Chapter Twenty-Five: Explanations

June 20th, 1985

Harry Potter was worried. His eyes were trained on Eleven, who was sleeping in her bed. She had only woken up once since being revived, and that had lasted only for a few seconds before she passed out again. Harry was worried. Very worried. He knew she was alive. And even after he scanned her a hundred times, his magic seemed to decide she was perfectly healthy. Yet Harry couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't fine. That something was very wrong with her. A feeling that shook him so deep into his core that he hadn't left her bedside in almost thirty-six hours. So even while he slept using occlumency, Harry always had his attention on her. Trying to spot any signs of something negatively affecting her body. Hopper soon joined him, taking a seat at Harry's side. He too began to watch Eleven. "You need to sleep,"

"I've been sleeping. Occlumency. It lets me sleep while being aware of my surroundings. Very handy for being on watch," Harry replied with a grin.

Hopper smiled, shaking his head. Then his smile faded. "Is she going to be alright?"

"As far as I can tell, she's perfectly fine. But...I'm worried. Something doesn't feel right. It feels like any second now she'll crumble to dust and I'll lose her. I won't be quick enough, and she'll slip out. I can't lose her, Hopper. Not when it was my fault she touched that ring in the first place," Harry confessed. He felt a deep sense of guilt weighing down on his chest every time he breathed. Harry couldn't close his eyes without seeing her corpse on the bed after he had been forced to kill her. She would never have been in this situation if he had just been more careful. Careful. Cautious. Vigilant. Harry sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I don't belong here, Hopper. The Watcher told me as much when he pulled me from Romania. I'm a plague. And now I've shown just how dangerous it is for me to stick around the people I love,"

"And yet you're here anyway," Hopper commented.

"I can't leave. That's the thing. I know I should go. I know I should leave and never come back. Some part of me has thought of just killing myself to fix the issue. But another part of me - the selfish part - tells me to stay. It tells me to stay because I love people here. I've bonded with people that I would have never thought I would meet. I've seen things in this world that I didn't think I would in Raccoon City. A part of me wants to stay for the action of it all. To see just what happens when I stick around. And then stuff like this happens," He motioned to El. "And I feel an extreme amount of guilt. Guilt that wouldn't be there if I had just left. And here I am, repeating the cycle,"

"You're human, Harry. You're just like everyone else. We're all assholes sometimes. And other times we can all be big softies. Joyce told me that once,"

Harry smiled. That seemed like something Joyce would tell Hopper. "But I'm not completely human, Hopper. I'm different. Too different to be perceived the same way as your, or Mike, or Johnathan. I'm a bioweapon. A shadowmancer. I'm even something more," He peered down at his newest ring. It sat on his right ring finger, while his main Potter ring sat on the middle finger. The other rings were now sitting on a chain around his neck. And within the newest ring was a black stone, the Peverell crest written over it. The Ressurection Stone. He had gone back for the ring and had easily destroyed the Horcrux. Harry now wore it, yet he refrained from bringing it into contact with the Elder Wand and the Cloak of Invisibility. Because while he possessed all three, he had heard the legend. They had to be connected. Carried by the Master of Death at the same time for the title to be claimed. He wasn't too keen on titles, and so decided to keep them separated.

"All people are different. You're you and I'm me. That doesn't change just because you're injected with a virus or you gain powers," Hopper spoke.

"She'll hate me, you know,"

"No, she won't. She loves you," Hopper replied. Right. Harry knew she didn't love him. Not anymore. Not after he had rejected her advances that day on Mt. Everest. With Mike now in the picture, she only saw him as another authority figure in her life. Another person trying to control her life. Harry felt the small amount of resentment Eleven felt for him. Saw it in her thoughts of him. Felt it in the way she looked at him. And sure, there was joy when she saw him too. But the fact that resentment was even on the list she felt for him made Harry feel awful. He didn't tell this to Hopper though. He knew it would sound odd. Too many questions would arise as to how much he could sense and feel. And Harry wasn't quite sure himself.

"Maybe one day," Harry whispered. Hopper heard him but did not comment. The two merely sat there in silence as they watched her. And then Joyce arrived. She led with everyone that needed to be there. Mike, Will, Lucas, Dustin, Nancy, Johnathan, Steve, and Bob. They all settled down in the kitchen, and soon Harry and Hopper joined them. Harry motioned for Hopper to take a seat. The man did so, with Harry choosing to stand. Everyone was ready to hear what he had to say. "The Tournament ends in four days. And before that happens, I wanted to make sure that all of you were aware of what's been going on the past few months. And I know you all have questions, but I ask that you keep them to yourself until I'm done with my explanation,"

"We're listening," Nancy told him with a nod.

Harry gave her a small smile and launched into his explanation. "To start the explanation off, I need to start from the very beginning. When I first arrived. I was living in Romania with my godfather Sirius and several homicidal maniacs convinced that they were the saviors of the world. I was sold away by my godfather. Given to the leader of their cult, Mother Miranda. She...used me. Impregnated herself using me to birth a host capable of reviving her lost daughter Eva. And in return, she gifted me with a parasite. One known as the Metamycete. It was a very tiny portion of a much large Metamycete beneath the village. But she placed it within me, and it gave me the ability to manipulate shadows. I used my newfound ability to try and discover a way home but was unable. I had planned to leave my godfather behind after what he had done, but I never made it out of Romania,"

"The Watcher had noticed my sudden appearance in that universe. And had noticed the way things were changing around my presence. He stopped it by sending a Grim Reaper out to kill me. And when I was dead, he tried to imprison me in the Watcher-realm, where he and other Watchers watched over the entire multiverse. But I was unwilling to sit behind and merely watch. So I fought him. Fought him through several universes before I landed here. And then Dr. Brenner appeared and took me to Hawkins Lab. I stayed there for a few days being interrogated and managed to escape through the early tunnel system dug out by the Demodogs. I hadn't known about the Upside Down at that point, but something about those tunnels felt off,"

"And then I ran. I used shadows to listen in around town. And the name Henderson popped up," Steve perked up from his slouched position at that. He hadn't known Harry had visited his house that night. His parents had never mentioned anything about a young kid. "I went to your house and sought shelter. They let me sleep there my first night out of the Lab, and even took me to the police station. Where I met you four," He motioned to Nancy, Johnathan, Hopper, and Joyce. "I needed a way to get home. But I didn't know anyone or anything about this universe. So I decided to earn your trust. I would use that trust to find a method home. Whether that be through my own means, the Lab, or through the mysterious girl with no hair I had been hearing about. But I also just wanted to help. I was a stranger here, and yet I recognized the struggles you were going through. Struggles I had once gone through. The struggle of being too young for anyone to take you seriously," He motioned between the younger kids. "And the struggle of having no real authority," He motioned between everyone but Joyce, Bob, and Hopper.

"I was young once too, believe it or not. A naive young wizard with the belief that everyone was there for him. That he would live a full, long life after everything with Voldemort ended. And then I got that vision and ran to the Department of Mysteries. And then...I fell through the Veil and ended up in the hands of Umbrella," Harry explained. "I tried to help you all. I tried to help fight off the Demogorgon. I tried to save Will. But I had zero experience dealing with Eleven's powers and the Upside Down. I still don't. And so each time I tried to help, I only made things worse. And so when I turned into a giant that night and couldn't come to help Nancy and Johnathan investigate the school, I decided then and there that I would heed The Watcher's advice. I would separate myself. It was like a sign from the universe, my failures. As if everything was trying to push me away. And so I left,"

"But when I was sitting there outside of the school, planning what I would do, I spotted Eleven. She had just gotten out of the Upside Down after defeating the Demogorgon and was covered in slime and goo. She looked distraught, and I understood. Better than anyone. I knew that they were looking for her, even with Brenner dead. I knew she would be taken back to the Lab to continue the experiments. At the time, I hadn't won over the Lab's trust. At the time, I hadn't kept them from going after her, because they didn't have me in return. So I went to her. I talked to her and reasoned with her that returning to the Wheeler house was dangerous. She agreed, and so we both ran into the forest. I built us a small cabin made from some trees in the area, and we lived there for several months,"

"Then Hopper arrived, and we moved into his cabin. Despite my magic, our cabin was small. I couldn't enlarge the interior. That level of magic would surely draw the attention of the Lab, which had begun to measure energy signals to track me. So we lived here for a few more months," Harry motioned around the cabin. "Until I realized once again how dangerous my presence was here. I decided to leave. To separate myself from anyone I'd ever known here. I took Eleven on a trip across the world, and I left without saying goodbye. I faked my death in the woods and left behind a perfect body double. One that wasn't filled with stuffing. And then I took a trip to Hawkins Lab, where I made an agreement. They could utilize my powers for anything they wanted, as long as they left you all - especially Eleven - alone. Dr. Owens took the deal,"

"My separation didn't last as long as I would have liked. Within a few months, you all were creeping onto the Lab's doorsteps, with Will visiting for his appointments. I was knee-deep in my research, but my curiosity got the better of me. I had never seen anything like what was happening to Will, and so I just had to investigate. I put glamors on and created my alias, James Longbottom. James for my father. Longbottom for one of my friends back home. When I ran tests, I received nothing. No sign of possession or anything. The Shadow -"

"Mind Flayer," Dustin corrected.

Harry sighed. "Mind Flayer had hidden well. I was very curious at that point and requested for Will to be transferred into my care. I planned to do everything hidden behind my glamors and alias and hadn't planned on dying. But despite not knowing how I did it, I was able to access the InBetween. The place between the Outside and Inside. I attacked the Mind Flayer and was able to save Will. You all know this already. But what you don't know is what exactly happened that day when we joined together," Joyce shook her head, concern etched over her features. "Will and I were in danger. The Mind Flayer was still powerful despite being so weak. I wasn't a match for it on my own, and Will was ready to give up after holding it off for so long. But we fought together. Connected our Aiúa's. We didn't become one, but we were close,"

"Aiúa?" Lucas asked.

"The Aiúa is the utmost important part of your being. The part that makes you human. The part that provides memories, personality, everything. Some call it the soul. Every being has at least one Aiúa, with a million philotes connecting it. As for philotes? Those are the building blocks of the universe itself. The hidden variable beneath the surface of the atom. Everything is made of philotes, and everything is connected through philotic twining. We here are connected right now through our connections. And yet we are also connected to this table," He ran his hand over the wooden table, smiling. "It's an inanimate object, yes. But it's made of wood. And wood - on a tree or not - was once a living thing. Not sentient. But capable of processes impossible for non-living things such as a rock. We are connected to every living thing in the universe,"

"But to continue, Will and I connected. We didn't know what we were doing, but we didn't care. We had to kill the Mind Flayer. Our philotic structures joined together as one, and as such, I was able to take over the structure within his body. I took control and spoke to you all. And when the Mind Flayer was gone, Will and I separated and he took back his body while I made a new one. But something happened during our connection. He took a part of me with him,"

"Took a part of you? Is that dangerous?" Johnathan questioned, worried.

"Normally, no. But in Will's case, yes. Very dangerous. In any other case, Will would have received nothing but memories and instincts that were not his own. Have you noticed that you're quick to react? Perhaps even paranoid? Have you been having dreams about a life you don't remember living?" Harry was asking Will.

The boy frowned, clearly not comfortable. But he nodded. "I've been dreaming about Hogwarts. The castle. But it was snowing. I haven't been there when it snowed. And I hear screaming. A woman screaming, and a flash of green light. Sometimes I even see a tall...creature. Like a dog. But a lot worse,"

"All are my memories. Hogwarts during the winter. My mother's death at the hand of Voldemort when I was an infant. The last was Nemesis. A bioweapon designed by Umbrella to hunt down STARS agents. Especially Jill. We fought several times during the outbreak in Raccoon City. Jill put an end to him with a prototype ray-gun developed by Umbrella. Good riddance too. The thing was a bastard who couldn't take a hint and die," Harry smiled. "In any case, that would be it. But something else is happening to you, isn't it Will?"

Will frowned once more. "I...things have been happening. Strange things I can't describe. Things fly around me sometimes. I've ended up across town. Sometimes things appear completely dark to me. I can't see anything. I think I go blind sometimes,"

Joyce turned to Harry, a look of shock over her face. "That's why you gave us the vault. You knew," Harry nodded.

"Knew what, Mom? What?" asked Johnathan.

"Will didn't just inherit my memories and instincts that day. He inherited my powers," He let that sink in for a moment. Everyone was silent in shock. "I saw it immediately. His Aiúa had been blue before. A non-magical and non-powered normal boy. But then it took on a hint of white and black. And soon the blue turned purple. I've categorized the colors I see. I was able to tell immediately what had happened. Blue is for non-magical and non-powered people. Red and purple are magicals. White is for shadowmancers. Black are corrupted souls. And those with orange Aiúa's have non-magical powers, like Eleven. Will's was three colors. Purple, black, and white,"

"Purple for magic, white for shadowmancy, and black for corruption," Nancy commented.

"But not my corruption," Harry spoke.

"Voldemorts," Mike whispered. Harry raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected Mike to figure it out. "Mrs. Byers was talking about it. You said something about seven months the night of the First Task, right after seeing Will. Seven months from then is in four days. The night Voldemort gets back,"

"Yes. The corruption was Voldemorts. Riddle had created seven Horcruxes, which he used to anchor himself to the living world. Even if he was killed, his Aiúa would remain tethered to the smaller Aiúa's within the Horcruxes. One of the Horcruxes was me. I became one the night my parents died. The night I got my scar," Harry explained.

"So when the corrupted portion went between you, you lost the scar," Lucas spoke.

"Not quite. I lost the scar because I created a new body. The scar was a physical embodiment of the Horcrux, but it was only on my body. Once I made a new one, the scar died with the old body. And the reason why Will doesn't have a scar is the same. It was within his Aiúa. Not his skin," Harry replied. "But in my hunt for the Horcruxes, I removed it. In the middle of the night, I snuck back into town and removed it while you slept. I didn't feel comfortable explaining to you why I had to reach into your soul, but it was necessary. The Horcrux is gone, so your Aiúa is now only purple and white,"

Will still appeared in shock. "I'm...a wizard. Like you?" Harry smiled, nodding. "And the disappearing? The flying objects...the blindness?"

"The first two are accidental magic. Apparation - teleportation - and levitation. The third was shadowmancy. You're accidentally casting shadows over your eyes. No doubt a subconscious attempt to stop from seeing nightmares. With practice, you'll be able to control both," Will nodded. He seemed interested in learning magic, but not so interested in shadowmancy. "After the incident within Will, I was hit with a very shocking surprise. Magic existed again. Hogwarts existed. So did Hermione, and Ron, and Neville. Everyone I had lost going to Raccoon City was back. But they weren't the same as they had been. They didn't know me. They only knew my name, and the legend surrounding it. I was a stranger in my home. A home that shouldn't have existed,"

"And then I again remembered what the Watcher said. A plague. A parasite. I changed Raccoon City, and I changed this universe too. The entire multiverse shifts to my presence, mostly for the worst. And I was right. Hogwarts hadn't existed when I got here. Neither did Hermione or Ron, or Dumbledore. I know because I checked before I even met you all. Nothing was there that indicated my home universe was here. And then suddenly - right after I broke the barrier between the Inside and Outside by traversing the two - my home was here. Two universes joined into one. And I'm sure more will join us soon,"

"That's...possible?" Steve asked.

"Very possible. Rare, but possible. The omniverse is a collection of multiverses. And a multiverse is a collection of universes. All are like bubbles. They bump into each other. Sometimes they're destroyed in cataclysmic events...sometimes they join together. Other times, they rotate around each other in harmony. Becoming mirror images of the other. I've been studying omniverse theory for quite some time, trying to discover where the Outside lies. But it doesn't lie anywhere. It's beyond everything. Outside of reality itself,"

"And only you can go there," Lucas said.

"No. Anyone can go there. Any living thing that has the will and mental capabilities to grasp its image and send itself out. It's a very difficult practice. I did it accidentally my first time. But after that, I gained an understanding of how to replicate it. It wasn't until recently that I learned the correct process. But I'll get to that in a minute," Harry explained. "I was entered into the tournament and was forced to go back to Gringotts and Hogwarts. I met Dumbledore again and told him - after some time - everything. We began to plan. Using my knowledge and his to discover just how many Horcrux's Tom had. Neville destroyed the Diary in his second year, taking my place in killing the Basilisk and saving Ginny. I knew Hufflepuff's Cup was in one of Voldemorts' follower's vaults. The Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw was easily reachable in Hogwarts. Slytherin's Locket was in Grimmauld Place. Will's Horcrux was destroyed. And I now wear the ring," He held up his hand, revealing the Gaunt family ring. "That leaves the snake, Nagini. She'll be there at the cemetery. So will Wormtail,"

"You're parents' traitor," Hopper spoke.

"And your way to get Sirius free," Joyce added.

"Right...Sirius," Harry sighed.

"He's not your Sirius, Harry. He didn't sell you to Mother Miranda,"

"No, but he might be worse. Sirius was at his breaking point when he broke out my third year. He was almost crazy in his attempts to kill Pettigrew. He's been in there for a year and a half longer this time around. I'm worried that if I get my godfather out...he won't be the Sirius Black that I remember. The one that acted like a father to me when I was alone. When Dumbledore ignored me. When McGonagall seemed uninterested. He was always there to help me. To give me advice. I'm worried he won't be the man my parents made my godfather," Harry explained. It was genuine fear.

"But enough of Sirius. Back the story. The hearing with the Wizengamot occurred not long after the Snowball. I was able to convince them to repeal the Statute of Secrecy, but it won't go into effect until September 1st. That's after we gain express permission from the ICW in their meeting on August 1st. If we get it, Britain will be the first magical country to be without the Statute of Secrecy since the Witch Hunts in the 1600s. If it works, then the Statute will continue to be lifted in other countries. If it doesn't there will be a mass no-maj mind-wipe and the Statute will go into effect again,"

"The night of the Yule Ball arrived, and I met Daphne Greengrass. She was a Slytherin girl in my home universe, and she still is. But I took an interest in her at the Yule Ball. We got together, and we formed a bond. A bond so strong between our Aiúa's that they are connected through more than a simple twining. Strings are surrounding the connection, holding it tightly in place. I created a similar bond with Nancy,"

"Wait, what?" Everyone but Nancy, Mike, and Johnathan chorused.

Steve narrowed his eyes. "What does that mean? Are you two -"

"No. I told Nancy about the nature of bonds when it happened. Everyone forms a bond with someone. A close friend, a family member, a lover. Even non-magicals. This isn't a magical thing. But when magicals form a bond, their magic reacts, forming a colored aura around the two that are bonded. This is why bonds between magicals and no-maj are illegal. Wouldn't want a no-maj not in the know to discover magic exists through the bond. But of course, all of you are safe seeing as MACUSA knows the situation. But anyway, while Daphne and I formed a lover's bond, Nancy and I formed a bond of pure friendship. Almost a familial bond,"

"You said you loved her like a sister," Johnathan recalled.

"But she's not," Mike commented, ignored.

"She isn't, you're right. Yet you love these four like your brothers and sister," Harry motioned between Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Max. "We all feel a certain way about everyone. You don't like me much, yet I am quite fond of you, Mike. You remind me a lot of myself. I like all four of you," He motioned between the Party members. "I don't know you two well, but I hope to change that eventually," Harry spoke to Johnathan and Steve. "And I have a deep love and respect for Hopper and Joyce," He added, matching his smile with Joyce's.

"And El?" Mike asked. A test.

Harry frowned. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about Eleven. He had already learned that he loved her. Not as a lover and not as a sister or friend. Somewhere between all three. A blurred line. Harry felt pain when she was hurt, and wished to do nothing else but make sure she was safe. Something he had only felt with a few people in his entire life. Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny, and Luna. "I love her. How and how much? I'm unsure. I haven't put much thought into it," Harry confessed. It was a lie. He had thought of it many times. His feeling towards Eleven was a true mystery to him.

"That's a lie," Mike spoke. "You told us you can think up to six trains of thoughts at once. Someone who thinks that fast and who takes several seconds to respond to a question has thought about it,"

"That's true. I've thought about it quite a lot. But my answer stands. I have no idea how I love her and how much, but I do. That is all I know," Harry replied. Mike seemed angry and annoyed but was quickly hushed by Nancy, who urged him to continue his story. "The day Nancy and I formed our bond, I discovered something beyond anything beyond possible. After the incident with Eleven and the ring, I was desperate to find a way to save her. So I went to the only person I knew who had experience in manipulating an Aiúa. The Hive Queen,"

"The prophet," Hopper said.

"Not a prophet," Nancy spoke.

"I only told Nancy about The Hive Queen. She was the only one I trusted not to spill my secrets across the entire group," He directed this towards the Party. "I told you all once before that if the evolution of a sentient species can occur at least once in every possible universe, then the same evolutionary process can occur a second time. Or a third. Or a fourth. The Hive Queen is my proof. A sentient species that exist outside our own," Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his Gen1 Portable HoloTank. It fit in his palm and was easily activatable. He activated it and placed it on the table. A blurry image appeared over the device, displaying an image of the Hive Queen. Everyone leaned in, trying to get a closer look, so Harry enlarged the image by ten. It wouldn't get any bigger, he would need a full-sized HoloTank for that. "A Formic Hive Queen,"

"She looks like an ant," Max commented.

"Because her species evolved from an ant-like species. They grew larger due to certain hormones, but their lack of vocal cords blocked any kind of communication. And then they learned how to access the InBetween, the place between the Outside and Inside. They used it to evolve further. They learned how to speak telepathically - speaking through the mind - and eventually began to bring specific Aiúa's out of the Outside to birth new Hive Queens. Eventually, there were thousands of Formic nests spreading all over their homeworld. But every Hive Queen - despite all of them sharing the same memories - was set on destroying all nests but their own. Until the ancestor of the Hive Queen, you see birthed a daughter. She convinced the daughter that peace was the only answer to grow as a species, and the daughter agreed. They were the first two Hive Queens to ever join forces,"

"Together, they had more daughters and launched a crusade against all those unwilling to change to peace. After a few hundred years, only the peaceful Queens remained. And once their conflicts ended, the Formics were capable of focusing on their population issues. They carved ships out of asteroids in their solar system and sent them out in search of distant colonies. But then their ships got better, and they developed a form of near-light speed travel. Space travel was made easier. Instead of taking millennia to reach a new solar system, it took only a few decades. And to the Formics, time is meaningless. All Queens share the same memories, and the hive is all tied to her. Like the Mind Flayer. Only the male Formics are capable of minimal free will. All of the other Formics are at the Queen's mercy,"

"Should we be worried?" Will asked.

"No," Harry replied simply. "The Formics reached out across the stars, colonizing a hundred worlds in the span of a few hundred years. They even sent a ship here. It's set to arrive in a hundred years or so. I plan to meet it when it arrives,"

"You'll be long dead by then," Max pointed out.

"I don't plan on dying for a long time," Harry spoke.

"The bodies. Because you can make new ones, you can just change bodies to a younger model," Joyce realized.

"Yes. I told Hermione on the night of the Yule Ball that I won't die until I see humanity spread throughout the galaxy. Spread so far that no single conflict could kill us all. I don't plan on dying for quite a while," Harry explained.

"But...what about Daphne? And us?" asked Will.

"The choice is yours, but Eleven is evidence that I can recreate anyone's body. Not just my own. If anyone wants to live forever with me, all you have to do is ask," Harry replied. That drew silence. He had just told them that not only had he achieved immortality but that he was offering it to them as well. After a minute of silence, Harry continued. "I created the bond between Nancy and I to light the path to the Hive Queen. I was able to find the Hive Queen and I's philotic connection and pulled myself through it to reach her. Before I knew it, I was standing on the Formic Homeworld halfway across the galaxy. I stay there for two months, learning everything I can on Aiúa's and how to create my own philotic structure. I practiced a lot. And when I was confident I could fix what I did to Eleven, I came back,"

"Wait...two months? After leaving three weeks ago?" Lucas seemed to make the connection. "You time-traveled?"

"Some sort of temporal anomaly occurred when I was pulling myself through the philotic connection. I knew this was possible, seeing as I was pulling myself through the InBetween, effectively ignoring space-time. So when I left, it was August 2nd, a day after the ICW meeting. When I got back here, it was July 19th. I'd only lost three weeks. But I took it in stride and focused on fixing Eleven. I did, and here we are," Harry finished.

"So..." Dustin started. "In three months, you discovered an alien species. Discovered immortality. And created instantaneous space-travel,"

"Yeah...pretty much,"

"That's...a lot, Harry," Nancy spoke, rubbing her forehead. That was the reaction everyone was having. Pure confusion and thoughtfulness. Harry was patient, still trying to process it all himself. He had truly discovered a lot. Harry had plowed the way for so many discoveries. Philotic sciences would have to become a reality, starting with the engineering of a way to send both information and physical object through philotic connections. He could create spaceships capable of pulling themselves through the InBetween, reaching the other side of the universe. Perhaps there was even a way to reach other universes through the Inbetween. But he figured this wasn't the case. The Inside was tethered to a specific universe, while the Outside resided outside of the Omniverse. So one could only go InBetween the Outside and their universe. That was unfortunate.

But the discovery of immortality was also intriguing. All three of his discoveries had nothing to do with magic. If he created some sort of special core containing its own Aiúa, he could teach it to take ships through the InBetween. And he could do the same with a device that would call new Aiúa's from the Outside that could be used to reconstruct a new body. The possibilities offered by philotic science and engineering were endless. Harry smiled. "I told Hermione that sine wands work based off on intent while others care only about who wins its allegiance. There's a good and evil to wands and an in-between. The universe is the same, working off of good, evil, and all that lies in-between. It prefers balance. We are the Good. The Mind Flayer was the Evil. We killed it, so the universe sought balance by bringing back Voldemort. And when I kill Voldemort in four days, the universe will send another Evil to replace him. I need everyone to be prepared. Because I won't stop until all of you are safe. Even if that requires drastic action,"

"What could be worse than the Mind Flayer and Voldemort?" Max asked.

"As I said, the universe replaces both Good and Evil when one or the other disappears. Whether they're replaced for better or for worse is determined when the new one arises. But there is always something worse. People thought Grindelwald was the worst until Voldemort appeared. And we thought the Demogorgon was the worst before the Mind Flayer showed up. We won't know till we know," Harry explained.

"But you'll have a plan," Hopper guessed.

"Of course. I'm a planner. Am I ever any good at it? No. Not at all. But it's important to think ahead, even if all of your plans don't work. Because you would feel really stupid if you didn't plan, and a potential plan could have worked. It's all a guessing game," said Harry.

"What do we do now?" Nancy asked.

"Wait for Eleven to wake up. In the meantime, I'm going to prepare for the Third Task, my meeting with the ICW, and your lessons," He motioned to Will, whose eyes widened. "You can't go to Hogwarts. You're far too old now. I'll be training you myself. It should be a lot easier than my lessons with Eleven, seeing as I know how to control magic. Trying how to teach a hormonal teenage girl how to control her emotions is like asking a star not to shine. Completely impossible," A few of the guys in the room laughed, while Max rolled her eyes. Nancy glared. "And it doesn't help that I know nothing about the Upside Down or how her powers work. All I know is that she's telekinetic, but her powers don't perform the way any other telekinetics have. The Upside Down makes her powers erratic. Mutated,"

"Upside-down," Lucas concluded with a grin.

"Yes. Her powers are upside-down," Harry said with a matching grin.

"Right. You'll prepare for your stuff. What do we do?" Max asked.

"I won't allow you all to attend the Third Task. Not after what happened in the First," They expected this. After all, he hadn't invited them to the Second Task either. "But don't worry, I plan on filming it live, so you can watch from here in real-time. If the Ministry tries to tell me that I'm lying again, I'll have the footage. That, and I'll have Voldemort's corpse as proof," Harry reasoned.

"How will we watch from here?" Joyce questioned.

Harry grinned. This was going to be great. "Well, as you know we just launched our second product line at Marauder Enterprises. Our first line was pretty successful, and we hope our second one will be too. But to improve on our first line, we need customer feedback. We've got a lot, but nothing very straightforward. People are getting used to the jump in technology, going from very basic computers to holographic computers. It's a big leap. And it's going to be an even bigger one when we release the next line. And because I trust all of you to be straightforward with your opinions on the matter, I've decided to have all of your homes outfitted with our newest releases,"

Silence.

"All of our houses?" Mike asked.

"Yep. I was talking with my people earlier, and we received answers from all but you two," He motioned to Joyce and Hopper. "The Wheeler, Sinclair, Henderson, Mayfield - or Hargrove -, and Harrington homes will all be outfitted with our hologram tech. As well as prototypes from our second line,"

"And these lines include..."

"Well, for the first line you'll have enough HoloDesk's for every member of your family. HoloTerminals for each room of the house. A HoloTank for either the living room or dining room. And a dozen HoloStills and HoloVideos each. For the second line, you'll get our state-of-the-art medical scanner, which finds and heals most minor wounds. Our auditory dampeners, which muffle the sounds of car engines and other loud appliances. Data-pads to store over six-thousand terabytes of data. Our new Quickware, which is a wrist-version of our HoloDesks. You'll be able to access the GPS to get directions, and you'll be able to connect to our internet from anywhere in the world. And there's the last one, the Bluebox, but that's optional seeing as it receives surgery. It's an implant that connects your eye and brain, allowing you to record what you see and hear. You can then watch those memories back on your HoloTank,"

"And the last one's great. You all get our newest vehicle, Prongs. Named after my father's animagus form. It's a car," He pulled it up on the Portable HoloTank. It was sleek and streamlined and was made to be nearly indestructible. Car accidents would be rare with this vehicle. "This is a Gen1 model, so there's nothing in it that will appear in later models. So no autonomous driving, no flight capabilities. None of that will be appearing for a while. But it has onboard GPS and a built-in computer system. Pretty great stuff my team put together,"

"I...this is too much," Joyce spoke.

"How so?" Harry asked.

"All of this stuff combined must cost a fortune," Nancy replied. "And you're just handing it over to us...for free,"

"Well, yeah. You're my friends. And if you want to look at it this way, you're getting the base models. The prototypes. The better and sleeker models will be sold in a few months. But even then you'll be eligible for free upgrades like everyone else. And besides, despite the upscale in technology, what I just listed isn't that expensive. The Prongs is our most expensive product, and it's only $850. The HoloTank comes next at $600," Harry explained.

Hopper raised an eyebrow. "Why so cheap?"

"Because I'm not looking for money. I've got money. I'm just trying to make the world a better place to live in. One product at a time," He hoped that one day, his plans would succeed. That his presence here would turn out for the better. One could only hope that their legacy was great in the end. That their work was remembered. Harry hoped his legacy would not be forgotten so quickly as many others had before. Harry smiled. He was sure it would. After all, he wouldn't die. His legacy would live on with him. His legacy would be great.

Legacy.