of what he dubbed the "floating island" where he had confronted the army of skeletal creatures that he now knew were called "ghouls". To him, it felt like a couple of years had passed since then, though he wasn't sure if time passed at the same speed here as it did on Earth. Technically, it was still Earth, as the "floating island" was hidden somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean that surprisingly nobody had found.
The island itself was strange. It appeared to have some kind of enlargement charm placed on it to give more space than physically possible. It also had a multitude of different environments in which Harry had trained for what appeared to be approximately two or three years. There were swamps, mountains, forests, plains, deserts, tundra areas, and more. Heck, there were even some smaller islands within the giant one, giving Harry the distinct impression of a multi-holed doughnut. The terrains that interested Harry the most however, were two deserted cities on the island. One was pretty modern, probably a parody of New York, Toronto, Paris, London or some other big city. There were no people in these cities, but Harry managed to practice stealth and tracking techniques with and without Mana through endless games of hide-and-seek with snuffles. Suffice to say, each of those games ended in the pygmy puff biting him.
He had learned quite a bit over the time he spent learning and training, though mostly more things he could do with Mana as well as understanding what was wrong with his eye. It appeared, much to the surprise of Dumbledore, that Harry had developed the Ten-Mirrored Eye during his "manifestation of Mana" all that time ago. It wasn't so much as that as one of the actual eyes that Harry had acquired.
The mirror of the eye that Harry had unlocked (the other 8 new eyes were still dormant) was called the Elgis Mirror, also known as the "Only Mirror". This magical mirror was passed down generation after generation in a less-known noble family in Europe. The mirror is rumored to have driven the entire family into insanity as it continuously infected their thoughts. The most peculiar thing about the mirror was that it despised all other glass products, hence the title of the "Only Mirror". The family's home apparently had no other glass products and if any of the children needed spectacles or glasses of any sort, they would soon find them dead with their eyes turned to opals.
The true strength of the Elgis Mirror, and thus the power of Elgis Eye, the "Only Eye", was the ability to control and (after much time spent developing and improving the power of the eye) destroy sight of all creatures with magic or Mana in their system. As well, it negated the abilities of other magical eyes, explaining what happened with Moody's magical eye. Subsequently, it explained why Harry couldn't open both of his eyes before. The very nature of the "Only Eye" forbids Harry from using his good eye with it at the same time.
Therefore, Harry could only open his left eye when his right was closed and vice-versa. This also forced Harry to learn how to activate the different eyes of his Ten-Mirrored eye. The method, as Dumbledore had explained to him after he had explained all of this to Harry, was to meditate and venture into his mindscape. Here, he found a "room" of sorts with twelve doors. One led to the rest of his mindscape, while eight were locked with chains and padlock, one was open, and two appeared able to be opened. The doors also looked different individually, with one black here (the open one), one white there, one with crystals in it here, and so forth. These doors apparently opened to reveal different mirrors, which Harry guessed represented his different eyes.
Though practice, Harry could now switch between his normal eye, the Eye of Erised, and the Elgis Eye with just a thought in his mind (1). He also mastered the use of the different eyes individually, and though he was not completely confident in his abilities concerning them, he was confident enough to probably use them in real combat situations without worry of hurting himself somehow.
The next change through his training was actually acquired within the span of a few days. It appeared that one of the large tomes that Dumbledore had him take from Hogwarts as they left was what Dumbledore called a "Forced-Skill Tome" (2). It was a very rare and powerful artifact that teaches full mastery of whatever skill or skills was inscribed in the text. The one Harry had, the only one that's still known to wizards in the modern world (as most of these had been hidden by some power ancient sorcerer or another), taught Occlumency and Legilmency.
To use it, Harry simply had to read everything and carefully remember almost each word in the text. It was surprising to Harry how the text seemed to break the subject of the two skills into words that he understood almost as if it was talking about Quidditch. Soon after Harry finished the book, and he promptly fainted for two months. When he woke up, he had spent the entire time in his mindscape learning first hand about the two subjects. He also woke up to a giant migraine and the fact that the tome had disappeared somewhere Harry didn't know, though he was sure Dumbledore did but wouldn't tell him.
The other Tome was apparently a "Book of Selections" (BS for short, though Harry didn't like to call it that after he found out how useful it was). The book apparently had the ability to absorb each and every book Harry wanted and compact all the information into itself. It even organized and sorted the information and offered many ways for Harry to view the information, whether it be book by book, subject by subject, search and find, chronologically, or another of a variety of ways. It had so many options Harry had to spend an entire week to learn all about it.
The last thing that Harry learned was probably also the most important. It was the main reason Dumbledore gave Harry that little "test" with the ghouls. While Harry did just fine by himself and performed more than acceptably, he wasn't thinking the more simple way that normal people would have thought in this situation. That was that Harry was supposed to want more people on his side. He was supposed to think about evening the odds. That is, rather than destroying the enemy, get more allies.
This led Harry to the world of summoning, necromancy, demonology, invocation, provocation, and much more. However, those weren't what Harry was supposed to learn, and he didn't really get a chance to learn much about them anyways. What Dumbledore was really trying to teach Harry was the previously mentioned Betas, or Blood-Earned True Advancements. These were apparently the abilities that certain family lines had developed, though nobody knew how they truly came about.
The Potters had two of such abilities. One was the "Veneficus Donum", the Magi's Gift, which he had already known about with the ability to see and manipulate Mana. The second, that was the entire purpose of Harry's little "test", was the "Legio Donum", the Legion's Gift. This ability, as Harry soon figured out, was the ability to create exact duplicates of himself, magic, body, clothing, everything was duplicated. These were clones that lasted until he forced them to dispel or they had taken life-threatening damages.
The first step to learning this was apparition, which, when learned, formed the basis for the ability. All he was required to do was stabilize his mind (with much thanks to his Occlumency training) enough to target multiple places for apparition, with in the resulted with Harry in one place and a matching clone in each of the other places. With practice, Harry could then switch with clones as well as control with apparition point he ended on and which one resulted in clones. The maximum, at the moment, was around two-dozen replications of himself. This was quite a feat for someone so young.
But throughout all of this, one thought was always on his mind. Why was he being taught all this? It couldn't have just been for Voldemort could it? His reasoning was that if all of this were for the fight with Voldemort, he would at least be getting lessons on the spells and dueling tactics of his enemy. He received none of that, however, and the question was eating him up more and more every day.
He remembered Dumbledore had said something about a mission for him after he had learned the Legio Donum. That was the reason that he was waiting at the plains right now. He was going to be meeting Dumbledore soon as he had been self-learning and practicing for the last few months. With a small familiar "whoosh", sound, Harry felt the presence of the deceased headmaster behind him.
"I take it that my training is finished for the moment Professor?" Harry asked, still having a habit of referring to Dumbledore from his late profession. "Indeed, Harry. But I must say that it has turned out quite well?" Dumbledore replied, more like making an observation than actually asking Harry a question. "No matter," the ghost continued, "it is time for you to return to the wizarding world, if only for a small amount of time."
This perked up Harry's interest. "What for sir?" He inquired, wondering if this really was about Voldemort after all. Dumbledore seemed to pause and think for a moment. "There are some issues that you have to deal with. For all that the entire wizarding world knows at the moment, you have been missing for almost three entire months. You must return and assure yourself an identity and position in the world."
"And, pray tell, how would I be doing that, Dumbledore?" Harry asked, his voice beginning to get a little edgy due to his dislike of other people telling him what to do. "We have been through this, Harry," Dumbledore replied patiently, "as of the day you entered my old office seeking Hogwart's help, you are my subordinate and will fulfill the tasks I set before you whether willingly or reluctantly."
True enough, Harry had heard this speech before. The first time was when he questioned who gave Dumbledore the authority to give him what he called "missions". Of course, he didn't buy it the first time, and he wasn't buying it now. There was nothing forcing Harry to obey, and both he and Dumbledore knew that. However, there was a reason for Harry to go along at the moment. That was the need for information. So far, Dumbledore had appeared to have so much knowledge about himself and his origins that even he wasn't sure about. He felt that Dumbledore was hiding something important, and as long as he does not know about any other ways to get the information that Dumbledore knows, he had to play along with what Dumbledore wanted. However, it didn't mean that he was just going to do whatever Dumbledore told him to do. He made sure to remind the dead man of that fact.
Scoffing lightly, Harry relented, knowing that this was going to end up nowhere if he kept fighting. "What are your orders?" He inquired, stressing the last word with a bit of spite. The aged ghost, apparently, either did not notice or, more likely, ignored it as he told Harry what he wanted. "You will be visiting Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley as well as Gringotts. It is preferable to visit the bank first, as you will receive the status and inheritances of all of your bloodlines to secure you a powerful position in the Wizarding world both economically and politically. Then, you are allowed to shop 'till your heart's content to arm yourself with more books, weapons, and anything else you desire. That is of course, in both alleys (extra stress was put on the word "both"). That should be all you need to know for the moment."
Harry stood there, not so much taking in the information as dissecting and analyzing it. If he was to become that powerful economically and politically, which Dumbledore implied, he was probably going to be using it for whatever manipulation that he wanted Harry to do. But there was a problem in all of this; he knew absolutely nothing about politics and other such underhanded skills. This meant a great chance of an increased involvement of Dumbledore in his life. He didn't like that one bit, but he can bite his tongue for now and see what's going to happen.
"Three questions." Harry stated, not even letting Dumbledore ask if there were any questions. "How am I going to be getting there and back? What about a change of clothes? Is there a time limit for this… mission?" There wasn't too much of an emotion in his voice as he said this. While he and Dumbledore got along rather amicably, when the question of authority came up, he wasn't as… chummy with the ghost. As if to answer Harry's first question, Dumbledore appeared to snap his ghostly fingers as a small amulet appeared around his neck. It wasn't anything special, merely a simple gold chain with a miniscule platinum dagger hanging from it.
Harry, through his eager experiments from the earlier days of training, knew that this was a Mana-activated portkey. From the looks of it, this particular one activated through blue Mana. He was a bit surprised, as he had suspected Dumbledore was going to force him to apparate there and back, which would be difficult since he didn't know where he was.
The second question was answered too as his clothes, which had been worn and dirty, were replaced with fancy black dress robes make from one silk or another. His shirt, pants, and shoes underwent similar transformations and he felt like one the rich idiotic purebloods that he disliked so much.
For his third question, Dumbledore spoke instead of answering some other way like he did previously. "You can take up to two days and then will return here. Snuffles and Frostmourne will remain here, while you may take the Book of Selections and this with you." As he finished that sentence, Dumbledore produced a small sack in front of Harry. "A pocket universe storage bag. It can hold enough to fill three castles the size of Hogwarts, so it should be sufficient. Simply channel red Mana for it to enlarge and blue Mana to shrink it. If that is all, you should get going."
Harry nodded, before taking the bag and handing over a sleeping Snuffles and (carefully) Frostmourne over. He stared at the blade for a bit, wondering why he still wasn't allowed to wield it, but it didn't matter at the moment, as he nodded his goodbye and channeled his Mana into the necklace and disappeared from Dumbledore's sight.
Upon reaching his destination, the first thing that Harry noticed was that it was dark and cold. If he was right, then it should actually be sometime between summer and autumn, but either Dumbledore lied to him about how much time had passed or there was something else going on. What was the problem that caused Harry to distrust Dumbledore? Well, at least one of the problems anyways? It was snowing. Though that seems to be a bit of an understatement since it was more like a blizzard.
Looking around him, Harry realized that he was in a back alley facing Quality Quidditch Supplies, which brought him a slight smile remembering how he used to love the sport so much, but probably wouldn't get to play again for a long time. Sighing to himself just a bit, Harry conjured a thick dark cloak with a hood via blue Mana and put it over himself. Putting up the hood and holding the cloak close to him, he made his way into the relatively empty streets of Diagon Alley. The moment he was visible to the public, however, everyone seemed to walk away quickly, probably hoping to avoid him. This didn't confuse Harry, as he thought he must look pretty intimidating with his face hidden as well as his darker cloak.
Walking towards the bank, which was surprisingly hard for Harry, as the snowstorm seemed to be getting worse, he suddenly heard a bell ringing from his left as well as a plethora of childish feminine giggles and boyish chuckles. Turning around, Harry found a very welcoming sight. Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes was the sign on top of the store from which a group of kids (probably Hogwart's students) exited. It appeared to be another branch, as it was different from the one Harry had visited before, which probably meant that Fred and George were more than successful with their business. There was probably high demand due to the recent darker times.
The customers that left were probably around his age; well, excluding his extra two years or so of his training. He could make out probably five or so girls and three guys. He could also make out that the guys and girls were form different circles as the girls were keeping to themselves with whispers and giggles while the guys were just unknowingly following them, horsing around and laughing merrily. That was about as much as he could identify though, as their faces were too far for Harry to see with the snow around them.
Smiling at the sight of the group of students, who where now getting out their mittens and scarves and what not, Harry walked towards them. He wasn't trying to approach them or anything; it was just that they were going opposite ways with them going away from Gringotts. Hoping to avoid a confrontation, Harry kept his face hidden and gaze down as he passed them. At least, he tried to.
One of the girls he was passing apparently slipped on a small patch of ice formed with the weather. As a natural reflex of some sort, Harry turned around and caught her, eliciting a small "EEEP!" from the girl as well as catching the attention of all of the students. Quickly, Harry set her upright and began to walk away from them faster and hoping to be left in peace. Once again, trouble seemed to come to him.
"Hey man, you think you can just get a grope and get away with it?" One of the boys, a rather big one, shouted towards him as he continued to walk. Harry ignored it, before he heard running footsteps behind him. Once more on instinct, Harry sidestepped without looking back and the boy rushed passed him and fell because of the momentum.
By this time, the girls had pretty much caught up to him while the other two guys went over to their friend and tried to help him up. "Wait!" The girl, who he guessed was the one he had caught from falling, yelled through the snow, though to who Harry wasn't sure. "He wasn't groping me, I just fell and he caught me!" At that point Harry recognized everyone around here. Well, he kind of did. They were all Hogwarts students, for sure, though he only recognized their faces, as he couldn't recall their names. He was pretty sure the boys were from Gryffindor while the girls were pretty much unknown to him since they were standing behind, so he still couldn't see him. "Why the hell are you protecting this pervert? Are you girls supposed to hate guys like him?" The boy on the ground asked.
Before anyone could answer or stop him, he got up with surprising speed and aimed a punch for Harry's face. Harry merely tilted his head to the side a bit before walking around everyone and started for Gringotts again. Angered due to being ignored by a stranger, the boy took out his wand and aimed for Harry's back. Before he could mutter a spell, however, a snowball caught his wand dead on and knocked it out of his hand. Everyone stared at a spot on the ground that Harry had just passed to see a small, scooped hole about the size of the snowball.
Harry sighed, as he was finally nearing the doors of Gringotts. He felt the magical signatures of the three boys move away from him along with some of the girls, but it appeared two were following him. He paid them no attention as he entered the doors of the bank. Looking at a nearby clock, he was not surprised to find that it was around 10 pm. He walked up to a counter just as the two girls that were following him entered the bank.
Glancing behind him, he mentally groaned when he finally realized who the girls were. Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones, both form Hufflepuff. While he did not see Hannah ever since she was taken away from their school last yea, he had no particular desire to talk to her face to face at the moment.
He felt their gaze drift towards him as he turned towards the goblin teller. Then he realized that he had a problem. He didn't have his wand, and didn't have his key. The only thing that he had to identify himself was his scar, which meant that he had to take off his hood. This, of course, meant that he lost quite a bit in terms of chances of staying hidden. It wasn't that he wanted to hide, but he didn't want to be questioned by too many people, which may result in many unpleasant things for him.
The goblin cleared his throat, clearly impatient. Harry quickly snapped to attention and began to address the goblin as he felt Susan and Hannah get in line behind him. Coughing slightly, Harry tried his luck. "Err yes, hello. I seemed to have lost my key, and I do not have my wand with me at the moment. Is there a way I can speak to a vault manager here or something of the sort to get another key?"
The goblin narrowed his eyes before answering. "It seems awfully strange that a wizard during these times would wander out without his wand." He ended with a sneer directed a Harry's covered face. "Oh yes, I do seem to have a touch of Darwinism in me don't I? But, I would really to have access to my vaults." Harry replied, hoping that the sneer would fade away sooner or later.
"And just who are you exactly, valued customer?" The teller asked as his sneer increased. "About that…" Harry said, having problems keeping up the pleasant act, "I would rather remain anonymous if that is possible." "But how are we supposed to take you to your vault if we don't even know who you are?" The goblin inquired rather loudly, drawing the attention of pretty much everyone in the room. Some people had fear in their eyes while others weren't really concerned with what was going on here.
Harry could practically feel the scrutiny of everyone in the room. "I would merely like to converse with a vault manager in private, if you will. If it will make you feel better, I am willing to go through an identity test through blood or magic, to satisfy your… security measures?" He was really starting to feel annoyed with the bank.
The goblin snorted before nodding its head in a condescending manner. Taking out a small goblet and dagger, it placed them in front of Harry, looking expectantly at him while also signaling under his desk for the guards to be ready for action. Harry, of course, noticed this, as he held out his flesh hand while being immense relieve that he had remembered to wear gloves so as to hide his un-arm hand. Taking off the glove just a bit to not reveal too much, he made a small cut with the dagger before letting a bit of blood into the goblet.
As soon as he was finished, the goblin took the goblet and started muttering things under his breath while tracing select runes engraved on the goblet. When the resulting white smoke cleared a bit, the goblin's eyes widened as he dropped the goblet in surprise and shattering it. Thinking something was wrong, the guards quickly advanced to apprehend Harry. Harry, in response, did a quick back flip and landed in a crouch. "What is the meaning of this?" He asked the teller, narrowing his eyes at the surrounding guards and the wizards and witches all of whom seem to be watching his every move now.
Some goblin, which Harry guessed was a captain of the guards or something like that, screeched something in gobbledygook (sp?) and caused the rest of the guards to advance. "Wait a minute!" The teller tried to yell over the commotion but the damage was already done. As Harry completed a floor-sweeping kick that knocked several goblins to their feet, one particular guard tried to thrust its spear towards his head. It did not make contact with Harry, as he had dodged, but it did pierce the hood, forcing it to drop and reveal the face and scar of Harry Potter for the world to see.
End Chapter
Footnotes:
(1) I'm not quite sure if I gave him the option of just having his eye back to normal before. It basically just means that Harry isn't using any "special" eye at that time, so he has his original eye back when none of the others are active.
(2) I got this idea from the tomes in Warcraft. I thought, if you can just click the button for the book, and your hero can just automatically get increased stat or whatever, then you might as well be able to have something like this too, to "automatically" teach you something. Don't worry about making a Super-Harry though because I'm not going to just give him book after book, he's going to have to work for them. That is, if I decide on including any other tomes at all.
A/N: That's it for this filler chapter. There's nothing much else to say for the moment. I was looking over some of the earlier chapters and I realized that I actually said something about Remus/OC and Ron/Herm pairing. I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that, so you'll have to bear with me when I say it's probably not really going to happen in the sense of there being parts of that playing out. I mean, I might mention that Ron and Hermione paired up or whatever, but there'll be no actual plot for their romance or anything like that since, honestly, I'm not too big a fan of either. With that said, I've changed the first chapter, only removing the part about pairings.
Anyways, hope this is satisfactory for now.
Peace
U-T Signing off