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An Old and New World
by Lens of Sanity
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Chapter Sixteen: Let the Lord of Chaos Rule
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Strolling around Caerbannog on the first of August, Harry was lost in thought. Tamsyn really had outdone herself over what had apparently been the best part of four months. The airship was looking great, clean lines and expansive corridors, albeit with a kind of modern gothic look, if that made any sense at all. It almost made Harry want to neglect giving her a huge ration of crap for emptying his entire trust vault. She'd done it before informing the world he had died and the Goblins locked down his gold.
The gods alone how many ward stones had been employed expanding the internal space so extensively, and improving what he was still calling 'the flight deck' so it now had a gigantic window. To come out so well the thing must have been a pretty involved Clearview Charm.
"From the freshly shagged smile plastered across Bellatrix's face, I'm guessing you were at it like the mighty rabbit animagus you always claimed to be." Luna Lovegood pointed out cheekily, coming across his meandered wanderings.
"I've told you before I prefer the term Vorpal Bunny." Harry replied pedantically. "Normal run of the mill rabbits cannot compare to an apex predator such as myself."
"That's another thing which has been bugging the crap out of me for years." She commented from his side "Did you know of the existence or necessity of Vorpal Weapons before you died, or was it a coincidence based off Hermione's stupid movie?"
"Oh yeah, Bella mentioned something about you travelling back in time from a future where Voldemort won." said Harry, failing to answer the question. "You saved her from a Jabberwock last month or something?"
"And if I asked you nicely," Luna went on, ignoring his words in a similar fashion "would you tell me whether or not you have any kind of plan, or are just making things up on the fly and getting lucky?" The woman moved her hands in a weighing gesture like scales. "Some days I've thought it was the first; such as the day I learned the unbridled usefulness of owning a mobile command centre like this Zeppelin. Whereas other days I've thought you actually were just fucking with everyone, and my retarded time jump is nothing but a pipedream with no real hope."
Mulling over the question for a while, Harry strolled down a spiral staircase. "Tell me why you think I alone can win the war, and I'll answer you." he eventually threw out.
Luna concluded this was probably the best opportunity she would ever get at an honest answer. And because the question had been worming its way through her head for over a decade, she'd take it. "Two reasons. First, your being alive leaves the Hallows Magic unbroken..." She ignored his frown of incomprehension. "Second, you and the Dark Lord have a pet oracle named Sybill Trelawney in that she can only produce True Prophecies about one of you or the other."
"So is it 'the power the Dark Lord knows not' bollocks or the 'marked him as his equal' horseshit, which has perked your interest?" asked Harry.
"Not a big fan of Divination and Fated Destiny?" Luna queried in amusement, and the recently resurrected Potter Heir chuckled along with her.
"Let us just say that I am sceptical of any future which contains me."
"Well that certainly goes in line with my reasoning Harry." After she got herself back under control she returned to her explanation. "There was a prophecy, more like an ancient legend in truth, which Sybill spoke out the instant you quote, unquote "died." Long story short I believe it was labelling you The Lord of Chaos. Essentially it is my belief that anyone who is capable of defeating a Dark Lord using a combination of hot sauce and intercourse, is someone who can end an unwinnable war in our favour."
Lord of Chaos is a cooler sounding sobriquet than Boy‑Who‑Lived, and not as bog standard as Chosen One, I guess.
Seeing Harry work his way through the security enchantments placed on a large hefty locker, scope around inside, and then promptly slam the metal door closed, Luna decided it was time to prompt a response.
"You promised to answer my question if I answered yours..."
"Hm?" Harry muttered clearly disturbed about something. "What did you want to know again?"
"Have you been using some kind of twisted plan, which involves scamming an airship out of the Wizengamot, or are you making everything up at random just for the hell of it?"
"Oh." he said "Can't it be both?"
Luna couldn't quite tell whether or not he was being honest.
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"She will not tell us a bloody thing!"
Tam's complaint was uttered in a whiny frustrated voice and Harry couldn't help but smile, leading her down the same spiral staircase as earlier.
"Language gone downhill recently I see."
"Shut it, I'm serious!" seeing his mouth about to open she cut in, "If you are about to make a stupid joke about your dogfather's name I will obliterate you with Fiendfyre!"
"What's the problem really? Harry asked, his lips quirking. "You were never this uptight before."
Tam ignored him and his childish insinuations. "Did Luna tell you her method of time travel at least? I am fascinated by how she pulled it off, only she won't tell me because..."
"...girls can't do Arithmancy." Harry finished to her loud grunt of annoyance. "It's pretty straightforward, she was just trying to get a rise out of you." Tam waved him to go on. "For reasons I'm not going to get into, the earliest jump point she could get was the instant she heard my new Lord of Chaos prophecy, meaning that the temporal transit coordinates were fixed. Following?"
"Okay." Tam responded with knitted brows.
"The main problem was that she needed to get the spatial coordinates to within forty light seconds, otherwise Luna would not be close enough to her younger body to magically latch on and burst through."
"Forty light seconds?" protested the redhead. "That is quite a long way, much longer than the diameter of the Earth."
"True. However the Earth is rotating on its axis, as well as around the Sun. Our solar system is located on the western spiral arm of our galaxy, and is itself rotating around the central black hole. And the gods alone knows how far or fast the Milky Way is moving from the central explosion which happened fourteen billion years ago."
The woman stayed silent for a while digesting this. "And you are saying Luna somehow worked out the physical distance travelled between where her twenty-five year old self was, and where her fifteen year old self had been? And she managed it to within an insanely small margin? Even with magic that sounds completely impossible!"
Sider by side the two came upon the same room as had Harry and Luna earlier in the day.
"She says she had a full year, four masters, and a stolen supercomputer. But yeah, kinda badass." Opening the sturdy metal door of the locker Harry's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Now will you please explain exactly what this is doing in my airship!"
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Hermione was having a good day and she was looking forward to seeing Harry again now that he was alive once more. Ever since she had learned that her future self seemed to have a Phoenix, she had done the obvious thing, and researched the Hogwarts Library. As well as her own library aboard Caerbannog, looking for everything she could find on Phoenixes.
Hermione shivered in pleasure, as she did everytime the thought of owning her own library passed through her mind.
Anyway, what she had learned from her research, and from a few discussions she'd had with a helpful Professor Dumbledore, and a far less helpful Luna Lovegood, was that Phoenixes were kind of maniacs. And they search the Earth for the kinds of even tempered, peaceful, and all round good people with which to bond themselves.
This apparently helped the immortal avians stave off the desire to go berserk and kill everybody.
Hermione had always thought of herself as a good person, but to learn that she would one day be ratified by a creature of light and goodness gave her a warm fuzzy feeling which brought a wide smile to her face each time it occurred to her.
A smile a little like that actually, she decided passing Bellatrix in the hallway with a shake of the head. Putting the thought aside Hermione continued on her search for Harry.
So the other thing she had learned about Phoenixes, which she hadn't known until the headmaster had shared his suspicions, was that they seemed to remember everything they had ever done, and everything they would ever do, from their first hatching until their presumable death. Assuming that Phoenixes could die at all, as nobody was ever able to confirm or deny the possibility.
This meant that Fawkes knew, and had always known, that he would one day lose Dumbledore and bond Hermione as his familiar. Yeah, the headmaster said that it was more like owning a cat than a dog, in that the witch or wizard bonded to a Phoenix was the pet, and the Phoenix was the snooty overly opinionated master.
He'd smiled when he said it, but still… weird.
Regardless, it was this understanding which had prompted Luna to have Hermione call her once and future familiar, and have the bird fyreflash them to the battle zone. Knowing, even if Hermione did not, that Fawkes would probably heed the call and bring them aid.
Then there were the problems of multiple timelines, varying possibilities, and of course time travel to take into account. But Hermione eventually gave up understanding these things as they gave her one monster of a headache, and Luna was the only one who would discuss the possibilities with her at any length.
Moving down a spiral staircase she overheard muffled voices, and headed toward them to investigate.
"It's disgusting is what it is!" Hermione could hear the distinctive voice of her oldest friend.
The sounds of Tam emanated through the metal door, overt protestations in her tone. "It's not that bad really, I mean..."
She cut off as Hermione walked into the room and the two span with panicked looks of their faces, slamming a metal locker closed, looking guilty.
"What's in the locker?" she asked, quite reasonably.
There was a trapped expression on Harry's face, and a low audible sigh was let out from the redhead. "Pornography." Tam wearily stated. "Sorry, it's just... you know?"
"Yeah," Harry just ran his hands through his hair and took up the explanation. "It's Luna's stash..." he awkwardly confessed. "I mean, I'm into some weird stuff, but that girl is just something else."
Thinking back to an overheard conversation between the Luna and Tonks, and how they were discussing whether or not they should attempt to raise one of those tentacle monsters the young Auror was forever reading about, Hermione just nodded.
Deciding that she could visit with Harry another time, Hermione simply left her friends to it.
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As soon as the door swung closed behind Hermione, Harry threw up as powerful a locking spell as he could, and then added a Dome of Silence for good measure. At the same instant Tam went with something called 'the Shroud of Athena' which did essentially the same thing only with powerful Dark Magic.
"That was close." said Harry.
"Yeah." Tam agreed. "Thanks, by the way, she really wouldn't understand."
"No." he agreed. "What were you thinking though, I mean look at it!" Harry said, gesturing to the locker's contents.
"It reduces the drain on Caerbannog's reservoirs and wells by over forty percent."
Eyes bulging he exploded, "Forty?"
"Yeah, I went a little overboard with the amount of magic added to the airship, and it was becoming dangerous. Hell, the Fire-Friend rune set on the hydrogen cells would start to degrade in less than a week of constant flight. I had to come up with something!"
Looking over the tubes running into and out of the thing, Harry asked, "Where did you get it? Please don't tell me you..."
"Of course not!" Tam interrupted. "There was a Dementor attack. And it was practically dead anyway. Right?"
"Kissed?" she nodded. "I can see why you didn't tell Hermione."
"She has surprisingly strong magic for her age." Tam informed. "And it's getting stronger with use."
Running his finger along the nutrient tubes and down to the enchanted metal entering the solar plexus, Harry just sighed. "If Hermione ever finds out my airship is powered by a forsaken child, we will never hear the end of it."
"I know, I know." Tam paused, looking over the young girl one last time. "Her name was Stacy if you are interested."
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Luna came into the Duelling Pit on the back of her ostrich-racehorse abomination and took in Harry getting his arse handed to him by the far superior redhead. What made him think he would stand a chance was anyone's guess, being as he was four months behind on practice, and even before that had been losing more often than winning against Tamsyn.
Jumping down from what had not yet been named a Chocobo, Luna set about creating a temporary magical energy field called a Seal, which all practitioners of Wu Jen use in place of a wand as a focus for their casting.
A vertical line of 'Metal' element was slashed into the universe using her left hand, then bisected on the horizontal twice using 'Fire' and her right. Once the Seal was in place Luna set about unloading a rapid fire barrage of offensive magic through the foci; flames, battering hammers of air, and sharpened knives of scarlet inferno.
The vast majority of her magic was accessed nonverbally, given how it was only in the last three hundred years ago or so, that incantations had started being added to the ancient magical style. Hell, the vast majority of practitioners nowadays used a wand for most of their casting anyway, because of the speed increase and the superior ease of use.
Still, Tamsyn had never before confronted magic of this type, and so she was turtling behind her shields, fearful of being caught by something dangerous. The let up on the redhead's offence gave Harry the opportunity to get back in the game, and it was but a handful of seconds later before the two of them had Tamsyn trussed up and defenceless.
"Nice one Luna, that little scamp was starting to get a bit too big for her britches!" commented Harry. The two looked Tam over closely, noting how the ropes kept her back arched and dug into her clothing revealing the lines of her body.
"I think we should leave her up there for a while," mused Luna, then pinched her arse, to a glare of furious embarrassment.
Taking a lounging seat on the far side of the room the two got comfortable and idly watched Tam's frustrated attempts to escape. She was swinging back and forwards from ropes, swearing loudly behind silencing magic. It was great!
"Out of interest, how long did it take before she betrayed our side?"
"What does it matter? There is a good reason I don't really talk about the other timeline." At Harry's shaken head and eyebrow raise, Luna just huffed. "Honestly she's not that bad, she was just offered something she really, really wanted. And in her defence, she didn't defect at all until after Hermione died."
Ah, realisation dawning in Harry's mind. So that's why Tam was so uptight and grumpy.
"Come on then, what was she offered?"
There was a grunt of protest but the mid-twenties Luna eventually capitulated. "You know she has pretty crippling thanatophobia correct? I mean, pants pissing, night terrors, that kind of thing."
"It's really that bad? Man she hides it well."
"I think the Dark Lord is actually worse than she is, but Tam is still absolutely terrified of dying." confirmed Luna. "Once erm-, Voldemort. Huh, no Taboo... weird. Anyway, once Voldemort had basically taken over, he tracked down the Flamels, murdered them, and stole the world's only Philosopher's Stone."
Harry frowned at this but didn't interrupt.
"And seeing as he was already an Immortal so didn't need it, he offered Elixir of Life as a reward to all of those who carried the Dark Mark. Being a Death Eater had a bunch of other perks of course, they were virtually above the law, and were essentially allowed to kill or do whatever they pleased to any normal citizen without consequence. But it was the promise of health and long life which brought the Dark Lord so many eager followers."
Harry thought it over and decided that the plan really was quite brilliant. If Voldemort alone knew the location of the Philosopher's Stone, then he could ensure an even tighter loyalty. The threat of pain was one thing, but loss of immortality was something else entirely.
"What was the price Tam had to pay for the Elixir? Voldemort wouldn't have invited her back with open arms, so she was forced to do something."
"She killed Frost. It's funny, but the Vampires were quite lacklustre in their support of the Dark Lord up until that point."
Harry was surprised to hear that, and he spent a long moment considering his sole meeting with the man.
Interrupting his musings Luna asked, "You suspected she would defect the whole time?"
"Huh?" Harry said snapping back to the present. "Oh, well she's the consummate Slytherin. If the war was virtually over there would be little reason for her to stay on our side..."
A familiar head of chestnut hair entered at the far wall, took in the scene, a look of stern disapproval braking across her face.
Unless...
Glaring over at Harry and Luna, Hermione went over to the trussed girl and performed a number of diagnostic spells. Transfiguring a silver dagger she eased the redhead's form firmly together, giving herself enough slack, and then sliced the ropes freeing her. Face flushed with "anger" Tam extracted herself from the tangle of limbs, and led the brunette out of the Duelling Pit.
"You did that on purpose so they'd be forced to share some free touching didn't you?" asked Harry.
With an unaccustomed expression of innocence on her face, Luna replied, "I have no idea what you are suggesting Harry."
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Harry was smashing his head up against a wall with this ridiculous turn of events.
He was being forced to sit his friggin' OWLs even though he'd been dead three days ago!
And what was worse was that the examiner had posed a question which was based on a blatantly flawed assumption. It was only impossible to know both the location and velocity of a problem's solution if one was measuring it Arithmentically from inside the Universe! Measure from outside and you're fine.
How were these idiots qualified to measure his level of competence if they couldn't even pose questions which made sense?
Harry didn't know it but his aura was flaring menacingly, and he was scaring the living crap out of the examination board, who had all kindly agreed to give up their weekend to test him. It really was his own fault of course, back at the beginning of the year he had forced the Wizengamot into caving to his demands. One of which was that he'd be emancipated, given sovereignty over his Potter Family Ring, and accompanying governmental seat, as soon as he and Tam had completed their OWLs.
Which Tam had done while Harry was playing worm chow at Godric's Hollow, and now he was forced to sit through this crap before the two of them could cash in on the concessions he'd already obtained.
He was sitting an OWL in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Magical Theory, Runes, Astronomy, Herbology, History of Magic, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions (just to fuck with Snape), and Care of Magical Creatures. That last Harry was incredibly gifted at, thanks to his innate ability to see their weak points, and natural capacity to understand what needed to be done to slay them. Most of his answers had been along the lines of "refrain from doing do this, that, or the other, and you'll be fine."
He'd also sat an UGL in Spellcrafting (because it was easy), and in Dark Arts even though Albus had specifically asked him not to. Harry's response to that had been nicely summed up with a vindictive "Screw him!"
Now he was on his last exam Arithmancy, and the borderline overdose of Pepper-Up and Invigoration Draught he been using to get through them all in one sitting was beginning to get to him. Hence the barely concealed desire to attempt Fiendfyre against the stupid, ignorant examiner who was foolish enough to ask him an objectionable question!
With four months less study time than he'd expected Harry could be described as being, maybe just a tad, tetchy.
Maybe.
So long as you didn't say it to his face.
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While Harry was sleeping off the raw carrot, amortentia, and whiskey hellfire sauce medley he'd consumed following the testing binge, (read: sleeping off as in a coma) and Bellatrix was spending quality time with her brother in law with Harry's consent, the rest of the crew were sitting around discussing what they were intending to do next.
Hermione had taken to tying her hair up in recent days, for some reason that she couldn't quite recall, but it made her look older and so she liked it. Regardless, she walked into the relaxed main room of the Caravel of Caerbannog and took the only remaining seat, which quite by happenstance was situated right next to Tamsyn.
Hermione had found herself enjoying the woman's company in the time spent together since Luna had gained ten years. The two of them equally frustrated with the blonde woman's attitude, forming a kind of bond of friendship which the bookish young woman had rarely found outside of Harry and their run in with a mountain troll. And outside of Luna and the shocking cat out of the bag realisation that she actually understood the nature of magic better than did Hermione herself, only to have been hiding the fact at first behind the guise of spurious creatures.
"This coming Wednesday Lord Potter and Lady Riddle will be introduced to the Wizengamot and are scheduled to assume their hereditary seats." said Dumbledore once they were all comfortable. "Perhaps we should discuss any political movements our side intends to make on the day."
"I'm still not certain I like the idea of Harry having political power." Hermione stated. "It just seems wrong on so many levels!"
The obviousness of that got a little chuckle.
"We have the Black, Potter, and Riddle votes from the old family seats. My support as Chief Warlock gains us another, as does a further four of my light aligned political allies. Together this totals eight out of fifty-one we can be of the most assured."
"For a core voting bloc that is quite impressive, however we now know that Amelia Bones is in fact Helga. Meaning that a fair amount of what we could normally call on is now suspect." commented Sirius.
"True," said Tam, "however we know she is our enemy thanks to a time traveller of all things. And so long as we know, but she does not know that we know, then we know that we should be able to work with her. Probably. For the time being at least."
If we know that she doesn't know that we know?
Working through the overly complicated sentiment, Hermione was about to speak, but was interrupted by Luna. "In all honesty, Helga is a pain in the arse. I wouldn't be surprised if she had a contingency plan in place, in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse."
They were aware Luna wasn't joking, so this comment elicited a few groans.
Dumbledore took the time to mull this over, before going on "I suggest our primary purpose this coming Wednesday's meeting should be..."
They spent the remainder of that morning and most of the afternoon working out a strategy.
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"Luna..." Things were beginning to wind down so Tam smiled over at Hermione and squeezed her hand briefly before looking back over to the blonde. "While I realise it is your policy not to answer any of our questions, I am interesting in whether or not you ultimately worked out the purpose of that Runic Array you were so obsessed with."
"Yes." The woman grimaced, but she did answer. "Yes I did, however you must not tell Harry, even if he asks."
"Why shouldn't we tell Harry?" asked Sirius. "If he has a right to know, we shouldn't keep it from him. You know how much he hates people doing that."
The room nodded, Harry could become quite irritating to people who hide things from him.
"Remember when he found out that the Troll being Brazilian Minister of Magic was just a hoax made up to help sell sunglasses?"
"Yeah." Padfoot confusedly confirmed.
"And Harry got really disappointed and started moping about for days, remember?" Luna pushed on.
"Okay, what's that got to do with your Array thing?"
"The problem is it won't work." she sighed out. "If Harry finds out what it does he'll get really enthusiastic about it, and in the end will wind up completely disappointed and mopey."
"Riiight, now I have definitely got to know its purpose!" Tam stated, both hands flat on the table leaning over to her.
"Oh for heaven's sake. Fine!" Luna gave in. "It was a six hundred and sixty six point Runic Cascade which would take the Blood Protection Guardian present in Harry's blood, and sacrifice it in favour of resurrecting Lily Potter." she breathed all at once. "The idea being that because Voldemort did not die when she sacrificed her life, Lily did not fully die ether, and was held in an ethereal limbo state anchored to this side of the Veil by Harry's blood." Eyes closed and refusing to be interrupted Luna continued. "Essentially there were two competing rituals fighting one another; Voldemort's Horcrux ritual, and whatever Mrs. Potter did back in the eighties. What I came up with when I was fourteen was a way to untangle the two rituals, and 'get a refund' so to speak, on the price she paid."
There was a thunderous silence at these impossible words.
"And that was possible?" Sirius asked astonished.
Sighing again Luna went on drearily, "It required uniting the Hallows," she laughed, bleakness to it. "Meaning I must have recognised them subconsciously when I was younger and not realised it. But yes, it was possible."
Seeing the animagus getting worked up at this idea Tam cut in "Yet you said it would not work."
"Fundamentally no it wouldn't. Harry doesn't have his own blood running through his veins, but that of Lucius Malfoy thanks to his recent time spent, y'know dead. We could have theoretically used Voldemort's, however Amelia Bones' blood is running through his body rather than Harry's. And most damning of all, was the fact that the Blood Protection Guardian which my Runic Array relied upon, had died while Harry was incarcerated in Azkaban."
The news had an instantly sobering effect on everyone in the room. It was in a small way, like they had just lost a friend all over again.
Speaking from his position leaning casually against the doorway, Harry said "I think it is about time we have a conversation on the subject of your original plan Albus."
Everyone snapped their gaze toward the raven haired man in his posture of faux relaxation.
"I was willing to let sleeping dogs lie, but now my mother's life is involved and I need to know."
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was one hundred and fifteen years old. He had been awarded an Order of Merlin, First Class for his defeat of the Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald during the forties. He was the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, as well as the Chief Warlock of the British Wizengamot. He was the Grand Sorcerer of the International Federation of Warlocks, and was rightly considered by many to be the wisest and most powerful man seen in many generations.
And thanks to Harry's comments...
...Albus looked like he was about to throw up.