Chapter 5: Hogwarts, a History
"Is he dead?" Merlin's voice cracked.
Tom struggled getting off the floor to examine the data readout. A violent explosion occurred after dropping Harry back into the L.A.K.E. sensory deprivation tank. Dangerous sparks of electrical current crackled throughout the chamber.
After a few tense minutes, Tom finally said, "No. He is connected now. Nearly blew out all of Home's power, but backup generators kicked in."
"Riddle report!" Lily's voice shouted as she scrambled to put out fires.
"Uhm…" Tom hesitated as he continued reading the program before him. "He's jacked in, but he's downloading an entirely new file I haven't seen before. Something's changed!"
"Is the serum supposed to be red?" Merlin shouted, looking down at Harry. "Is he bleeding? Shut it down!"
"No, no." Tom said. "That's not blood. We're entering weird territory."
"What does any of this mean?" Merlin screamed.
"Do electric sheep dream?" Tom shouted back. "The fuck do I know!"
"Keep him alive, Riddle!" Lily ordered. "Don't let him disconnect!"
"Doing my best here!" Tom shouted back as he pushed a series of buttons.
"Damn it all, Harry!" Merlin cried, their voice echoing throughout the chaos. "Don't go gently into that bad night!"
"Do not go gentle into that good night…" Tom replied curtly.
"Really Tom?" Merlin said, peeved.
"Now is not the time!" Lily screamed.
—
Time…
Harry heard it.
From where?
There.
He saw it. Light.
It tunnelled. The hole it came from, he could look through it. He saw himself.
A young baby boy. Crying.
Why?
He tried pulling the hole further open. He wanted to comfort himself.
Everything will be okay.
Harry reached a hand through.
From where the lightning had struck the child, Domine Serpentis casted druidic magic to hold herself in place with vines and stone that wrapped itself around her. This kept her in place. Powerful gales of wind gusted through the area, ripping trees from the earth. Roots and all. A vicious swell of energy pooled in the area where she finished the ritual sacrifice. A tear appeared. A rip in the physical reality. A black hole. It sucked almost everything it could. It was eating light. With all her magical power, Domine held herself together. Rooted. Immovable.
Then she saw it.
A skeletal hand coming out of the rift. It touched the lightning-shaped scar of the half-breed child.
Time stopped.
All movement ceased. The child's cries and all sounds of turbulent weather muted.
A wave of grey force pulsed outward in all directions. It erased all other colours away. A monochromatic scene unfolded. A popping noise followed. The sound of bones cracking and reforming itself. The child sacrifice started growing. Reshaping into an adult version of himself. The robes he was bundled in, grew with him. Fitting nicely with his naked body. His face was hooded. The twig that he had also enlarged into a staff. He walked towards the paralyzed Domine Serpentis. As he walked, the grass and flowers beneath his feet turned to ash. In its place grew mushrooms of different varieties.
"This magic field," He said with a gesture, "Will protect us from the light."
Placing the staff into the loose earth, he clapped his hands together. A high pitched frequency echoed throughout the area. Domine Serpentis felt herself moving again. Slowly at first, but as the tone of the frequency reverberated repeatedly, she was able to move at regular pace again.
"Greetings master." She bowed her head.
Blowing a kiss in her direction, the vines and rocks that held her in place flew off.
"What is it," He asked in almost a songlike voice, "That which you seek?"
"A new destiny." She replied. "I am the last of my kind. The forest I preside over is under threat of destruction. Humans and otherworldly beings threaten my rule over the beasts in my kingdom."
"What is it," He asked again with a shrill, "You want from me?"
To save us from ruin." She answered, kneeling in prayer. "I require your power to bring death. Fulfil the rules of my summoned contract. Fulfil my request."
"What thoughts do you have," He asked with a decrescendo in his voice, "That I will be able to help you?"
"I believe in your divinity." She said loudly. "Only through your eyes can we change this world."
"Do you think that," He said with a deep baritone voice, "I am a God?"
"You have no choice." She said, slamming her clasped hands into the ground. "Si huven ekess clax dout vers!"
Domine Serpentis looked up but looked back down. Something was wrong. Nothing happened.
"Forgot to mention," He said with a mocking voice, "This is an anti-magic field."
Fear gripped her heart. In a panic she wildly swung her spiked tail at him. She missed him every time. It appeared like a dance, as he kept pirouetting out of the way. She opened her mouth and sprayed acidic spittle in a cone towards him. It did not strike him in time as he shifted his cloak, vanishing immediately from view.
"Forgot to mention," He said with a distant voice, "I still have my magic."
He reappeared behind her holding his staff. He snapped his fingers, and she felt gravity squash her into the dirt. With her face pressed down, she tried to cry but no sound escaped her lips. Crossing his arms, he whistled, and she felt weightless. Lifting her head, she bowed it down again in mock apology. She was unable to stare into his eyes. She knew she would die if she did.
"Why summon me," He said slowly, "Only to try to kill me?"
She couldn't speak.
"Is it because," He continued in the same slow pattern, "Your instincts are betraying your wisdom?
She tried to speak, but still couldn't.
"What does it mean," He asked in a monotone droning, "To be alive?"
She didn't try to speak this time. After he finished walking around her, he clicked his tongue. She felt a release gripping her neck.
"Please forgive me, master!" She shouted. "I brought you here to defeat my enemies!"
"Silence." He commanded. Her throat clasped shut together again.
His voice filled with anger.
"Did you know that this vessel holds a powerful hate towards you. You killed the child's mother and separated him from the only love he knew. Love? What is love? Do you understand what it means to be alive? You don't respect the consciousness that forms your being. You think emotions are just chemicals produced by that tiny brain inside of you to process what? Why do you feel anything, only to ignore it? Why do you want to feel happiness? Is it because you are in pain? Pain? What is pain? Your body warning you of danger? Fear? Do you fear the unknown? Do you fear me? Do you know what death is? It is an end to the suffering you are feeling and if you want my power then all you need to do is sacrifice that which you truly covet. Your life. If you can handle the power of time that I wield, then you will discover that the heavens above do not care about your plight or your struggles. You are a microcosmic itch in the vastness of the cosmos. You arrogant fool. The audacity of your existence. It sickens me. You want a new destiny? I will let the world decide."
As he finished speaking, he stared directly into her eyes. She stared back.
A void. She caught a glimpse of the abyss.
"Keep staring." He spoke with an inhuman voice. "You might learn something."
The depths it went she could not fathom. She felt small. She was crying. She was shrinking. Her form devolved. Her age reversed.
"I don't want to die." She heard her voice suddenly free to speak. The pitch of her voice changed as she grew younger. In the corner of her periphery, she could see cracks of multi-coloured light forming in the greyness.
"Looks like our time is coming to an end. The guardians of light cannot stand my presence. To eternal night we shall return."
As she aged backwards from an older dragonborn druid shamanic elder to a young helpless lizard, she gave one last high-pitched squeal before transforming into an egg. With this, an explosion of light shattered the monochrome field he had put up.
Armies of men appeared at the forest's edge.
"This egg doesn't belong to you." He shouted as he held it high. A howling of beasts cried below in the forest. He hid the egg in a fold of his invisibility cloak.
"It's one thing after another, Arthur!" A young-looking Merlin said, approaching on horseback in the distance. Riding next to him was Arthur Pendragon wielding Excalibur. "First Morgan LeFay, now an interdimensional being?"
"We managed to defeat the Morrigan though, didn't we?" Arthur said with a triumphant laugh. "Now Domine Serpentis has been taken care of? The time to strike is now!"
"Don't let your hubris get the best of you." Merlin said haggardly. "I'm still quite weak after sealing her. She can break out at any time if I fall. There are a fair number of beasts left in there."
As Merlin pointed to the distance, a loud crashing wave broke the cacophony of shrieks and yowls. Everyone looked up and saw the swirling tides of the lake below the cliff he stood upon. A huge behemoth of a giant squid broke the surface of the water facing opposite of him. Extending a large tentacle high into the air, a squadron of merfolk could be seen riding on top of it armed to the teeth. As the tentacle came slamming down on the cliffside, the merfolk attacked the stranger that invaded their home.
Harry held a hand up, and a magical force of energy shielded him from the impact of the blow. Chunks of rock and boulder debris ricocheted in different directions. The merfolk lunged and charged at him. He slammed the butt of his staff into the ground sending shockwaves through the earth. As it reached the merfolk, it swallowed them into the mountainside to become permanent fixtures of stone and gravel.
A humongous badger dug through the mountainside and swung its claws shattering the earth to release the imprisoned merfolk warriors free. The badger jumped and pounded back down on the ground to reverse the shockwaves that were emitting from his staff. It created a massive explosion, hurtling in the opposite direction.
He found himself falling from the cliffside into the water below. There a gigantic basilisk swam towards him and quickly coiled around him. Spikes along its skin shred through him, injecting him with a boiling poison. With a powerful shout, a big air bubble formed around him, forcing the snake to let go of its clutch on him. He flew to the surface of the lake and with another shout, he sent the serpent flying.
He was now in the clouds above. The giant squid behind him swung out to wrap him in its tentacles. Closing his eyes, he started humming loudly. Crackles of energy crawled all over him. When he opened his eyes, a large electric burst came out of him shocking the squid holding him. It fell, downed, and fried by the storm of lightning coming from him.
A big raven flew through the sky avoiding each lightning strike with its graceful flight. Diving furiously around him, it flapped its wings. It sent powerful gusts in his direction. The strong winds of the gale storm it created sucked all oxygen out of him like a vacuum. It felt like his skin was being cut by a million blades of air daggers. Spinning his staff, he created a reverse tornado to momentarily free him from this prison.
In that brief moment, a large lion-like chimaera below hunched backwards and roared. Flame followed. Its shout ignited a massive fiery hell storm burning him violently in a wheel of fire. It left nothing behind. A sudden hushed silence followed. The raven, badger, and serpent eventually made their way and joined its brethren in celebration. Merfolk rushed to aid in recovering the damaged giant squid that was badly hurt.
** "He's drowning!" An older Merlin shouted, their voice much further away than that of their younger self. "We need to take him to the medical ward now!" **
A glitch.
Harry's form respawned from the stone altar from which he was summoned from. He was revived to see a scene of battle. Between man and beast. Magical and non-magical blood spilled alike. A disgusting scene of horrific violence and death.
** "Wake up, Harry!" Merlin's voice leaked through again." **
Ignore it.
Harry skipped and strolled through the carnage. He cast a new field of curse magic preventing the souls of the deceased from departing. He sucked them in, feasting on the spirits that could not flee.
"Sir Nicholas!" Arthur shouted. "Watch out!"
A swinging axe nearly chopped the head of a knight clean right off. His ghost appeared right over his dead corpse. Still and silent. Arthur looked on in shock. Despite all fear and anger, he pushed forwards looking to strike Harry with his mighty blade.
** "Don't die on us, you stupid git!" Tom's voice cut through. **
Fuck off.
Harry cackled a cruel laugh as he held Arthur by the throat. His sword tossed aside.
"You'll serve as a good vessel." Harry heard himself saying in a dark voice. Harry turned into an ominous shadow as he swallowed Arthur whole. He was reborn again by the stone that bound him to this plane.
The colossal guardian beasts of the forest made their way towards Harry again to perform another coordinated strike. Harry waved his staff at them. They fell forward, losing all sense of balance. They were no longer the creatures they once were, but now transfigured.
"Learn what it means to be human, you filthy animals!" Harry sneered.
Harry in his new body walked to the edge of the cliff with his arms raised.
"Upon this hill, I will build you a home! It will become a school to divide and isolate you from the pain you all constantly seek. May it teach you all of the folly you call your lives. May it rot your existence like warts on a hog and trap your spirits for eternity! A promise kept between predator and prey." Harry shouted as rock and stone shifted to craft a castle from where he stood.
** "Daddy! Please come back!" Lily Luna's voice awoke within him." **
–Download complete–
…
Re-initiation success:
Welcome to H.O.M.E.'s AI interface, Harry Potter.
We have achieved synchronicity.
(Note from Author: Hey all! Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope you are enjoying it. If not, feel free to leave some feedback! Anyway, this has been fun for me to write, but schoolwork is kind of calling my attention now. So, I will be taking a short break for a few weeks as I try to catch up with my real life. I look forward to writing more fanfic in the future as I'm still not done with this story. Laters gators!)
