Beta'd by: Scottken and marvelfanenthusiastic
Book II :: Chapter 8 :: All for this Day
Harry was spat out of the emerald flames with almost cruel abandon. The carpet beneath him was coarse and stung painfully as he slid across it. Harry grimaced both in pain and disdain for the accursed travel method.
"Blimey Harry, are you okay."
"Geez, you were not kidding about being bad at floo travel." the voice of both Twins said aloud.
Harry looked up and coughed some soot off his face as he accepted the waiting hands of said Weasley twins. Pulling him to his feet, Harry glared at the fireplace. "Yeah well, I guess it just hates me as much as I hate it back." Harry bit back, still irate that magical travel just didn't seem to like him.
"Maybe you offended it?"
A gruff cough from the twin's father drew Harry's attention to the man who was standing behind him. "Leave him be boys. Floo travel does take a bit of getting used to. You alright, aren't you Harry?"
"Brilliant." Harry said honestly, a bit surprised at the lack of sarcasm in his statement.
From the fire's green flames came out in succession, Ginny, Percy, Ron, and Molly Weasley. The latter of whom came out with guns blazing. "Out of the way you lot. Move!" She said rushing over to her husband and the Twins. Glaring at the two she pointed a finger firmly with her latter hand on her hip. "I'll deal with you later." she said quickly.
Turning back to Arthur she looked him up and down frantically. "Are you alright dear? Any more bruising? Does anything hurt?" she fussed.
Arthur submitted to his wife's fussing even as she gauged the severity of his injuries. Harry felt slightly out of place, watching the family dynamic taking hold of everyone present. While Ron inched eagerly to leave the room not wanting to stay in the same place with a slimy Slytherin, he was rooted in place by his concern for his father. Fred and George however inch away slowly, trying to stealthily sneak as to avoid the repercussions they had coming to them once Molly was done fussing over Arthur. Harry then took notice of Percy. Unlike his brothers, Percy just stood still, watching with a blank face as a silent observer, detached and unamused. To Harry he almost looked out of place if not for the red hair, commonly shared between them. Ginny, bless her heart, had already slunk off to the kitchen and was retrieving a washcloth, likely to help clean the shiner under her father's right eye.
After she had her moment of concern, Arthur softly grasped Molly's hands and smiled reassuringly. "I'm fine dear. Nothing a bit of Bruisewort won't cure." Molly let out a breath of relief which transitioned perfectly into a deep inhale of fury.
"What were you thinking! Punching Lucius like that. Merlin, I half expect one of our boys to misbehave, but my word! Punching him like some muggle ruffian. For Merlin sake Arthur, what were you doing!" She shouted, causing everyone to step back and Harry to guard his ears. He hadn't expected a set of lungs like that on the ample women.
Turning on Harry, he gripped his wand hidden in his sleeve, bracing himself for anything. Her glare transformed into a sweet smile and she heartily greeted him.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble dear. Make yourself at home." Sparing Arthur a glancing glare she added, "Supper will be ready in a few hours so feel free to look around. Maybe Ron or Percy will give you a tour."
"We will do it." The twins spoke up in unison.
"No you won't" Molly snapped back. "Don't think I don't know what you did at Ollivanders. Don't give your sister that look, she didn't say anything. The whole alley was whispering about the ruckus you caused. You two and your father are in big trouble."
"I can show Harry around."
Molly turned around to see Ginny, holding out a wet cloth, which Arthur accepted with his thanks. Placing it under his eye, he visibly relaxed as the cold chill soothed his injury. Molly felt her heart tremble in joy at seeing her daughter more lively then she had been all summer. Eyes eager to do something, her posture poised and energetic.
"That would be wonderful dear. Be sure too-"
"Stay within the wards, avoid the pond, don't touch the broom closet, remember to check on the chickens, and be back in before supper. Right?" Ginny finished with a knowing grin.
"That's right." Molly said with a wave, gesturing for them to take their time and have fun. As Ginny grabbed Harry's hand, Harry allowed himself to be pulled by her even as he looked back on the look of doom that took hold over Ginny's mother.
"Now… as for you three. You lot are going to think long and hard about your behaviour."
The last he saw of the Twins and Arthur was of the Twins wincing and Arthur's head slightly tilted in shame, or perhaps regret.
Ginny jerked Harry's arm, hinting at him to follow her. "Come on, let's get some distance before mum starts shouting. This way, I know the perfect place."
Harry let himself be pulled along even as he took in the landscape. It reminded him heavily of Scotland's rolling flatlands. With small pockets of the forest here and there, it was otherwise untamed farmland that was yet tilled. The Weasley's makeshift patchwork house aside, the grounds were surprisingly vast and empty. A small garden, chicken coop, and shed lay relatively close to the Burrow, not even twenty meters away. A look behind the house, in the opposite direction they were travelling and Harry could make out what looked to be a makeshift Quidditch pitch, consisting of only one hoop situated over a shack, likely the broom closet that held the Weasley brooms.
It was a very homely place. Nice, open, and carrying a rustic sorta feeling that Harry couldn't quite pick out. However, that wasn't the only thing Harry was looking at. Silently he was locating key defensive points, possible escape avenues, and sniper and ambush spots around the lot.
Disconcerting was the sheer number Harry picked out. While he wasn't worried about an attack, just the knowledge of how open they were left Harry uneasy, but only just.
"Ginny, where are we heading?"
"My secret place." Ginny said plainly. "This way, it's just a bit into the trees."
Nodding Harry followed her into one of the nearby forests. Entering under the roof of jade green leaves, Harry was rewarded for his journey with a murky pond and a lovely willow tree. The base of the said tree was hollowed out and large enough for two teenagers to just barely squeeze into. For an eleven and twelve year old pair, it would be quite spacious.
"This is my special spot. I used to come here whenever I was sad or wanted some space for myself." Ginny said with a twirl, her arms spread wide. She grinned at Harry as she welcomed him.
"It's nice." Harry said with a grin and he meant it. Unlike the burrow, this place was well sheltered, had plenty of cover, and was generally really nice. Pulling out his wand, Harry walked over to the pond he taped its surface.
"Kiyomeru."
A ring of blue light, like a single expanding ripple glowed and moved outward from the point of contact.
Ginny watched as Harry taped the water in several different places and each time repeated the spell. Eventually, there were multiple glowing rings of light expanding all over the pond and after a minute passed the light died down. The once murky water was now fresh and clean, cleansed of impurities and even safe enough to drink. What's more the sparkling water now shimmered and shone with a magical glow that reflected the light coming through the trees.
"That was amazing." Ginny murmured as she looked into the pond. It wasn't transparent and yet it was beautifully crisp and blue. "What kind of spell was that? I don't recognize it."
"Huh? Oh, right, it's an oriental spell based on a spell from Japan. A lot of how to cast it was missing so I kinda supplemented the missing parts with regular Japanese." Harry explained.
"Japanese Magic!?" Ginny explained in excitement. "When did you learn that!"
"I think it was around eight hundred years after you died." Harry answered after a slight pause to ponder.
"Eight!? What do you mean eight hundred!?"Ginny sputtered in disbelief.
Smiling Harry pointed at the tree. "Perhaps we should sit down first. I think we should both compare notes."
Calming down Ginny seemed to understand his intentions. "Oh, right." Sitting down first she looked up at Harry expectantly and settling down next to her, Harry braced himself against the old wood.
"So… should I start?" Ginny asked.
"No," Harry answered after a quick consideration, "I think I should start first. However, before I do… Do you remember when and how you died? I know it's tasteless but-"
"No," Ginny interrupted. "I know. You need to know so you know where to start." Taking a deep breath Ginny nodded. "I do. We performed a peaceful demonstration in hopes of alleviating the unease magic aroused in muggles. I was shot… and was taken to a hospital where I died. Did the doctor… actually try to save me?"
Ginny asked the latter question, fearing an answer. "Yes." Harry replied and Ginny relaxed, thankful that she was just overthinking it. "The doctor did try. He didn't support us and distrusted us, but from what I read, he argued that his job was to save lives, regardless of who they were."
"I see. Wait, read?" Ginny asked, suddenly realizing Harry referred to the event as a third person recalling it. "You don't remember?"
"No, I don't. Aside from a few memories of you and Hermione, I don't recall anything from my first hundred years."
"Okay, how old are you?" Ginny asked.
"One thousand and twelve plus... something." Harry replied. Taking one look at Ginny, Harry added, "You don't look like you think I'm lying."
Curling her legs up to her chest she remained silent as she leaned into his side. Regret and lost written on her face. "After we fought about the love potions, we promised to never lie to each other. Even if you forgot, I believe you wouldn't lie to me as I did."
"Oh yeah…" Harry said almost in a daze, looking up into the trees as he recalled the event. "We did make up promising never to lie to each other."
"So, you remember that?" Ginny asked, to which Harry nodded.
"I can't remember anything before my twenties and everything from that point till my early hundreds I can only remember details revolving around you and Hermione. Not everything, but a good deal I think."
"Why Hermione? What about Ron?"
A chill gripped Ginny who shuddered as the point of contact with Harry turned frigid. At least she thought it did. She squeaked in surprise and just as suddenly the chill was gone. Looking up at Harry, his eyes seemed to glaze over as his breathing became shallow and meticulous.
Ginny realized something happened, something terrible. "What happened?"
Harry didn't answer. Just sitting there he looked to her like he was working up the courage or focus necessary to talk about it. She couldn't tell which it was, only that it left a horrible mark on him.
"War." Harry finally answered.
Ginny nodded, waiting for him to ready himself. She knew he'd answer, he just needed time.
"After you died, things just got worse. The shooters were caught and tried, but freed with paid bail. Money was exchanged for their release." Harry explained, going into greater detail so Ginny understood what bail was. "Some wizards didn't like that and one stupid act lead to another, suspicion turned to paranoia, and it only got worse. The wizarding world desperately tried to maintain the already broken statute of secrecy, while the natural governments practically demanded a list of every witch and wizard detailing their full names and locations."
Harry took a deep breath as he calmed his own anger. While explaining, in his mind the fate of Hermione and her parents was ringing up old anger and pain.
"Neither side would compromise, and matters escalated to the brink of war. Eventually the natural's demanded their terms be met or they would force the matter. Fearing the rebirth of the witch hunts of old, the ministries tried to figure out a way to avoid refusing without revealing anything. They succeed in a way. Since naturals didn't have a way of truly confirming the validity of the number given on the list, the ministries agreed. The list was made, with names of every family that could be verified by naturals."
Ginny looked horrified but also confused. "What exactly does that mean?"
"The Pureblood faction forced the agreement since their names couldn't be traced. However, Muggleborns, witches and wizards born to muggle parents, their names are recorded in hospital records and government offices. They agreed essentially to sacrifice every Muggleborn in order to secure the secrecy of every witch and wizard."
Ginny's look of horror turned to outrage. "What the bloody hell! I thought we worked out the corruption in the Ministry!"
"It wasn't corruption. Purebloods signed it too. It just didn't matter. Naturals would have an easier time targeting Muggleborns and would give others the freedom to avoid detection. Let a small purge occur to ensure the secrecy of the future born." Harry explained logically.
"That's absurd. It's completely barbaric. A bloody betrayal!" Ginny shouted.
"It wouldn't matter in the end." Harry said quietly.
Calming down in confusion Ginny asked, "Why?"
"Purebloods underestimated the naturals." Harry explained. "They used technology, a combination of face recognition, and observation cameras in order to locate and find any wizard anywhere."
Ginny eyes went wide… horrified. Then it hit her. "Hermione. What happened to Hermione? She was Minister, what happened to her."
"She avoided the witch hunt." Harry said. Ginny let out a sigh of relief. "Only her."
Looking up Ginny's eyes cried out the only question that matters. Why?
"On the magical side, the lord of the house was given the choice of how to sign up on the list." Harry explained. "Any name… so long as at one point it was legal."
"No…"
Ginny didn't want to listen. Even as Harry listed it off.
"I found the document in an archive. Hermione Jean Granger, Ronald Bilius Granger, Rose Granger, Hugo Granger."
"He wouldn't... Ron is a lot of things but he wouldn't."
"He did." Harry bit out.
"He wouldn't." Ginny repeated almost as a prayer.
"He did." Harry said again, his tone hardening by a few decibels.
"He wouldn't!" Ginny almost begged.
"HE DID!" Harry shouted, causing Ginny to jump next to him.
Harry had never yelled at her like that before. The last time was back when he was still in school. Even when she lied to him and revealed the truth of how they fell in love, he never yelled in such an unbending tone.
If that hadn't proven to her that he wasn't lying, the tears he was shedding did.
"I don't recall the details, but I remember talking to Hermione about it. The list was deemed unavoidable. Hermione knew that if her name was written, as Minister she would be safe. However her family wouldn't be. Ron betrayed her trust. In order to prevent the Weasley name from being on the list, he wrote down his married name. In the magical world, when you marry someone, you gain both the names of your house and spouse. Hermione didn't know that legally he was free to put down his and their children's names as Granger."
"When that list was finished, it was leaked and made public. Riots and 'Night Rides' started happening almost instantly. Anyone with connections to the people listed were at best accosted, and worst killed." Harry explained, going into a few gruesome examples that he knew of.
Ginny wasn't sure how to respond. Was she angry? No, she was furious but she was also sad, distraught, and outraged. How could people… no she lived through the second wizarding war. It was no different from Pureblood extremism. They just wanted to harm people who they viewed as different.
"Naturally, Hermione's parents were targeted. Ron sacrificed Hermione's parents in order to shelter and protect his own family and children."
Ginny just sat quietly in shock. "How could he…" she muttered out trying to fight back tears. "Did they."
"Yes, Hermione couldn't save them… I arrived afterwards." Harry confirmed.
Ginny sat there in disbelief even as Harry continued
"Those that were outraged, fought back. The fighting escalated to suppression, and then war. However, naturals had trouble fighting a target they couldn't find. They were united however. Wizards and Witches were split into two parties. The outraged, who fought openly, and the cowards who ran, trying to hide. An image was made that all wizards were violent and dangerous. The unforgivables were used and became known. The term magical, became synonyms with the nature of the unforgivables."
"By the time that happened, the Ministries were just puppet governments, devoid of power and control. Magicals only cared about protecting themselves or fighting. Eventually the Naturals acquired means to hunt down wizards. Worse, wands were seen as weapons and used as the identifier that the individual was a combatant. The killings got worse and those who were hiding started to fall victim as well."
"How did they find us?" Ginny asked.
"Satellites, Data-mining, GPS... Naturals are smart when you give them an impossible task. They looked for the discrepancies in maps, records and other records to narrow down who and were. It was a matter of finding the missing space and then they'd simply carpet bomb the region."
"Carpet-what?" Ginny asked.
"Carpet Bomb. They would identify a possible location and then send all expense vacations or summons to those in their records. Those recorded weren't on the list and so were non magical. Once they were evacuated, the military would use enough explosives to leave an entire block decimated to ensure the annihilation of any magicals present."
"Merlin…" Ginny whimpered.
"Mortars, Bombers, placed C4 charges, anything that could apply sustained high destructive fire, was used. While some areas in cities were bombed, this was rare as you know, magicals avoid muggle homes and residencies, usually."
Ginny nodded. "What happened to you and Hermione."
Nodding Harry stepped away from the images of hellfire in his mind. The sight of thirty corpses scattered between hills of burning concrete and building debris. The image of wood supports sticking out of the ashened soil like lopsided crucifixes, black, charred, and ominous. He stood on a cliff overlooking a valley with Hermione. They watched it burn for hours in silence, anguish and pain radiating in his heart. Everything they did to slow, and far too late. The dead, no longer capable of being saved. That they couldn't stop or save any of them.
"Hermione and I were one of the cowards…" Harry said with disdain. "At the time we were just trying to save lives and avoid war. To petition for a different way. We failed every time, however we were successful in making safe havens for magicals. We learned how they searched for us and came up with creative ways to hide ourselves. But like us there was another faction growing."
"A warring faction… right." Ginny guessed. Harry nodded.
"Ron joined that side. They went to fight off the bombing raids and military with wands in hand. Even as they lost people, their numbers slowly grew, and by the time Naturals were getting the hang of hunting us, the Lights Future had grown substantially. Once those who were running were beginning to be found, they started to fear dying. Rather than just die, they joined the Light. In just ten years… the war that had been in the Naturals favor had met a turning point. No longer were people willing to run. Instead of trying to hide, everyone was turning to fight… and we couldn't stop it. Where our results lead to many deaths, those who fought were making headway by slaughtering hundreds with magic."
Taking a breath Harry then added, "Hermione and I had lost hope and went into hiding ourselves. Finding solace in each other's pain and desires. We both lost the people we loved. We found peace in each other…"
Ginny remained quiet. She wanted to ask something but didn't know how to put it. Instead, she decided to ask a different question. "Were they successful?"
Harry shook his head, no. "They did." Harry said which confused Ginny. "Ron had become a prominent leader in the faction, a symbol of wizarding rights, power, and salvation. An icon that we could win. However a war between equally powerful groups only led to more casualties. The longer they fought, the more people died and the more people thought, just a little more. Just a little more and all their sacrifice will be justified and we'll win." Harry said aloud.
"Forty something years of bloody fighting. Hermione and I lived together in secret, sending letters and messages in hopes of persuading someone to presume peace. Even just a truce-"
"You fell in love with her." Ginny interrupted.
Harry fell silent, not moving, nor looking away and Ginny bent down to look at him. Harry sat there in silence for an eternity before finally said simply, "Yes."
"I knew it." Ginny whispered. "Did you marry?"
Harry looked at her and saw kind and gentle eyes staring back. Sincere eyes. Smiling Harry nodded honestly. "We didn't marry, but we might as well have. She performed a Celtic marriage and we had a witch who we saved to serve as a witness."
"So, it wasn't formal or recorded." Ginny suspected.
"No, but magic wise and in our hearts, we were married." Harry confirmed. "We were only married for about a month though."
"Only a month?"
Nodding Harry continued, "The Light, as they were being called learned of our attempts for peace. Some radicals found out where we were living and viewing us as traitors hunted us down. Hermione, myself, and that witch I mentioned, were bringing groceries home to our small community, and we were ambushed. We naturalized sixteen together. I dealt with ten, and Hermione got six. We were the only ones who knew how to fight there."
"Hermione took out six in an ambush? I don't remember being that good in a fight." Ginny replied.
"Her only issue was her hesitation and problem overthinking things. Forty years of practicing with me helped a lot." Harry explained grinning like he ate the canary. The frown that followed was expressed with a sombre tone however.
"It wasn't enough. She was struck from behind by a killing curse." Harry muttered, tears threatening to flow out. His voice trembled both in overwhelming sadness and rage.
"She died instantly, both of them did."
"I can't remember her name." Harry said, unnerving calm in his sadness. "But she carried Hermione back for me. I just couldn't."
"Wait, I thought you said they both died." Ginny said, more or less asking Harry to explain.
"Hermione was pregnant."
The potent pause was crushingly painful. Ginny's heart nearly stopped as the sheer pain of the memory seemed to ebb off of Harry. "Oh Merlin… Harry… I'm sorry."
Harry stayed quiet as he collected his feelings, as he braced for the worst part of this tale. "I couldn't go on afterwards." Harry explained. "While we buried Hermione, the army attacked us, our fight tipping them off to our location. Everyone was killed."
"And you survived." Ginny murmured.
"No," Harry said flatly. Ginny looked at him in confusion as he continued. "Everyone." Lifting his shirt Harry revealed the many scars of his past. It took him to navigate the map of injuries until he finally found the wound he was looking for. A small sun-like scar, about twelve centimeters in width. "This… was where the bullet entered me and destroyed my heart. I died instantly."
"What?" Ginny asked in disbelief. Before she could ask how he lived so long if he died, Harry answered her question first.
"I was cursed. Unlike the immortality from the philosopher's stone, or horcrux, my very being bound by a curse of immortality."
"A curse of immortality? Such a thing exists?" Ginny asked.
"It was triggered by a ritual of sorts. It requires the presence of two existences of parallel and opposite stances to fight and overcome the other. It's an ancient and pre-existing art that led to the formation of the Kodoku ritual. Rather, Kodoku is a substantially weakened and simplified version of it."
"What is Kodoku?"
Harry huffed but answered, "It's a curse ritual. Place a hundred poisonous insects in a closed jar and they will fight and eat each other. The one left standing is unleashed as an incurable poison, a curse, that will kill its target."
"After the Horcruxes, I'm not surprised such vial magic exists."
Harry looked surprised at Ginny's admission. "How do you know about Horcruxes?"
It was then Ginny's turn to look at him in surprise. "You told me…"
Harry wasn't expecting that. "I did?"
Ginny nodded. "You said Volde-"
Harry slapped his hand over her mouth. "Don't say his name." Harry growled out. Taken aback Ginny nodded as he slowly removed his hand. "Sorry, I don't know the details, but I've seen the reaction. I'm pretty sure that name was made Taboo via a rare Norwegian spell. I might be wrong, but it's better to be safe. I'll explain later, but for now just avoid that name."
"Well, You-Know-Who…" Ginny chuckled, "Sorry, you made me get used to it, it now feels unusual to not say it. You-Know-Who, according to you, made seven horcruxes to save his life. You never told me what they were but you hinted that they made him immortal."
"Well, my past self aside, technically that isn't wrong. Horcruxes don't stop you from dying, they pretty much prevent it from happening. In any case, because of my connection with You-Know-Who, I became immortal. Our battles… no, our strife actually was a ritual where the curse would manifest.
"What exactly is the curse."
"The Curse of Parallels." Harry said. "It's also called the Blessing of Contradictions. The ritual is complex and difficult to create the conditions for and was lost to time until I studied myself and found hints of it existing long before. First you need two identical entities, both separate and bound together to be in conflict. Both seeking the opposite of the other. Like in Kodoku, the last one standing gains that which they don't want. You-Know-Who wanted to live, as did I. However our definitions of living differed. His was defined as being incapable of death, god like in his being. I wanted to live, grow old, have a family, and die an old man..." Harry explained.
"So when I defeated You-Know-Who, the ritual was completed, and I was cursed with the Blessing of Contradictions. My reward for its completion was a body that could not be killed. Physical or Magical."
Ginny remained silent, placing a hand on him. She could feel the sweat permeating through his clothes. Harry was building up to his dark future and she knew it. Seeing no questions Harry carried on not sure when he would lose the courage he scrounged up to keep telling his tale.
"I died. But causality reversed itself. My wound healed, leaving a scar, and yet no injury could be found below it. My death was only a surface concern. From that point on I found it wasn't just bullets. The killing curse, thirst, hunger, time, nothing could kill me. If I collapsed of hunger, I would wake up as if I had just eaten a hearty meal. If drowning, the water would simply break down in my lungs. Magic ensured I lived. If shot, I would fall down and get right back up. With each death, the speed at which causality would shift became faster. Soon, getting shot didn't even leave wounds and I might as well have been shot with foul language for all the good bullets did."
"Magic was no better. Someone even tried to seal me away with magic. Placing me inside an inescapable dimensional prison of some kind. They succeeded and I simply reappeared at the location where I was readying myself to fight the one who sealed me." Harry explained. "I was once frozen in a magical block of Ice and my body just vanished and reappeared next to it. Causality just rewrote itself to ensure my existence."
"At some point, I have given up fighting. There was no need to fight to survive and I supposedly just wondered about looking for a place to die. At least that's what I got from the records. I had lost both you and Hermione. Our children went off to save others much like we did and I never saw them. Hermione's child died… our child died…"
Harry started to shiver with guilt as he felt tears fall. "I gave up Ginny. I wanted to die and couldn't. Just imagining it I know what I would have felt. Despite not remembering then I can still feel just a little of what it was like and look at me. I'm barely holding myself together." Harry broke out. His voice cracking even as he curled in on himself.
Ginny wrapped her small arms around him. Her soft cream like-coloured skin was warm to the touch and a welcome comfort. Harry sat in her arms as her presence reassured him that she was alive, that he was alive, that all of them were alive.
"Thank you Ginny." Harry said after several minutes of him resting against her chest had passed. Pulling him in closer Ginny simply gave him the comfort he needed and waited for the time he was ready to continue. So many things were eating at her but right now, Harry being here, in her arms, was most important.
"Are you okay?"
Harry looked up at her and shook his head. However, he smiled and leaning in gave Ginny a kiss, which surprised her but she readily returned. Pulling back Harry said, "I'll manage."
Leaning back up and against the tree again, the two returned to their original positions as Harry started up again. "Eventually, about fifty years later, my quest to die led me to a new method of death... Dementors." Harry whispered. Ginny shuddered and went ghostly pale. He didn't, she thought, there was no way Harry would willingly be kissed. If he did… just how broken and hurt was he to even consider that option. Harry had seen a kiss in progress, he told her about Sirius and their close encounter.
"I found a nest of Dementors, most likely the ones that the Ministry supposedly held captive back when they were a functioning organization. I walked in and didn't even resist."
"No." Ginny almost cried out. "They kissed you."
Harry remained silent. "No… it's worse." Harry said. "I kissed them."
"The curse reversed causality. My soul should have been sucked out. Normally it would have been. But the curse… Ginny, I kissed a Dementor."
"But your soul wasn't removed? right?" Ginny asked.
"You don't understand. Not a kiss between lips Ginny. A Dementors kiss, I kissed a Dementor. I sucked out its soul and ate it. The effects were reversed. The joy it ate was replaced by pain. And that pain was returned and exemplified within its soul. My joy was lost, my memories of happiness consumed. Instead the only things the Dementors couldn't or wouldn't touch were returned to me. Pain, fear, sadness, sorrow, grief, all of these were left in me. And it wasn't only mine, ever soul that that Dementor kissed, their pain, grief and sadness was forced into me, amplifying my own grief. I couldn't take it. The pain and sorrow without the memories of joy was too much. I tried to wipe my own memories, to erase all the pain, but the curse prevented that too. All the causes of my pain were forgotten, and like the scars from the bullets only the suffering remained. After that… all that was left of me… was my pain and sorrows, not even the knowledge of why existed to explain it all away. I was a two hundred year old wizard unable to die, without knowledge or feelings of love, happiness, or joy and the lone desire to die."
As Harry explained Ginny's color faded and she went horrible pale, imagining every vivid image and feeling his words elicited from her imagination.
Harry shuttered as the memory of what he became took over his thoughts. He no longer remembered that Ginny was there. Harry was now lost in the time in which he cared for nothing, lived as nothing, and sought death aimlessly. "I died that day. I don't have any real recollection of what happened when I was like that. Everything I'm about to say is based off of the records recorded by the Naturals." Harry specified. "Whatever the case I was dead inside, nothing but a husk of a wizard. A powerful, immortal, husk that only sought death." Harry explained. "I carried on, just existing, begging for death. I knew naturals hated magic, so surely they could kill me. And so I sought them out while wandering aimlessly. The first hundred years I studied magic seeking anything magic that could kill me, testing it on myself, and when it failed moving on to the next. I mastered nearly eighty nine hundred and three thousand four hundred and seventy seven spells of death. None could kill me. When Naturals couldn't kill me, I killed them and moved on to the next. When wizards appeared, I assimilated their knowledge in hopes of finding magic that could end me. I devoured souls and absorbed memories just as easily as I would eat a cherry and gaze upon a mountain. For four hundred years my life amounted to that of a wandering mindless husk, absorbing knowledge of those it encountered and killing those of no use only to forget and abandon that knowledge as soon as it was deemed useless. When the curse finally kicked in and restored my rational mind, the only magic I remembered was those that killed the most efficiently and allowed for easier pursuit of understanding how to die."
Taking a short breath Harry paused before he continued. "I was something about six hundred and the first sight I recognized wasn't the world, but the war that we fought to prevent. However the war changed. No longer was it a war of dominance between wizards and naturals, it was a war of survival and fear." Harry explained.
"Humanity was on the brink of extinction. While fighting each other, magic became unstable, the loss of wizarding life left the world broken and with the fall of the ministries, all the protections and laws that sheltered naturals from the magical world were gone. The chaos of the age of titans and monsters, an age that was slain in the middle era with the final tales of dragons returned with a merciless, uncaring vengeance. Worse, the war left the world in a magical nuclear winter."
"Wait." Ginny interrupted. "What do you mean magical nuclear winter? You already told me about what a nuclear winter is so skip that, but what do you mean magical?"
Nodding Harry explained. "Imagine the world after a volcanic eruption Ginny. The sky, a dark overcast nightmare, formed by ash and soot that would fall from the sky in swirling storms of decay. Now think of that sky as a result of both nuclear war, and the magical equivalent of spells equal to mankind's nuclear arsenal. That is what I mean. Magic oversaturated the world, the dead decomposed and became the ash that blocked out the sun, further worsening the nightmarish world. With each death the sky grows slightly darker, and worse due to the overabundance of curses that festered in the bodies of the dead, fall, and curse whatever it lands on. A rain of curse filled soot that blockers out the light that gives birth to life. That is a Magical Nuclear Winter Ginny."
Ginny fell silent as she tried to picture such a world. A barren world of nothing but destruction, were soot like snow, rained down curses that killed, perpetuating a cycle of death. "What happened next?"
"The war was ongoing. So I fought. Peace was no longer an option. We fought to survive and I tried to do what little I could while I sought for a way to die. I don't know why or how, but the memories of you and Hermione returned and while somewhat fogged and clouded gave me direction. Numb to the pain and sorrows of the world I sought to better the world after what I did."
Harry chuckled a bit as he found the irony of death seeking to help life. "During those four hundred years I became known as the Death Walker. And for two hundred years humanity feared and avoided me as best they could, even committing suicide at times." Harry said grimly.
"Not that I blame them. Reports spoke of me as a wandering zombie. A black figure cloaked in ragged and battered robes. Ash and soot clinging to them, the remains of all who encountered me." Harry describes looking up at the leaves above them. The gentle sway of green and light shining through acted as a much needed reminder, grounding him in the here and now, keeping him from sliding back into the past where he still smelled the soot and ashes of the dead.
"Most didn't report back after inounting me. The head of entire squads only realized what happened usually after I was done, from hearing patrols say they spotted me off in the distance, walking away." Harry explained. "Those that somehow survived said their survival was an act of divine intervention. That there should have been no way they survived. My infamy was born from these reports, and the fields of dead bodies I left behind. They even made a song."
"Walking, walking aimlessly, a corpse stripped bare. Caring not for who, or anybody there. He walks and dies and gets up everywhere. Death walks forth asking, 'Who are you to care. Kill me now and kill me fast, or I'll just walk and leave you past.'" Harry sang with an almost cruel nursery rhyme jingle.
They sat in silence until Harry started to chuckle morbidly.
"Sorry, I just remembered." Harry said.
"There was one report. A sniper detail witnessed one of my encounters. He only survived because he was almost two miles out and out of sight." Harry began before going into further details.
"There was a mage squad patrolling and engaged a platoon of rangers. His job was to give overwatch and supportive cover. This was before they knew how to combat squads of wizards. Fighting broke out instantly in the ruins the sniper was overlooking. The fighting was intense, muzzle flashes blinking like strobe lights from behind rubble and stone. Magic spells flying, warping the fabric of reality with inhuman feats… and then nothing. The fighting stopped. They suspected I was sleeping in the ruins and that the battle woke me up. His report said I looked like a haggard beggar, trapped in balck toilet paper streamers, all three robes that dangled on me waving in the dust, torn up completely like streamers. The wizards froze, the soldiers petrified by fear. He detailed the sudden violence sparked when I said something. He couldn't make it out through the scope so far away."
"Bullets and spells alike were directed at me. The magics casting spell after spell trying to kill me. He watched my corpse fly up, down, left and right. A ragdoll thrown into a laundry mat amidst the ruins. Hundreds of bullets shot at me, trying their best to put me down permanently. He saw me bleed, break, and lie down after the chaos, much like a completely dead corpse. And then it was my turn. Still moving like an inhuman monster, he watched as I stood up, and raised my hand. Through the scope he saw me hold something and one of his mates drop like a rock. I pointed at one, swung my hand up and another of his team jettisoned into the sky, four hundred feet high. His spotter watched the body plummet."
"The spell casters tried to flee. They couldn't apparate, likely due to a barrier I casted. One of them in mid flight, collapsed onto his knees a strange substance spewing from his orifices. It was later identified as concrete upon a closer inspection when I was gone. The others died in similar ways, no two deaths the same. The Sniper said he had never seen someone so intimate with death before. He was paralyzed in fear at how easy it was for me to pick them off one by one." Harry said with a pained smile.
He wasn't sure if he was proud of his accomplishment or disgusted. Both, Harry thought. As gruesome as it was, there was some measure of pride in achieving one's goal, no matter how twisted. As inhuman as it was to feel, ironically that pride was probably what little proof that some part of him was still human existed. It still left him feeling twisted inside, that a part of him found pride in his massacre.
Harry nonetheless continued to tell her of this one particular example. An example that was far less gruesome then others he could have picked. "One of the men blew up, his blood forcible flowing backwards, destroying the capillaries that couldn't withstand the pressure. Another had his bones ripped out of his body, tearing him apart. I jabbed another with my hand down his throat. He wrote, watching the man twitch and go dead still as I pulled out a small glowing sphere."
Harry shivered as he touched upon this moment. "To the best of my knowledge, I can only assume I literally ripped his soul from his body with my hand." Harry said with a grin. At this point Harry was trembling. From fear or excitement, Harry could only assume both.
"That's enough Harry…" Ginny whispered. "You don't have to say any more. Tell me about after that, when you came to be more of yourself."
Harry shuddered out a small laugh, weak and feeble. "I don't think I ever returned to normal Ginny." he said jokingly, trying to settle his own unease. Taking a few breaths Harry looked up and focused on the weight of Ginny beside him before continuing.
"The two sides, only a few hundred thousand in number, were still fighting. The naturals that still lived, survived on makeshift cities, built on aircraft carriers and other large ships that offered shelter and protection. Almost all wizards resided in the Himalayas, deep in the mountains behind a powerful barrier. A few small isolated pockets existed but they usually died or were never found."
"At the time the wizards were led by a bright lord, basically a dark lord but viewed as the most divine wizards alive." Harry stated. "Meanwhile the Naturals were led by an admiralty, a makeshift congress and martial law cabinet of soldiers. If I remember correctly it was based off of the States's, judicial, executive, and legislative branches of government with the judicial being citizen based."
"Who was this Bright Lord?" Ginny asked.
Harry stilled for a moment before answering. "Albus Dumbledore."
"What! But how?" Ginny asked. "Dumbledore died in my fifth year. Killed by Snape."
Harry didn't hear her statement as he recalled his own confusion on the subject. "I don't know. Records had him stated as dead, yet after about five hundred years he came back to life. I don't know how or what, but it was accepted that someone used magic to bring him back."
"Is that possible?" Ginny asked half wanting Harry not to answer.
"Yes, though there are serious consequences. Regardless that man is not the Albus we know. That… thing cared not for human life. Naturals were cruelly slaughtered and experimented on in pursuit of saving the wizarding world."
"What did you do then? If both sides weren't going to listen… what did you do?" Ginny asked. Her body was starting to lose feeling having sat for so long, and yet she didn't want to move from her spot against his shoulder. She had long wanted to sit like this with him one last time.
"I helped them both." Harry answered. "For the naturals, I taught them how to fight wizards. I snuck into their military and helped train and educate their young in anti-magic tactics. How to use their teamwork, numbers, and equipment to fend off the unpredictability of wizards. Providing them with means of evasion or forcing them to retreat. Afterwards I joined the magical side and taught them how to avoid naturals, how to survive in the harsh landscape and avoid detection without giving themselves away."
"Dangerous landscape… you mean the soot, right?"
Harry shook his head. "No, without wizards to manage them, a boom in magical creatures grew out of hand, overwhelming the world's ecosystem. Wizards live under a barrier fending off dangerous beasts, naturals lived in fear of soot storms and typhoons on the open seas, and the land was dominated by magical beasts and other unearthly monsters."
Ginny nodded in understanding. "Sorry for that. I just wanted to make sure I understood what you meant."
"It's fine." Harry added. "After a while I gained the trust of both sides, while unfortunately becoming mortal enemies with Dumbledore. As a Dark Lord of death, the Bright Lords army wouldn't stand for my existence. Naturals while hating magic, blaming it for the end of the world, were still open to surviving and accepting my help in time. For the next few decades I spent it mostly helping and acquired a hobby of restoring lost magics and cultures during my travels. A lot of knowledge and culture was lost in the war, and my four hundred year killing spree didn't help it either."
"I eventually stumbled upon a method of finally ending my life. The Grand Order Ritual. A ritual that utilized and absorbed an almost godly level of magic to rewrite existence. I spent a lot of time learning about my curse. The curse used both time, space and magic to keep me alive. Think of Time and Space as parallel lines, and my magic as a line horizontal to both. Sliding the horizontal line representing magic, represents me moving forward or backward in time in some space. I exist as points where these three lines cross. If my physical self was damaged, then the point connecting them would simply move back to a spot where it wasn't damaged, at a spot where a point existed. This is the same with time as well. If I am removed from time and space, magic, which cannot run parallel to time and space, would simply remove that point of time and space from existing and I would reappear somewhere near that erased point of my timeline. In order to kill me, Time, Space, and Magic couldn't exist. The Grand Order Ritual worked because the concept amounted to altering time and space by using magic to isolate time and space." Harry explained in length.
Most of what he said went right over Ginny's head but she nodded knowing that at the root of it, Harry had found something that could possibly affect his cursed immortality. Seeing her confusion Harry added. "Imagine the ritual as another line, that acts like a shovel. If cast properly it would cleanse the world, pushing my magical line left, while collecting all of my time and space into an isolated pocket. Once completed all my time and space would exist in a world of only my magic, where time and space only exist as me. Alter the spell to gather an enormous amount of magic to compress into that isolated space upon its forming and my body would be destroyed within it. No body, no change in time, In a space where I am the universe, nothing would exist, nothing would change… pure null and with everything magic being me… there would be no line to move… only a dot… a point of existence. Time and space a circle filled in by magic. Nothing…" Harry finished.
"I spent years perfecting and preparing the spell… and when I finally cast it… the microscopic chance of failing happened and I the curse reset me back to now. However it did so before I was cursed, and before everyone died… and so here I am… with you." Harry said turning to Ginny for the first time in a while. "And this time… I have no desire to die or watch you die again. This time, it won't be 'till death do us part'."
Ginny smiled and leaned into him more, her head nestled on his shoulder. "I'll hold you to that Mr. Potter. So, do you know what caused it to fail? The spell I mean? Or for that matter, how was I able to return? I mean, I was dead for a long time… how did I come back. Did anyone else?"
"I don't know." Harry admitted. "So far, it's only you. No one else has shown signs that they are any different, not that I'd be able to tell aside from using legilimency though."
Grinning teasingly up at him, Ginny looked just like her twin brothers as she stared at him. "I guess I should tell you my side then." she said with an almost evil cackle.
She told him about how they first met, almost a thousand years ago. How Harry saved her from the chamber of secrets, how Sirius Black, his godfather, was saved by him during his third year. She told him about how Ron's rat was the real culprit behind his parents death.
It was at this point Harry interrupted to ask why, if she knew this, she hadn't done anything to her brothers 'pet'. Her reply, she wasn't sure what the effect of doing so would be at the time. At least until Harry's letters that was. At this point she was waiting to figure out best to reveal the vial rodent to the world, first by waiting for her wand, and then acquiring the skills necessary to trap him without 'it' getting away.
Skills Harry realized he was close to acquiring. With a little bit of time, Harry was sure he could catch the rat without worry of something going wrong.
She told him about the Tri-Wizard Cup, the trials, the drama, and the twist that turned their world upside down. She spoke of his nightmares, and how she grew impatient with him and tried to gain his affections both by stepping away, trying out other boys, and by trying to make him jealous. She then told him about Sirius and how he died. About how crushed Harry felt and looked the following year. As Ginny told him about Sirius, Harry now understood why he had, until now, felt such a strong warm feeling from the name, and why it had sparked interest and confusion when Andromeda had brought it up. Somehow despite losing his memory, he recalled the importance Sirius had on his life. The question however was how? Harry knew his memories didn't exist, Sirius Black wasn't within them. Harry had tested that out thoroughly while practicing occlumency. So now the question was, from where did this non-existent memory reside if not in his mind.
Rapping up the tale, Ginny told him about how they got together, how she went to her mother for help in gaining Harry's affect and attention. How Molly told her that sometimes you needed a push and gave her the love potion she used to get her father's attention. How she slipped it into Harry's food and how they eventually teamed up. How in his depression, Harry stopped eating as much and grew resistant to the potion. How he loved her despite the lack of the potions effects. About how the guilt ate at her within, about how she hid that guilt for so long. How Harry left her, loving her too much, fearing her suffering or worse dying if she stayed with him. She told him everything, of how the wizarding world almost fell, and how Harry returned and defeated the revived dark lord at the battle of Hogwarts.
As she told the tale, Harry was astounded at how green he was back then. How could he have been so stupidly asinine in his youth to only use disarming and stinging charms? It was like his past self wanted to be killed or something. Thought based on the story that clearly wasn't the case, desire wise.
When Ginny was done telling their life's story up till the point of her death, the two sat in silence and didn't speak for a while. Harry just rested after telling his own story while digesting Ginny's in his mind.
Occasionally she would ask for a detail or explanation to his tale, for which he would answer as honestly and truthfully as he could. Harry likewise chewed on the questions that lingered in his own mind. Like how could he have killed the basilisk and how was it Ginny's memories and self came back with him when the ritual isolated him from existence upon its casting.
However despite these moments, overall they simply basked in the company of each other.
Eventually Ginny stiffened which drew Harry's attention. After a good hour of just resting against him, Harry wondered if she was getting cold. The sun was still up but it was setting and they were also in a heavy shaded area too.
"Cold?" Harry asked, glancing down at her. Her head shook against his shoulder, brushing her hair against his neck.
"No, just… afraid I guess." Ginny admitted. "You're here, I'm alive... I half expect all this to be a wonderful dream, and that terrifies me. I can't go back to living without you. I mean I could, but all I would be able to think about, is how I no longer have you with me. Fred is alive, Sirius is alive… my family is back together, and I should be happy… content. Yet, all I can think about is how horrible it would be to wake up and not find you with me."
Harry wormed his arm out from under her and nestled it around her, gripping her shoulder, pulling her in tight. The pressure felt reassuring. There was an overwhelming comfort that in all her life only Harry could give. Her mother loved her, but at times it was smothering. Similarly her father loved her, but so often he devoted too much to the whole of his family. Her brothers loved her, but there was only so much that a sibling could give. Only Harry had ever understood her, he wanted independence and at the same time knew just when she needed to lean on him, to rest upon his strength. It also wasn't one way either, she knew she meant the same to him, reassuring him when he was in doubt, giving him courage to charge ahead when he was uncertain.
"You're right. This is a dream…" Harry softly spoke aloud. He could feel Ginny cringe under his hand but he firmly gripped her and held her tight. "You're alive. I'm alive. After one thousand years, it still feels like a dream. Real or not, I know that this moment is real. Our feelings, our hopes… they're not fake."
Harry shifted about and reaching over Harry shifted Ginny's head to his chest. Clutching her tight, he held her as he looked down at her. Taken aback by the sudden action Ginny waited to see what he was up to, and then she heard it.
That reassuring rhythmic thump. The drum beat of life, and metronome of living.
"You can hear it and I can feel it." Harry said. "I know I'm alive. I lived through a nightmare that made hell look like paradise Ginny. So right now, for me, everything is a dream. You're alive and beside me. Hermione's alive. We're no longer at War. We can change everything or do nothing at all. We can now choose what we want and not fall victim to fate. For the first time, we have time. Time to prepare, time to live, time to enjoy our lives or fall victims to a hell of our own making. This time, I plan to live my life for each of you. No one else mattered to me, and right now, only the people I love matter."
Loosening his grip, Harry let Ginny reposition herself, allowing her to stare into his sincere eyes. "For the first time in eight-hundred years I want to live. I doubt I'm anything like the Harry you remember. I'm certainly not as green as I was back then. They called me a Dark Lord for good reason, but even so, will you live with me Ginny?"
Ginny grinned and leaned forward planting a kiss on his lips, pulling him into it. Wrapping their arms around, they teetered on the edge of passion as they embraced each other. Harry could feel the warmth of her body, the pulse of her heart, and most importantly the softness of her lips as she kissed him and he her.
With a silent gasp, they both separated and gazed at each other. Harry, in waiting and Ginny in lost desire. Coming to, Ginny finally answered. "Always… Whatever happens. It might be kinda fun, having a second attempt at school. I didn't really get to have a good first year, what with everything that happened."
"That's right, you mentioned you were possessed by a… book?" Harry asked.
"Tom Riddle's Diary." Ginny corrected. "It forced me to open the chamber of secrets and release the Basilisk inside it to kill students who weren't purebloods. I was hoping Lucius Malfoy would give me the book at Diagon Alley like last time, but even though he took my books he didn't place it in my cauldron with them."
"Do you think he still has the Diary? Or did he just not give it to you?" Harry asked. "I've fought Basilisks before, but right now I'm in no shape ready or prepared to survive a fight with one."
Ginny giggled as she shoved him reassuringly. "You'll do it. You saved me last time and back then you where… green did you put it? Not really sure how that works. I mean you were in Gryffindor back then."
Harry chuckled. "Green as in skill, based on what you said, I was an immature, uneducated, inexperienced amateur. That kinda green, it's a natural saying. By the way I still don't see how the hell I could have killed the chamber's Basilisk. What did I do, charge the damn thing with my wand and leave without confirming the kill?"
Ginny laughed at the image of a little Harry waving his wand while running at the snake. "I hope not. I was kind of unconscious and dying at the time… but you were bleeding out and you had the sword of Gryffindor."
"Okay, now you're just making fun of me. How the hell did I have to Sword of Gryffindor?"
Ginny grinned, "You pulled it out of a hat."
Harry facepalmed while Ginny laughed hysterically. Harry tried to speak over her laughter with little success as he shouted at her, "Now I know you are making fun of me."
Between her fits of laughter she got out, "I'm not, I'm not. You really did pull it out of a hat. I mean it was the sorting hat so I guess you summoned it from the hat or something."
Harry blinked at this suggestion. Stilling Harry pondered that. Thinking back to his sorting, Harry pulled a sword out of that hat. At the time, he didn't think it was the real deal and even if it was, holding onto it and taking it with him would only get it taken from him. The likelihood of any of the Professors letting him keep it would have been slim so he simply put it back trying not to make a scene.
Yet according to Ginny, during the fight he somehow got the sword from the hat. At first Harry just assumed the hat was spatially expanded like his trunk. However there was another possibility. Harry remembered what the Hat said to him. 'Reach deep within me and claim what is rightfully yours.'
"Harry?"
Unaware of Ginny's voice Harry's mind raced. During the sorting the way the hat said it made him think the sword was stored in the hat… but-
"Harry? What's wrong?" Ginny asked, becoming slightly worried at Harry's distant look. Raising his hand,Ginny watched confused as he seemed to completely have forgotten her.
The hat told him it was his, his inheritance. If... the hat was a vessel to conceal the swords location then making it an expanded space would be counter intuitive. Instead if it was a magical point from which the sword resided when not in use… then it would reside there until summoned or till it was drawn from the hat.
"If that's the case…" Harry muttered his eyes focused past Ginny and in front of his extended hand.
'Harry what are you-"
'Come!' Harry thought. Shimmering into existence Ginny watched as a silver shimmer flashed and sparkled into existence before Harry. The light glimmered in a long line, slowly giving form and opaque. When the light took form, there in Harry's grip, was the Sword of Gryffindor.
Ginny just looked stunned as Harry raised it upright, staring at the engraved name upon the blade. "It worked."
Ginny's sudden punch to his shoulder elicited pain and a flinch from him. Turning to her he saw her glaring at him in annoyance and suppressed amazement. "How in Merlin's beard did you do that."
"I just summoned it." Harry said plainly. Looking back at the sword he gazed at its engravings. "The hat told me I inherited it… I just assumed at the time the hat was some kind of expanded storage space to house it. But what you said got me wondering. Having the hat be a sheath for the sword would be pretty inefficient on a battlefield. Supposedly Godric used the sword to fight, and hid it so it wouldn't be stolen. If that was the case, I just thought that perhaps he used advance summoning magic to call the sword and that anyone who inherits it would be able to summon it."
"What like a blood magic link?" Ginny asked, looking at Harry then the sword.
"Maybe… According to Slytherin's Journals, Godric wasn't the type skilled enough to do Blood magic nor a personal fan of it. That was Salazar field of expertise amongst the four. I'm thinking more along the lines of a combination of relocation charms, triggered by a protean thought enchantment."
"That's some pretty advanced stuff."
"Yeah." Harry agreed. "But it wouldn't be impossible. Both Rowena and the Goblin craftsmen could pull it off."
"Oh yeah… wasn't the sword important to the goblins."
Harry froze as he thought about that. Like a compressed spring, Harry shot forward, knocking Ginny off him as he shouted in sudden realization.
"Shit! I completely forgot about that. The first goblin rebellions were sparked because the goblins wanted this sword back after they gave it to Godrick Gryffindor."
Ginny for her part started laughing hysterically.
"Ginny this is serious! I've been dealing with the Goblins going on about how trust is a currency more valuable than gold. God damn it. How am I gonna do this? Giving up the swords is a bad idea. Not only is it important to wizards, you just told me I might have to face a damn Basilisk this year. Plus now that I know it's very likely the real thing… I want to study it first."
"I'm sorry Harry." Ginny relented. "Why don't you study it for now. It's not like the Goblins know you have it nor do they have to know. Keep it for now so you have it, and then you can study it all you want."
Pulling himself out of his sudden panic attack, Harry looked at Ginny like she was an apparition of his imagination.
...
"Oh… yeah I guess I can do that." Harry replied stupidly.
Ginny snickered and covered her grin as she laughed internally at him. Pouting slightly, Harry frowned. "Not funny."
"Yes it is." Ginny replied between her snickering.
Sitting back, Harry carefully placed it to his side.
"Now we just need to figure out how to hide it from my mum." Ginny said returning to her spot on Harry's arm.
"That's easy." Harry said with a grin as he raised his free left hand to show off the inside of his robes. "It took some effort but I sewed runes into my robe to function like a passageway. It's like a portal to my trunk. Anything that is smaller than the surface area of my robes can be warped into my trunk… I just need to go to my trunk later and retrieve whatever I put into it. Did it with a cabinet a few days ago. You should have seen the mess that was made when I stuffed it in."
"Cabinet?"
"Right. I bought a cabinet that, unless I'm mistaken, might be a genuine vanishing cabinet. They're really rare and each one is hand designed with a partner. Unlike my robe which can't transport living objects, a vanishing cabinet can transport the owner to its other pair. Apparently a man named houdini had a pair which he used in his shows."
"Wait, you got the vanishing cabinet from the store in Knockturn Alley?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah, it's at my apartment where I was hiding this summer. I bought it because it was suspiciously similar in design to a cabinet at Hogwarts and thought that maybe they were a genuine pair."
"They are!" Ginny confirmed excitedly. "Malfoy used the cabinet in our sixth year to lead a raid on Hogwarts. If you have it, that means he can't use it when the time comes."
Harry's smile grew. "That's not all it means." He said almost giddily. "A real vanishing cabinet is rare, a pair is almost never found. If they're damaged it's just a box that kills people. If they're both in working order. Then I can use the one at Hogwarts to travel to my apartment during the semester."
Ginny looked at him curiously. "Why would being able to access your apartment matter?"
Harry laughed, "Aside from the peace and quiet, away from the school and the privacy it provides, you mean?" Harry asked rhetorically in a sarcastic tone. "Well, it also makes it easier to work on other projects. For as nice as it is, my trunk tends to get full quickly despite expanding its size twice. For example, one of my projects is to replicate an old artifact I used frequently back during the war when I was aiding the naturals."
"Wait, an artifact?" Ginny asked.
Harry nodded. "Trigger Sadness. It was a mass production replica of an old artifact called Trigger Happy. Both the original and replica are revolvers that, when shot, cause the target to self-destruct. Trigger Happy only affected people who made contracts with demons. It was an Anti contractor weapon. I found it on a hostile enemy who used it on me. Didn't work, but not important. I made a copy of it, using my own magic to simulate a similar effect on wizards. I made it so pulling the trigger while pouring magic into the chamber would shoot a portion of one's soul into their target. If the user focused enough their soul would rampage inside them and cause their magic to self-destruct. Unfortunately it was easy to make but required too much focus to be of use. One muggle soldier called it a shame and that it was kinda sad I put so much effort into it. He mocked it, calling it Trigger Sadness and that name kind of stuck in the army."
Ginny remained quiet for a moment before she spoke. "Are you going to make weapons like that?"
Harry looked at her, and at first expected her to be looking at him disappointingly. Instead she was seeking an honest answer. Harry couldn't tell what she was feeling or what she was thinking, only that she wanted to know.
"Maybe… yes." Harry admitted. "There are many magical artifacts that are amazing and deserve respect. Even the ones made to kill. However I don't think anyone makes a weapon wanting to kill someone. I think they do so to save lives and make people less willing to fight."
Ginny scoffed. "Try telling that to wizards. We still do stuff like honor dueling with bloody fucking magic. That worse than muggle fire arms."
"Firearms, Ginny."
"Oh," Ginny blushed. "Right, firearms." Coughing Ginny changed the subject.
"So, I take it the cabinet would make it easier to make and acquire muggle artifacts?"
"Yeah." Harry said.
Ginny grinned lustfully. "Then I guess you can go and buy me that Pink Princess you bought me before."
Harry sputtered as Ginny laughed happily. Turning so quickly he risked snapping his neck, Harry looked at Ginny, "I am not buying you a vibrator!"
"Oh come on." Ginny complained in irritation. "You have no idea how fun that was. My dad tried to figure out what it was for almost a month. Not to mention it was fun to play with while I was away on Quidditch matches. Oh I know, maybe if I ask really nicely you'll make a vibrating broom for me." Ginny said teasingly. "Not that it needs much more to vibrate."
Slightly pink Harry gave in and laughed. "Fine. Maybe if you're good, you'll find a princess in your Christmas stocking." Harry teased back.
Jumping up Ginny started cheering like a little girl, jumping up and down waving her arms out with excitement. Harry joined her laughter, missing the fun and joyful side that Ginny brought with her.
Later, he knew they'd have to go over plans for that year, but for now, Harry was content to just enjoy good company. No matter how much of a closet pervert they were.
For the first time that summer, Albus was finally able to relax in contentment. Word had reached him, that Harry was finally spotted in Diagon Alley. At first he was reading to leave his meeting with the ministry, but then he learned that Harry was with the Weasley's.
While confused as to how he ended up with them, Albus knew that that was fine. The Weasley's were a good family and would never harm Harry. Similarly they didn't acknowledge the Pureblood costumes of Pureblood wizards. That suited Albus's goals just fine. Not only would he be safe with the Weasley's for the few remaining days till the start of the school year, he wouldn't be able to leave freely to wander about. Molly's dotting would ensure that.
He had to be careful. As Harry pointed at last Christmas, the boy wasn't ignorant or stupid. He was very aware about him and very suspicious. If he left to check on him or appeared too controlling, then his plans could be jeopardized. After all, for now, only Harry had the means to potentially unravel his plans, and likewise he needed Harry to follow his destiny to end Tom once and for all and lead the magical world into a new golden age.
The first year, despite some hiccups, Harry proved he wasn't like Tom. While in Slytherin he wasn't as popular or well liked and kept to himself mostly. He made friends and cherished them. And when they were in trouble, Harry lept into action although not in the manner he would have desired or expected. Now Albus had to guide him, to teach Harry the price and dangers of his fame and show him what basking in it would look like. Thankfully Gilderoy Lockheart would prove invaluable in discouraging Harry from enjoying, seeking, or misusing his fame. Something Gilderoy took much joy in doing.
For now he was content. Content in the knowledge that Harry was safe and would be returning to Hogwarts were he would remain safe and under his protections. Albus would go about his day, relaxed knowing and would go about planning on how to tame Gilderoy upon his arrival.
But first he would have to figure out how he would go about redirecting the attention of both Moody and Madam Bones away from Harry.
Moody would be easy. Not a minute later he already knew to talk with Moody without stepping on his paranoia. Their friendship alone would be enough to convince him away from Harry. Manipulation wouldn't even need to be a thought.
Stepping into Ms. Bone's office, Albus knew that dealing with her would be simple but also risky. She alone could sway Moody towards confirming Harry's safety and look for answers. Answers that could stir Harry into asking questions he didn't want asked.
With his whimsical smile Albus went into the meeting, feeling lighter then he had been in months.
I'm sure we missed a bunch of errors since I caught a few while posting this, but all the same I hope you lot enjoyed this latest chapter. A bit of personal troubles has sprung up so I may be a bit slow on future updates. Hopefully its just a false alarm but I'm putting it out there so no one thinks I've disappeared or anything.