Title: Harry Potter: Four In One
Author: Joshua
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling created Harry James Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Hogwarts, the whole gosh-darn HP-universe and wrote the 7 "Harry Potter" books that we all love and enjoy. Spoilers for Book 1, and Book 7. In fact there may even be some direct quotes from Book 7, so be warned. I'm not writing this for profit, I may not even let anybody but my dearest and closest friends even read this and they'll get it for free, so thankfully this won't get me sued or anything. Everything AFTER Chapter Nine in Book 7 is going to be changed anyway and even those chapters that I do quote, they won't be quoted very well or for very long as I'm changing EVERYTHING after those points. Assume, for Wizard-Harry, that everything between the stated timelines in Book 1 and Book 7 is identical to what happened in the rest of the Books and the HP-universe.
Summary: A mysterious stranger interferes in the timeline and in Harry's life, splitting the young wizard into four and giving each a different magical education. Wizard, Warrior, Priest, and Spy.
Story:
Practically growling at the sorry state things had become, Harry poured even more of the ambient surrounding magic into fueling his attack, even as he completed the forms and diagrams for his next spell and turned another half of his attention to gathering his inner magic towards powering it now. Then he glanced up and allowed a fraction of attention towards Voldemort to see what he was planning.
One thing Harry was now quite thankful for was that Joshua had taken out the connection he shared with the Dark Lord. For starters, it cut down on nightmares, and while the loss of Intelligence from literally being inside the head of his enemy was unfortunate, the trade-off for not being plagued by distracting visions whenever Voldemort became the slightest bit upset was worth it in the end.
The snake man wizard seemed to be biding his time for the moment, maintaining his defenses, and unfortunately doing a better than average job of it. It took all Harry's spare power and then some just to keep the bastard from trying to advance despite the onslaught of raw magical power that the Kamehameha was pouring down on the Dark Lord's head. And while Harry would've loved to have been able to blast the snake man even further back, or even into the next continent, it was all he could do to keep him back the same distance.
On Voldemort's side of things, he was becoming more and more impressed with his young foe. Due to the simple and very eschewed fact that he mistakenly believed that the magical attack Harry was using on him was a highly advanced spell. Little did the Dark Lord realize, even as he tried to decipher the spell components, that once they knew how to do it, even a 2nd Year student could perform a flawless copy of the attack. They would not be able to make it last more than a second or two, and even fully grown wizards would have trouble powering the spell, but practically anybody would be able to do it.
Fortunately for Harry, Voldemort had also reached the end of his rope, as it were, since being hit by the attack spell, he had steadily increased and finally exhausted every single one of his defensive spells, charms, and even some rapidly completed rune work, but every time he came up with a new defense to it, there was a surge along the beam and he would almost be sent flying back all over again. It was all the Dark Lord could do just to remain at the point he was already pushed back to without going further back, let alone moving forward or casting a counter-offensive.
Nevertheless, no matter how powerful Potter had become, the once Tom Riddle was certain of one thing, he had more experience, he was more powerful, and Potter was still just a boy. Preconceptions that the unfortunate man would very soon be questioning.
Once Harry had completed the spell-construction, he slowly let the kamehameha beam filter out, not stopping all at once but over the space of a minute allowing it to fade completely. Voldemort, obviously, came to the incorrect assumption that the boy had just finally ran out of power, and wanting to savor his victory and rub it into the upstarts face was what kept him from flying straight forward to kill him as quickly as possible.
So imagine the surprise in the snake-wizard's face when he saw Harry still floating there, looking as smug, cool, and in-control as ever. He didn't even seem the slightest bit out of breath! His hands in fact were still glowing blue with magical energy.
Voldemort did a double-take, and confirmed that Harry's hands were glowing with magical build-up!
What defenses Voldemort had relaxed, he instantly brought back to full-bear and saved his words of victory until after he figured out what Potter was up to!
Keeping the name of the spell silent, especially since all of the actual spell work was done mentally anyway, Harry connected the pattern and completed the casting, allowing him to perform the spell as many times as necessary until he released said pattern. Holding his glowing hands together before him, the blue light seemed to fuse and then shift into a long arch of solid energy. Held with his hands at the point in the middle, one might associate the image of him holding some kind of weapon made of pure magic. When Harry raised his arms before him, right fully extended, left tucked into it until he pulled his left hand back to his chin it became quite clear exactly what kind of weapon it was the Boy Who Lived was about to use on the Dark Lord.
Drawing in all of the available 'light' magic and anything else he could without unbalancing the whole thing, Harry formed the Arrow of Light between his hands and fit it into the magic archery bow, aiming straight for Voldemort's center mass.
"I'd love to explain to you how I'm even doing all this, and how this spell works, and then go into further detail on just exactly what it's going to do to you," Harry shouted over to his enemy, "but I kind of put myself on a time limit here and we're running just a touch behind. So maybe next time!"
With that, Harry shot the Arrow of Light and all anybody else saw was a streaking flash and then a large explosion against Voldemort's shield, which had finally cracked but amazingly was still whole.
Voldemort himself was beginning to have the first doubts he'd entertained since long before he was reborn. His only hope now was that the spell the young wizard had just used was an 'All or Nothing' shot and could only be used once. When the Dark Lord looked up and saw boy already firing a second shot, he only had enough time for the thought, 'So much for hope...'
The second explosion was just as large as the first and this one almost broke the silvery snake-shield to pieces, and by this point it was more than obvious that the only thing holding it together was Voldemort's own magic. Why the dark wizard wasn't shooting back scores of curses already, nobody one the ground could guess, but Voldemort came from the old school of magic, and Harry and he both knew that he could only cast back with the minimum of wand movements if not the full incantations. Harry was performing wandless magic after silent spell after high-level battle magic without even showing the strain of doing so. Aside from the morale dampener, it was also a tactical advantage that Voldemort couldn't match under the circumstances.
"Last chance Tom!" Harry screamed, already having a third Arrow at the ready, holding back only to taunt his enemy. "Leave now and swear to never attack any of my family or friends ever again, and I will allow you to do so! Anything other than immediate compliance removes that offer from the table forever! Attack me, or any of mine, and suffer the consequences!"
"Fool!" Voldemort shouted as he peeked behind his shield just long enough to cast the Death Curse.
Before he was even halfway through the wand motion, the fourth Arrow had exploded against Voldemort's only real defense and that had finally destroyed the barrier, and so that left Voldemort with either retreating with his Death Eaters, or dodging and weaving like Harry had done earlier, while he tried his hardest to get a clear shot at the boy. As fast as those spells moved, Voldemort knew from what he'd seen that they could only be fired one at a time, giving him some leeway.
When Harry then began to fire first two, then five, then ten, fifteen, twenty-five, fifty, ONE HUNDRED Arrows at a time, practically flooding the sky with shooting projectiles that Voldemort could not defend against, the Dark Lord began to wonder if he really knew anything at all about his enemy.
When Harry finally stopped firing, Voldemort was over five hundred yards away, and yet the pair of eternal enemies could see and understood what the other was saying just fine. Voldemort had not escaped the barrage of Arrows unscathed, and as he was just beginning to notice, those Arrows of Light were not just magical conjurations. There were multiple tears and rips along his robes and his left arm had at least three scrapes along it while his right leg had scrapes along his shin while there had been a full puncture through the thigh and another through his abdomen, not to mention that he was sweating and ironically there was a scratch along his right temple that would leave a scar if not treated soon.
Breathing heavily, Voldemort screamed back at the wizard he was only just beginning to realize was no longer a boy by any stretch of the imagination. "What's the matter Potter? Running out of juice? I thought you said you'd kill me if I didn't comply with your orders!"
"I told you, Tommy Boy," replied Harry, "that you had one chance to retreat and agree to never target any of my friends or those I call family. And that if you attacked me, you had to suffer the consequences. Before that, I told you that my entire goal in this battle is not to kill you, but to ram it into your thick skull that you are no longer allowed to take anything that does not belong to you, especially anything of mine."
He paused for a moment before continuing, "Seems I've almost gotten my point across. I killed you once, or near-enough, by doing nothing more than letting your own lack of understanding and mistake do the work for me. And I think I have just demonstrated, by one of the absolute simplest spells that I have in my arsenal that I can match you power-wise, perhaps even more so as I was fighting you with less than a tenth of my power behind that attack. I'm likewise sure you've already figured out that my entire point of wasting that much power in a single attack was just a distraction while I silently and motionlessly completed the spell that brought injury to the Dark Lord. A spell that I have only used to one tenth of it's true potential, IF THAT!"
"So here's the new deal Moldy-Wart!" growled Harry as he dispelled and released the pattern of the Arrow of Light spell, "I can kill you right here and now and send you right back to that formless existence and see what happens when I kick over the Death Eater anthill. Probably something a lot like what happened almost fifteen years ago, only with Dumbledore dead at least the Traitor will go to Azkaban this time. OR! I can beat you to within an inch of your life and let you limp back to your 'loyal supporters'," Harry mocked, "with the knowledge that no matter what you do you can NEVER beat me! Or, you can run now and tell them whatever lies you want to about how I'm still alive and you ran away. Unlike with your victims, I'll allow you this much; Your Choice."
"Fool," the snake man hissed, and then he Disapparated, popping away in a poof of black smoke.
Only to Apparate silently directly behind Harry with his wand already halfway through the motions of casting the Death Spell, much too close for the boy's ghost-defense to work this time. "Avada--"
As though it were moving on its own, Harry's wand was suddenly in his hand and spun around faster than should've been possible. Both only caught glimpses of how it happened, but the end result nevertheless was that Harry's Holly and Phoenix feather wand shot out golden flames from its tip that first of all knocked Voldemort back for a loop, but more importantly broke and shattered the borrowed wand Voldemort had been using in the fight so far.
After that, the pair simply hovered there in the air, Harry staring back at his arch-nemesis with a look of dull disappointment and boredom. A look that Tom Riddle hadn't seen since the one time he got a less-than-O grade in Dumbledore's Transfiguration class in his First Year at Hogwarts. Voldemort hated that look.
With a howl of frustration, Voldemort retreated, Disapparating and this time not coming back.
Harry Potter let out a heavy sigh of relief and then very quickly flew back down to the ground where his friends awaited him, and an explanation. This was not going to be fun.
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging, Surrey
Backyard
Harry's reception as he silently landed in the moonlight lit backyard where everyone stood, mouths agape in shock. He waited until his feet were firmly on the ground before dispelling the Lighthawke Wings, not to mention the half a dozen other spells he still had active, including the Stone Skin spell, the Impervius spell for the wind, and even his Gate had been left open, yet now closed.
Once the drain on his magic was released, Harry nearly collapsed in relief, but settled for allowing himself to breath harder and show how much he was sweating, which of course caused a few concerned gasps to be heard from the crowd before him. He remained on his feet at least.
"Harry..." Lupin tried to say something, but didn't know what, so he stopped there.
"Harry..." repeated Hermione, her voice quaking with confusion and a bit of fear.
"That's my name, don't wear it out," joked the Boy Who Was Beyond Exhausted.
He got a laugh out of the twins at least, which brought Mad-Eye's expression into his view as they'd been standing behind the Ex-Auror. The scarred man looked practically livid, yet bursting with curiosity at the same time, so Harry decided to nip this in the bud sooner rather than later.
"Look, I know we're on a time limit, but at least now the skies are clear, though there's still a risk of being followed if not attacked," cautioned Harry. "You also mentioned that we'll be using Portkeys to get to the final destination. That being said, do you want me to answer all your questions sitting around here... or at the Burrow?"
Mad-Eye growled and looked to be debating it himself for several minutes until finally he just nodded and turned to the awaiting brooms and other flying accoutrements.
"Oh, and if you guys want to use my hair now, I don't have a problem with that," offered the now demure young wizard, actually offering a tuft of freshly-plucked hair.
"Hurry it up!" growled Moody, and very quickly all of the 'decoys' took the tuft, put it into their own vials of Polyjuice potion, drank it and once the change was complete, they pulled out the sack of clothes and glasses and without preamble put them on as quickly as possible.
Within minutes they were all airborne. Hagrid was driving the real Harry in Sirius' flying motorcycle, Bill had the transformed Fleur on the Thestral, while all the other pairs were on brooms. Just as the transformed Mundungus was getting on behind Mad-Eye though, the real Harry glanced sharply at his doppleganger, but didn't do anything at the moment.
That at least answered the question, in Harry's mind, of who told Voldemort about the date change and how they did it. Taking a closer look just before they took off, Harry recognized Snape's signature in the Imperius curse that Mundungus was under. The only surprising thing was why just an informant, why not a saboteur or a suddenly 'fully trustworthy' mole? It bore further thought that Harry didn't feel like getting into at the moment, but he did, just after take-off cast an inhibiting spell that would prevent Mad-Eye and Mundungus' Portkey from working at all. It wouldn't do for Snape to know his true location.
The flight to Tonks' Parents' house was thankfully uneventful, but Harry's fight lasted longer than it should've and they were pressed for time if not for the 'Dragon Fire' booster than Hagrid revealed to him. They had to push it twice to get there in time, almost tearing the sidecar off from the stress, but Harry was quick to act with a Reparo when it got too wobbly.
Almost literally in the nick of time, Hagrid and Harry landed in the Tonks' backyard, leaving the flying motorcycle behind for the time being. Harry paused and stared at Andromeda Tonks, Nymphadora's mother, for a few seconds, but the hairbrush was already glowing and he didn't have time to ask questions as he and Hagrid grabbed it and then vanished with a pop.
His feet landed on the side of the hill in front of the Burrow, home of the Weasley clan, but thankfully he didn't land on his ass this time. Tonks, Ron, Fred and Mr. Weasley were already there waiting, and after a brief quiz on 'Prove you're You' they all breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Mrs. Weasley tried to bring them all in for some food, but Harry decided to wait for the others.
About a minute later, Lupin and George popped in, followed another minute later by Kingsley and Hermione. Mad-Eye and Mundungus would've been the last to Portkey in, but obviously they never made it, and Fleur and Bill were coming directly to the Burrow on their Thestral. Once they had arrived, Harry finally decided to acquiesce to Mrs. Weasley's demands to bring everyone inside for some food.
Once everyone was seated at the table with some food in hand, at least, all attention turned to Harry. Harry, for the large part, ignored it and the moment he saw Ginny again, he smiled and gave her a strong hug, though he just managed to stop himself from kissing her as well. The red haired witch just smiled strangely at him, then made sure to sit next to him at the table and likewise made sure he had plenty of food on his plate.
Before he could even put the first biscuit to his lips however, Lupin barked out the question they were all thinking, "Harry! What the blazes happened back there? I... You... The things you did... It was all completely impossible! How did you do all that? Where did you learn it from? Who taught you?"
Looking a bit stunned at the rapid-fire questions, Harry stared for a second and then put his food back down and commented, "What? I can't even have something to eat first? Besides, wouldn't it be better to wait for Mad-Eye to get back? That way you can get intimidation into your interrogation techniques too."
"Harr-rry!" whined Hermione in that tone of hers.
He let out a heavy sigh, and answered, "Fine."
Thankfully, before he could really begin, there was the sound of someone falling off a broom from outside, then Mad-Eye Moody burst into the Weasley kitchen, magic and normal eyes both focused only on Harry's position, and he hobbled around to the opposite side of the table from where Harry was sitting and glared at the sixteen year old. Ginny gulped and suddenly regretted sitting next to her boyfriend while he was facing down Mad-Eye's rage.
"Oh, there you are Alastor," greeted Harry in a manner disturbingly familiar to Dumbledore's. "We were just about to start without you. Care for some of Mrs. Weasley's cooking? I guarantee, it's the best I've ever had. Especially her corned-beef."
"TALK!" ordered Moody as he sat down.
Harry shrugged, this time purposely picking up his biscuit and taking a large bite and chewing for a bit. Then, once he'd chewed enough, he took a big gulp of water from his cup and swallowed. Only then did Harry, much to everyone's annoyance, answer with, "Talk about what? The weather? How my day went? My eventual wedding plans with Ginny?"
The mentioned redhead sitting next to him froze on the spot as her face flushed a brilliant red. Nobody else seemed to think it funny or amusing in the slightest though.
"How did you do that? You've been in Hagrid's care for more than an hour now, and that's the first time you've drunk a sip of anything since before we got to your house, so you're not on Polyjuice and you're not a transfigured puppet either, so you're the same Harry Potter than just thrashed the dickens out of You-Know-Who! Now out with it! How did you do that?!"
Shrugging, Harry casually reminded the Ex-Auror, "You forgot golems, plastic surgery, human transfiguration, and a dark magic doppleganger. But I can see how you would dismiss those as almost all of them would require extensive access to me beforehand."
"BOY!" growled Moody.
"I used a nearly extinct branch of magic that has several different titles, but to not put too fine a point on it, I call it Battle Magic," explained Harry. "As you can tell from its name, every single spell that falls under this branch is designed around and for use in battle and war. Where, how, and who I learned it from are things that I cannot and will not tell you. And before you interrupt, allow me to explain why."
Harry then waited a full minute, glaring at Moody, Lupin, and everyone in between before finally continuing. "I caught Voldemort and his Death Eaters by surprise today. That's the only reason that I won. Also, every single one of those spells that I used... they're big, they're flashy, and above all else they make it look like I have more power than I probably do. While still effective, there were at least another three spells that I could've performed or cast that would've wiped out every single Death Eater and sent Moldy-Shorts back to Limbo in the space of a single minute. But I didn't use those, even though I could've."
Harry paused once again, letting them all grasp the idea and let it sink in.
"If Tom really knew what I was capable of, if he even had a hint that it was Battle Magic that I was using against him, first of all he wouldn't be as surprised, and second of all he would've been more prepared. Battle Magic is not perfect and it's not one hundred percent effective all of the time either. So, with that being said, the fewer people who know the answers to those kind of questions, the better. That means fewer people that can be tortured for information, or, heaven forbid, let slip the information to an unknown spy or traitor."
Moody grunted, acknowledging the points the young wizard had made.
"Still doesn't explain how Snape knew the date had been changed though," wondered the Ex-Auror.
"Did you bring Mundungus with you?" asked Harry.
Moody's expression changed to murderous, so Harry quickly stepped in.
"One of the skills that Battle Magic forces you to learn is the ability to see and perceive magic in all forms, from a magical object, a spell being cast at you, or the presence of an Imperius Curse on another person. I'm also familiar enough with Snape to recognize his signature."
"But that doesn't make any sense!" exclaimed Lupin. "Mundungus was the one to suggest that we use Polyjuice potion to create decoys. What would be the point? What's the purpose for Snape to have him do that? How does it help him? Or You-Know-Who?"
Arching an eyebrow at the new information, Harry considered for a moment, before answering, "I have a theory, but it's still too new and not worth mentioning at this point. Is Mundungus here or not?"
"I left him at my house, chained to the post so I knew where to find him later. Especially when our Portkey failed. I know we were on time. But now that I know Mundungus is under Snape's heel, it makes perfect sense. I made sure I wasn't followed though, so no one following, on broom or anywhere else made it here after me," said Moody.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that," apologized Harry. "I knew back at Privet Drive that Mundungus was under Snape's control, so I kind of made it so that when you guys got to your Portkey, the spell would be canceled instead. I don't like the idea of Snape having a clue about where I am, even if we know who the leak is now. Don't kill him though. He might still be useful."
Moody just nodded.
Suddenly, everyone else sensing the heavy talk was done with, the table exploded with loud conversation, most begging Harry to explain what he'd done, others asking what it was that Harry did, and the twins and Ron going on about how cool Harry was for having done it at all!
And dinner was just getting started.
The Burrow
Two hours after Midnight
Ron & Harry's Room
"Come in Hermione," said Harry before the girl could even knock on the door. "You too Ginny, you're welcome here as well."
It was the middle of the night and aside from himself, Ron, Hermione, and apparently Ginny, everybody else was asleep. All of the other members of the Order, that didn't currently live at the Burrow, had left hours ago, still unable to get a full answer out of Harry, but for some odd reason feeling comfortable about it. It was a lot like having Dumbledore back, with his mysterious understanding of more than what anyone could know.
The girls quietly stepped into the room and equally silent, shut the door behind them. They found Ron sitting on his bed staring open faced between themselves and Harry, while Harry sat like a leader on a throne in a rickety piece of wood that Ron called a chair.
"How'd you do that mate?" whispered Ron after a minute of staring.
"I'll get to that," assured Harry. "Take a seat girls, this is going to take a while."
"Harry, what happened to you?" demanded Hermione the instant that she sat down on the second bed, facing her friend. "Ron and I know that Dumbledore was not teaching you Battle Magic, and I've had time to actually look up a few of those spells I saw you use in my collection. Those were powerful and very high-level spells. There's now way you could've pulled them off without at least practicing them for more than a year in some cases! And Elemental Summons?!"
"Uh, yeah, about that..." began the flustered wizard. He let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair before looking each of them in the eye. "I trust you. All three of you. I trust you more than anyone else in this world. In some cases I even trust you more than I trust myself." He gave a shy little grin to Ginny, who returned it with a soft blush. "Having said that, there are some things that you don't know about me. Not because I haven't wanted to tell you!"
Seeing that he'd forestalled their objections, he continued, "These things were things I didn't even know about myself until very recently. Very recently being since after the last time that I spoke or saw any of you. So please appreciate that this is the first opportunity where I've had to speak with any of you alone and I am going to tell you and explain to you exactly what it is that's happened."
He took a moment to look each in the eye and gage their reaction to what he'd said so far. Hermione was wearing her 'study-lecture mode' face, which she normally bore when paying close attention to whatever the Professors were lecturing about in class. Ron seemed to be, on the large part, freaking out over his friend changing on him all of a sudden, but at the same time there was the maturity of concern and a desire to understand before making any final decision. Ginny was paying the closest attention out of all of them, but was looking over his body sitting there in a tight t-shirt and jogger shorts more than listening. He stifled a chuckle at the raging hormones of the just-turned-16-year-old girl.
"About two weeks ago, give or take a day and some hours, I woke up to find two men in my bedroom." He waited as they gasped in horror, but held up a hand to forestall any questions or statements of caution. "One of them was someone I had met before, when I was eleven years old. The other... was me."
"Huh? You've lost us mate," said Ron.
"The man's name was Joshua, but what's important about him is that he is a Time Wizard. When I was eleven years old, he visited me one night while my Aunt and Uncle were asleep, and explained some things, and then he gave me a choice. I accepted his offer. And here's where things go beyond what any of us learned at Hogwarts. He split me in two."
"What?!"
"Shhhhh!"
"Sorry," blushed Hermione.
"I don't mean he cut me in two, I mean he split me in two," continued Harry before any of them could jump to the wrong conclusions. "Where there was once one Harry Potter, now there were two. Both completely identical down to... well down to the very last detail. Memories, bodies, scar, even magic. Well, actually, my magic was exactly halved but since I had no training in using magic at that point it really made no difference."
"One was left behind to live the life of Harry Potter, go to Hogwarts, face and fight Voldemort over the years and is the person that you all grew up knowing. The other was taken with Joshua to a different world. And I don't mean like the muggle world or the world of the Elves. A Pocket Dimension that was in turn connected to various other Realms, and that Harry Potter was trained from the age of 11 to the age of 16 in the practice and use of Battle Magic. Two weeks ago, that Harry Potter and Joshua the Time Wizard popped into the room of this world's Harry Potter, and at exactly midnight of that night, they were put back together. Into me. The real Harry Potter."
"So... you're not our Harry?" asked Ron, confused.
Snorting out a laugh, Harry shook his head. "I am Ron. I am 'your' Harry, but I'm also more than that. I'm like Harry Plus. I know everything that both of the Harry's did like I did it myself, and from my point of view, I did. I'm still your Harry Potter, just with some extra stuff thrown in. Good stuff, I promise."
"Well at least you're not worrying yourself sick like you were at the End-of-Year," commented Ginny with a warm smile.
"So you remember what Dumbledore told you about..." suddenly Ron stopped speaking and glanced worriedly at Ginny.
"Like I said," replied Harry, "I trust all of you. Equally and without reservation. And yes, I do remember what Dumbledore told me about the Horcruxes. I also remember that Joshua coached me on exactly where we can find each and every last one of them. Why do you think I was so eager to fight Voldemort today? I knew we couldn't kill him, and if he's in Limbo when his Horcruxes are destroyed, he's still in Limbo and we have to resurrect him all over again to finally be rid of the blighter. I can kill Voldemort at absolutely any time that I want to. In over four dozen different ways, not all of them through spells by the way. But I was only fused back together again less than a month ago. And aside from the memories, skills, and knowledge that came with it, came a boatload of extra magic! My core, which used to be cores as in plural, has only recently finished reintegrating."
"What that means," explained Harry, "is that instead of just having twice as much magic available for spells, my capacity for magic has exponentially doubled from what it used to be when I was at Hogwarts, AND from when I was off training in Battle Magic. With wizard magic, that means I have over twice the power behind each spell, and I can cast every spell more than twice as many times as I used to. With Battle Magic, it is vital that you be able to consciously control the flow of magic as it must all be done without a wand, thus forcing you to focus your magic with your mind rather than through your wand. With such an exponential increase, my control was shot to hell and it took me two weeks to get back to my current level. Which, by the way, is actually a low level compared to what I used to have. While I didn't have the power to do the big stuff for very long, I was damn impressive when I was at the top of my game. Way I figure it, it'll be another week or so before I'm back to my true skill level. Unless I work overtime on it that is."
"Bloody hell," hissed Ron as the implications began to sink in.
"I suppose we should wait until you are at your true strength then before we go and gather the Horcruxes," surmised Hermione as she chewed on her lip, deep in thought.
"I would appreciate that. While I managed to take the Death Eaters by surprise today, I don't want to risk running into an ambush or any kind of trap unless I'm at the top of my game. But that might take too long as it is, so ready or not, as soon as I turn 17, we're outta here in four days."
"Five days," corrected Ron.
"Huh?"
"Bill and Fleur's wedding is in five days, and you know they're going to want you to be there," answered the redhead.
"Damn," winced Harry. "Oh well. An extra day can't hurt. And we need days of relaxation, otherwise you can burnout on stress. Believe me, I know half of me was less than a month from going suicidal and trying to take on every Death Eater in the world by himself. First thing I did after fusing, I went to an abandoned park and destroyed practically everything. Then I daydreamed about torturing the Dursleys with the Cruciatus every time they even spoke to me and treated the whole summer like one big vacation. Helped me get things back in perspective I suppose."
"Harry," asked Hermione after an uncomfortable silence as Harry described his summer vacation so far, "why are you telling us all this? It sounds a bit outrageous to be quite honest."
Harry just shrugged, and replied, "I trust you. All of you."
"But you didn't tell the others, or anyone else in the Order," said Ron. "Why tell us anything at all? Why not just say you and Dumbledore had been studying it in secret? What's the catch?"
"The catch," said Harry as he leaned back against the headboard of his bed, "is that none of that would be true. And you would know that. And that would drive a wedge between us, a wedge that we don't need, seeing as we're going to be depending upon each other until we finally defeat Voldemort and his Death Eaters. I don't want that to happen, and I'm sure you don't either. To be quite blunt about it, I trust you because from now until Voldemort is defeated, we're all going to be the only people that we're going to be talking with for an unknown amount of time."
"What d'you mean?" asked Ron, confused.
"When we leave, Ron, it's just going to be us. We're not going to be staying in touch with the Order, or the Ministry, or even any of our friends or your family. We are literally going to be the only faces we're going to see for the next, however many months, maybe even years that it's going to take for us to destroy all of the Horcruxes. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's the reason I'm telling you all of this now."
"The Order has potential leaks, ways that Voldemort might be able to extract the information about what has happened to me, where and how I learned my skills, even what out mission about the Horcruxes is," Harry pushed himself back to the edge of the bed and continued. "I can't afford to trust the Order or the Ministry, or anyone outside of my range of influence. You lot won't be talking to anyone but me until this whole mess has blown over, so I'd say that boosts your reliability from Very Trustworthy, to Solid Safe. It's not the nice way of saying it, but it's the cold hard truth of it."
"So, you have a plan about how to get the Horcruxes?" spoke Hermione after a heavy minute of silence.
"That's the easy part," assured Harry. "Hard part is taking care of every other Dark Wizard that's following Moldy-Shorts around. So far I've been able to figure out two strategies. All-Out War. Or letting them take control of the Ministry and taking them out faction by faction."
"Harry, honestly! You cannot be serious!" exclaimed Hermione.
Harry shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. "Much as we want to believe it, and however much the analogy would fit, cutting off the head of the snake does not solve all our problems. Killing Voldemort for good is an objective, not the solution. Unfortunately, I don't have enough information to formulate any other strategies that would work out in the long run."
"Well, we'll help you out there," promised Ron, Hermione and Ginny a second behind him.
"Thanks guys, I appreciate that. For the time being, just stick to acting normal and get all your things together. Day after the wedding, as in the minute after midnight of the wedding, we're off and collecting Tommy's toys. I'll get you what I can, but for the next week or so I'm going to be busy training myself back up to a comfortable level. Right now I feel hopelessly out of shape as it is."
"But Harry, what about Ginny? She has to go back to Hogwarts," pointed out Hermione.
Immediately the two sides of Harry's psyche found the first point on which they disagreed. Wizard-Harry wanted Ginny to stay safe and out of harms way and hunting for Horcruxes was going into harms way. Warrior-Harry on the other hand didn't want to let Ginny out of his sight. He'd had experiences with losing friends and people close to him before and had long ago come to the conclusion that the only way to absolutely guarantee their safety was to keep them with him at all times. Better to be able to protect them and save them rather than hear about the danger and being too far away to do anything about it.
For an instant, the two sides almost agreed to disagree, but then Hedwig, all of a sudden, flew in through the open window of the room and noisily landed on the perch next to Ron's owl, Pig. Wizard-Harry recalled that Joshua had told young eleven year old Harry that one of the casualties that would have been was Hedwig, while Warrior-Harry remembered what had happened to his last Familiar and how it had given its life for his in a battle that could have been avoided if only he'd kept her with him. Just like that the conflict vanished.
"I've changed my mind," he said. "Hogwarts does not have Dumbledore any longer and therefore it is no longer safe from Voldemort. Ginny, you mean too much to me for me to see you any place other than absolutely safe. Before, I had thought that was out of harms way and because I'm a target that meant being away from me."
"Well, now the safest place that I can possibly imagine you being is by my side where I can protect you and at the very least help you to learn how to protect yourself. I'm not letting you out of my sight for longer than necessary, and if you want to come with us when we leave... you're more than welcome to join us. If you want to go back to Hogwarts, or simply don't want to come with us then..."
Harry couldn't say another word. Mostly due to the fact that Ginny had launched herself from her seat and was now quite comfortable in Harry's arms kissing the hell out of him. When she finally let up so they could breath, he asked in cavalier tone, "I take it that means yes, you'd like to come?"
She just kissed him again.
This time, Harry kissed her back.
"I hope they're not going to be doing that all of the time," commented Ron with a hint of disgust at watching his sister make-out with his best friend.
"Oh Ron, honestly," sighed an exasperated Hermione.