Virtuous Sin

Summary: Harry Potter is sick and tired of the war he's been forced into. The death of his godfather finally makes him snap and he uses Dobby's help to gain access to books from Grimmauld Place that could let him finally end the wizarding world's conflict. Eventually, he ends up finding a book on Alchemy that holds secrets to creating something called a Homunculus…and unwittingly, the boy births a series of demons in human disguise to rein terror on the Wizarding World. NO ROMANCE; book- and manga-based; features all original Homunculi (excluding Father); HP-canon-compliant til post-book5

Pairings: Canon, but for the most part none unless they're important to the plot. Friends-with-benefits and other such flings are not considered pairings. 0:-)

Episode One

It was the summer after Fifth Year that young Harry Potter decided he had finally had enough of being coddled and protected like a precious one-of-a-kind glass object. He knew he was supposed to stop Voldemort again with his rebirth (any idiot with a brain could figure that out), and he knew there was a decent chance that the wizarding world would be completely useless in aiding his search (as proven with the events in the Department of Mysteries), and he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop Voldemort without some sort of outside help (because like duh, he was a teenager and Voldemort had literally 50 years of experience on him)...

...but seriously, Dumbledore was starting to tick Harry off. No information, shoddy protection—here's looking at you, Fletcher, whom Harry spotted only four days into his break—that even muggles occasionally saw, no extra training for the fight that would decide the world...seriously, it was like Dumbledore WANTED Harry to die! If it weren't for the fact that Harry could remember tears in the old man's eyes while he was alone in the Infirmary with a sick/injured/etc. and seemingly-unconscious Harry, that would be exactly what the Potter heir would think, especially since Sirius had…well…

So Harry decided to take matters into his own hands with a little help from his motherly owl Hedwig, the loyal and slightly/very unstable House Elf Dobby, and his own time-proven ingenuity. Dobby came first, with Harry asking the overenthusiastic elf to duck into Grimmauld Place and take any books from the old library that weren't cursed and contained information that would help in the war.

The first trip alone brought too many books for Harry to count, and he spent a good chunk of time just shifting them into piles based on subject until one in particular caught his eye, plainer than the rest of the books with only a strange symbol on the cover of a snake stabbed onto a cross with two wings and a crown floating above it. Curious, Harry had put aside his other books in favor of perusing it.

A few moments quickly turned into what was almost a full 24 hours of reading, punctuated with only a brief meal and a short nap, and when he was done Harry was left reeling with information on the archaic art of Alchemy that he had before only vague notions of due to the events of First Year. Thus Hedwig came into play, carrying a note for Nicholas Flamel himself and a silent hope for reply.

The snowy owl returned after two nail-biting days with a short letter and a slim book filled to the brim with small writing in nearly every margin. The rest of Harry's time was focused almost solely on this book and a handful of others, notes quickly filling up his own journal in his messy scrawl until he felt ready.

Ready for the action that would forever change the wizarding world—for better or, more likely, for worse.

Episode One:
The First Homunculus

"That you, Harry?" the old owner of the Leaky Cauldron, Tom, asked quietly with a blink at the black-haired teen sitting isolated near the door to Diagon Alley with a hooded muggle sweater hiding his identity. A sheepish grin and large green eyes met his inquiry.

"Hello, Tom," greeted the teen just as quietly, reaching up to brush his bangs away to show off his scar for confirmation before giving a little wave. Tom was clearly bemused.

"May I ask why you're being so secretive?"

Harry shrugged awkwardly. "Mostly, I just don't want people to mob me like the first time I was here." He grinned reassuringly at Tom's embarrassed look. "Plus I'm looking for a place to stay for the rest of the summer along with a few friends of mine. Do you have, um," he paused and glanced down at the open notebook before him then glancing up again, "eight rooms available? We can work with less, but…"

"Eight rooms?" Tom glanced at the ceiling thoughtfully and seemed to ponder this for a little while before his eyes lit up. He gave a toothless smile at the Hogwarts student. "I've got a suite on the third level that could work."

"A suite?" asked Harry with a blink, closely followed by, "Wait, there's a third level?"

Tom chuckled and nodded. "It's got five rooms all connected to a main lounge area," he explained, "and can be magically enlarged to make more if need be. It's not used much since it costs a bit more than just getting two or three double-bed rooms, but…"

Harry's grin returned even brighter than before. "That'd be perfect. Can I rent that out for the rest of the summer?"

"It'd cost quite a bit…"

"Well, I do have an inheritance coming up," joked Harry, "so I might as well use up what's left of my trust vault. Not like I have much else to spend it on."

"And your friends could chip in," Tom added helpfully, chuckling and nodding. "All right, I'll set it up. Do you want me to expand it now or do you want me to wait for your friends?"

After a moment's pause, Harry slowly shook his head. "No…no, I think I'll wait until they show up." A bitter smile crossed his lips. "I'm not even sure all of them will, so I'll let you know."

Not questioning this, Tom merely moved the conversation to the subject of payments before handing over the key and giving directions. A final wave to the barkeep and Harry was soon out of sight, dragging his school trunk and carefully glancing through his notebook again as he disappeared up the stairs.

-Virtuous Sin-

"35 liters water, 4 liters ammonia, 20 kilograms carbon, 1.5 kilograms lime…" muttered Harry to himself as he went over his ingredients. He had to make sure everything was perfect; that he had all the composition materials needed for this and then some, just to make sure the result wasn't completely screwed over along with Harry himself. Soon satisfied that he had the required materials, he leaned back, taking a deep breath.

"Let's hope this works," he said to the room at large even though he was the only one within it. "Only one ingredient missing."

Careful so as not to mess up the cautiously measured diagram before him or the various items within it, Harry reached behind himself and pulled forth a small jar with a faded label containing what appeared to be red liquid. He poured it into his hand to take a semi-solid state in his palm, quivering slightly under the deep green gaze of its possessor.

There was no turning back now, Harry decided with a deep breath, leaning forward and putting the small drop near to the center of the array he had spent nearly two days perfecting. He slowly put his hands along the edges, closing his eyes and picturing what he wanted to create, what he wanted to bring back to life for the first time, how it would form, where it would form, why it would form …

Bright lights ranging in color from deep crimson to bright purple lit up the room, trailing from the array, blocking Harry's vision with its intensity and forcing him to close his eyes until they died down. But when he opened them, he wasn't crouching in the room above the Leaky Cauldron anymore. Actually, he wasn't in any room anymore, apparently; surrounded by a large expanse of pure snowy white, unnerved because he was standing on nothing, Harry didn't see the large double doors until he had looked all around himself. He narrowed his eyes as he examined the rather plain doors before him, featuring most prominently an image of a Basilisk and a Phoenix twirled together in either a dance to the death or a loving embrace.

Hello.

Startled out of his examination, Harry jumped at the voice (which wasn't really a voice at all, but rather a thought, a gesture, a sound, a silence, Nothing and Everything all at once) before turning to face the strange Not-Being sitting casually against the outer edge of the double door. The Not-Being was a void and full all at once, the same body structure as Harry and yet so completely different, indistinguishable yet completely unique when compared to Its surroundings.

This is a rarity. There aren't many visitors from this Side of the Gate nowadays.

The Not-Being seemed to smile with eerily perfect teeth, the first thing Harry could say with certainty existed here just as it appeared.

Welcome to my humble abode, Mr. Wizard.

"Um," was Harry's immediate response, eyes trained on the eerie bared teeth rather than the Not-Being Itself, "thank you?"

The Not-Being let out a sound/silence that was a laugh and a scream at the same time.

You're quite welcome! But I am curious, Mr. Wizard…why are you treading so casualty into the territory of the Truth? Just to bring to life a being or two that you've never met before out of the goodness of your heart? Or is it a more selfish reason than that?

Reminded of his mission, Harry shook his head to rearrange his thoughts and nodded, eyes raising to train on approximately where the Not-Being's would exist…if they did exist.

"I can't win this war alone," he said slowly, thinking as he spoke, "and if I need help…why not get it from those who otherwise would never get the chance to live?"

The Not-Being gave Its screaming laugh, amused and angry at these words.

I must say, this is one of the better answers I've gotten since the Alchemist on the Other Side gave up his own Gate. Very well, Mr. Wizard, I'm sure I can grant your request. But a word of warning…

The large doors creaked and began to slowly open, a figure forming within from the dark tethers that vaguely resembled hands and arms and feet and legs all at once, and the Not-Being bared its teeth in that oddly obvious smile.

The Sin you embody can only be used by you. Don't make the mistake of trying to separate yourself from it, or else the Toll will be much, much higher than it would otherwise be…

The doors opened.

The Not-Being disappeared.

And out stumbled a beautiful woman clothed in black, matching her long, soft hair, with the only bits of color being stripes of red down her arms and a small red tattoo between her clavicles.

-END-

MKL's Post-Production Notes (8-10-13): SPOILERS! Basically Harry would end up reviving all of the Homunculus except for one, which would be the "embodiment of his sin"-meaning the sin that's most applicable to him. I was toying between it being Greed or Wrath...Greed because, well, it's Greed and I really had no other reason and Wrath because of his infamous temper. It probably would have been Wrath in retrospect. Anyway, basically the Homunculus would work with him and the group would basically win the war single-handedly: Envy would have spied as a member of the Inner Circle that had been killed, Lust would have done something similar to what she did with Havoc only with a Death Eater to get other information, Pride would have ended up enrolled in Hogwarts thanks to some magicking, and the others...had roles. That I didn't write down in my notes. xD Whoops~

This is another story I'd REALLY like to finish some day, but it would definitely be unlikely, so enjoy what I do have! And maybe someone could pick it up? -wiggles eyebrows-