Inspired by the challenge set down by Acolyte of the Blood Moon. What if Harry was the reincarnation of a certain green-eyed SOLDIER? Hopefully fast updates, if people like it.
Chapters will get longer and longer each time! Rejoice Happy People!
A shout-out to my inspirations! dantesdarkqueen, AmazonTurk, and Lord Shinta. Some of the best writers of Final Fantasy 7 on the site, and Lord Shinta one of the best FF7 crossover writers. Go and read their works now! I highly suggest Evidence of Sephiroth's Humanity, Operation: Assassination, and Snow Day.
Updates will be weekly.
Never a Memory...
"Harry my boy, the invitation was only for you."
Harry stood firm, staring the old man down. Thing is, he knew better than to look him in the eye anymore. His gaze was fixed on his nose. "Anything you tell me, I'm going to tell her anyway."
Dumbledore stared for a moment, as if testing their resolve, before nodding at turning to a niche in the wall. "All right, if you are sure about this. A new perspective might be of use." Only to blink as he turned back, Harry chewing on a Chocolate Frog from his desk.
The young man shrugged apologetically when Hermione elbowed him. "Sorry, I've just been craving sugar lately. And muggle energy drinks, I could not tell you why," he offered, slurping the kicking leg into his mouth.
Hermione shook her head at the young SOLDIER before turning to the Headmaster. "You mentioned a new perspective Headmaster. What are we going to be discussing?"
The older Wizard turned back to the niche, a glass vial in his hand. "Not discuss young Lady, but observe. Harry, do you remember what these are?"
"Memories. About Voldemort I'm guessing?"
"Indeed. This first one," he offered, pouring the silvery strand of memory into the Pensieve, "is the memory of one Bob Odgen, a Ministry worker. If you will?" he offered with a withered hand. Carefully, the pair grabbed each others hand, before diving into the memory.
The memory was dark and smudged, as if being viewed through an ink drawing that had been left out in the rain. The hut that the Ministry worker was walking towards was the largest in the nearby area, but so badly run down that it seemed to be held together with nothing more than luck and magic. A snake was nailed to the front door, and Hermione recoiled from the dead serpent, dried blood staining the ancient wood.
"Hermione? Any ideas?" Harry whispered as Parseltongue drifted through the air. Harry could understand the rude words of unwelcome, and considering Dumbledore could speak 300 languages, he highly suspected that he could as well. Hermione was the only one he knew for sure was in the dark.
The fiery young woman pursed her lips as the memories argued and bickered. "I think, that the inbreeding has reached a point of no return. They are completely insane." Her eyes narrowed as Morfin struck the sister, who was far from a beauty. "I wish to see more, but I believe that they are little more than Squibs at this point, and it's driving them to the brink from the anger."
"And you would be correct Miss. Granger," Dumbledore offered as the woman crumbled under the abuse from her family, gold locket glinting dully in the faint light. "After this, Marvolo and Morfin were sentenced to Azkaban, where Morfin's mind collapsed under the strain the Dementors induced, leaving Merope," he nodded towards the young woman, who was being strangled by Marvolo as they continued to watch, "free to pursue the man she loved. A young Muggle Lord."
"Tom Riddle," Harry offered as they exited the memory, the night of the graveyard coming to mind. Bone of the Father, with the name on the tombstone being one Tom Riddle.
"Indeed. Form what I was able to gather, she fed him Love Potions in order to make him pay her any attention. When she eventually found herself to be pregnant, she stopped, hoping he had fallen for her by himself and would now stay, if only for the child."
"I'm guessing he didn't."
"You would guess correctly Harry. Riddle abandoned her immediately, denouncing her for the Witch she was in truth, and returned home. Merope was left alone, disowned by the only family she had left. She lived only long enough to give birth to a son and name him for his father and grandfather. Tom Marvolo Riddle."
"Do you have more memories we could observe Headmaster?" Hermione asked, finger tapping on her chin as she contemplated.
"Not tonight Miss Granger," Dumbledore said mildly, scooping the memory back into its vial, the tick gold ring glinting on his withered hand. "Everything in moderation and all."
"Bullshit."
Dumbledore jerked back at the angry snap from Harry. "Mr. Potter-"
"No. We are in the middle of a war. We cannot waste time waiting for you to hand out information in small pieces. A man who knows everything about his enemy will survive compared to the man who only knows rumors." Cool peridot eyes stared the old man down. "Please, another one."
Something flickered in those blue eyes. Hermione and Harry would later agree that it was an odd mix of annoyance and pride. But for the moment, the old wizard nodded as he poured in a new memory. "This one, you may see on your own. I will answer any questions you will have at the end."
Again, the world formed around them in splashes of ink, a rainy London day forming. A younger Dumbledore was marching past them, and they could see thin streaks of color still in his beard and hair. Strange to think that the old man they both knew might have once been a blond.
"If I had grown up in a place like this, I would be hateful too," Hermione muttered as the memory of Dumbledore was led through the orphanage, the Matron grumbling and gossiping nervously as she led them to a single room. "I do not like what I'm hearing here," she offered.
Harry raised an eyebrow as Dumbledore's memory was left alone with the young Tom."Which part? The bullying of the other kids, or the killing of the helpless animals?"
"All of it." She nodded her head towards the stoic young man sitting on the corner of the cot, dark eyes cool as the Professor introduced him to Magical World."He's showing some rather disturbing signs. Namely, sociopathic tendencies. He obviously does not care about the pain he has inflicted on his fellow orphans, and has already killed something, just to get a point across."
"I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do things without training them. I can make bad things happen to people I don't like. Make them hurt. If I like."
The pair flinched at this. "Oh yeah. Like THAT wasn't a big enough clue that this child might be a little bit fucked up in the head…" Hermione muttered, and it was pure Genesis slipping through. "Never did think Dumbledore was the brightest Mako bulb on the string."
Another small flinch as the cabinet went up in flames, and both soldiers watched as young Tom did not flinch away or search for water, but only grinned as he stalked clumsily up to the flames. He'd only been using his magic for smaller things, destructive, but smaller. He know knew that there was more, more destructive things he could learn as he pulled out the small trophies of his conquests. "Does he really think a simple warning is gonna make him stop stealing?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"Apparently, yes."
The smarter student shook her head as they came out again, her mind racing over the information they had just recently seen. "There was no warning to you about this child?" she shot at the Headmaster. "No little voice in your head that would say that this child might need extra monitoring, or coaching?"
"Do you mean, did I know at the time that I had just introduced the newest Dark Lord to our world?" The old man shook his head. "No, I did not. If anything, I knew he was destined for great things, that he would bring changes to our world."
"Just not the changes you were hoping for."
A few minutes later found the pair all but kicked out, the man dismissing them for the night with the assurance that he would contact Harry for the next session. The pair took the wording though, that he would only extend the invitation to Harry, and not the both of them.
"Up for a workout Hermione?"
"Of course, but should you get some extra sleep? I mean, you have tryouts for the Quidditch team tomorrow morning."
The young man shrugged as Hermione paced in front of the RoR's wall. "I don't know. I mean, considering everything that's starting to happen, I've been thinking about giving it up. Maybe letting Ginny take it over."
The young woman shook her head at this as the door appeared. "Harry, you know my opinion of flying."
"It's not high"
"Very funny. But everyone needs a way to relax, and for you, it's flying."
"Not sure why anymore, I've been having too many memories of helicopter crashes lately."
"Too be fair, half of those were probably caused by Wutai, and the other half by the idiot Turks who were at the wheel."
"Turks?"
"You'll remember them eventually. And won't Big Brother Turk be happy about that if we find him. But anyway, flying is for you what reading is for me. And the last thing we want is for a SOLDIER to get so wound up that he starts making mistakes." She grinned as she grabbed a dumbbell. The room had changed into a muggle-style gym, sans the treadmills. Seemed that Hermione still had issues with remembering that the Room could fake Muggle things so that they worked with magic. "So stay with the team. If you don't, I'm gonna have to cut you off from the caffeinated drinks to keep you from being jittery."
"You are, a very cruel, cruel woman."