A/N: This is a test chapter for something I was working on last year. Being a fan of X-Over fics, I wanted to see if one could be plausibly done to combine Harry Potter and Mass Effect. The ending result was a fic with the working title of "Potter Effect". I have one or two more scenes floating around, but not much else. This is a revised, extended version of my favorite scene that I came up with for this concept.

Let me know if this is Good, Bad, or Ugly...

-HP-ME-HP-ME-HP-ME-

Harry made his way down the hallway where he was to meet the leader of the organization known as Cerberus.

He frowned in thought about that. He wasn't sure he was comfortable working for an organization whose leader no one seemed to know the name of. If there was anything Harry was sure of in the last few years that he'd been alive, he couldn't trust the Illusive Man.

Anyone who up and brought people back from the dead, like himself and Shepard, did so because they had an agenda. Harry just didn't know what that agenda was and that was another thing he didn't like one bit. Unfortunately, he was currently without either resources or allies. Even Shepard had the SR2 SSV Normandy, his reputation as a SPECTRE, not to mention the image of being an intergalactic hero. Harry had nothing but a smattering of borderline hostile acquaintances who didn't want much to do with him.

Well, there was Kelly, but who knew where she was?

Punching in the code to the VIP Meeting Room that his hand-to- hand combat instructor, Operative McLeod, had given him earlier, Harry swiftly entered the still darkened room. His cybernetic eyes immediately adjusted allowing him limited lowlight vision, but all he saw was emptiness. He cautiously stepped into the room and was about to mentally switch to night vision when the door he'd entered through immediately closed on him.

Before he could react, his attention was brought to the center of the room where a blue circle illuminated itself. Harry's modified eyes allowed him to further penetrate the surrounding darkness in ways even "his" enchanted glasses had not allowed him to. Closing his eyes in concentration, he consciously called up the mimetic information Cerberus had implanted in his brain as they formed the homunculus that would eventually become his newly cloned body.

While he didn't come up with anything exactly like what he was seeing, he could ascertain that whatever he was seeing was some sort of holographic communications relays not unlike a pensieve projector or even an advanced form of the patronus messaging spell Hermione had modified that could not only relay messages, but images as well.

Knowing that Cerberus would not have expended so much time, effort, and money to "bring him back" only to destroy or harm him before he could be used for whatever purpose they wanted him for, he decided to step into the glowing circle.

As expected, a holographic grid immediately went up as he stood in the center and promptly disintegrated just a few short seconds before the room "transformed".

The room itself was unrecognizable.

Judging from the view outside the window, it was nowhere near the converted Batarian mercenary base on Torfan where Cerberus' Project: Rogers was currently held. However, the star dominated window only held Harry's attention for so long, as his gaze slowly drifted to the unmanned holographic workstation and then to the revolving chair within an otherwise empty room that only contained only the previous aforementioned items and a man who could only be one person.

The Illusive Man.

Despite the dark haired man's unremarkable appearance, even in hologram form, he gave off a powerful and intimidating aura. However, the presence the man gave off wasn't what drew Harry's attention to him; it was the man's strange eyes.

Like Harry's, they too contained cybernetic implants, only instead of the glowing emerald light that Harry's seemed to give off, the Illusive Man's were light blue. Given the extent of what his own eyes could do, Harry wondered what function, other than enhanced sight and intimidation that the head of Cerberus' eyes were capable of.

"Ah, Potter. Everything is well, I expect," said the Illusive Man as he a lit what appeared to be a cigarette.

"As well as can be expected," Harry replied somewhat distastefully.

The Illusive Man merely smirked in response, his strange glowing cybernetic blue eyes meeting Harry's emerald matching set. Now he could see his eyes put so many off their game. Despite having a set of eyes like Potter, only a different hue, he could feel the unsettling affect they had on people.

"Potter, I did not enter into the decision to bring you back, fully restored with a couple of enhancements lightly. Humanity, and to a lesser extent, the galaxy, needs you."

"What about the other one... Shepard?" asked Harry his eyes narrowing slightly.

The Illusive Man nodded slightly. "He is more central to our plans at the moment; however, it would be foolish of us to put all of our eggs into one basket. Shepard's mission is almost suicide, at best. The fate of humanity, and by extension the galaxy, rests in his ability to succeed in this mission. That's where you come in."

"How do you figure? It seems you already have your 'hero'," Harry snapped with a biting tone.

Having read Ms. Chamber's analysis of Potter's state of mind, both from the few conversations the two had had before she was reassigned to Project: Lazarus and from her studying Potter's psychological profile, the Illusive Man was aware that Harry Potter's bitterness was not out of jealousy for Shepard being the hero of the hour, but because the Illusive Man seemed to want to make him one too.

"Because Shepard's chances of succeeding are significantly smaller than his chances of failure. That is unacceptable," the Illusive Man replied. "Which is why you were activated."

"I'm only one man," Harry pointed out.

"So is Shepard. Never estimate the 'Power of One'. Many of humanities greatest historical giants were 'just one man' and look at where they are. For better or worse, they are sealed in immortality for all eternity, remembered with fondness and eternal hatred," the Illusive Man countered. "Don't you want to live forever, be remembered in the hearts and minds for future generations as one of the heroes of humanity?"

"No interested."

Though this was said calmly, the Illusive Man could tell Harry was seething.

"Just think of what Cerberus can offer you. We brought you back, what says we can't bring back others as well?"

"Not interested."

This was said a bit more forcefully.

"Fine, then what about the innocent lives you could potentially save?" asked the Illusive Man, manipulatively appealing to Harry's better nature. Furthermore, Harry knew it and knew what his decision was going to be. "Children who won't end up orphans… Or worse."

"Fine." Harry relented forcefully through clenched teeth. "What do you want me to do?"

"I knew you'd come around. After all, we're the ones who are acting for the greater good of humanity," the Illusive Man said, intentionally provoking Harry.

While the cybernetically enhanced wizard clone had long since forgiven Dumbledore over a century ago, he had never forgotten. While Harry grudgingly admitted, if only to himself, that some of Dumbledore's actions may have been necessary, it didn't mean he condoned them.

The Illusive Man continued to sit and smoke in silence as the room began to shake slightly, seemingly unconcerned even as the monitors of the nearby work station began to short out.

"I want you to rendezvous with Shepard," the Illusive Man told Harry. "A being with your unique skills, the likes of which haven't been seen in a century, could very well become a deciding factor in the current conflict."

As Harry cut the transmission and the Illusive Man's office faded from view he could have sworn he'd heard the man say one last thing.

"Good luck, Master of Death, you'll need it."