Ever since the age of five, Hadrian James Potter, otherwise known as Harry, of No.4 Privet Drive had been aware of a difference between him and any other people he'd met. 'The Force', as he'd christened it after reading part of a Star Wars book, had healed him after an attempted beating from the walrus that he unfortunately acknowledged as his uncle.
Daily over a period of six years, Harry had trained himself to use these powers, strengthening mind and body, manipulating the physical world and mental world, often breaking the laws of physics. With fencing, kendo and karate lessons, he'd quickly become a powerful combatant any time that Gang Dursley came after him. Of course, Harry removed the memories of this training from his family or assailants.
With his school studies suitably dumbed down so as to not arouse the ill will of his relatives, Harry intensely studied financial management, politics and law. Upon arriving at Hogwarts, he redoubled his studies in magical law, finance and politics. What Harry saw there disgusted him, the British Magical World had been decimated by one war after another for several centuries and the weak and cowardly survived by keeping their heads down.
Albus Dumbledore was responsible for a lot of this. He spent months cultivating the Greater Good with Gellert Grindelwald, taking years to confront the ever-strengthening Dark Lord as he lead his army, the Ahnenerbe, and the muggle leader Adolf Hitler's war machine across Europe, Siberia, Asia and the seas between.
Then, as his former student Thomas Marvolo Riddle reaped hell across Britain, he preached redemption and second chances. In Harry's opinion, Riddle was completely lost from the moment he made his first Horcrux. Dumbledore had decided that the blood-supremacy running rampant in Hogwarts, if clamped down on, would simply send more to the Dark. How wrong he was.
However, as Harry's years progressed, he hid his full potential, training under the tutelage of portraits depicting Salazar Slytherin, his honourary sister, Rowena Ravenclaw and his honourary brother, the Templar, Rowena's husband. In the lower Chamber of Secrets, below the Basilisk's hibernation area, he learnt magic, both light, grey and dark. All without arousing the suspicion of the miserable master manipulator.
After Dumbledore had died, the real Harry came into play, vanishing from the Dursley's with his collection of spare wands, including Dumbledore's own. Salazar had told him the true provenance of his cloak and its companions which Harry obtained upon the headmaster's death.
Armed with sword and wand, the Lord Pellinore wreaked havoc with the Death Eaters, obliterating bases in fireballs, killing teams without warning or quarter. It took a few weeks of hard work to obtain all of the Horcruxes which Riddle had created, he'd long since retrieved Slytherin's Locket during the summer before his fifth year, cleansing both it and his scar of their respective taints.
Bellatrix had taken a parsel imperius and retrieved Hufflepuff's Cup before being butchered in the middle of Diagon Alley. Malfoy Senior had met the same fate for simply harbouring one of the foul artefacts. Ravenclaw's Diadem had been cleansed during his exploration of the Room of Requirement in his fifth year.
He'd stuck a piece of Nagini on the front doors of Hogwarts, one on a pillar in the centre of Diagon Alley and on the 'Magic is Might' statue in the Ministry.
With the Diary, the Locket, the Ring, the Diadem, the Cup, Nagini and Harry's scar destroyed or cleansed, Harry hunted Voldemort relentlessly, leaving a bloody swathe of Death Eaters behind him. The Pellinore Family Magic he had inherited through his late mother had proven useful as they were warriors, fighting to win. Harry truly felt sad at each person he killed, often wondering if different circumstances, less prejudice would have made them different people.
Hermione and Ron had been both loyal to him, to the light and Dumbledore. They hadn't truly betrayed him but they had fed information to the meddler which would have been extracted via legilimency had they not. That didn't mean Harry trusted them any more than the rest of the world.
When Harry had claimed the ancestral properties of the Pellinore line, Voldemort had attacked upon seeing the banner of an eagle, wings spread on a blue background surrounded by gold crosses flying from the towers of Hogwarts. The same arms worn by the assailant who had mercilessly butchered his Death Eaters and left at the scene of each massacre. The same arms that were in the nightmares of every pureblood.
The Pellinore family, being warriors, were infamous for their skill in combat as their very blood adapted to its task. Absorbing every skill and ability into the bloodline, upon claiming the title of Lord Pellinore, Harry had received a true inheritance. While they were neither rich nor well known, centuries ago, they had moved around the country like wraiths, taking, destroying but never unjustly or without purpose. They were the grey, neither light nor dark, utilising both and living with and in the shadows.
Harry was a politician, a strategist, a lawyer but first and foremost, a warrior. Before he gained his inheritance, he'd already been pushed in that direction by his bloodline. The Potters were traditionally a powerful family, but with the introduction of the last heiress of the extinct Pellinore line, the production was a person of incredible power, morals and strength.
Upon acceptance of the inheritance, Harry changed, physically and mentally. He grew to near six feet tall, neither massively bulky or massively thin but lithe and powerful. His mind moved a hundred times faster than any other, he could slow down his perception of time. His hair grew long until he tied it back in a ponytail, becoming flat, tameable and a dark brown streaked with tiny lines of silver.
Upgraded Harry version 2.0 operated of the Pellinore Seat at Northgale Castle, a veritable fortress, warded and physically. The immense library and duelling rooms served him well, though it was often lonely. He grew accustomed to living alone, with nought but Ares, the Pellinore Phoenix and several house elves for company.
When Voldemort attacked Hogwarts, he was furious to see his forces decimated by the incredible defences that the old outpost of the Pellinore Territories wielded. Advancing with a platoon of his best Death Eaters, he watched as a lone warlock tore a bloody swathe through them.
Dolohov was split in half from right shoulder to crotch, Narcissa was decapitated by a sword-blow, a dagger disembowelled Macnair, Amycus and Alecto Carrow died in a jet of black-coloured fire which melted the stone below them and obliterated them. Rudolphus and Rabastan lost their lives to slashing curses. Dozens died in an hour of fierce fighting before the young Hadrian Pellinore faced down with Voldemort, Harry Potter having died in the inheritance, if he'd ever truly been more than a mask.
The inhabitants of Hogwarts awoke and rushed to see the courtyard obliterated by two warring mages. Finally, Voldemort had succumbed to numerous wound including being barbecued, impaled on two swords, encased in ice, electrocuted in boiling water and a selection of other dark spells.
Turning his back on the rest of the inhabitants, Harry strode away and disapparated. Now, a few weeks later, near his eighteenth birthday, he was stood at the lone arrow-slit illuminating the Lord's Hall overlooking Northgale town, long abandoned, a dozen manors surrounding the lowest reaches of the castle hill, hundreds of medium sized houses from the fourteenth century at the latest occupied the rest of the town.
The Goblins, upon seeing what they saw as the defeat at the Ministry, had sealed his vaults and prepared to hand them over to the Death Eaters, forcing him to take action. Harry had stormed the bank and killed the manager for the insult and removed the monetary contents of his own personal vaults, both the Black trust and Potter trust which were all that the Goblins could affect.
The contents of those vaults now resided in a shrunken trunk around his neck along with an emergency supply of potions and a few other objects of use. Retrieving the three Deathly Hallows from the trunk by simply tapping one of his wands against it, he ran each object through his hands, thinking;
'Where did these get us, where did Dumbledore get us? What would it be like to change all of this? To go back and fight against the rising Riddle?'
Harry's chair fell out from under him. Spotting it on the other side of the room, he frowned and noted the layer of dust which most certainly hadn't been their before. Then there was the fact that it was much colder now than it had been a moment before, the fireplace was empty, the torches unlit or simply missing.
"Walter!" he barked.
A house elf appeared in the standard apparel of the House of Pellinore, hands raised guardedly.
"You is new Master? I is feeling a change in the bloodline minutes ago!" he exclaimed.
"New? I've been the Lord Pellinore since the summer of '97?" asked Harry.
"Is new Master feeling all-right, winter of 1973 it is!" asked Walter.
"Oh shit." was Harry's curt response.
"Is Master all-right?" asked the elf curiously.
"Yes Walter, can you begin cleaning and restoring the castle, purchase extra elves if you need to." Harry instructed; "Also, I want the wards strengthened, I believe you know how?"
"Of course Lord Pellinore, I will get on it immediately. You is bringing the House of Pellinore to glory once again?"
"I shall, and if you must call me by titles, Master Hadrian will do." Harry sighed.
"Very well Master Hadrian, you can begin by attending the Wizen Council at the big meeting tomorrow!" ordered the elf.
"The Wizengamot. Great, old men and pureblood supremacists the lot of them." he sighed before sloping off in search of the book of debts, after all, enemies may have old debts to pay.
An hour later and Harry had a list scribbled down next to his chair in the newly cleaned study;
Unpaid Death Eater family debts:
Malfoy: Saved the lives of the entire family at the Siege of Paris 845 A.D. Life Debt on the Lord's line.
Feud against the Gallway family, Pellinore Family hired, Gallway family wiped out. Debt on the Lord's line.
Feud against the Sidmouth family, Pellinore Family hired, Sidmouth family wiped out. Debt on the Lord's line.
Macnair: Clan Feud 987 A.D, Pellinore Family hired, McDubh clan wiped out. Debt on the Lord's line.
Clan Feud, Pellinore Family hired, McAllister clan wiped out. Debt on the Lord's line.
Warded Macnair seat. Monetary debt on the Lord's line.
Lestrange – Non-aggression over the murder of William Rufus 1100 A.D. Monetary debt on the Lord's line.
House feud, Pellinore Family hired, LeBlanc wiped out. Debt on the Lord's line.
MacArrow, now Carrow: Clan Feud 1232 A.D Pellinore Family hired, McClivert Clan wiped out. Debt on the Lord's line.
Clan Feud 1232 A.D, Pellinore Family hired, MacBoon clan permanently transfigured. Debt on the Lord's line.
Black: Shipping protection 1200 – 1422. Monetary debt on the Lord's line.
Saved lives of Ajax and Polaris Black at the Siege of Acre. Twin life debt on the Lord's line.
House Feud, Pellinore Family hired, Mortimer Family wiped out. Debt on the Lord's line.
Yaxley: House Feud, Pellinore Family hired, Beauchamps wiped out. Debt on the Lord's line.
Pellinore Family retracted Blood Feud. Blood debt.
With just the more notable debts written down, Harry mused on his plans for the future. Saving the Black Family would be good. Rudolphus Lestrange had fed Bellatrix the Imperius Potion for the necessary ten years to bleach all previous remnants of loyalty and personality from her. Narcissa had been bought for Lucius and bound by a marriage contract and Andromeda was struck barren as her only child died. Sirius and Regulus had both died, Arcturus and Cygnus surviving into Harry's lifetime while much of the rest of the family had died during the war or withered away shortly afterward.
Then there was the Order of the Phoenix, misled and led by misleadership with Albus Dumbledore, too many had died, often needlessly because Dumbledore wanted second chances for the Death Eaters. Had half of the Death Eaters been put down like rabid dogs, Britain would have been in a much better state post-war and it would have been unlikely that their would have been a second.
That would end. The Black Family would not fall as it had done, trying to both appease the Dark Lord, the Dark Families and their own need to hold a foot in both camps. Sirius was groomed to be a grey wizard but against the purists while much of the rest of the family was either groomed or pressured to follow the purists. The Order would not be led to its doom by an old wizard without any view of the small people. The Potter family would be guided to the grey, fighting against the dark and siding against Albus 'Greater Good' Dumbledore.
The nightmare of the Pellinore Family would descend on the wizarding world again, pitting the incredible power of the family, even with just a lone member against the dark forces. There was a reason that the Pellinores were regarded as a nightmarish legend, drifting from the shadows, tearing through wards like parchment, the glowing green eyes which were the trademark of the family.
Harry slept fitfully that night, plans, ideas , hundreds of them swimming through his mind at an incredible rate. When morning came, he ate lightly before dressing in a robe of black dragonhide with scraps of chainmail visible from its edges. Flipping up the hood on his cloak, he made the necessary adjustments.
A longsword hung on one hip, a dagger on the inside of each forearm, the coat of arms of the family on one shoulder, the enchantments which made the dragonhide robe seem like it was emerging from the darkness, swathing him in shadows. Finally, the black vortex of darkness in his hood, only pierced by the glowing green of his eyes which were part of the fear spread about the Pellinores.
He disapparated, heading to the private offices and sitting rooms of the the Great Houses, of which few survived. The four founding houses were gone, though it was possible that Riddle could claim Slytherin, though were he to, Harry would have no compunction in putting a blasting curse straight into him. The few remainders of the Arthurian knights were long gone, Pellinore being the last to die out.
Alone in what he would describe as an elegant saloon, Harry paced for a few minutes until a gong rang out. He swept out onto a balcony, surrounded by a dozen or more high-backed seats, looking down onto the courtroom he had last seen at his trial in 1995.
He watched, wrapped in shadows as dozens flooded onto all the other sections of the balconies, Harry sat alone on his end of things, gazing at faces old and new. Very few he recognised, but one or two he remembered or could recognise from photos, paintings or their descendants.
Dumbledore swept in, wearing garishly coloured robes which made the entire Wizengamot blink with both incredulity and sore eyes.
'The contrast between my robes and outlook with those of Albus Dumbledore is so different' Harry mused.
"Hear ye, hear ye, Chief Warlock Dumbledore presiding over the first winter convocation of the Wizengamot!" called out the scribe.
"I hereby take the presiding seat of this convocation." declared Dumbledore, stepping up to his lectern; "Do declare should you have any business before the Wizengamot."
"I do, Chief Warlock." sneered someone, spitting out the title like poison.
"Very well, Lord Robert Lestrange has the floor, Lord Lestrange?" said Dumbledore, unperturbed by the hateful tone of the man.
"Yes, I have been asked to represent the Purist Movement, as we have seen the infection of the muggleborn on this country. The Old Ways, thousands of years of tradition, are being thrown out in favour of modern muggle ways which have no place in this world. We must restrict and reduce the muggleborn blight and bring back to greatness the purebloods and our traditions!" announced Lestrange.
Harry meanwhile was quietly perusing the man's mind for scraps of information as he looked at his next target.
"I protest the description of the first-generation witches and wizards as an 'infection' or a 'blight'. If you are truly so shallow to see them as any more, they are at least a means to prevent the inbreeding which has been and infection and a blight on some old pureblood houses. The strength of magic, the strength of willpower and physical strength all degrade with inbreeding." thundered a man from one of the Most Noble and Ancient Houses.
"Come come Lord Potter, surely you do not believe your own platitudes?" asked Lestrange derisively.
"I do indeed believe what my own research has indicated. Do you know how many of your pureblood houses, especially the dark ones, have inbred themselves to death, marrying cousins, siblings and so on, who are themselves so inbred that the result is squibdom. However, I am not so shallow as to see the first-generations as just a breeding tool, they are living, walking, thinking beings with emotion, wants and needs as we all are. Tradition must be preserved but innovation encouraged! The borders of magic which do not corrupt should be explored, and those who haven't been raised with the artificial rules of magic are the best to do so!" replied Charlus Potter coldly.
"Yes yes, we all know how you believe in innovation, but truly believing in the preservation of pure lines by diluting them with lesser blood?" Lestrange commented; "How many times has our Lord offered you a place with him to serve the Greater Good of the pure?"
Harry finished perusing his mind for useful knowledge of the present situation before standing from his seat and thundering across the hall;
"Ask your master about lesser blood! Ask your master about his squib mother! Ask him about his muggle father! Do not spread your vitriol and the false platitudes and empty promises of Tom Marvolo Riddle amongst us! He proclaims himself Lord Voldemort, yet he is false nobility, a usurper of the title!"
Lestrange quailed under the furious, eldritch green gaze of the newest comer to the argument, the lone member of the Great Houses who nobody had noticed. Harry then dropped his furious aura a bit and turned his gaze to rove the seats;
"Do many of you buy into the false platitudes and empty promises of a false lord with an empty name? Is either Voldemort or Riddle a name amongst the old houses, or even the Great Houses of which I represent the last. Do none of us realise that you are being deceived, manipulated and arranged like chess pieces by this false lord, OR DO YOU WANT THAT?" he commented scathingly, alternating between hissing, roaring and flat comments; "However, I give you my promise that the Pellinore family will NOT stand by and let anyone subjugate mankind, even from any self-appointed 'Greater Good'. I will not let my family serve a man who preaches purist mania but is a halfblood, not even having the decency to be a hypocrite born from a witch or wizard or both, but a hypocrite born of a squib and a muggle!"
"THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH!" bellowed Lestrange; "A feud on you Pellinore, a feud! A man too cowardly to show his face before us, yet he preaches his own rhetoric!"
Harry stepped forward, his voice deadly;
"A coward who does not bow to an insane megalomaniac. I bow to no man. Yet who here bears the slave brand of Thomas Marvolo Riddle?"
Thrusting his hand forward, Harry caught Lestrange with a wandless constrictor hex, combined with a mild levitation charm. It was ironic that the force choke he'd copied from Star Wars, a muggle film, was being used to humiliate this man.
Forcefully dragging him through the air toward him, Harry flung back his hood, his aura fluctuating massively. His killing curse green eyes bored into Lestrange;
"A feud you say, what will you give me to not go after your family. Maybe one day you should see the list of names ended by my line. Did you not know that I hold a debt over your line for the eradication of the LeBlanc line? So do tell, how a pathetic little family such as yours expects to destroy a house which has existed since before the Arthurian rule of the wizarding world?" he said softly, his voice carrying across the entire chamber.
Harry then released both spells while adding a banishing hex, sending Lestrange spinning into the edge of the balcony below his seat and sliding down into the floor of the chamber.
"Do not cross me, the consequences are unpleasant." Harry added offhandedly as he settled back into his seat; "Now that that complete waste of time, debating over no legislation but simply squabbling is over, have we got any real business? And I beg of those of you who are true gentlemen not to follow the example of Lestrange."
He cast a spell which temporarily made people forget he was still in the room. For half an hour, non-consequential things were discussed before Charlus Potter brought his own proposition to the table;
"My Lords, Ladies, with the resurgence in dark activity, the highest seen since the Grindelwald Conflict, I wish to propose an increase in Auror and Hitwizard recruitment, lessening the restriction on their spell repertoire, allowing for more lethality and power."
"Now now Charlus, I really don't think this is necessary or the right time to bring this up at all." admonished Dumbledore in his usual infuriatingly condescending, grandfatherly tone.
Harry saw Lord Potter glare at Dumbledore and he quickly stood, dropping the charm which acted as a notice-me-not.
"Chief Warlock, it is neither your place to address the Head of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Potter as anything less than Lord Potter in these chambers or to comment on the legislation. It is your duty to coordinate events within the chamber, not to make comments or attempt to block said legislation." Harry said coldly; "Be that as it may, I for one agree with Lord Potter, for limiting our Law Enforcement will result in needless casualties and fatalities, requiring new recruits to take their places under-trained, which will in turn result in needless casualties and fatalities. We are talking here of brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, not pawns on a chessboard. On a chessboard, I would willingly sacrifice a few pawns, maybe a bishop or a knight to take a queen. This is not chess, this is life where lives are at stake! DO YOU WANT THESE DEATHS ON YOUR HANDS?" Harry asked, roaring his last question.
"My Lord Pellinore has a point, these are not chess pieces but real people, much as the first-generation are not pawns or cattle but real people." commented Charlus Potter approvingly.
"But you would let Aurors use borderline dark magic to apprehend criminals?" asked a Wizengamot member.
"What is Dark, what is Light?" Harry asked; "I have fought before for my life. I used a levitation charm to drop someone from fifty feet in the air when they tried to kill me. I used a sleeping charm to stop someone's heart? Is either spell dark but did I use them to kill? I did indeed. Then I have used the Imperius to get someone to drop their wand and release a hostage, I've used the Imperius to move someone from the edge of a building and from committing suicide. I've used the cruciatus to restart a dying man's heart, I've used the cruciatus to force someone out of a permanent coma. I've used a killing curse to put a friend out of his misery as he begged me to kill him as the pain from an incurable curse consumed him. I've used a killing curse to bring down a rabid werewolf who locked himself inside a hospital on the night of the full moon. I've even prevented a werewolf from going rabid when his cage was sabotaged, freeing him in a house full of children by using the Imperius. Was my use of unforgivable curses unforgivable when I used them to save lives, heal people and put people out of their misery?"
"YOU'RE A DARK WIZARD!" screamed someone.
"I'M AS DARK OR LIGHT AS MY INTENT MAKES ME!" Harry roared; "I WILL NEVER WANTONLY DESTROY, TORTURE OR MURDER. I FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT, NOT WHAT IS EASY AND I FIGHT FOR MY LIFE! I am disgusted by the close-mindedness of the members of what was once a great council, now reduced to what? Squabbling over why they are better than other wizards? Most see things in black and white, dark and light, they never see the between, neutrality, either in conflict or alignment."
Some people were nodding in agreement, some looked insulted while some looked on in disgust, mostly from the extreme light sided and extreme dark sided. Harry was surprised to see the agreement of Arcturus Black, Charlus Potter, Harfang Longbottom and Simeon Prewett. He'd always expected the latter two to be light as light could be while he knew Charlus was light side of grey and Arcturus was the only level-headed member of the family at this time, an opportunistic man with family first drilled into his mind.
"So, which of you wish to limit our Law Enforcement, thereby condemning members to death or incapacitation because they cannot respond to force with anything more than tickling charms and if they are careful not to make them too powerful, disarming charms." Harry asked acidly, continuing when silence reigned; "Very well, Chief Warlock, if you'll do the honours."
"Y-y-yes Lord Pellinore." replied Dumbledore, shaking himself from a stupor; "All in favour of a fifteen percent increase in budget for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, twenty percent recruitment increase and a review of combat procedures for the DMLE?"
When Harry, Charlus and Arcturus voted in favour, nobody felt like opposing them. Blacks held the ear of many of the Dark Families, Charlus was big with the Neutrals, Greys and some of the Lights. Harry was a fearsome unknown, no house wanted to know if they held a debt to the Pellinores and in the end nearly three quarters of the chamber voted in favour.
"Very well, motion approved. Any business...? No? This convocation is hereby ended!" Dumbledore declared.
Harry quickly rose from his seat, wanting to converse with some of the lower houses as he swept out of the box and into the saloon, making his way into the corridor. He was confronted with a dozen Death Eaters who suddenly became somewhat unnerved as a grin that had no right being anywhere else but on the face of a shark adorned Harry's face.
As near a dozen killing curses were being cast, Harry wrenched the nearest Death Eater to him, redirecting his half-cast curse, allowing it to continue being cast, sending one attacker spinning away in a vortex of green. Ten more killing curses hit the Death Eater he was using a shield.
'Two down, ten to go.' Harry thought happily as he pushed aside the body.
Grabbing another, he spun him over, smashing his face into the floor. By the way his neck flopped, Harry had broken it, killing him stone dead. Stepping over the body, Harry suddenly spun around, gathering momentum into a vicious blow into the windpipe of fourth Death Eater who died with a horrific noise as his windpipe and arteries were crushed by the edge of the hand which slammed into his throat.
Almost lazily, Harry pulled a fifth Death Eater, redirecting the killing curse he was casting so that it impacted another attacker, killing him stone dead before Harry snapped the caster's neck and threw the body aside.
'Six down six to go. Not so good looking is it boys. I haven't even drawn my wand.' he said, grinning mentally.
Reaching out, he snatched another, spinning the body away as his neck broke from a vicious twist which produced a wince-inducing crack. Harry continued to walk forward, a mawashi-geri spinning kick to the head sending another Death Eater to the floor with a broken neck.
When two killing curses were fired at him, Harry stepped aside smartly and let them hit those that hadn't cast them before continuing forward. He grabbed the nearest Death Eater and threw him over, not letting go of his head. The force of the weight of the body versus the somewhat immovable head ended with a broken neck as Harry moved on, spinning the last Death Eater around and putting a knee in his back and a hand round his throat. Wrenching with his hand snapped both spine and neck, causing death.
In less than a minute, an entire Death Eater hunter-killer team had been obliterated by a single fighter. Harry strode to the end of the corridor and yelled for an Auror. He was incredibly pleased to encounter a much younger, less scarred and more intact Alastor Moody.
"Yes?" he barked.
"Auror Moody, I just encountered one or two Death Eaters down here." Harry replied.
"Capture any?" asked Moody.
"None."
"Shame, if you'd called earlier maybe none would have got away." he grumbled.
"You misunderstand Auror Moody." Harry commented, leading Moody around the corner; "I killed the lot."
"Bloody hell!" Moody swore upon seeing the body-strewn corridor; "They sent these after you."
"Lestrange was rather irritated when I wandlessly constricted him and dragged him through the air of the Wizengamot Chamber before throwing him back in the general direction of his seat. I wasn't too careful with my aim." Harry replied ambiguously; "I mostly broke their necks with my bare hands, but a few I threw in front of their friend's killing curses."
"At least these scum are gone. Couldn't have brought a few more for you to kill could they?" Moody continued to grumble.
"Don't worry, their confederates will see no quarter from me." Harry said coldly; "Next time you might need a mop. I didn't want to get blood over my favourite battlerobes so I killed them cleanly."
He strode off in search of the Ancient and Noble Houses lounge, lighting his pipe as he did so, a fragrant, spicy and exotic smell exuding from it. Moody's last comment before he was out of hearing range was 'bloody hell'.
'Maybe next time it will be a bloody hell for the torturers, rapists and murderers who serve Riddle.' Harry commented mentally.
Standing outside the Ancient and Noble Houses lounge, Harry rapped smartly on the varnished mahogany door which was promptly answered by someone he didn't recognise who quickly turned white and as near as was possible ran away.
"Am I really so terrifying?" Harry wondered out loud.
"You did a fairly good job being terrifying with Lestrange earlier." commented someone from beside him.
Harry spun around, meeting the scrutinizing gaze of Charlus Potter. He simply raised an eyebrow in response.
"It must take something to make someone of your age as you seem to be." Harry's grandfather prodded.
Harry sighed and suddenly a fair amount of weariness crossed his features momentarily before he slammed his mask back in place.
"Aye, war is a nasty thing. I've experienced my own and swore not to allow one to continue over here." he replied tiredly.
"I lived through the Grindelwald uprising and this seems to be developing into something similar." Charlus commented; "I've never seen someone who seemed so personally involved."
"The bastard I was after took my parents from me. I was a year and a half old at the time. Mind you, this was a man quite a lot more powerful than your local Dark Lord, it would take a lot of distasteful rituals to get Riddle up to his power level." Harry replied.
"Oh, what happened?" he asked.
"It took me from just before my seventeenth until I was near eighteen to bury the man and every one of his minions, followers and supporters. He was beyond redemption, splitting his soul for a form of semi-immortality. I don't like evil wizards. Alastor Moody is clearing up the Death Eater ambush I encountered on the way here."
"Ambush? On the way here?"
"In the corridor outside the Great House's lounge there were a few of your local Dark Lord's minions. I disposed of them as to get the slave brand or 'Dark Mark' as you call it requires torture, rape and murder. There are no second chances for Death Eaters." Harry growled.
"However, is death the answer to everything?" asked Charlus.
"No. First step is simple intimidation, a glare here, a contemptuous comment their, then negotiation, followed by rumour mongering about the fear of the House of Pellinore, then threats, indirectly. You then threaten directly as I did Lestrange, then you can take out their resources, their businesses and suchlike via debts followed by the other steps if you have the time to do so. Then there is kill, after that is wipe out their family, an option I find distasteful but unfortunately it is occasionally necessary." Harry replied.
"Does the House of Potter owe you anything?" Charlus asked.
"Didn't bother checking, I have no need or wish to extort or blackmail anything from you so I didn't bother finding out." Harry shrugged.
"Not a very Slytherin attitude." added another voice as Arcturus Black stepped up, looking disapproving.
"You're one to talk, I happen to know for a fact I have several debts outstanding, the least of which is two centuries of shipping protection fees owed." Harry commented pointedly before returning to converse with Charlus; "So, as I was saying, as long as you do not support the self-proclaimed Dark Lord or do something which particularly irritates me, of which Dark Lord supporting is one, you're fine."
'There you go Arcturus, take the bait and take your family neutral.' Harry mentally instructed.
The eldest Black nodded once and turned away and walked off as Charlus watched cautiously before commenting;
"He's a powerful man, you don't want to irritate him."
"I know. However, the value of the galleon has changed over eight centuries, so I could pauperise the Blacks. However, I am loathe to do so, and should I do so, I would then step in, possibly through an intermediary and bail them out. Despite that they are beginning to inbreed, the Blacks are powerful, both physically and magically as well as intelligent. I do not want them to support Voldemort, it would do neither them nor us any good but prolong an already lost war. Riddle's time is coming and I don't want to delay the inevitable." Harry replied quietly; "Now, he'll find that he owes me several debts of increasing nature, he'll pull the Blacks into the neutral and hopefully a few others with it. He won't side with the darks of Malfoy and Lestrange if they are seen as my enemies, as Lestrange already is."
"Very Slytherin." the Lord Potter said neutrally.
"Hard work tempered by management of resources and time. Courage tempered by caution. Want for knowledge tempered by need for knowledge. Cunning and ambition tempered by logic and humility. We've got all of them in certain amounts. I try to balance them all, as I balance my light and dark sides." Harry shrugged; "We all have light and dark in us, it is what we choose to act on that matters."
"I suppose that is true, I rather wish I had a child like you. Young Jamie is a good lad but too much of a prankster and despite a fair amount of effort, he remains an only child." Charlus sighed.
"Don't wish for what you can't have. You don't want a child like me. I first killed a man at eleven, though he was willingly possessed by a malignant spirit. I've got more blood on my hands than any of the lily-white purebloods around here, though I would always excuse my kills to myself as necessary, but nonetheless, it saddened me to see so many fallen into the darkness who couldn't be saved." replied Harry before grinning mischievously; "But that's not to say that the 'fair amount of effort' wasn't fun. I do though have a little solution, it'll take me a moment."
Harry quickly retrieved two vials from his shrunken trunk by tapping on it, envisioning the correct vials. Mixing the two together and adding three crushed leaves and three drops of phoenix tears, he handed it to Charlus;
"It's a fertility potion made with Phoenix tears, much stronger than anything else you'll get on the market."
"I-I-If this works, I'll be in your debt Lord Pellinore." stuttered the other man.
"I don't take debts for the little good acts in life." Harry replied; "If you asked me to do what we did to the MacBoons by turning someone into Quintapeds and then setting them on another clan, I'd take a debt, but helping a couple have a child is not a massive debt but my good act for the decade. And between us, it's Hadrian."
"Thank you Hadrian." said Charlus, bowing to Harry.
"Now, on a lighter note, which of the Noble and Ancients are members of the Purist Movement or their militia?" Harry asked; "I'd hate to run into one in a dark alley and miss a valuable target."
"Carrow, the father and twin siblings are all likely Purist Movement, Lestrange and Macnair. Those are the only Noble and Ancient or Most Noble and Ancient or Noble and Most Ancients who subscribe to the movement. There are a few movers and shakers in the lower ranks of the houses but nobody of consequence save for the French ones, Malfoy." said Charlus; "Frankly, I'm surprised nobody has come over to recruit you for their respective causes."
"Selective notice-me-not since Arcturus left. I'm certain that an eighteen year-old, single wizard who is the last head of a Great House would be bombarded with offers of alliance and marriage contracts. Frankly there are very few I would trust here further than I could throw them, you being the exception." Harry shrugged.
With a genuine smile, he bowed and turned away, vanishing silently after a few strides as he apparated away. With his hood up and crest visible, Harry strode the length of Diagon Alley, heading for Gringotts to make a few investments which he knew would be profitable.
Upon emerging from the bank, he came upon a scene of devastation as Voldemort's forces attacked, burning, torturing and killing their way up and down Diagon Alley. Summoning two Death Eaters, Harry allowed them to smash into each other at high speed, probably killing them before turning his wrath on the other attackers.
Two fell as the 'Thor's Hammer' battle-spell fell on them, three lightning bolts every ten seconds falling from the sky to the target of the wand. Harry's wand slashed like a sabre as he lashed a series of cuts through a Death Eater before conjuring a wall of golden flame which he banished at another group.
He had slowed his perception of time, sidestepping or deflecting numerous dark curses thrown his way which failed to hit Harry whatsoever. Several times, he summoned both live and dead Death Eaters to absorb curses for him, the glowing tip of his wand constantly moving in artistic blurs as he sent spell after spell at them.
A fiery tornado passed down the middle of the street, obliterating another group of dark wizards moments before he conjured a bundle of spears above another Death Eater, adding a massive weight-increase charm to them as they fell. Dancing the ancient dance of battle, Harry immersed himself in the bloodline, scything through the attacking force until the alley was littered with black-robed bodies.
The demon robed and hooded in black from the shadows finally ceased his offensive as the remaining Death Eaters Portkeyed away, his terrifying killing-curse green eyes still roving across the alley, a long, blood-coated dagger clutched in his left hand and a wand in his right.
Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix appeared around five minutes after the battle had finished, wands raised as if they expected resistance. Harry was awaiting the arrival of either them or the Aurors so was simply sat on a bench sipping at a fruit smoothie he'd had Walter get and smoking his pipe.
"Wands out, expect resistance!" ordered Dumbledore.
"Too late." growled Harry; "I was half considering joining the turkey club but since their response time seems to be 'After the fight ends', I'm unsure of their use."
"T-t-they're all dead." stuttered Dumbledore as he cast diagnosis charms on the Death Eaters.
"How observant of you." Harry growled around his pipe.
"B-b-but they needed to be brought back to the light and reformed!" he exclaimed.
"Nope. Beyond redemption every hateful bastard of them. I had the misfortune to come across the memory of a Death Eater induction ceremony today. The ceremony was the marking of a dozen Death Eaters where rape, torture and murder were necessary to gain the Mark, sometimes all or some of them at once." Harry growled, turning his eldritch green gaze on Dumbledore.; "Didn't you know that Thomas has mutilated his very soul? He is lower than a rabid dog who should be put down like said rabid dog."
"Be that as it may, you can't just go around killing people!" cried Dumbledore.
"I can and I will." Harry replied; "I've defeated a true Dark Lord with all that it entails, you know that such takes a price. I suspect I know what your price was. Mine was my compassion for my enemies, though it truly helped me eradicate his forces."
Dumbledore had indeed paid a price, that of true love and the ability to have children. Thus, a powerful, skilled and wanted wizard had managed to stay single through the height of his fame after his defeat of Grindelwald. The man suddenly looked twice his already considerable age as he nodded wearily.
"Maybe-" began Dumbledore.
"There's no maybe about it. Riddle is beyond redemption, anyone who bears the Dark Mark has raped, tortured and murdered, thus expending all their second chances. You're at war, act like it. This ain't Kansas any more, you're fighting against an enemy who doesn't hesitate to kill. You need to teach them occlumency to block out any compassion for their enemies, otherwise you will continue to lose."
Ten minutes later, Harry was sat, engrossed in a book on battle magic, chewing on his pipe when the Aurors finally arrived for the clear-up. When the Order had departed, he'd dropped the aura and his hood, though leaving his killing-curse green eyes.
He recognised a much younger Kingsley Shacklebolt and Alastor Moody along with Marlene McKinnon and Amelia Bones, all of them young, recruit-age Aurors under the Grindelwald veteran Moody. There were a dozen or so unidentified Aurors accompanying them.
Moody strode over to Harry who pretended to look up from the book, a slight smirk on his face as he noticed that Amelia Bones wouldn't meet his eye and was blushing furiously. For the woman he remembered as one of the most magically powerful and politically powerful woman in Britain to be blushing like a schoolgirl caused him no end of amusement.
"Don't suppose you had anything to do with this Pellinore?" growled Moody.
"Would you believe me if I said no?" Harry asked, receiving a glare from the aforementioned Auror; "I was returning from Gringotts and there was an attacking force of terrorists using lethal force. I intervened and defended myself using a mixture of bladed combat, a few combat spells and a lot of esoteric battle magic. To cut it short, I massacred the lot."
"Hmmph. Since you've arrived we've had two groups of purebloods killed, there are going to be people out for your blood mark my words." Moody warned.
"I can take care of myself." Harry said with a slight grin, not of arrogance but of chilling confidence.
"That's what worries me. I may hate half of these purebloods but we need a sustainable population." grunted the Auror.
"You could interpret it as my attempts to improve the gene pool. All these purebloods marrying their cousins is causing inbreeding and genetic stupidity. Kill of their cousins so they can't marry is certain to improve the gene pool." Harry theorised; "That and going around smiting people like an Old Testament God can be somewhat amusing at times. Especially with lightning curses."