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An Old and New World
by Lens of Sanity
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Chapter Twelve: Enter the Founders
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It was the fourth of November and outside the wards of Hogwarts Tamsyn Riddle and Harry Potter were squaring off against one another in a professionally constructed Duelling Platform with one Albus Dumbledore officiating. Bellatrix and Luna were wearing identically scandalous 'Harry Potter Cheerleading' uniforms and were rooting for the raven haired boy, whereas Hermione and virtually everyone else, Sirius included, were in their normal clothes rooting for the pretty redhead to beat some sense into him.
And in accordance with her lost bet Tonks was acting as handmaiden. The lack of sympathy for the young Auror was almost palpable, but acting as the blonde girl's personal slave for a fortnight counted as getting off lucky for anyone dumb enough to gamble against Luna.
The two duellists had been going at it for a number of minutes now, with Harry's phenomenal casting speed and wasteful display of power matching well with Tam's effortless command of magic. Not to mention that the spells she was slinging were at best considered borderline. They were outside the wards because Harry wanted the opportunity to use apparition during a fight, and doing so inside the castle was prohibitively difficult.
A wandlessly transfigured gorilla dove into the path of a crimson torpedo which Harry could now easily recognise as Devil's Fire, signifying the day's first piece of instantly lethal magic. Sirius had ultimately given up on Harry ever learning effective transhields, so they instead worked on this animal sacrifice defence.
It was totally gross, but worked nonetheless.
"Crucio!" Harry bellowed, green eyes narrowed in anger from the display of deadly force, his face splattered with scorched chunks of dead primate.
The Torture Curse from his Horntail wand forced his opponent to drop her mage shield and raise a solid barrier, which was instantly shattered by 'Zbax' the famous Shield Buster. Then apparating as quietly as possible behind Tam's back Harry let loose a point blank ball of fire, only to have it effortlessly slapped away.
Apparition cracks of varying loudness went on for a long while as the two tried to out-position one another, with Harry eventually taking the black mist of a Pain Giver in the side. He'd managed to block most of it, but his whole left was going to be twitching and drooling for hours.
He didn't quit though, he still had one good hand and one good leg, that should be plenty good enough to finish off such a short little girl.
The two traded direct damage spells for a while, and Harry's very bones were aching from all the repeated apparition hops. He did manage to get a Limb Sever through her defence, but the woman seemed to think having one's legs brutally amputated in the middle of a fight was not enough of a reason to give in. Tam's casting speed went through the roof from her stationary position, and she unloaded a terrifying spell-chain from her backup wand which slaughtered the man's defences.
In desperation Harry attempted his new animagus form in hopes of a quick escape, but woke to find himself still in human form, the loser of their friendly little duel.
"Fuck!" he laconically stated from the floor.
The redhead's legs seemed to have been reattached and she commanded, "Say it!"
He remained silent.
"Say it!"
Fine
"I, Harry Potter, am Tam Riddle's bitch..." he obeyed in a deadened tone. "Happy now?"
"Exceedingly."
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On the way back up to the castle Bellatrix was pouting because she lost her bout with Sirius, and Luna was commanding her handmaiden to abuse her metamorphmagus skills into looking like a character which could only have been brought forth from the blonde's imagination. Sky blue hair in a bun and twin ponytails, heterochromatic eyes one green, one red, and the body shape of an underdeveloped fourteen year old. Luna also had an outfit ready for her; banana yellow boots, brown well darned pants, useless goggles, three belts, and a baggy orange shirt.
At the sight Harry reaffirmed the decision to never get in the way of Luna Lovegood. Poor innocent, totally outgunned Tonksy.
"This is the single most challenging Morph I have ever attempted!" The crazily appearing Auror eventually stated.
Harry looked her over and finally asked, "What would you have gotten had you done a more convincing Luna impersonation?"
"It seemed like such a sucker's bet too..." the metamorphmagus sighed. "I really didn't think I was going to lose, but I'd rather not say if that's okay Harry."
"Fair enough." The green eyed teen laughed, sipping on a stabilising potion which would apparently stop the twitching, eventually. "What else does she have you doing Tonks?"
"I'm not overly sure. Mistress Luna has been sending me out for the weirdest things, obscure potions, healing salves and the like. Does it have anything to do with your Dark Lord distraction?"
"That's a definite probably..." replied Harry, and now that he considered both the situation and the metamorph beside him, asking someone other than Luna to help may have been a far wiser decision. "You know, that crazy morph is actually quite cute once you get over the shear loudness of the thing."
Learning this fact did not make Tonksy look overly pleased.
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The morning of November sixth found Harry and Sirius watching with concern as an insanely cheerful and focused Luna Lovegood sped about between two large blackboards provided by the Room of Requirement. The girl had a piece of chalk in each hand and appeared to be completing four or five different pieces of work simultaneously.
"Yes! Yes, yes, yesyesyesyes. Gooooood, that's the ticket, Good goodgood. Vampires of course. Yes yesyes." The blonde stated this precisely, albeit at a hundred miles per hour.
Luna then sprinted across the room to a third blackboard and set about writing what would turn out to be a palindromic haiku written in mandarin, while somehow humming 'the flight of the bumblebee' perfectly pitched and at breakneck speed.
At the sight Sirius whispered to his godson, "I think you broke Luna."
"I think you might be right." Then looking over a detailed parchment which was strewn all over the floor he commented, "I think these are notes for a Runic Array. Not just a Rune Set, a full blown Array!"
The two stood watching a hyperactive Lovegood in bemused silence until Hermione came up behind them and asked, "What did you do to her Harry?"
Glancing over his shoulder he tried to defend himself. "Well, you know how when I fully opened my Occlumency defences, I used the hot sauce to erm-, enhance my meal. And forced that enhanced sensation through my weird Horcrux connection with Voldemort?"
A yellow rocket flew between the group to resume her plan which may or may not be about Vampires.
"Yes," Hermione responded, tying back her hair from the wind or Luna's passing, "and apparently the Dark Lord has an incredibly low tolerance for spicy foods, so it almost killed him. What does that have to do with what you have done to Luna?"
"You know how I've been sleeping with Tracy on and off since last year?" said Harry. "Well some of those times, the polyjuice potion would wear off half way through, and she would turn out to really be Luna." His bushy haired friend didn't really know how to take this news and Harry just went on, "Not that I really mind of course, the girl is actually smoking hot..."
"Anyway," he continued, "following your idea to use the mindlink connection, we decided that because magic was based on intent, forcing the emotions and sensations of sex through the link was sure to do a number on Voldemort. The theory being that it is the opposite of pain and misery, which seems to be all I ever feel from him."
Hermione massaged her temples, but refused to comment on how that was not in any way her suggestion. "So you used sex. Okay fine, but how does that explain all of this..." she gestured around the detritus and scribblings, not to mention the hyperactive fourth year.
Harry got a little uncomfortable and brushed his hand through his hair before answering.
"Well you see, every now and then she would start making this mewing keening sound, and then her eyes would roll up in her head and she would black out..."
"...only, you all said that it was important that the Dark Lord be distracted all day. As a result I kind of kept casting Rennervate each time she tensed up and lost consciousness. You know?" Then quietly, in the hopes that no-one would hear, blurted, "So that we could keep going."
Three pairs of eyes tracked the blonde girl as she dashed about the room.
"How long were the two of you..." Hermione asked, trailing off at the end.
"About twenty hours."
"Fine, I admit it," sighed Padfoot. "Your animagus form is cooler than mine."
The three were quiet once more.
Harry finally asked, "Do you think she's going to be okay?"
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Luna in fact was fine.
She kept working at that pace without sleep for two days before keeling over with magical exhaustion, and when she woke in the Hospital Wing she had no memory of any of it happening. Poppy had said that all those potions and healing salves she'd ordered handmaiden Tonks to fetch helped more than they would ever know. Harry had made sure that all of her work in the Come and Go Room was collected safely, and he gave the lot of it to Luna so she could look it over at her leisure.
Tam and Albus' plan for the Wizengamot had been successful because the Death Eaters could not go to their Lord and ask for additional instructions. Most of it was boring political stuff that Harry didn't find the least bit interesting, and the only thing he got out of their explanation was that the old MLEs were being reinstated. Magical Law Enforcers who would do most of the grunt work leaving the fully qualified Aurors to fight in the war instead of having to do things like patrolling and so forth. Apparently the "emilies" had been disbanded many years ago because of cuts to their budget.
They had tried a few more psychic attacks on Voldemort, but the Dark Lord seemed to have developed a method of Occluding his soul somehow that Tam actually thought was impossible.
Bellatrix continued to instruct Tam and Harry in less standard forms of magic, well mostly Tam really because Harry found himself only a marginally capable wielder of the Dark Arts. The redhead on the other hand was clearly a prodigy, and following their little duel at the start of November the two had been pretty much in lockstep as far as all round improvement went. Sirius and Bellatrix would still win against either more often than not, but it wasn't as close as it had been.
So December had arrived, the wizarding world had yet to give in to Harry's demands despite now knowing the prophecy, and his friends were all training in the Room of Requirement as they had been since the whole Goblet of Fire incident.
"Ha!" over twenty‑five agonising seconds Harry had slowly transformed out of his animagus form and back into a human. "I told you I could do it. All you so called experts have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Yes, yes. Well done Harry, we all bow down to your superior grasp on the limits of magic." said Padfoot, his tone mocking. "You still take an age and a half to transform though, what's up with that?"
Harry had been told by all the experts and all the books that one could not, under any circumstances, perform magic while in one's animal form. However, as soon as Harry noticed that he could hold his corporeal Patronus wandlessly once it was properly cast, he attempted to hold the thing in his animal form too. And regardless of what the experts had attested, he was successful.
"Hey, I'm getting better." the teenager defended. "At least it's not taking me a full minute to transform anymore."
As soon as Harry succeeded in holding a Patronus in animal form, he had decided that it was totally possible to perform wandless magic while still an animal. Although it had taken a full month's worth of practice, Harry had finally gotten the knack and was now able to fight in his other form.
Something which nobody would be expecting as it was so widely believed to be impossible.
Gnawing on a raw carrot Harry and his godfather returned to where Hermione and Tam had ensconced themselves, "You are getting good at that bolt of lightning Albus taught you, and wandlessly now too."
"It's funny but the first time I used that particular piece of elemental magic was actually against you Tam."
"Yes," she concluded after a beat of paused thought. "I remember now. It was when I was in charge of your accommodations before Voldemort's first rebirth." Her hands twitched a little and she finished, "You may be pleased to learn that you actually hit me a number of times during your stay."
Harry smiled at the girl and repeated her reply from last month:
"Exceedingly."
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It was the likely date of Voldemort's new rebirthing ritual and Harry was in the Room of Requirement with Bellatrix, surrounded by three overlapping barriers of intermixing, and incredibly lethal single use runes. Many of them the exact same ones Harrymort had used against Dumbledore, so you could guess just exactly how deadly they actually were.
As the Room of Requirement was inside the castle fortress of Hogwarts, this made the place pretty much the most secure location any human being had ever been in, in the whole history of the world. Harry had warned his friends that anyone attempting to gain access to the room would be assumed a threat and eliminated with great prejudice, regardless of what body they happened to be wearing.
Harry had done everything he could think of to prevent yet another kidnapping, and had even gone so far as to poison his own blood, wear a prosthetic arm which looked absolutely real but was filled with racoon blood rather than his own, trapped the hallway leading to the seventh floor to high heaven, and asked Bellatrix to incapacitate him if he even for one second took it into his mind to leave.
For any reason whatsoever.
At the same time as Harry was deep beneath the gibbering howling that was advanced states of paranoia, an attack was actually progressing. Only it was not on Hogwarts, and Harry was not the target.
Sirius Black dove beneath a table of his old friend Rosie's bar in Hogsmeade, barely avoiding a greenish haze which was undoubtedly some kind of dark curse. It was a standard terror attack, small groups of three or four Death Eaters causing as much chaos and confusion as they could, Unforgivables being let loose with impunity against mostly fleeing civilians.
Sirius began transfiguring bits of the debris and commanding the constructs to harass the force which was pinning him down. He'd sent out word to the Order of the Phoenix, but for now he was on his own.
At the same time as the battlefield transfiguration attacked he jumped up and snapped off a number of direct damage spells taking down both attackers. Sirius moved cautiously over to the barmaid and found the still attractive woman alive, if unconscious and sporting a likely concussion. The dog animagus eventually made it to the street at the same time as the Auror force arrived, the dark witches and wizards in Death Eater garb turned from their mindless destruction and focused on the new threat.
Unforgivables and skilfully cast dark spells kept the Aurors off balance, but this was what they were trained for so they would normally have been able to deal with the attack. Had it not been for a tall, well built figure sporting an old English broadsword. The colossal number of hexes, jinxes, and curses being let lose by the man was astounding, matched only by the unrivalled power which was clearly fuelling them. The sight reminded Sirius of the single time he had seen Voldemort up close back in the late seventies.
He had the element of surprise as his allies the Aurors were mainly attacking from the east side of the village, and he was coming in from the south. Sirius managed to get close enough for a high likelihood shot which he whispered and unleashed before any of the Death Eaters had noticed Sirius' arrival. The targeted man simply turned, batted aside the military grade curse with ease, and vanished in a silent crack of apparition.
Sirius didn't feel any pain, which was singularly strange given that he'd clearly just been sliced in half across the navel, but he was aware enough to note two things before his vision darkened. First; his ass looked better when still attached to the rest of his body. Second; Frank Longbottom had just killed him.
I thought Frank was dead?
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Lord Voldemort stepped out of the large cauldron and inspected his new body with a now well practiced ease. He was quite pleased and set about constructing Yaxley's new hand with as much cheerfulness as his damaged psyche was capable of producing. Task completed he moved over to the still body of his former host, noting sunken eyes which would undoubtedly be bloodshot, twitching limbs, sallow skin, and a smattering of grey in the boy's otherwise blonde hair.
Hmm, the younger Malfoy truly had survived. Impressive.
The Dark Lord then started modifying the boy's memory, removing a number of things he would have knowledge of from the time spent acting as his Lord's vessel, most notably Voldemort's true views on the Malfoy's foolish obsession with blood and inbreeding. He did however make sure to leave his newest Inner Circle member all the memories of warding and the advanced magics Voldemort had utilised while sharing his form. The intension being that the boy may learn something useful from the experience.
Skilful Death Eaters were more useful than unskilled ones after all.
Leaving the skeleton crew necessary for the rebirth ritual Voldemort moved over to his "guest," he launched into creating his fourth and final adjunct. Keeping the woman alive while under prolonged Cruciatus Curses was devilishly tricky, Bellatrix had been a master of this and not for the first time Voldemort regretted the loss of his old favourite. Still, it would probably take hours and there was nobody else in his organisation with the finesse necessary to drive a person insane using this method. Simply holding the curse too long would kill in mere minutes and a dead body was of virtually no use to him, so he was forced to do it himself knowing the right points at which he needed to pause for healing.
Long hours later Voldemort was pleased with the results, and taking the object enchanted by Helga Hufflepuff, the Dark Lord finished the process of creating his last adjunct. Ensuring their loyalty had been relatively straightforward; it had been devising a method by which the soul fragments could escape back to their artefacts in the event of the host body's demise which had proven the most challenging. This way the primary purpose of his Horcruxes was intact, at the same time as their skills could be employed in this most unusual way.
Returning to his throne room the Dark Lord introduced "Helga" to the other three 'Founders' and ordered "Godric" to report on the day's activities.
"The attack on Hogsmeade was an astounding success my Lord. Easily a dozen fallen Aurors, and I dispatched Sirius Black myself." The tall man said, ruby encrusted broadsword strapped to his back. He looked the picture of health and strength thanks to the efforts they had gone to in order to repair the damage, most of which done to the body from simple atrophy at spending a decade in the same room day and night. "At the arrival of Dumbledore himself I ordered the withdrawal. As you commanded not a single Death Eater was lost and the ones who were out of the fight were recovered. The Ministry will have a hard time reporting this as anything but a victory for our cause."
Today had been a good day, his plans were running smoothly, his body was more powerful than ever, and the path to total domination was becoming ever clearer.
The waif may have betrayed him, however the girl was the weakest of them all. Dear Tamsyn would not be able to stand in the way of one of him let alone five.
From his place on the obsidian throne the Dark Lord Voldemort laughed.
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Harry strode into the Hospital Wing a day later and cornered the pretty healer. "What's up Doc?" he asked with a cheeky smile.
"You are here to see Sirius Black I assume?" the woman replied shaking her head at the antics of her most frequent visitor. When he waved for her to go on she said, "He is still asleep I am afraid. How a man can survive being cut completely in half with a weapon imbued with Basilisk Venom of all things I will never know. Bearing in mind timely assistance and a Phoenix it still should have been a fatal wound."
Harry nodded at this and just repeated the old healer's maxim "If you are alive when we get to you, you will be out of here by morning..." the teenager grinned. "Is that not what your profession uses as its unofficial motto?"
"He will be fully recovered once he wakes on his own, although he will have quite a nasty scar circling his abdomen." Poppy confirmed, basically proving just how effective magical medicine actually was once and for all.
When Padfoot eventually regained consciousness most of the crew was in the Hospital Wing waiting for the traditional post-injury briefing.
"How long was I out this time?" the dog animagus asked, totally stealing Harry's favourite opening question.
Poppy rolled her eyes and replied in the same tone as always, "About eighteen hours. Although I do not believe I have treated you since you were a student here."
The story they had cobbled together from eyewitness sources, Snape, and various other accounts were more or less in agreement. Voldemort seemed to have four new lieutenants, each in possession of a founders object and going by the names Godric, Helga, Salazar, and Rowena. And the two whose former identity their side could determine were that of Frank and Alice Longbottom; who were going by Godric and Rowena respectively.
This was agreed to be 'not be a good sign' especially given that Frank Longbottom had talent and magical reserves matched by few and second to none.
"Do we have any idea what these last two 'Founders' look like?" Sirius asked after spending a long time spouting foul language over what happened to his old friend.
Albus shook his head in the negative before adding, "One thing may leave us a little optimistic. I believe that following this attack we may convince the Ministry to listen to young Harry's demands."
Harry started with surprise at this pronouncement. "You think they'll cave?"
"Perhaps."
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Harry Potter strode into the Ministry of Magic's Atrium in early January escorted by his diverse entourage. On one side, a cherubic blonde Ravenclaw who appeared to have walked in by accident while shopping in London, a white tiger with intricate black stripes playfully weaving about the humans' legs, an incredibly stressed looking Hogwarts student who appeared to be going over class notes in her head as if fearful of making a mistake during an exam.
On the other side, the Head of an Ancient and Noble House robed in formal attire, a woman of indistinguishable age or description only distinctive in that she had a wild mane of red hair, and lastly the idiosyncratic beard and eye twinkling of the Chief Warlock himself.
Travelling by expanded elevator and moving across various floors the group eventually found themselves outside the hall set aside for Wizengamot meetings, awaiting their official entrance.
"Gah," Harry exploded, sipping the drink he had been offered. "I haven't tasted coffee this bad since I was in Russia during World War Two!" He noted the two people within listening distance who took note of this seemingly casual statement.
Harry found their diligent attention quite amusing.
Given the shear amount of information that had been circulated about him, and given that pretty much all of it was contradictory, Harry was reasonable sure that there would be a task force set up at some point in the near future, a task force which would undoubtedly be attempting to discover whether or not Harry had been in Russia during the Second World War.
After a time Albus and Sirius split from the group and took their places in the chamber, one as Lord Black and the other as leader of the organisation itself. Harry was eventually asked to proceed, and from his station in the centre of the room was made to answer a bunch of tedious and inane questions.
Lucius Malfoy had been attempting to lead his voting bloc into simply tabling this discussion entirely, but eventually one member got tired and just bellowed, "Okay boy, what are these ridiculous demands of yours. The prophecy has been determined to be valid, so I at least want to know what outrageous concessions you have in mind."
At the command Harry gave his best winning smile. He was going all out once more this morning; his legendary boots, full formal robes, Hack sunglasses, and the famous Aging Potion he had been using to great effect during the Triwizard Tournament. "Nothing too onerous I assure you ladies and gentlemen. A few small favours and you will be assured the assistance of Harry Potter in the tackling of this little Voldemort problem of yours."
That famed mass shuddering greeted Harry's casual use of the Dark Lord's anagram. Really now, even Tracy had gotten over that foolishness by this point.
"Do not say the Dark Lord's name Potter!" Lucius snarled.
Harry just raised an eyebrow. "You are an Inner Circle Death Eater yourself, surely you're not afraid of the man's silly nickname. Out of interest would you like to remove that glove you're wearing on your left hand? I think it might prove interesting." The two got into a bit of a pissing contest and eventually Harry just shouted. "Okay, shut the hell up everyone. Do you want to hear my price for helping you guys fight Voldemort or not?"
"Just get on with it." The same man from before impatiently ordered.
"Well I don't want much really. I need a full pardon for my friend Bellatrix Black for all crimes committed before she joined my side." There is a little shocked muttering which Harry ignored. "During this summer's first session my other friend will be claiming the old Gaunt Seat on the Wizengamot under the name Riddle, and I need you all to figure out who is currently using that vote."
"Why wait until the summer Harry?" Padfoot asked from his raised platform. Oh yeah, he'd neglected to tell any of my friends what concessions he was going to be asking for.
Harry went for a dignified air when he said, "She can do it alongside me this summer once I have completed my OWLs, when I can be considered an adult and able to claim my Family Seat. Trying to get emancipated early would be a bitch if I haven't passed a single exam for magical competence." A few of the members nodded along a little with this, they were all quite well versed in law given their positions.
Harry continued, "I need a bunch of licences; apparition, portkey creation, animagus registration, Unforgivable use, and so on. And don't complain because killing a Dark Lord is far from easy. Take it from someone who has done so multiple times at this point. Offering me 'Double Oh' status is totally reasonable!"
The fifty one members of the Wizengamot argued for over an hour about the logistical things Harry had requested, no firm decision had been made but from the look on the Headmaster's face Harry got the impression they would agree.
Sighing, the same random Wizengamot member asked, "Is that all, I was under the impression you would demand a huge pile of gold or something?"
"Well..." Harry got a bit of a mischievous smile, "I have a few other personal requests, that other stuff was really to make fighting easier, but mostly I won't do anything at all unless you guys build me a Zeppelin!"
What can I say? Predictability is weakness.
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At the same time as the Wizengamot was giving Harry everything he wanted, "Salazar" paced impatiently in the large sterile waiting room. He had destroyed the simulacrum wearing his image and Vanished its remains long ago, and was now impatiently waiting to be interrupted. After an unfortunate length of time an attractive older woman entered the room and spoke. "What have I told you abou-"
"My dear I feel you have me at a disadvantage." The handsome man cut in, using a voice which most women would describe as mesmerising. "I awoke several hours ago with no knowledge as to how I arrived here, perhaps a beautiful woman such as yourself could enlighten me as to my current circumstance."
The healer blushed at being addressed in such a way, before haltingly squeezing out, "Of course Mr. Lockheart, it would be an honour."
Salazar smiled engagingly.