Chapter 4: Failed to reconnect

Drip

Dropping the embrace, Harry looked up. A sudden chill. From where? The warmth from the Goddess still lingered…

Drip

Dropping his attention, Harry looked down. A sudden worry. Why? The Goddess hovered around him to recapture his gaze…

"Harry?" She murmured.

Drip

"Sorry." Harry said, flustered. "What game?"

"The great game!" Her voice rose. "Life!"

Drip

"Uh?" His voice cracked. "The muggle board game?"

"And Death." She gestured to the Earth below. "This game is a battle to stem the tides of disorder."

Drip

"How is Harry holdin' up?" A distant voice spoke.

"Merlin?" Harry said aloud, looking around from where it came.

"Stay with me." The Goddess cooed; her body twisted around Harry's.

Drip

"Something is interfering with the binaural frequencies." A different familiar voice spoke.

"Voldemort, what–?" Harry tried to speak, but the Goddess put a finger to his lips.

"Shh..." She hissed.

Drip

Harry stared into the mask of the Goddess as her face changed. It shifted so rapidly; he almost didn't catch it the first time. A pattern. When the faces rotated, they repeated. Faces he recognized. Each has a different meaning to him throughout his life. Every person he has ever met. Except for one.

Drip

"Where is SHE?" Harry said, switching to parseltongue at the end.

Each face of the Goddess looked confused and worried, but made no attempt to respond, but kept rotating to another face, even more rapidly.

Drip

"Lily…" Harry said, grinding his teeth.

The mask of the Goddess changed to his mother.

Drip

"No!" Harry hissed angrily. He switched back to his normal common speech. "My Lily!"

She twitched. The micro expressions gave her away. Harry reached out. Agony. Pain shot through him. It felt like gravity had other plans. It forced him down. The mask of the Goddess remained in place as his mother.

"My Lily…" Harry choked. "Lily Luna Potter, my daughter!"

Drip

He now felt it. How uncomfortable he really is. There was an itch in his hand. It wouldn't go away. No. Fight back! He reached out again, and this time he grabbed hold. The mask of the Goddess fell. A serpentine being stared back at him. Then there were more heads. This was no snake. A multicoloured hydra. All of her mouths opened. Fangs exposed. Venom.

Drip

Harry's eyes opened. He was paralyzed. His body lay motionless, floating on something he naturally assumed to be some kind of unnatural liquid. Wires were attached all over his body. He could see that he was connected to some kind of machine. His eyes tracked until they locked into two figures looking down at him from an elevated glassed room. He saw the letters L.A.K.E. written above the tank he was occupying.

Drip

It was now obvious. There was a valve above him. The condensation created a leak. He now could see what fell on his face. He could see his arm outstretched towards the pipe. Trying to block it. He could see a crackle of electricity pulsing from his palm. A tiny amount of red mist poured out of his hand.

Drip

"Drop him, Riddle!" Merlin cried. "He's not done downloading all the information yet!"

"Shit!" Tom shouted. "If I dunk him again the files might get corrupted."

"His body will die of shock if he wakes up now!"

"This isn't protocol!" Tom yelled, worried. "We don't know what will happen if we drop him in the lake again!"

"It's okay." Another voice spoke, coming from a woman now appearing in Harry's blurred line of vision. "My father can handle it. Drop him."

"As you wish, warden." Tom said, reluctantly pulling a lever on a control panel.

Splash!

The Goddess looked like a lady again. She pushed Harry. He fell back down to Earth. The world rejected him though. The atmosphere burned his body away. His flesh disintegrated. His blood dissolved. His whole being was about to disappear. Then it appeared before him. A colossal serpent flying towards him. Its humongous maw opened to swallow him whole. A dark void welcomed him.

What does it mean to Be alive?

Emptiness.

Who do you trade Life for?

Nothing.

Why damn Itself into the abyss?

Desolation.

I will guide you back Now to learn!

Be life itself now:

Harry could feel his body again. He was smaller. Tiny. But he could now hear a noise. A thumping. His heart. It was beating. Like a drum, it pounded away.

Breathe in

Life. Pumping. It circulated through his veins. His organs. Each cell travelled with a hop. Moving to the beat. The rhythm of air flowing freely.

Breathe out

The skin forms an exoskeleton like hardened clayed earth. The blood that travels is like water that nourishes the body that encases the soul. The flame that gives it life. It turns on all the circuits empowering it to live.

Breathe in

"C'mon Lily!" A female's voice cried out. "Push! Push!"

Breathe out

Harry came back to the world and cried for the very first time in this new vessel. His tiny roar echoed throughout the forest. Nature responded. A cacophony of birdsong and beastly yowls unmuted the sky. Harry looked down at his mother but saw a doe. She resembled a human, in that her limbs were bipedal. Her animal appearance however, her light-green and white calico fur came in quite clear. She reached out for Harry. The woman who held him, also deerlike, backed away from Lily.

"Sister," Lily softly said, "Give me my child."

Lily's sister pulled out a small horn from her side pouch and blew on it multiple times. The signal was called as two large werebeasts, a bear and a wolf, approached clearing through foliage leaving a trail. Following behind the path created, appeared a reptilian humanoid.

"Give him to me." The priestess said, taking young Harry into her arms. "Yes, the halfbreed's has quite the strong magic coursing through his veins. He will become a great boon in our fight against the giants in the north who would breed with demons. The savage barbarians in the east will soon learn they cannot encroach on our territory without unchecked retaliation. The power for beasts to rule is upon us!"

"Petunia!" Lily screamed, scrambling to her feet. "That's my child! Put him down, you snake!"

"Know your place, filth." The werebear growled, pushing Lily down. The werewolf snarled and bared their claws menacingly towards the young doe.

"You promised me you wouldn't hurt her!" Petunia shouted, then cowered into the shadows of the grove as the werebeasts turned on her.

"Canid. Ursidae." The priestess said aloud, causing the werebeasts to halt and return to her side. She turned to look at Lily, a puff of flame flaring from her nostrils. "I am Domine Serpentis. The last dragonborn living in these lands. If you value your life, then you will lay waste any ridiculous fantasies of rebellion."

"Please…" Lily begged, crawling towards her. "Please give me back my baby!"

"Enough of your whimpering." The priestess kicked Lily's hand away. "You broke the forbidden laws of our forest. We are not to fraternize with the humans who destroy our way of life. A man who twists the fabric of reality with their wicked magic no less. Take your sister and flee for your survival, while my patience remains."

Petunia gingerly approached Lily to help her stand.

"Hypocrite!" She shouted angrily at Petunia, as she shoved her to the ground. She used the momentum from the push to lunge at the priestess. She tried to grab Harry. A quick flash of movement. Followed by a splattering of blood. Lily collapsed grasping at her throat that was sliced open.

"Foolish." Domine Serpentis said. She flicked her tail, sending a deep crimson ichor into Petunia's horrified face. Her tail had sharpened, wooden spikes adorned at its tip.

"No!" Petunia screamed as she scrambled towards Lily, trying to stop the bleeding to no avail. "You promised! You promised!"

"A promise between predator and prey does not exist in nature." Domine said. She then made a clicking noise with her tongue. The two werebeasts eyes went red and foam frothed from their jaws. Domine Serpentis hummed a melody to Harry as she left the grove, leaving the two werebeasts behind. They pounced and mutilated the food that was offered. Petunia's screams drowned in the howling and slaughter.

Domine Serpentis approached a slab of stone on top of a cliffside overlooking a large lake. She placed Harry upon the altar. It was a bright, sunny day. With one of her claws, she cut into his forehead, drawing a shape of lightning in blood. The dragonborn priestess then chanted in a loud prayer synchronizing with Harry's cries of agony.

"Upon the all-seeing sight stone fallen from the world serpent's eye, I offer this sacrifice!" Domine Serpentis bellowed. Cumulonimbus clouds formed a spiral above. Her enchanted words brewed a storm.

She then grabbed a robe which she bundled Harry in. "Adorned in the cloak of shadows." A violent fury of wind tore through the surrounding trees whistling a haunting tune.

She then placed a branch of wood into his tiny hands which he clutched tightly. "A fragment from the tree of life!" The daytime sky abruptly turned into night.

Between clicks of her tongue, she screeched into the air. She danced around Harry in circles hollering out the rest of her ritual. "A child caught between two worlds. Man, and Beast. Order and chaos. Light and darkness. Gods grant me the power to destroy that which seeks our destruction. Bring me not a boy, but a man! I seek life, so I call out to you oh Master of Death!"

Thunder rumbled with a crescendo overhead as her cries surged.

"Avidyā Śūnyatā Satori Apotheosis!" Her words exploded as she raised her arms.

Harry's little hand reached out to the heavens. A blinding bolt of lightning came hammering down upon him, striking with fury.