The Lightsaber
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#02: The Alley and the House

Noon

Dudley's reaction to first seeing the magical street of Diagon Alley was perhaps a very similar representation of his own, Harry later decided. His eyes lit up in wonder at the many colorful and casual displays of magic, the rustic and old world feel, the many different sights and sounds and smells. If it was physically possible, Harry had little doubt that the Dursley boy's head would've been spinning like a top as he tried to see and experience everything.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," Harry said, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth as he shot his cousin a sideways glance. "Try not to take it all in at once."

Dudley just continued to gawk, clearly enamored by the wonders of magic. "Come on, Big D," Harry said as he drew up near him. "Let's go get you some reading material."

"Books…?" Dudley couldn't help asking out in a deadpan. Harry couldn't help chuckling at his cousin's expense.

"Trust me," Harry said, guiding him towards Flourish and Blotts. "Even you'll find a lot of these books interesting. Besides, how can we…do our thing, if you don't understand most of what's happening and why?"

Despite the look of constipated disgust on his face at the thought of reading, Dudley nodded in understanding to his cousin's reasoning.

And thus began their daily visits to Diagon Alley after the coppers and other government officials dealt with the comatose Dursleys and the ensuing legal paperwork. Harry rented a pair of rooms at The Leaky Cauldron for the both of them to stay in during the evenings. He would quiz Dudley on the various magical subjects that he forced himself to read, ranging from basic history to the different types of spells, curses, hexes, and jinxes, as well as the different effects they possessed. The three curses that Harry first introduced him to were of course the Unforgivables, which Dudley made a point of memorizing. They would also occasionally spend a brief time exploring and taking in the sights of the Alley together.

When they inevitably stopped to take a peek inside Ollivander's wand shop, a particular subject arose that Harry hadn't considered until Dudley asked it. How could Dudley help Harry in defeating Voldemort if he couldn't use magic himself? This was a topic they discussed at great length later that evening in the relative safety of their rooms. Dudley assumed, with a fair amount of accuracy, that many Muggle methods of combat were ill-suited to face-off against a fully-trained Wizard or Witch. Granted, Harry was quite sure that a gun could still kill the Witch or Wizard in question like anything else if the shooter managed to get a clean shot.

"Can't you just make another lightsaber for me to use?" Dudley asked, the first question asked once they were back inside their apartment and alone.

"It's not that easy, Dudley," Harry said sternly. "It's not as if I can just collect a bunch of bits and pieces, and make a lightsaber out of them in a day or two. It takes a lot of time, energy, magic, and precision to put one together. And that's not even taking into account the focusing gem." He took out his lightsaber and held it up, showing the glowing gem that was inside it. "I had to create this gem by using a very special potion that needed a large amount of my own magic to form. In a sense, this gem is a small, physical representation of my own magic. So, any gems I make will be attuned to me. And while that may not seem important, I still don't entirely understand how such a thing will affect you if you used something that wasn't perfectly attuned to you. For all we know, it could possibly even kill you because you couldn't control it…or lost control of yourself."

Dudley frowned deeply at that, obviously not liking the answer. But he made no further comment on it. "What about some other kind of weapon? There must be something that I could use. If you can't help me, then what can i do? Shoot them with Dad's shotgun?"

"Shotgun... Gun... No, Dudley, not a gun." Harry smiled as a random thought struck him.

"Harry?" dudley asked as his cousin fiddled with his lightsaber.

"To the best of my knowledge, any Muggle…er, normal person like you, who has ever tried to use a magical item…It usually didn't turn out too well for them." Harry admitted. "But…maybe I could make you something…special."

"Like what?"

A slight grin pulled at Harry's face. "How about a blaster rifle?"

"Blaster rifle…?" Then he caught the reference. "You mean like in Star Wars? Those blasters?"

"Exactly!" Harry said, a sense of excitement rising up in him as fresh ideas began to churn and twist about in his head. "It wouldn't be like with a lightsaber. But it could definitely be helpful. And I'd have to somehow create the blasterbolts…" Abruptly standing to his feet, Harry grinned as he said, "I going to go collect some basic materials and get started experimenting. Try not to get into any trouble."

Dudley just snorted as he sat down on the bed and grabbed one of Harry's old schoolbooks to read again. He knew he'd be rereading these books many times in the coming weeks and months, but it wouldn't hurt to get a head start on them now while he still had the free time to. Once he was accepted into the military academy, he wouldn't have any free time.

A week had passed since the cousins' first arrival in the Alley. While Dudley was largely distracted by the police investigations, lawyers, bankers, and a wide variety of other legal matters in the wake of his parents' sudden and unexpected 'comatose states', Harry continued his research and experiments into creating a blaster rifle. In some ways, his creation of the lightsaber gave him a basis on what to do and how it could work. But at the same time, he also had to start from scratch, using completely new materials and devising new runic arrays specifically for the to-be-blaster rifle. He wasn't even going to attempt to find a potion solution or something similar to be used as the medium for the ammunition until he reached Hogwarts and had some proper supplies and equipment he could use.

However, that didn't stop him from constantly browsing the foul-smelling shop that sold potion ingredients. And it was during one of those numerous searches that he came across some quite unexpected discoveries. He had been browsing through a thick booklet of the many different types of potions that could be made using certain rare, powerful, or common ingredients when he found two particular potions that immediately drew his interest.

One was a weight-loss potion that could help a person lose large amounts of fat or flab without the need for months of painful exercises and diets. Given Dudley's newfound determination to join the military, this potion would most assuredly come in very handy. The second potion was much more personal in nature to Harry. It could correct his terrible eyes, giving him perfect vision without the need for his glasses anymore. He couldn't even begin to count how many times he'd gotten into trouble because of unexpected impacts knocking his glasses off his face. As such, Harry had temporarily put aside his new project and purchased the long list of ingredients for both potions and began brewing both that very night.

"What is it?" Dudley asked, a disgusted look crossing his face as he held the large silver goblet carefully in both hands. He couldn't help turning his face away from the absolutely foul smelling concoction that the goblet held within.

"Think of it as the ultimate diet drink," Harry said, grinning proudly and drawing some humor from Dudley's reactions to the smell despite his best attempts not to. "You drink that, and you're suddenly six hundred kilograms lighter."

"What?!" Dudley asked, looking sharply over at him. Then his face grimaced again in disgust. "But why does it smell like this?"

"The only ones that smell or taste good are poisons," Harry quoted wisely. "Trust me: the more disgusting it is, the better it is for you…usually."

"If I drink this, I'm gonna barf all over the place!"

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll sharing your pain," Harry said, moving over to the desk in the corner of the room and grabbing a simple pewter goblet of his own. "Mine is to improve my eyesight."

Dudley raised his brow at that, clearly trying to picture his cousin without his distinctive round glasses. Then he looked back down at the potion he held and grimaced yet again. "Do I have to?"

"It would probably help a great deal for getting you into the academy," Harry pointed out softly. "Not to be mean or anything, but you could definitely stand to lose a few hundred kilograms or so."

Dudley looked up sharply again, his eyes glaring slightly. After a moment, he grimaced one final time before raising the goblet and drinking the foul liquid as quickly as he could, trying to keep as little of it off of his tongue as he possibly could. Not that it did much good. He barely managed to swallow the last little bit before throwing the goblet violently aside and falling to his hands and knees, moaning piteously. His stomach immediately began throbbing and aching as the potion began to take effect, soon spreading throughout his entire body. Dudley collapsed onto his side, shaking and trembling violently, loud wails of agony coming from his mouth as he was helpless to do anything but endure it.

Harry was right down there with him as well. But his torment was much more focused. His whole head, brain, and especially his eyes all burned with the heat of an oven, threatening to burst into flame. His hands rising up to his face, Harry found his skin scorching hot to the touch and he couldn't help but cry out in pain right next to Dudley. After ten long, excruciating minutes of agony, both teenagers were finally silenced as their respective potions ran their course and began to wear off.

Weakly pushing himself up to his hands and knees, Dudley reached up and grabbed the bedside table. Hoisting himself up to his feet was a chore because his legs and knees were shaking violently, still somewhat recovering from whatever had happened to him. Grasping the tabletop with both hands, Dudley steadied himself, breathing deeply as he waited for his body to stop shaking. Finally, after several moments, he felt his strength returning to his body.

Looking up into the mirror that was on the wall in front of him, Dudley let out a loud yell of surprise when he saw the face that was staring back at him. "I'm thin!" Raising his hands up to his face, he began patting his face in disbelief and rising excitement. "My cheekbones! I can see my cheekbones!"

He stumbled back a few steps as the realization that the potion had indeed worked as Harry said it would began to set in. As he did, he noticed that his clothing was hanging extremely loosely upon his frame. The only reason that his pants hadn't fallen to the floor was because of the suspenders he wore underneath his shirt were holding them up. Grabbing his torso and feeling his stomach in rising exhilaration, he cried out, "I'm thin! My stomach's gone! I can feel my ribs! I'm thin! I'm thin!" As he was looking down at his greatly flattened stomach, he saw something that he hadn't seen in an admittedly long time. "Holy fucking shit! I can see my dick!"

"Calm down, ya wanker," Harry called from where he was sitting with his back against the bedframe. "I bet all of Diagon Alley can hear you."

"But I'm thin!" Dudley cried out again, turning and beaming at his cousin with wide and truly honest delight. "I'm actually thin!"

Harry just snorted at his cousin's hysteria, his green eyes unencumbered by glasses for the first time in more than a decade.

Two weeks later

Despite his very limited scope and exposure to Wizarding homes, Harry could state with absolute certainty that the Black family home at Number 12 Grimmauld Place was the dreariest, filthiest, and most unwelcoming he'd likely ever come across in his entire life. He had only spent a week in the place and he already loathed it. Between the many hundreds of Dark artifacts, cursed items, the shrieking portrait of Sirius's mother, and the ghastly Kreacher trying to steal back all the items they tried to dispose of, there was truly nothing remotely good about the house itself. The only positive thing about it was the people he met inside it: members of Dumbledore's vigilante order against Voldemort like the Metamorphmagus Tonks, the Auror Shacklebolt, the real Moody; the Weasley family; and most importantly his best friends.

Needless to say, the Order of the Phoenix were in quite a state of panic and hysteria when he was finally brought in. They had heard the news that the Dursleys had been left comatose, their young son and sole heir joining a Hitwizard type of school, and Harry mysteriously disappearing for two weeks straight afterwards. Harry told them a slightly edited version of the truth. That he and Dudley had been attacked by Dementors but had made it back to the house safely, only to be attacked again later that night, which was when his relatives were Kissed and he somehow 'blasted them to pieces' in retaliation. The Order was quite nervous of the possibility that Dementors were already defecting to Voldemort's side and all of them had been confused as to how the soul-suckers managed to penetrate the protective wards that Dumbledore had likely put up around the house (which was news to Harry). In a strange twist of fate, Harry was actually secretly relieved that Mundungus Fletcher had abandoned his post of supervising Harry shortly before the attack. That meant that his creation and use of his lightsaber was still largely a secret.

It was late in the evening now that Harry was finally able to drag Hermione, Ron, and Sirius away to have a private discussion. Sirius had brought them up into his mother's old bedroom, which he had apparently decided to house the smelly, restless, and messy Buckbeak the Hippogriff. After placing silencing spells around the room to prevent eavesdropping, at Harry's request, Sirius finally turned to the dark-haired teenager and said, "Okay, lad, care to share what really happened?"

"Where's your glasses, mate?" Ron asked. "Lose them? Broke them again?"

"Ron, let him speak!" Hermione ordered, giving him a slight nudge in the gut with her elbow before returning her attention to Harry.

"Ron, Hermione, remember that 'secret project' I'd been working on last year?" Harry asked with a knowing grin.

At the reminder, both of them nodded with slightly pouting expressions on their faces, Hermione more so than Ron. They had been trying to figure out what he was working on so intensely that he even occasionally forgot about the dangerous tournament he'd been forcefully entered into, but he always clammed up and refused to tell them. He privately admitted to himself that he didn't tell them about it because he didn't want to humiliate himself on the likely chance his invention wouldn't work. Plus he didn't want to run the risk of having Hermione's logic trying to dissuade and discourage him.

"Well, I finished it a little before the Final Task," he said, his grin dropping at the memory of Cedric's death resurfacing. Quickly shaking it from his thoughts, he continued, "I had it on me when the Dementors attacked my cousin Dudley and I. With it, I was able to kill them."

"WHAT?!" all three of his companions demanded loudly, disbelief plainly obvious in their voices.

"You killed a Dementor?!" Sirius demanded, rushing forward and grabbing Harry by his shoulders, looking directly into his eyes as though searching for the answers. "HOW?!"

"Dementors are supposed to impossible to kill!" Hermione loudly declared in a rapid tone of voice with absolute certainty. "Even the mightiest of Wizards and Witches have been unable to actually kill them! And the only spell that actually affects them is the Patronus Charm! How could you possibly—"

"Hermione! Breathe!" Harry ordered, speaking louder than her to be heard. "And, if you guys'll give me a moment, I'll tell you!"

After several long moments of allowing them to calm down, Harry reached down and unhooked the hilt that was hanging from his belt strap while digging out the emitter shroud from his pocket. His friends and godfather watched in confusion and mounting anticipation as he screwed the two pieces together and took a few steps backwards from them. Holding up his lightsaber hilt, he grinned knowingly as they all stared at it with varying degrees of confusion. "This is what I was making last year, and how I was able to kill the Dementors."

With a snap-hiss, he ignited his lightsaber, causing all three to flinch back in surprise. But while Ron and Sirius just studied the light blade with a type of curious perplexity, Hermione's eyes widened significantly as she gasped out in shock.

"Harry!" she uttered. "Is—Is that—? Is that a—?"

"Lightsaber?" he finished for her, grinning even wider. He nodded. "Yup."

"What's a lightsaber?" came the predictable question from Ron.

"A fictional weapon used by a monastic order of warriors in a science fiction-fantasy story that Muggles like to watch on television," was Hermione's automatic and rather distracted answer. Her eyes still locked upon the blade, as though trapped in some kind of trance-like state.

"What?" Ron and Sirius both asked.

"A type of magic sword that many Muggles wish were real," Harry clarified, adjusting his grip on the hilt and holding the weapon out for Hermione to take hold of. Seeing the unresponsive girl was refusing to take it, Ron reached forward to take it, his hand heading for the blade itself. Harry quickly pulled the saber back out of reach. At Ron's questioning and somewhat hurt expression, he quickly said, "The blade can cut anything like magic. Take the hilt."

Ron nodded and, much more cautiously, reached forward and took hold of the weapon's hilt. Lifting the weapon up, he looked closer at the blade, with Sirius walking up next to him to examine it better himself. "It's so light," Ron observed. "Like the blade isn't even there."

"Which is part of the reason it's so dangerous," Hermione said, finally starting to come out of her stupor. "Unlike all other weapons, there's no counterweight on a lightsaber. With its ability to cut through anything, a person could easily cut their own limbs off if they're not paying attention."

"It can cut through anything?" Sirius repeated, looking between the lightsaber, Hermione, and Harry.

"Well, I still haven't quite finished testing it," Harry admitted sheepishly. "But it definitely cut the Dementors apart!"

"How did you manage to make this?!" Hermione finally shrieked, turning her full attention onto Harry. "You have to tell me! I want to know! Did you document it?! PLEASE TELL ME YOU DOCUMENTED THIS!"

"Er…not really," Harry admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "All I really did was draw up a few sketches, make a few notes and lists of ideas. I didn't see the point of trying to 'document it' since I wasn't sure if it'd really work. I didn't want to record something that might embarrass me later if it went wrong."

"But, Harry, if you didn't write down what you did wrong, how could you be sure what you did next wasn't just some variation of what you did before?! Thomas Edison documented every one of his failures before he managed to succeed in making the light bulb! How could you be so lax?!" She asked in horror. "You are going to teach me how to make one!"

Harry didn't doubt her for a second.

"You said it can cut through anything?" Ron asked, a strange expression of hopeful yearning and frightened anxiety on his face. "Really?"

"It's partly made of plasma, so it's possible," Harry said. Seeing Ron and Sirius's confusion, he added, "Basically, really, really hot 'solid fire'."

"Let's test that," Sirius said, taking out his wand and conjuring several large objects. The blocks were all different materials like wood, steel, granite, marble, and he ever transfigured a rotted floorboard into a pig.

Ron glanced between the different blocks and the saber, finally looking over at Harry questioningly. Harry shrugged and waved his hand in permission. Smiling slightly, Ron first approached the block of wood. Making sure no one was near him, he gave a tentative swing, apparently only really expecting it to hit against the edge of the wooden block and bounce off like a normal sword blade. Instead, the saber easily sliced through several inches of the wood before Ron caught himself and jumped back in surprise, revealing a darkened slash mark in the wood where the blade had been.

"No way!" Ron said, disbelief obvious in his voice. "I wasn't even really trying and look at it!"

"Well, I'd say the wood is a positive test result," Hermione remarked in a dry tone, far from impressed or surprised. Moving forward, she carefully took the blade from Ron. "My turn."

Turning to the steel block as Sirius distractedly vanished the wood, she gave a much harder swing than Ron. Unlike with the wood, the steel beam was visibly stronger and much more able to resist the saber blade. Hermione's swing was slowed significantly several inches into the beam, reduced to little more than a slow pull. Rather than cut the beam all the way through, she retracted the lightsaber halfway, deactivating the saber and watching the molten steel slowly cool and harden again. "Interesting."

The granite block proved to be the toughest to cut through since it was both heavier and denser than the steel had been. But the saber did manage to make a small amount of damage to the stone after several long moments of exposure. By contrast, the marble was like the midway point between the wood and steel, slightly harder to cut through but not enough to slow or stop a dedicated power attack, as Sirius so happily demonstrated after several tries while wearing a shit-eating grin.

Finally reaching the pig, all of them just started at the oinking creature for a long moment. "I guess it goes without saying that it could kill the pig," Harry said quietly, no one objecting to his assumption as he deactivated the saber.

"Now I know for sure where you get your brains from," Sirius said, staring at Harry as though seeing him for the first time. "James was many things, but an inventor was not one of them. This…weapon could be worth thousands of galleons! Bloody hell, this is worth more than gold. It could introduce a whole new level of magical combat!"

"Exactly," Harry said. "A new level where old Tom won't have the default advantage anymore!"

"I wonder if the lightsaber can also do what it does in the movies," Hermione muttered to herself.

"What's that?" Ron asked, curious to know what else this strange new weapon could do.

"Harry, one last experiment," Hermione said, before looking over at Sirius. "Could you try to stun him?"

"Huh?"

"Oh, I get it!" Harry said, catching onto what Hermione was hinting towards. Quickly reigniting his saber, he held it protectively in front of his body, staring and waiting for Sirius to attack. "Come on, Sirius. Take a shot at me!"

Though confused, the man complied and fired a Stunner at his godson. He and Ron watched in shock as Harry just barely managed to maneuver his lightsaber and catch the spell on the blade, sending the bolt of magic ricocheting off to the side and impacting the far wall. As Harry and Hermione were looking over at the wall, Ron and Sirius were visibly gawking. The lightsaber could also deflect and redirect spells?! Forget what he said earlier, this wasn't just a new level but a whole new realm of unexplored magical combat!

"Hey, Sirius, what are those over there?" Harry asked, staring at something he could see on the wall, drawing the man's attention to where he was looking.

Sirius blinked in surprise at what he saw. There, lining the wall where his stunner had impacted, was a pair of shelves that ran the whole length of the wall and jam-packed with books, scrolls, and parchment. How had he never noticed that before? "Don't know. I could've sworn I cleared this room before I brought Buckbeak in here." Then, as Harry sheathed his blade, the bookshelves inexplicably disappeared. All of them just blinked in surprise when they saw that.

"No way!" Sirius muttered, somewhat shocked.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Ron muttered under his breath, realizing that they'd just discovered yet another ability of the lightsaber. The ability to reveal what was hidden under magic. Looking over at Harry, he said, "Mate, how long does it take to make one of those?" When Harry glanced at him, he just grinned embarrassedly, rubbing the back of his neck as his ears turned slightly red. "I think I want one too."

"We must experiment!" Sirius suddenly loudly declared, a strange excitement rising to surface in him. This strongly reminded him of his dearly beloved years back in Hogwarts and experimenting with potions and spells with the Marauders. He suddenly felt twenty years younger! Harry just chuckled as he reignited the lightsaber and went along with Sirius as they tried to figure out the limits of his lightsaber's 'revealing' power.

Several minutes later, he locked the blade on and set the lightsaber down on the block of marble that Sirius still hadn't yet vanished. With the proper illumination, all four of them moved over to clean and clear the bookshelves. As he was peering across the various titles of the books, one particular leather-bound book caught his eye for some reason. Cautiously taking ahold of it and pulling it out gently, in case there were any unpleasant curses waiting, he lowered the book down and quietly read the title.

'The Art of Sorcery' by Sir Henry Morgan. For some reason, he felt…compelled to take this book.

(Author's Note) A fast update, whaddya know?! But don't get use to this. I've just been unusually inspired by this story. But I've also run into some problems with my storyline and how certain characters will develop as the plot progresses. But, that those problems don't really start until a little further into the storyline than this.

Big thanks to Fiori75 for helping me refine this chapter, and M2J MandalorianJedi for helping me fine tune the storyline.

But, the biggest thanks goes to all of you for your insightful and reviews and your choices of a pairing for Harry. I still haven't made my choice on that matter, but I do now have a list to work with. Thanks again!

PS: Harry was EXAGGERATING when he said Dudley weighed 600 kilograms!