Who is 'I'?

A Harry Potter and [insert other realm here] crossover Fanfiction by me... (seriously, who else?)

Chapter one

It all started on a rainy day at a late hour on all hallows eve, the dreary atmosphere giving people a foreboding feeling about things to come, it was a bad sign and many people hurried home to warm their hands near the fire.

At least, that's what people say when they retell the story of how the Dark Lord Voldemort was defeated by young Harry for the fist time. The weather was most likely cloudy or perhaps it had even been a sunny day. The hour of the attack could have been early as well as late and frankly there were so many unknowns surrounding this fateful day that none of the stories told, no matter how epic in length could accurately describe what had happened.

Not even young harry, the only surviving witness could accurately describe what had happened and what the weather was like, having only been a toddler.

While that fateful day might have been the start, the real beginning, it wouldn't be an accurate staring point for this particular adventure, and while I could describe, in detail, the adventures of young Harry throughout his life it would take to many words to do it justice.

It would take seven books, in fact, and while the outcome of his adventures is relevant to this story, the adventures themselves are not quite that important.

And so Harry grew up in an environment not quite suited to him, and had adventures in the school he would call home for six years of his life. He made friends with the resourceful Hermione Granger and the Light-hearted Ron Weasley with his six siblings. And eventually even saved the world from a Dark Lord's tyranny.

This story starts after Harry's seventh year, quite some time after he defeated Tom Riddle at the battle of Hogwarts and even after Harry's tenure as Auror under Minister Shacklebolt. This story starts in a large workshop filled with magical artifacts haphazardly shoved aside to make room for a massive archway that swirled with a strange blue energy.

The workshop was not empty, however, a man nearing his forties wearing a set of heavy glasses was casting a near endless amount of spells at the archway and muttering under his breath. Every now and then he fished something out of his numerous pockets and checked it, sometimes discarding the item and sometimes putting it back.

"Calling me crazy" the man muttered, flicking a strand of black hair out of his face, he grumbled some more under his breath as he finished casting spells and moved towards a workbench filled with stones and pebbles of all kinds of sizes.

He swept the entire bunch onto the ground and ignored the mess it made "crazy? Me? Phah! I'll show them" he unfurled a large drawing, a diagram of the arch that now stood behind him, and checked dimensions, corners and other details on his plans to check if everything was indeed going according to plan.

He cackled and rubbed his hands together when he realized that the arch was indeed to his exact specifications, he resisted the urge to trow his head back and laugh manically so instead he turned his attention back to the arch.

"Soon" he told the Arch, not that it responded to his voice, "soon I will be free of the glares and accusations, free of their judgmental stares" he leaned closer to the arch and whispered "you will be the instrument of their destruction!" his voice rising as he spoke, he flailed his arms wildly around him and laughed.

"ahem" a voice behind him spoke, and he turned around slowly to face the intruder, he gazed into the empty green eyes, unbothered by the lack of pupils and the empty gaze.

"what?" he said distractedly shaking the lingering insanity from his mind with a visible shake of his head "don't you see I'm preoccupied?" he accused pointing his finger at the newcomer

"We were concerned-worried, you closed your mind-thoughts to us, Harry-sama, we could no longer hear-sense you" the Other said softly eyes no longer focusing on Harry but instead on the floor, silently waiting for a response.

Harry sighted "I can't take all of Us with me when I leave" he finally said "the spell will end and your minds will be free again" he turned away from the Other as a sign of dismissal, "it's best if you just go" he said with an air of finality.

"let us hear-sense you a last time then, Harry-master" the younger said, almost desperately, "We humm with concern-worry"

Harry sighted and let his shoulders slump, he let go of the strict grip he had on his mind and magic and once more he plunged into the feeling of sameness, he was no longer just Harry, he was the Other too and ten more.

It was his curse-blessing-gift, to be able to overwhelm-join other minds to his and be more than one person, to be a hive. He made his next decisions in unified thought and intent, he was no longer just Harry.

He was the Hive.

And a hive needed to thrive. He was the Leader-king, and with his friends-enemies so dangerously close to finding out what he had done...

'Ginny'

I'm here, I love you'

'Don't worry, we are fine, we serve, we are your eyes and fingers'

'I'm sorry...'

'we are not'

He remembered being Ginny, his lovely wife, he remembered slowly dominating her mind and turning two into one.

'my children'

'Father'

Oh, how he despaired having turned his children into mere servants, extensions of his thoughts, before they had had the chance to grow up.

'no'.

'we love you'.

'Father'.

Despite his earlier intention to disconnect himself as soon as possible, he found himself unable to part with the others, they were part of him-us-we. He stopped what he was doing and turned to the other that was still with him in the workshop, seeing what he saw and what the others saw. He had never actually experimented with his ability to form a hive. And only now did he start to see the possibilities.

They worked together on to complete the Arch, it would become a gateway to another dimension, one without magic. A place where he would not infect-gift others with his curse-blessing. It was more then slightly confusing, being in more that one place at every given moment, and it was an even stranger feeling having half of him fall asleep. It was oddly refreshing even.

But in half the time it would have taken him to finish the Arch, he was done.

Free

'go'

'be safe'

'build, thrive'

He stood before swirling mass of magic, contained in the Archway he had constructed, his wife standing beside him, and his children guarding the perimeter, all of his children.

'they are coming-here'

'hide, don't be seen'

'father?'

thoughts, his own, tainted by their experiences, lives and personalities, ranged across his vast network of minds, he saw his former friends approach his facility from six different angles.

'I'm ready, my children, goodbye'

He stepped though the Arch, the world twisted and turn around him and the thoughts-feelings of his children slowly slipped from his grasp

"I love you" he murmured into the empty darkness that surrounded him.

'we too'

1274 words... not enough, incomplete... sigh... never mind, I'll do something else instead then.