AN: New chapter up, enjoy!

Chapter 31 - Awakening

"This is getting ridiculous. It's raining with cats and dogs, get inside!" Bellatrix yelled from the doorway.

The beginning of the Easter holiday had been sunny and bright, but in typical Scottish fashion, the beautiful weather did not last for long. Now, towards the end of the holiday, it became cloudy with drizzling rain and torrential showers every day.

As she said, currently, it was raining heavily outside but, in spite of that, Harry was standing in front of a thick and over 20 feet tall wooden pole, murmuring what seemed like some sort of prayer. In fact, he was reading out loud the ancient runes that he had inscribed on the large wooden pole.

"The seed germinates. It sprouts, and then it bears fruit. The plant dies, leaving only a seed behind. But you make the seed give birth to a new life. For you are the Mother of all things, you are Ala, the Goddess of Earth and Fertility."

"As the Goddess of life and death, you oversee and maintain the natural order of things. No heart is hidden from you, no thoughts too obscure from your sight. For you are also the Goddess of Law and Order."

[...]

Bellatrix pinched the bridge of her nose at the pitiful sight of the scrawny boy dripping wet under the torrential rain while reciting his prayer. She was having a hard time believing a wizard sound of mind would go to such lengths to pray to an imaginary being. She did not believe in the existence of gods. Nevertheless, much to her annoyance, she did not have any evidence of there not being a higher power. If anything, seeing the way that the ancient runes carved on the Totem were glowing with a dark-yellow light could very well be taken as proof against her beliefs.

Shaking her head one more time at the scene, she went back inside and closed the door.

'I keep forgetting he's not a child that needs babying. He's old enough to take care of himself,' she thought. But she was still worried for him. It was not healthy for a 13-year-old boy to sit through such a downpour on a daily basis. Wizard or not, he could get gravely ill.

She went to the living room and stopped in front of the fireplace. She grabbed a handful of Floo powder and threw it into the fire, its flames suddenly turning emerald green. Kneeling in front of the fireplace, she called out:

"Department of Mysteries Head Office."

Answering her call, the head of an old man with a bald spot and thick-rimmed glasses appeared in the fire.

"Good morning, Mr Croaker," Bellatrix was the first to greet him.

"Good morning," the old wizard returned her greeting in a strained voice.

"I'm afraid I can't come to the Department of Mysteries today. Some problems popped up. Family business."

"The boy?" Mr Croaker asked.

"No, my younger sister..."

"Ah, the Malfoy widow," he said.

"Did something happen?" Bellatrix suddenly asked.

The two of them had been coworkers for 20 years. After such a long time, she could tell when something was not right with him.

Mr Croaker did not reply at first. After a few moments, he said:

"Someone cast the Imperius Curse on me last night." Bellatrix's surprise only increased when he said next: "And I couldn't throw it off. I've practised for decades in order to be able to throw off any sort of mind control or mind-altering spells. But I've never felt such an overpowering Imperius Curse in my entire life. All my willpower, all my mental strength, my deep consciousness - they amounted to nothing. I was helpless."

The old wizard seemed to still be suffering from the shock of that experience.

"Do you know the culprit?"

"I don't know who the caster was," he said. "But my orders were clear: I was supposed to murder you today, Ms Black. The one who cast the curse on me knew that you were scheduled to arrive at the Ministry of Magic today. If I had not broken off the curse, you would have died today."

A chill went down her spine when she heard his words. She would have never seen it coming. Until now, she had thought that her boss, the Head of the Department of Mysteries was the last person that would ever fall under someone's control. Yet, the unthinkable happened.

"Then how did you break it off?" she asked after a while.

"I've been researching the Thief's Downfall for the past month. I've always wanted to get my hands on it but it's only recently that the Goblins finally agreed to trade me a sample in exchange for doing them a favour. My luck - and your luck as well - is that you didn't come to the Ministry today and that I came in contact with the enchanted water first thing in the morning... otherwise, Merlin knows what could've happened." (1)

They sank into momentary silence again after that.

"You need to lay low for a while, Bella," Mr Croaker said. Using her first name was to show that he was speaking to her as a friend, not just as her boss. "Someone is out to get you. A powerful, extremely dangerous person wants you dead. A few months ago, 10 Death Eaters attacked you in the middle of Diagon Alley. I still find it hard to believe that you managed to escape with your life back then. And now someone had cast the Imperius Curse on me, ordering me to kill you... You need to be careful. More careful than ever. I suggest you don't come to the Ministry for a while. My research on the Thief's Downfall should not take much longer. I've almost figured out the spells that the Goblins cast to create this enchantment. Only after I learn how to replicate it and make it become mandatory to use by all the employees of the Ministry of Magic will it be safe for you to come again."

Despite apparently having just brushed past by death today, Bellatrix threw that into the back of her mind when she heard Mr Croaker talk about Thief's Downfall. Fascinated, she could not help saying:

"Goblins aren't allowed to use wands but their spellwork isn't inferior to ours when it comes to enchanting or warding. By Morgana, how could you keep this secret from me?! If I knew you got your hands on something that valuable, I would've ditched my teaching position at Hogwarts in a heartbeat! I'm tempted to come to the Ministry right now!"

"Black, are you daft?!" he barked at her exasperated. "You really need to sort out your priorities! Sometimes you're even crazier than I am when it comes to research and I've been an Unspeakable for 50 long bloody years. You can't research magic if you're dead, you hear me?"

Bellatrix touched her nose slightly embarrassed at being reprimanded by her boss. She was about to apologise when a sharp hissing sound startled her. Turning around, she was greeted by the sight of a huge green anaconda hissing at her terribly.

In an instant, her wand slipped into her hand and she stood up to her feet. She knew that Big Head was Harry's familiar and that he would never hurt her but the huge snake appeared rather intimidating and dangerous when it was hissing and growling like that. But when she saw that the snake was making no move to approach her, she relaxed. Then, she took note of his strange behaviour: the snake kept hissing at her and bobbing his head towards the window, then back to her, and then back to the window.

'It's almost like he's trying to tell me something,' she thought before realisation dawned on her when she remembered that Harry was outside.

Suddenly filled with anxiety, she broke into a run towards the door. The entrance door of the Blackthorn was opened with a bang and Bellatrix rushed outside, the giant snake quickly slithering after her too.

"Harry!" she cried out, her voice strangled from what she was seeing: his body was engulfed by what looked like beige-coloured flames.

But when she arrived 15 feet away from him, she suddenly stumbled and fell on the ground, on her hands and knees.

'W-What is this?!'

In a radius of 15 feet around Harry, it was as if gravity had been tripled. The pressure was so heavy that Bellatrix could not even stand on her feet. But Harry himself appeared to be completely fine, unaffected. His eyes were closed, his posture straight, and his skin and clothes unharmed despite the dark yellow flames enveloping his body.

⁂ Past life memory ⁂

"I told you I would find you. I told you that I would find and I will kill you." The middle-aged man was speaking quietly but somehow, his voice could be clearly heard in the ears of everyone present there.

Disregarding everyone there and not caring about losing any shred of dignity he had left, the Dark Lord grabbed his wand and tried to Disapparate. But he only managed to make a twirl and fall on his side like a drunken man.

A mocking chuckle came from the one-armed man.

"It isn't an Anti-Disapparition Jinx so don't bother trying to dispel it. This is magic beyond your understanding."

The dark yellow light coming from the beige wooden pole that was flying very high up in the air locked the entire area around the mansion for miles. It was an Earthbind Totem. Disapparition, portkeys, House-Elves, and even Phoenixes - there was nothing that could teleport in or out of that area.

Despite that he looked like a handicapped beggar with his missing arm and his haggard and dusty robes, none of the wizards and witches present there had the leisure to comment on that. Bathing in the bloodlust of the Totem of War, his green eyes were shining with killing intent.

"You're not going anywhere this time, Tom. You are mine."

Nevertheless, the Dark Lord was still a formidable wizard and he had numbers on his side too. Seeing that retreat was not an option, he did not just sit and wait for his death.

"You think I'm afraid of you? I am immortal. I cannot be destroyed! Avada Kedavra!"

A murder of crows suddenly burst out from the Elder Wand in the one-armed man's hand, darkening the sky with their sheer number. The Killing Curse failed to do anything else besides killing one crow. But there were several hundred left.

"Incendio!"

"Bombarda!"

"Depulso!"

The dozens of Death Eaters around Voldemort did not stay idle and they started casting offensive spells indiscriminately at the flock of birds. They were simple spells but when cast by nearly 40 wizards simultaneously, the crows were slaughtered in a matter of seconds. They smirked in complacency. Why did their master seem to be flustered by just one man when there were almost 40 of them around him? They could not understand.

However, while they were patting themselves on the back for a job well done, one of them suddenly noticed a wooden pole in their midst. The courtyard of the aristocratic mansion did not just have wooden poles lying around randomly. When the wooden pole also started to also glow with a fiery light, alarm bells rang in his head.

"Watch out!" he screamed, but his warning came out too late because, at the same, time the one-armed man chanted:

"Ogun, God of Fire, reveal your wrath and smite my enemies: Liquid Magma!"

While the Death Eaters and Voldemort busied themselves with massacring the several hundred crows that he had summoned with the Elder Wand, they did not notice him throwing a Magma Totem in their midst. Now, it was too late.

Some of the quicker Death Eaters hastily threw Shielding Charms around them but most of them had not reacted in time. When liquid magma burst radially from the totem in their midst, blood-curdling screams and death-throes cries pierced the sky. Those who had been incinerated instantly were luckier compared to those from the outer rim of the totem's area of effect who managed to survive because now they were screaming themselves hoarse from the terrible pain of being burned alive.

Only about 10 Death Eaters had been quick enough to Shield themselves in time from the incoming onslaught. Nevertheless, the Magma Totem's effect was not over. It kept spewing magma without stopping and they were starting to feel the strain of keeping up their Shielding Charm against the magma surrounding them from all sides.

When it looked like some of them were going to lose it, a blue bolt of light slammed into the wooden pole, shattering into pieces. The Dark Lord was not familiar with Shamanism but he figured it right away that his nemesis was casting deadly spells through the use of those carved wooden poles. After destroying the Magma Totem, he looked above his head and aimed with his wand at the Totem floating high up in the air. Another blue bolt of light shot from his wand. However, he missed.

With his hand extended above his head, Harry had shifted the position of the Earthbind Totem - the one that prevented everyone from Apparating away - at the very last moment, right before Voldemort's spell could destroy it.

He muttered a swear under his breath when a volley of spells came from the surviving Death Eaters and he was forced to give up on controlling the floating totem in the sky in order to protect himself from the incoming barrage of curses - after all, he only had one arm. His right hand had been severed by Voldemort years before.

Despite being 1 vs 10, he was not disadvantaged in the least. With unmatched dexterity, the Elder Wand in his hand batted away or blocked every single one of the curses thrown by the Death Eaters at him.

"Avada Kedavra!" three Death Eaters cast at the same time when they saw their spells being blocked so effortlessly.

Another murder of crows was summoned by the Elder Wand and blocked the three beams of green light before launching themselves at the group of Death Eaters. Seeing the large number of crows and having learned from the previous incident, Voldemort chose to momentarily forgo destroying the Earthbind Totem floating in the air in order to protect his followers. It was not that he had suddenly become affectionate and worried about their safety. He could simply not afford for them all to die. If everyone died, even if he managed to destroy the wooden pole that negated Apparition, he would not have time to escape. He knew better than to bet on luck or hope that Harry would not notice it.

"Evanesco!" Voldemort screamed.

Words had power. Saying the incantation out loud significantly increased the strength of his spell. Like a miracle, over 100 crows had instantaneously Vanished. The Death Eaters cheered at the display of magic from their master and started throwing spells at Harry with renewed vigour.

'As expected, the same trick wouldn't work twice,' Harry thought with a frown.

With the 10 Death Eaters throwing spells and Killing Curses at him as if their life depended on it, even someone as powerful and skilled as him did not have the leisure of also preventing Voldemort from destroying the Earthbind totem in the sky. Especially since he was missing an arm. He ducked under a Killing Curse and threw an overpowered Bombarda back at his attackers. However, for every spell he threw, three of them would pool in their strength to cast a Shielding Charm to stop it.

"Avada Kedavra!"

That shout caught the Death Eaters by surprise. Never had they expected Harry Potter, the so-called Champion of Light to throw a Killing Curse at them! Even as the green beam of light impacted him, the Death Eater caught by the curse died with an expression of shock on his face.

Taking advantage of their moment of stunned silence, Harry brought his hand inside his cloak and took out three finger-sized wooden sticks. He quickly threw them around him and chanted:

"Ogun, God of War, grant me your blessing: Ironskin!"

One of the finger-sized sticks floating around him suddenly increased in size until it was 3 feet tall and as thick as a man's leg before dropping on the ground. A grayish light start to glow around the Totem and then Harry's skin gained a slight metallic lustre.

"Shango, God of Wind and Thunder, grant me your- Fuck!" he yelled, his incantation interrupted midway as a Blasting Cursed blew up in front of him and threw him back several dozen feet through the air.

However, the protection of the Ironskin Totem made him take no damage at all. From the corner of his eye, he saw Voldemort aim his wand at the Earthbind Totem in the sky again and, at the expense of eating up a dark cutting curse from one of the Death Eaters, he used a nonverbal levitation spell to change the position of the totem, making Voldemort's spell miss again by an inch. To add insult to injury, not only that he had prevented the Dark Lord from destroying the totem but the Death Eater's dark cutting curse did not even leave a scratch on his skin.

"Destroy his wooden poles, you imbeciles!" Voldemort screamed in rage at having missed the totem with his spells for the second time.

"Shango, God of Wind and Thunder, grant me your strength: Wind Rush!" Harry chanted, this time managing to finish his incantation.

Another one of the finger-sized sticks flying around him suddenly increased until it became three feet tall and then planted itself on the ground. A light green glow appeared around the totem but no outward effect seem to appear on Harry's body.

"Lumos Solem!" he immediately cast and white light so powerful erupted from the tip of the Elder Wand that everyone lost their sight for a moment, both the group of Death Eaters and Voldemort. Even Harry himself felt pain in his eyes despite having closed them in advance, the light so blinding that it penetrated through his eyelids.

Ignoring the painful discomfort from his eyes, he used his Elder Wand to cut a deep wound into the thigh of his left leg. As blood started flowing like a river from his thigh, he chanted:

"Ekwensu, God of Tricks and Craftiness, receive my sacrifice and show me your strength: Voodoo!"

As he said those words, every single drop from the blood that had poured from this wounded thigh floated in the air and then was sucked towards the remaining finger-sized stick. As it sucked the blood coming from Harry's wound, the stick grew until it became a three-foot-long totem. Unlike the other Totems that Harry had used until then, this one did not release any light. The Voodoo Totem was different from any other. Even the way it had been invoked was different, requiring a sacrifice, a hefty amount of blood.

The Voodoo Totem became a dark coppery red colour and landed on the ground, at Harry's feet. It was also a few seconds later that everyone finally regained their sight.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Fiendfyre!"

"Confrigo!"

In their desperation and fear of the unknown, the Death Eaters cast the deadliest spells in their arsenal.

However...

No spells came out of their wands. They could not feel their magic reacting to their will. No, they could not feel their magic at all. Voldemort was not any different either. When he tried for the third time to destroy the Earthbind Totem floating in the sky, he realized, much to his stupor, that he could not cast any spells. A fear like never before washed over the Dark Lord and his followers.

The Voodoo Totem's effect was to lock people's magic. The problem with using it, however, was that it did not discriminate between caster and foe. It was not only the Death Eaters and Voldemorts that could not cast any spells anymore, it was the same for Harry as well. That's why he had activated the two other totems before invoking the Voodo Totem - because he would have not been able to do that afterwards. And since magic came from the Totems, not from himself, the two totems - Ironskin and Wind Rush - were not cancelled by the Voodoo Totem either.

Despite apparently having lost his magic and being just 1 man, and a handicapped one at that, against 11 opponents, there was no shred of fear on his face. Instead, he grinned ferally as he pulled out a large silvery machete from the inner pocket of his cloak.

In the next moment, it became clear what the effect of the green-glowing Wind Rush Totem was: Harry threw himself at them with the speed and agility of a cheetah, with a burst of speed way beyond anything a regular human should have been capable of. Before the Death Eaters could react, the sickening sound of metal cutting into flesh was heard and a man's head flew into the air, a geyser of blood erupting from the neck of the still standing on its feet corpse.

The 9 Death Eaters and Voldemort were thrown into panic. They did not understand how they had suddenly lost their magic and Harry's superhuman strength and speed made no sense either. In desperation, two of the burlier Death Eaters launched themselves at Harry intent on beating him with their bare hands but one of them was cut into half as if he was made of paper, the blade of the machete effortlessly slicing through his ribcage and spine. The second Death Eater, with a burst of adrenaline, took advantage of his colleague's death and landed a powerful punch on Harry's face.

A scream of pain resounded. It was not from Harry, but from the Death Eater who was now holding his snapped wrist with his other hand. The protection given by the Ironskin Totem lived up to its name, his attacker breaking his fist into his face, without as much as leaving a bruise on his cheek. That snapped wrist became the least of the Death Eater's problems in the next moment, however, as his head rolled on the ground, at his feet.

If it was in the beginning, when there were almost 40 of them, even with the enchantments provided by his totems, and his goblin-forged machete, Harry would have not been able to defeat them in a physical battle. But with only ten of them left, it was well within his capabilities. Now, three of them were dead and the remaining seven were too terrified to move. Voldemort was no different, still frozen in disbelief at the unfolding situation.

When Harry turned to look at the still alive Death Eaters, their survival instinct snapped them out of their panic-induced stupor. As one, the seven of them split and started running in different directions. Alas, it was futile. With Wind Rush Totem's effect, his speed was no different than that of a cheetah. He quickly caught them from behind and beheaded them all, one by one.

He had left the Dark Lord for the last. Voldemort was no different than his followers as he broke into a mad sprint, trying to distance himself as much as possible from the site, hoping to get out of Voodoo Totem's range before Harry was done killing his Death Eaters. Without his magic, he was worse than a Muggle.

However, when a heavy kick smashed into his spine, all hope disappeared from his heart. He was thrown on the ground brutally and he rolled over four times before his body finally came to a stop. He tried to stand up by pushing with his hands against the ground but he was kicked in the side like a football and thrown back onto the ground. He felt half of his ribs crack from the impact.

Five fingers wrapped around his throat and clenched like a vice, choking him. A face twisted by an ugly mixture of glee, rage, and cruelty appeared in front of his eyes as he was lifted in the air by the hand clenched around his neck.

"I told you I would find you!" Harry repeated the words that he had told him earlier. "I told you I would find you and kill you!"

The Weasleys had been murdered at the end of 2004. Now, it was 2020. Harry had dreamed of this moment for nearly 16 years.

He threw Voldemort on the ground roughly. When the Dark Lord instinctively tried to scurry away while gasping for breath from having just been nearly choked to death, Harry kicked his hands from under him, making him fall face-first into the ground once more. Then he started kicking him with wild abandon, like a lunatic, not caring about where he hit. By the time Harry ran out of breath, the most terrible Dark Lord in history was nothing but a whimpering and shivering mess on the ground, moaning in pain as his ribs and his arms were shattered in multiple places.

Breathing heavily from the effort he had exerted by the savage beating he dished out, Harry grabbed the almost unconscious Dark Lord by an ankle and started dragging him towards the Voodoo Totem. Terminating the effect of the totem with a touch of his hand, he took out the Elder Wand from the wand holster at his waist and turned towards Voldemort.

"You're going to tell me everything now, Tom. Your secret to immortality. All the names of your followers. The names of your financial sponsors. Everything."

Then, he pointed the Death Stick at the Dark Lord crying on the ground. Unlike the mad and cruel look that he had had on his face while brutalizing Voldemort using the "muggle way", Harry's face was calm, seemingly indifferent, lacking any emotions when he said the incantation of his spell:

"Crucio!"

AN: This is how the final battle went with Voldemort went in Harry's past life. Here is a reminder of the timeline of Harry's past life:

1998: Battle of Hogwarts. Voldemort dies by his own Killing Curse. (mostly canon up until this moment - except for Harry not receiving Snape's memories)
2002: Harry wins the Quidditch World Cup for England. (chapter 1)
2004: Voldemort resurrects again. On the 31st of December, the entire Weasley family is killed. The start of the second war. (chapter 4)
2009: Harry, Kingsley, McGonagall, and Flitwick fight against Voldemort in a 4 vs 1 battle. They barely manage to kill him. Everyone dies except for Harry who also loses his right arm in the battle. End of the second war. (chapter 8)
2020: Harry defeats Voldemort one final time and finds out his secret through torture. Soon after, he steps into the Veil of Death.

(1) It is an enchantment of the Goblins that can cancel the effect of Imperius, Polyjuice, Disillusionment Charm etc.

AN2: Here is a list of the spiritual beings that Harry had connected with as a Shaman:

1. Ala, the Goddess of Earth, Law and Order (Igbo people from Nigeria)
- Earthbind Totem: locks the space, preventing Apparition, portkeys, phoenix travel, House-Elf apparition etc.

2. Ogun, God of War, Iron, Fire (Yoruba people from Nigeria)
- Totem of War: provides a major strength boost to spells.
- Ironskin Totem: gives shamans iron-like defensive capabilities.

3. Ekwensu, Trickster God (Igbo people from Nigeria)
- Voodoo Totem: area of effect magic lock. Stops people from casting spells - both the shaman and his enemies. Needs a sacrifice to be activated.

4. Shango, God of Thunder (Yoruba people from Nigeria)
- Wind Rush Totem: gives shamans the speed of a cheetah.