Chapter 23:

Falling Action? HA!

Ebenezar McCoy

I woke up today knowing it was going to be a bad day. Worse than the past week, which was saying something considering that one of the Senior Council had been murdered just a few days prior. The Blackstaff, from which I take my unofficial name from, was positively thrumming with anticipation, as it was wont to do before it was going to be used, as it had before Krakatoa and the Tunguska Event. The Blackstaff wanted to be used, and when it sensed an opportunity to kill it let me know. Often I tried to find another way, the staff was dangerous, more dangerous than anyone except perhaps the Gatekeeper knew. More often than not I find that I have no choice in the matter.

I was already preparing for battle when my grandson, Harry Dresden, walked into my office looking like death warmed over and slumped into one of my easy chairs. I felt a familiar anger at his appearance, and the urge to go find out what had hurt my family surged forward. The Blackstaff pulsed in agreement from its home in the Nevernever. I swallowed my anger with the ease of long practice—it would serve no useful purpose now. Later maybe, but not now.

"You look like the south side of a north bound horse, hoss." I said, baiting him. When he made no move to respond I tried again. "Hell boy, what hit you?" It took him a minute to respond, but when he did my blood ran cold.

He groaned and finally looked at me. "Skinwalker, Sir."

"Is it still following you?" I leaned forward, waiting impatiently for an answer. Skinwalkers were minor dark gods that made a habit of eating wizards to steal their magic. If one was after him I would need to pull out all the stops to deal with it.

"No, I took care of it. That's not why I'm here though." He shook his head and looked around my office carefully. "Can you seal the room?" I frowned and, using wards that the original Merlin had carved, sealed the room from most if not all forms of eavesdropping. Once done I nodded at him to continue. "My cop friend got a call yesterday, all deep throat style, and said to tell me that the ink the Council was using was being used to influence you." He nodded towards my fingers, my ink stained fingers. I frowned.

"What makes you think the information is legitimate?" I asked. My grandson was a good detective—if he thought the information was good then he had a good reason for thinking so.

"Normally I wouldn't give it real consideration, it wouldn't be the first time someone had tried to send me on a wild goose chase, but everything they said has panned out," he said.

"Everything?" I asked.

"Well, most everything. I haven't had an opportunity to check the last thing, but apart from that, everything." He nodded. "The only reason I'm still alive is because I did a Sanctum Invocation just like the informant said." I got a sinking feeling in my gut.

"Just where did you…"

"Demonreach, or at least that's what I'm calling it." He sounded inordinately proud of himself at that. "There's this island in…"

"Lake Michigan," I sighed at his nod. "Do you have any idea what that place is?"

"A prison. I lured shagnasty to the island and had Demonreach take it below." A satisfied grin spread across his face. "It's never getting out."

"You didn't use the island's ley line, did you? I don't think you're ready for that just yet." Hell, I would think long and hard about using that place's magic and I had three centuries on him.

"No sir, I just had it sent below," he said respectfully. "But that is why I think the information's good. If they hadn't called I might have had to try something crazy." As if bonding to that island wasn't already absolutely insane.

"What, exactly, did they say about the ink?" I asked, tabling the other topic for now. He pulled out a piece of notebook paper and handed it over. The relevant part was circled.

"Tell Dresden he needs to see, not call, see his mentor and have him, or better yet, have Wizard Listens-to-Wind check the ink that they are using to sign documents—"

"My cop friend copied what 'Bella' said word for word." Harry nodded towards the paper. I gave the rest of it a once over.

"Why would they want you to ask your old girl about your mother?" I asked.

"I don't know sir, that's the one I haven't been able to get any information on." He shrugged. "Getting in contact with Susan is difficult at the best of times. Doing so while running for my life is next to impossible."

"I'll go get Injun Joe to give the ink a look." When Harry made to stand, I shook my head. "Hoss, you look like hell. You stay here and let me handle it." He didn't look happy about it but he settled back into his chair. I lowered the wards and stepped outside, nearly running into Rashid.

"Didn't think you'd be back for a while yet," I said, closing the door to my office. I gave him a look—he didn't look much better than my grandson did, which did not bode well. The Gatekeeper was generally calm and composed. "Something wrong?" If Rashid was here looking like that, then all hell was about to break loose.

"I'm not sure." He stroked his short beard contemplatively. "Something is usually wrong, it's the way of things." Always with the cryptic answers, could he never just answer plainly?

"Right then, well I'd best be going. Important business to take care of." I took off and he fell into step beside me as I made my way through Edinburgh. When he made no move to speak I decided to keep talking. If I was lucky I might just be able to get something from his reaction. "Did you kill anything interesting?"

"It certainly thought it was interesting," Rashid said absently. Well okay then. I nodded sagely. When at a loss on how to deal with new information I find that a sage nod is often all that is usually required to reassure your audience that you know what you're talking about. "If you're looking for Wizard Listens-to-Wind, I believe he has retired to his room."

I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye, but nonetheless corrected my course, and quickly found myself standing outside Injun Joe's room. It was guarded by two junior Wardens, who quickly stepped aside to let us in. Once inside we found him feeding his raccoon familiar.

"Hillbilly, Gatekeeper," Injun Joe said. "How can I help you?"

"I need you to check Peabody's ink. I have it on good authority that it's been used to cloud our judgment," I said gravely.

"Are you saying our minds have been influenced?" At my nod Injun Joe sighed sadly. "If our minds have been tampered with, then perhaps Morgan is innocent after all?" Before I could respond to that, he stood up. "No, best I see to the ink before speculating on possibilities. If you would ensure that Peabody is distracted while I work?"

I nodded and left to do just that. Somewhere along the way the Gatekeeper managed to slip away without me noticing. I ignored it—he made a habit of doing that when no one was looking. I found Peabody in one of the mess halls. I grabbed something to eat myself and sat with him.

"Wizard McCoy, how may I help you?" Peabody asked, looking up from his salad.

"I had a question about one of the forms…" I engaged him in small talk until a grim looking Injun Joe entered the room and gave me a single nod.

I don't know what gave me away. Maybe it was a slight tightening of my eyes, maybe it was the sudden tension in my frame, or maybe it was because I had stopped eating my steak. Whatever it was, Peabody had jumped up from the table and right through a seemingly solid wall. That wasn't what held my attention, though. What caught my attention was the sudden and absolute darkness and the shrill screams that followed it.

The mess hall had been occupied by a smattering of Wardens, and Wardens didn't just scream like that. Whatever Peabody had loosed was bad, and then I felt it. A cold, hard hatred of all things mortal. An Outsider. It screeched in jubilation at the sudden feast it was offered, nearly sending me to my knees.

"Fòs miray!" I shouted, sending a wave of force careening away from me in every direction. I could feel the invisible force hit the shadowy form of the Outsider, sliding right off the thing, succeeding only in drawing me to its attention. That was, of course, what I was trying for. If it was focused on me then it wouldn't be killing anyone else, at least that was the plan. Before it could try and get me I shouted once more. "Dyaman flanm dife!" Fire hot enough to cut through steel hit the Outsider and failed to do more than inconvenience it.

I was preparing another spell, one that would hopefully contain it, when, without me summing it, the Blackstaff appeared in my hand. The Outsider, which had so far been implacable, recoiled and a bit of light appeared. Enough for me to see the bodies of the other diners. Thankfully Injun Joe was not among them.

The Outsider screamed at the Blackstaff, and the staff responded through me.

"She returns!" It wasn't English or any other language I spoke. Yet, somehow, I understood the words coming out of my mouth. The Blackstaff pulsed once, twice and, without consciously deciding to, I slammed it into the floor releasing a cascade of rippling entropy. The Outsider didn't even get a chance to respond before it, and everything in the room was reduced to dust.

I gave the room another look. What the hell?

The Blackstaff vanished, returning to its home, just as Rashid and Injun Joe walked in, the trussed up form of Peabody floating behind them. I didn't know what had just happened, but I would find out.

888

No.

No!

No!

I stared at the Diadem, trapped between the fangs of the Basilisk, and I got mad. I usually had a pretty long fuse, but this was too much.

Was it not enough that I had been banished to this, this hellhole at the ass-end of the multiverse, leaving everything I had ever known or loved behind? Was it not enough that I got to see my new parents murdered in front of me? Was it not enough that I had gotten dumped into the role of the freaking Chosen One?

Now the one thing I needed to go right, the one freaking thing I needed to work, didn't. All my plans, already having gone through a dozen rewrites, hinged on me being able to destroy the Horcruxes, and the only way I knew for sure to destroy them was with Basilisk venom. Which they, apparently, were immune to.

My wand found its way into my hand and I screamed out a curse at the Diadem, at the Basilisk, at the entire fucking universe. "Bombarda! Bombarda Maxima!" I poured all my anger, hate and frustration into them, and it showed.

Whatever defense against magic the Basilisk had in life, it lacked in death. The curses slammed home. The first one blew open the Basilisk's jaw, leaving little more than the bottom of the head intact. When the second one hit, the Basilisk's head practically disintegrated, bones and skin went flying. It was only blind luck, and a hasty shield cast by my friends, that kept us from being perforated.

I glared at the perfectly intact Diadem as it sat only a few feet in front of me. The shield had stopped it from slamming into me.

I pointed my wand at it and a green light, that no one could see, gathered at its tip.

"Alex?!" Hermione asked sounding panicked. "Alex, are you alright?" I glared at the Horcrux for a long moment, before slipping my wand back into its holster. It probably wouldn't work anyway.

"Sorry," I said.

"Alex?" Pansy asked. "What happened?"

"I don't know, everything I know says that the venom should have destroyed it." I gave a bitter laugh. "All my plans hinged on it." I felt drained, not just magically but emotionally as well.

"Plans?" Pansy asked. She sounded closer.

"I've been planning how to kill the Dark Lord since, well, since I was born. This time that is, not last time," I said, staring at the Diadem. Tears started flowing down my face. "Why didn't it work?"

"Maybe the venom's gone?" Hermione asked.

"Now maybe, but I saw some clear liquid hit the shield and it wasn't water. Smelled wrong," Pansy said. "So basilisk venom doesn't work. Is there any other way to destroy them?"

"…Fiendfyre I think," I said after a moment, still staring at the Diadem. "Maybe a Dementor."

Why didn't it work?

I knew I was just repeating myself, that I was just going in circles but…

…if it had worked, all I would have had to do was find the rest of the Horcruxes and destroy them. After that, all that was left was the simple, if extremely difficult, matter of killing Voldemort. He was certainly powerful, but without the Horcruxes he was mortal. Drop Dumbledore and a few dozen Aurors on him and he would die.

"Can you please not say his name?" Pansy said.

"…did I say that out loud?" I asked.

"Yes!" Pansy said. I could feel her glaring in my general direction.

"Oh," I said, blushing. Honestly, I need to work on my zoning out.

"Maybe we should get back to the Room," Hermione said. Pansy and I agreed and, after carefully packing the Diadem away, we made our way back to the Room.

I slumped on one of the Room's couches and sighed before pulling off my cloak. Pansy abruptly stumbled and I raised my brow. Pansy never stumbled. She was always sure footed.

"You okay?" Hermione asked.

"Fine," Pansy said, even as she shot me a look. "So Basilisk venom is out. Fiendfyre or Dementors, right?"

"I think so, but then I was sure the venom would work," I said.

"If they don't?" Pansy asked.

I sighed, "Then all my plans go out the window." And the world, or at least Britain, got a new Overlord.

"What plans exactly?" Hermione asked.

"Since I was reborn and found out I was a Potter I've been trying to figure out how to kill him, preferably before he could kill me." If I was being honest, the only reason I actually came to Hogwarts was because I had no other choice. If I could have gotten my family to move away, and if I had been at all confident in our chances of getting away, I'd have taken it, consequences be damned.

Of course that wasn't an option. Had never been an option. I sighed before continuing. "Of course, that was before I found out this universe was a crossover with the Dresden Files…"

"The Dresden Files? As in Warden Dresden, slayer of the Summer Lady?" Pansy asked. I smiled and nodded, it was easy to forget that Dresden's accomplishments were real here and not simply something I read about.

"Yes, that Dresden." I shook my head. Honestly, killing the old Summer Lady was one of his lesser accomplishments. I took a moment to really consider that—killing a minor god was one of his lesser accomplishments. No wonder most things gave Chicago a wide berth. "Anyway, finding out about that reduced my plans to find the Horcruxes, destroy them, and then kill him. Preferably without putting myself in direct danger."

"The best plans are simple," Pansy said. "But that seems a little bare bones."

"Flexible," I corrected. "The word you're looking for is flexible."

"Sure," Pansy rolled her eyes. "Okay so you knew he was coming for you when you were born, right?" I nodded and she continued, "So why didn't you run? Or get your parents to run?" She meant it as an innocent question I'm sure, but that didn't help much.

I swallowed my first response, and my second. When I did respond it was still harsher than I would have liked. "I tried! They wouldn't listen and I couldn't talk! By the time I could wrap my lips around multisyllabic sentences my parents were dead!" I suddenly realized I was shouting in Pansy's face. I forced myself to take a step back and lower my voice. "My parents are dead because of me! He killed them! Because of me! If I hadn't been so goddamned useless my parents would still be alive right now!" I took a ragged breath, about to continue, when Pansy drew me into a hug. I held myself stiff for a moment before relaxing into her.

"I'm sorry," Pansy said, as I started sobbing. It was my fault, it was all my fault. It wasn't until she started talking again that I realized I had spoken aloud. "No it wasn't. It's his fault." She held me at arm's length and looked me straight in the eye. "It's his fault, not yours."

"But…" I said, objecting even though I knew she was right. Logically it wasn't my fault, but logic had nothing to do with emotion.

"She's right, it's not your fault," Hermione said. "You tried to warn them that was all you could do."

I looked away, "Sure." They pulled me into another hug, and we stayed like that for a long time.

888

The rest of term passed with a kind of blessed banality. I went to class and Saturday study sessions, and I trained against golems and whatever else Pansy's demented mind could come up with. I finally beat a level three golem without my cloak, but only after Hermione had managed to beat one the week before.

Before I knew it we were on the Hogwarts Express headed towards London.

"You ready?" Hermione asked, holding the sealed envelope containing her final grades for the year.

I nodded, "Yes." I opened mine and looked at my grades. "EE in everything except Charms and Potions where I got an O!"

"Very good," Hermione said, smirking. "O's in everything for me."

"So it's a tie?" I asked referring to our bet.

Her smirk grew, "Not quite, I do believe an O+ beats an O, doesn't it?"

"You're making that up!" I said. "There's no pluses." She showed me her grades. She wasn't making it up. "Dammit."

"And now you can't say that awful not-word anymore," Hermione said triumphantly.

"You don't need to be so smug about it," I said sullenly. Hermione just smiled and opened up Hogwarts: A History. "Fine, be like that then. I'll just go sit with Pansy." I stood and made my way to the door when Hermione spoke up.

"And deal with Malfoy?" I slumped back into my seat, defeated. Hermione didn't say anything, but her smirk said a thousand words. None of them nice.

"Pansy is a horrible influence on you," I grumbled.

Hermione flipped a page, never looking up. "Sure, it was all Pansy." I narrowed my eyes her and resolved to just ignore her. I pulled out next year's Charms book, I would win next year. Hermione's smirk deepened, and I scowled at my book.

The rest of the trip passed in silence.

888

Once we made it to the station, Hermione and I gathered our things and went outside to meet her parents.

"How have the last few months been?" Mrs. Granger asked after giving Hermione a hug. Mr. Granger was apparently currently drilling into some poor soul's teeth at the moment, and couldn't be here.

"Good, really good," Hermione said. After what had happened with Voldemort I had expected her to withdraw like she did after the Mirror incident, but she hadn't. Or, well, she did at first, but she bounced back surprisingly quickly and by the time we were taking our exams she was back to her old self. "I made straight O's, and won our bet!"

"Bet?" Mrs. Granger asked, smiling inquisitively at us.

"If she beat me at Charms I couldn't say a word she hates," I said.

"What word?" Mrs. Granger asked. "Nothing bad, I hope?"

I just looked at Hermione, I'd given my word that I wouldn't say 'irregardless' regardless of what happened and a magic user that broke their word quickly came to regret it. If a witch or wizard gave their word and broke it they would find it slightly more difficult to use magic. Break your word enough times and working magic would become all but impossible. It was one of the main reasons that someone's given word was so highly respected in the supernatural community.

"Regardless," Hermione said. "But the other one."

"Regardless?" Mrs. Granger said, looking confused. Before shaking her head. "Never mind, as long as the two of you had fun." She put her hand on
Hermione's shoulder. "Well, we'd best be off. We're meeting your father for dinner."

"But I wanted to say goodbye to Pansy!" Hermione said looking at the Express, Pansy had yet to come out.

"I'm sorry, Hermione, but we have to get going," Mrs. Granger said, before she turned to look at me. "I hope you have a nice summer, dear."

I pulled Hermione into a hug, "Call me, ok?"

"I will," Hermione said, before leaving with her mom.

I watched them exit the platform before turning towards the train in time to see Pansy and a shaky looking Draco exit the train. They exchanged some words that I couldn't hear before Draco went over to his parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy looked regal. Their posture, their clothes and their makeup were all specifically applied to get one thing across—I am better than you, I have more money than you and nothing you do will ever change that. It was about what I expected, so why did Draco look so worried?

He made his way over to them and they exchanged polite greetings, no hugs or smiles, presumably it was against the Pureblood Rules, before leaving through the nearest fireplace.

"What was that about?" I asked Pansy, who had made her way over to me.

She gave me a look and nodded to the exit, "Outside?" I nodded and we exited the platform. We found an empty bench and sat down.

"Draco seemed scared," I said.

Pansy nodded, "He didn't even want to leave the compartment." She sounded concerned. "Ever since his Grandfather died he's been out of it."

"Natural causes?" I asked.

"He had been sick for a long time," Pansy said.

"But?"

"But he was only just getting into his first century. That's a young age for a wizard to die at, sickness or no, especially for one of the Old Houses," Pansy said.

I was about to respond when I heard Dudley shout, "Alex!" I looked over to see him and Aunt Petunia exiting the ice cream shop a few dozen yards down. They started in our direction.

Before they could get close enough to hear us I turned to Pansy. "Maybe you should visit him during the summer?"

"I think I will," she said, before standing and smiling at my aunt and cousin.

"Dudley!" I said as he pulled me into a hug. "You look skinnier, have you been eating enough?" He was still a pudgy child, but that was starting to give way to the awkward gangliness of teens everywhere. Odd considering he was only eleven.

"Dad's been showing me how to fight!" Dudley said proudly. "He says I got a natural boxer's build." He finally noticed Pansy and fell silent.

"Is this one of your friends from school?" Aunt Petunia asked, when she finally caught up with Dudley.

I nodded and introduced them, "Pansy, this is Aunt Petunia and Dudley. Dudley, Aunt Petunia, this is Pansy."

"It's a pleasure to meet the both of you," Pansy said, her voice perfectly polite.

Dudley waved, his face red, and Aunt Petunia smiled, "It's nice to meet you, Alex writes so much about you and... who was the other one?"

"Hermione," Pansy said, giving me a teasing look.

"Hermione, that's right. Well she writes so much about the two of you I feel like I know you already," Aunt Petunia said.

"I don't write that much," I protested.

"If you say so, dear," Aunt Petunia said, before looking around. "Who's picking you up, dear?" She looked at Pansy.

"I was just saying goodbye to Alex, then I'm going to catch the Knight Bus." Pansy said.

Aunt Petunia frowned, "A bus? Is that safe?"

"It's perfectly safe Ma'am, lots of kids use it to get around and there's never any problems," Pansy said, before looking at a nearby clock. "I'm sorry, but if I don't leave now I'll have to wait another hour for it to get back to the station." She pulled me into a hug, "Make sure you write."

"I will," I promised, letting her go. I had already told her and Hermione that my letters might be intercepted during the summer, depending on if Dobby made an appearance, and if he did she was supposed to just write Hermione who would call with any pertinent details.

Pansy nodded at my Aunt and cousin before leaving.

"We're still going to Madam Foo's right?" I asked, as we started for the car. Hogwarts elves were great cooks but I had been craving Chinese something fierce the last few weeks.

At Aunt Petunia's nod I cheered. My summer was already off to a great start. Hopefully it would stay like that, because if there was one good thing about being the Harry Potter of this universe it was that summers were usually very peaceful.

(Looking back, that may have been tempting fate.)