A.N

Been a bit, hasn't it?

My muse returned briefly, (Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments is a very good game, though I beat it way too quickly) and I've written this chapter.

The next is halfway written, but I didn't want to string along this chapter, as it didn't seem right in comparison. Sorry for another short chapter, but each serves a purpose.

Anyway, enjoy.

-O

(I don't own Harry Potter, Death Note, or anything you recognize)

Ravenclaw Head Office, Hogwarts

(September 26th, 2022)

"Your classmates are concerned Harry..."

Harry stared at the short man before him, his mind reeling as he tried to focus on literally anything besides exhaustion.

He knew his peers would be concerned about his… lapses in concentration, as he himself, was concerned.

No matter how much effort he put forth, he couldn't maintain a steady stream of thoughts, before feeling what felt like a shock throughout his entire being.

He knew something had changed within himself, yet he didn't know what. It was if… a part of him had been surgically removed with a rusted hacksaw.

Even worse, he felt a great pain whenever he tried to recall the events leading up to his loss.

"Mister Potter?" Filius Flitwick asked his ward, as he took notice of the lost look on the boy's face, a dullness to his eyes. Concern was an understatement to what he was experiencing.

Harry almost jumped then, as his eyes took notice of the man once more.

"Sorry professor… I've been…" Harry muttered harshly, as his voice ached from disuse.

In all honesty, he didn't know what day it was, or when he had last spoken to a single soul. Ryuk had even taken a momentary leave, stating some important event that demanded his attention.

Harry didn't even notice the Shinigami was gone most days…

"Tired Mister Potter? I've heard that excuse many times before, from your mother, most often in her later years at the school." Flitwick said to him, a thought drifting to his protege that had often been consumed by stress… before that night at least.

"I've just… been unwell lately professor…" Harry protested, his eyes drooping slightly as his attempt to lie fell flat.

Not even a Weasley would have fallen for such a deception.

"Perhaps you should pay a visit to Madame Pomfrey then? I'm sure she'd fix you right up Harry." Flitwick said in an attempt to comfort the lad, as he debated calling the school nurse regardless of what the boy said… He resembled a corpse more than a student.

"I'm… fine professor, just need some more rest…" Harry said in an attempt to get out of the office as soon as possible. He was already trying to resolve the issue on his own, he didn't need the distraction of offered help.

"Ensure that you do."

"The memory is flawed, wouldn't you agree?" A familiar voice said within the expansive place Harry found himself within, a clouded domain of nothingness.

His eyes begrudgingly opened, only to see a figure that he'd only seen once before. Before him stood an aged image of himself, overcoat, slack tie, and confident stance combined into an arrogant intellectual.

Harry's eyebrows furrowed then, as he recalled the appearance of the figure within the mystic mirror he'd encountered last Yule, the Mirror of Erised.

Crawling to his feet, Harry locked eyes with his much taller double.

"What memory?"

His counterpart seemed to find amusement and frustration at that, though the man's face showed very little of what he actually felt. Even Harry was having trouble reading the man.

"Your memory, the status of your mind, it has been assaulted." The figure spoke wisely, as if he held some fraction of the puzzle Harry faced.

"How do you… Who are you?" Harry sputtered out, his fists clenched in the event the imposter turned on him. Even in his mind, Harry faced the exhaustion that had continued to haunt him ever since the 'Incident', as he had come to call it.

The other Harry just looked at him for several moments, obviously reading him, before he spoke once more.

"You are dense… I am your subconscious, the portion of your mind and core that lay dormant during the day, and rests until you fail in some spectacular fashion… Surprise, you have."

Thinking over it, and attempting to avoid thinking on the paradoxical fact that he was capable of thought within his own mind, Harry looked once more at his duplicate.

"What was my mistake? What went wrong?" Harry asked, his conclusion being to accept the help, any help, this part of himself could offer.

His other just sighed, before rubbing at the apparent stubble that framed the being's face, his eyes fierce.

"I AM you! If you aren't aware of what happened to you, I'm NOT!" The man yelled in frustration, his hands thrown up into the air as Harry contemplated how childish his own mind could be, and how short of a temper he possessed.

"Then why bring me here? What use does this meeting serve, besides to tell me something I already knew?" Harry asked him, his exhaustion catching up to him once more, causing him to ponder whether he'd enter a comatose state if he fell asleep within his own mind.

"Because, you need to get your shit together! Pay attention, as I'm sure that's how we got into this mess… Not to mention how careless you've been with the Death Note, that the detective could track us so easily.

Only his boredom saves us from already being imprisoned by the government." His other stated, as Harry did realize that he could have handled some things differently, perhaps better, especially when regarding his other life.

"I'll give you that, but it is a bit too late to undo my mistakes," Harry said swiftly, before continuing with the question that plagued both aspects of himself. "But what do I do about the memory issue?"

"Study, and see who slips up."

"That it? I could have gotten that from literally anyone." Harry snarked to himself, as he considered how to get himself out of this problem.

"You're a Ravenclaw, aren't you?"

Ravenclaw Common Room, Hogwarts

(October 2nd, 2022)

Only after many days of research within Hogwarts' library, and several tomes that lead to nowhere, Harry had found a novel from over seventy years back that held some actual knowledge. Many of the texts were focused on theory, or assumptions, yet this one seemed to be written by a competent wizard.

"Many spells are connected to the mind and memory, whether to remove, modify, or add upon the memory. One such spell to adjust the memory is the Obli-"

"Forgotten something Potter?" A smug voice asked him, drawing him out of his anticipated study. Apparently that was a fun thing to do, if all of the interruptions by literally anyone were to be counted.

Harry lifted his gaze reluctantly from the aged book, to see one of the many people that had made it their mission to make his life hell, a crusade of distraction.

Once again, Padma Patil crossed his path, this time interrupting what could be the answer to the apparent curse he'd been gifted.

"Hello Padma… what do you want?" He muttered, his eyes trailing down her frame as he wondered what he'd done to deserve her horrid attention this time.

"Padma? First name basis are we? What an honor." Padma asked him, her voice soaked with sarcasm and likely pleasure from his misspoken greeting. She'd tried since they met to get him to call her by any other name besides 'Patil' and 'Pest.'

Harry just stared at her, his annoyance plain as daylight to see that he'd slipped up.

"What… do you want?" He asked her once more, not expecting an answer in any way. She was like a lioness, toying with her food. He suspected he killed an infant in a past life, to deserve not only this fool, but the others that considered him a friend.

"Lovegood and the living Ken Doll are worried about you, but they think you won't tell them."

"I wouldn't."

"And we both know that, so I told them I'd get the truth out of you, for them." Padma taunted, as he could easily tell she was palming her wand, her face and posture told him as much.

"If you stun me, I'm sueing."

"Can't sue me if you can't move." She said quickly, as she seemed to move at the speed of lightning, a sudden shock chilling his bones as he lost all sensation in his body.

This girl will be the death of me…

Headmaster's Office

(October 4th, 2022)

"Headmaster, I insist you do something!" The head of Ravenclaw House demanded, as a meeting occurred within the prestigious office.

The half-goblin wasn't alone however, as the stern Minerva Mcgonagall, her polar opposite, Severus Snape, and the introverted Pomona Sprout joined them.

The issue facing the school's administrators, was a sudden 'epidemic' that had infected the school worse than the Dragon Pox had ever managed. Tampered Memories, and even erased ones had started to affect the students, and even some of the teaching staff.

Despite the confusion, Flitwick was sure that he held the answer.

"Filius, I understand, but I'm afraid that I can't do anything." Albus Dumbledore said sadly, though each of the house heads knew from experience that the old man was holding out on them. Dumbledore was a man of reason, never doing anything unless there was a defined purpose behind it, which Filius was sure there was.

Fixing Dumbledore with a piercing gaze, Mcgonagall spoke one simple statement, though it held as much force as a reductor blast.

"Halloween. If he isn't gone by then, he will 'disapear.' Do you understand that?"

"Trust me on this my dear, I'd get to him first…"

Did you enjoy?

Course you didn't, as this was barely anything, but I needed a bridge from the last chapter to Halloween.

I'm told that the biggest sin in my writings, is that I over-complicate things. That's very true, but I hope to resolve most of the confusion in the next chapter, as the book's plot actually gets interesting, thus I have more material to work with.

I've also got the phone call written, but where that will fall in, I've no idea yet.
L will play a very minimal role for now, only serving the role of an unseen antagonist until sometime later. (Probably book 3 or 4)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this carry over chapter, and I SWEAR I'll finish the next chapter before the month's over.

(To those concerned, Lockhart is a subplot, nothing more.)

Goodnight everyone.

-Oscar