A/N: This is the most recent and improved version of this particular snippet and the I've posted at spacebattles. As you all can see, it differs significantly from the original version posted here and fits more with my other Potter Effect snippets that I have posted.

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 messed around with the laws of life and nature, casually bringing 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- just one more thing that he wasn't comfortable with... It was like dealing with Albus Dumbledore and his cryptic messages and life lessons- only now he was without friends or allies. Hell, even the likes of Theodore Nott would do... Though they continued to dislike each other well into adulthood, he was at least a familiar face.

Unfortunately, Harry wasn't just without allies, but resources and a myraid of other things that would help him integrate into the post-Mass Effect society. Even Shepard, who'd been dead only the last two years, had the Normandy SR-2, her reputation as an N7 Marine and the prestige of being the first human SPECTRE, not to mention the image of being an intergalactic hero. All Harry had available to him was a smattering of borderline hostile acquaintances who didn't seem to want much to do with him.

Well, there had been Kelly, but who knew where she was? She'd been pulled from Project: Adam to work on some other classified Cerberus project.

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 relay 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 he now found himself in was unrecognizable, as was the giant star in the giant window. All he could ascertain was that the room he was viewing was not in the same system as the base he'd been living and training in for the past two years. 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 co6uld 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, something that surprised Harry to no end given how 'anti-smoking' late 20th and early 21st century society had been. Of course this had been well before Humanity's ascension to the stars and the onset of Mass Effect.

"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 how 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. "She 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 potentially suicide, at best. The fate of humanity, and by extension the galaxy, rests on her ability to succeed in this mission. That's where you come in."

"How do you figure? It seems you already have your 'hero', your 'symbol'," Harry snapped with a biting tone. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a nobody. According to what I know about 'modern' society, which isn't much, anything and everything I cared about, or would have cared about me, has been gone for at least a century or more."

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 her chances of failure. That is simply unacceptable," the Illusive Man replied. "Which is why you're being activated now. I'm hoping you and your unique abilities will better even the odds."

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

"And Shepard is just one woman. Never underestimate the 'Power of One'. Many of humanities greatest historical giants were 'just one man' or 'just one woman' and look at where they are. Myrrdin Emrys, Joan of Arc, Napolean Bonaparte, Benjamin Franklin, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, all of them, for better or worse, are sealed in immortality for all eternity, remembered with great 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."

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, not even for a second.

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. Operative Lawson just reported that they will soon be departing the Dholen System and will be enroute to the Tasale System within the hour." the Illusive Man told Harry. "A being with your unique skills, the likes of which haven't been seen in over a century, could very well become a deciding factor in the current conflict with the Reapers. Oh, and before you go, I have one more item for you, something that may come in handy- should you need it. I'm told there were no others like it, even when artifacts of it's nature were more commonplace than they are now."

A pedestal rose up from the floor as the Illusive Man's office faded from view. A sliding compartment opened up as Harry approached it. He stepped back in shock when he peered into it. Reaching into it, he saw something he didn't think he'd ever see again...

The Deathstick, Wand of Destiny... The Elder Wand...

Taking a deep breath, he reached into the small nook where it was contained and immediately felt a pulse of power he hadn't felt in years. Next to it, he noticed a wrist holster- strapping it to his right arm, he secured the Elder Wand, wonder the whole time just what exactly he was getting into.

As he left the room, he could have sworn he heard the Illusive Man's voice once more.

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