Of Might and Magic
Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter', 'A Song of Ice and Fire', or 'Game of Thrones.' All recognisable characters, content, or locations belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Summary: After decades spent travelling and learning, Harry Potter is drawn back to Britain, and into a war he cannot win. Unstable magic and the meddling hands of fate send him into an improperly cast ritual circle, where he is transported into a life defined by loyalty, honour, and unwavering duty. Or… that AU in which Jon Snow is actually Harry Potter born again. OOC. AU. RLJ.
Rating: M for violence, adult themes, and mild language.
Author: tlyxor1.
Prologue: The End of an Era
The world is a vast, wondrous place, and magic is an extraordinary, unbelievable creature. The world thrums with it, from the arid mountains of Afghanistan, to the frigid winds of Antarctica, from the desert planes of Egypt, to South America's Amazon Rainforest.
At 46, Harry Potter has travelled across all seven continents, has visited dozens upon dozens of countries, and he doesn't think he will ever see - ever learn - enough about the world, about magic, about the cultures and people he comes across every day.
He can spend the rest of his life travelling, and it will never be enough time.
It started when he was newly 18, war weary and desperate to get away from the ghosts that had haunted him in Great Britain. He'd made plans, packed up his things, and disappeared in the dead of night, and he had hardly looked back since.
He finds it difficult to believe that it has already been 30 years. He's learned so much - about the world, about magic, about himself - and it almost feels as though no time has passed at all.
He knows that's not true, of course. Most of his friends have grown older, have settled down, are parents to teenaged children who know nothing about war and blood and death, and he is truly, genuinely happy for them.
That life, however, has never been for him - will never be for him - and it is a fact about himself he has long ago come to terms with. Despite attempts to make him settle, to make him comfortable with a humdrum existence after his action-packed adolescence, he has always been a restless spirit, and for as long as he lives, that will not change.
And then he dies.
It happens on British soil, in a skirmish against another generation of pureblood bigots. He's returned to offer his assistance where he can, but it's not a Dark Lord this time. It's an organisation instead, led by a number of anonymous individuals no one else can pinpoint. They're powerful - financially, politically, magically - and their combatants are significantly more capable than the average Death Eater in their prime.
He's been trained by Russian combat specialists, but he's lived almost thirty years in peacetime, and he is not prepared for the capabilities of his opposition.
His spell clashes with another's, and the backlash sends him staggering into the ritual circle he'd disrupted. He can feel the magic there, oppressive and suffocating, and then all he knows is a warm embrace, and a deep, fathomless grey.
He is held by a woman, and she is crying. He is a baby, and he wonders how this is possible.
"Welcome to the world, Jaehaerys Targaryen."