AN: Well, first off, some people have been asking me why Harry was sorted at all. I kind of intended to have a little discussion between Harry and V/V in this chapter that would reveal some reasons, but I guess that'll have to wait until next chapter. Oh, also, I met someone the other day that reads my fan fics! It was so weird when Tom suddenly dragged this random guy over to me and told me he was a fan, but it does kind of feel good to actually meet your readers, especially if they have the same first name as you! :P So, shout out to that guy, who has a username that has something to do with ferrets... I think. Ah! Also, two more things. One, how are people liking the Lily here, and there'll be more development of her character next chapter, along with James. Second, there's been talk on the forum of who will be Harry's Saber Servant. Personally, I'm liking the thought of Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft, the 'Queen of Blades', but what do you guys think?
Also, there's now a poll on my profile for where Harry's going next world.
Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN and The Legendary Reaper
Chapter 03 – First Day
Altrouge's eyes flickered open, and she snuggled into the warm body beside her, rather comfortable with the position she was currently in.
Wait, warm?
Harry's body wasn't warm, he was technically half-dead, his body should be almost as cold as her own. Her eyes flickered open again, allowing her to see a curtain of blonde hair in her face, and the body her arms were circled around had two protrusions coming from its back, both of them soft as a quilt.
"Hmm? Oh well, V/V is comfortable in her own way." Alt murmured, working out who she was cuddling with. She sat up in the bed slightly and looked around for wherever Harry had disappeared off to. It wasn't difficult to find him, he was simply sitting in a chair in the corner.
"Any particular reason you're not in this bed with us, especially when the room provided it just for us?" Alt asked him.
Harry grinned at her. "I was just getting my hands on a few things." Harry's hair split into several 'tails' and picked up the objects he'd gotten a hold of overnight. There was a diary, a diadem, a ring, a locket, a cup, and a wand. Altrouge recognised all of them, they were Voldemort's horcruxes, minus his snake, and the elder wand that Dumbledore had in his hand yesterday.
"Care to tell me the story?" She asked.
Harry shrugged. "Well, seeing as I was an innocent not-Slytherin in my previous world, I can't be expected to know where the common room is, can I? Even if I did, I don't know the password." Harry whistled innocently, and the look on his face would have had believing him to be the purest of angels, it wasn't, however, fooling Altrouge.
"Anyway, as a result, I had no common room or dormitory to go to, so I went to the next best place, the Room of Requirement, where we are now. Of course, while here, I 'accidentally' came across this interesting diadem, which just so happened to be a horcrux." Harry continued, his grin spreading outwards, splitting his face in two.
"Naturally, I wanted to know if the locations of the horcruxes were all the same in this world as in my last one. I found the ring in the Gaunt shack, the diary in the Chamber of Secrets, undamaged actually, but the Locket I found in the cave where it was originally held. Anyway, with four horcruxes, I separated into myself, Serial Phantasm, Dream or Destruction, and Shadow of the Heart, and headed in the four cardinal directions." Harry's faux innocence was breaking up, not that he was putting all that much effort into maintaining it to begin with.
Altrouge raised an eyebrow. "You used the connection that exists between the soul pieces as compass points on a map to discover where the others were?" It was more statement than question, but Harry nodded all the same. "The other three pieces would be Voldemort himself, Nagini, his snake, and the cup."
Harry nodded his head again. "Nagini and Old and Mouldy are, surprise, surprise, at Malfoy Manor, while Hufflepuff's cup was a little more difficult to locate. The 'compass' spell I used was meant for two dimensions only and didn't tell me how deep underground something was, so I had to search through dozens of Gringotts vaults before I found the one that held the cup."
"What did you do while there?" Alt asked.
"Well, while I was collecting the cup, Holly might have sealed the vault from the inside. Of course, a sealed vault is no good to anyone, so we... liberated the contents of said vault. Afterwards, I might have left a few traps behind to discourage anyone that managed to get past Holly's seal." Harry replied.
Altrouge sighed. "In other words; you robbed them blind, sealed up the door, and laid some rather nasty traps for anyone capable of breaching the seal, is that right?"
"Yep!" Holly chirped from her perch, the arm of the chair Harry was sit on.
"I might have added a few things as well." Tamamo manifested, a grin on her face.
"And I might have cut the door mechanism into pieces too." Illya added, also making an appearance.
"Ah, gold." Jack added, also ditching spirit form.
Harry shrugged. "I was more interested in the books in there than the money, but I took it all anyway. I wonder whose vault it was. As you might have guessed, it certainly wasn't the Lestrange vault, nor a personal one for Bellatrix."
"Does it matter?" Altrouge asked.
"I guess not." Harry replied. "It was just an idle thought."
"Are you going to tear the soul fragments out of them and purify them now? And what's with the wand?" Altrouge looked at the last item. She knew it was a Deathly Hallow, but aside from that she didn't understand why Harry would steal it.
"Yeah, I'll purify them this morning. That'd just leave me with Nagini and Voldemort to deal with, and I can't go after them until May at the earliest. Sooner than that and Fate won't be able to compensate for my presence in this world and it will collapse in on itself." Harry told her. "As for the wand, I'm curious what would happen if I was to gather a second set of the Hallows."
Altrouge raised an eyebrow in curiosity, so Harry decided to explain.
"The Hallows were created by Death, with the intention of bringing those that hold them closer to death. Interpret that literally, and you could call them cursed items that lead those that carry them to death. Sometimes, someone who holds all three survives their 'deathly encounter', which results in an avatar of Death, like me. I'm an oddity though, because I was already so... different when I became an avatar of Death, I became a lot closer to her existence than was expected." Harry explained.
"And now you're wondering just how much closer your existence will become to Death with a second set of Hallows?" Altrouge sighed and buried her face in pillows. "When did you swipe the wand anyway? I'd have thought Dumbledore would notice his most valuable tool just up and disappearing."
"Remember when I was reading from the Book of the Dead in his office?" Altrouge nodded. "Well, while he was distracted, I switched the wand with a shadow copy I'd formed. It'll be more powerful than a regular wand, but it's not the Elder wand, despite me making the two look identical. I'll probably dissolve the fake wand at some point, though I don't know exactly when I'll get around to it." Harry stretched his back out, the vertebrae of his back making a clicking noise as he did so.
There was a stirring next to Altrouge, it seemed V/V was waking up now. They waited for a few moments as V/V slowly came awake, gave a cute yawn, and blinked blearily around herself, taking a moment to gain her bearings. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and looked sleepily at Altrouge.
Harry then had to hold in a laugh as V/V, still half-asleep, pulled Altrouge into a hug and started drifting off to sleep again. Alt's rolled eyes and sigh weren't fooling anyone, she too was amused by her sleeping companion's actions, no matter how much she would deny it.
"That's so cute." Harry grinned. "Where's a camera when you need one..." Harry trailed off, before sticking his hand into a black portal that opened up in the air next to him. "No, that's yet another apple. No, that feels like a book, probably that one I was reading the other day on sex magic. Nope, that's a clarinet, though I have no idea what that's doing in there. Ah, here we are, a camera."
Harry retrieved said object from the portal and quickly snapped off a picture of V/V using Altrouge as a teddy bear. He would say that it would make good blackmail material later, but Alt wasn't bothered by it, and it wasn't like he didn't already have masses of blackmail material on everyone he knew, even Zelretch. That time Harry had drunkenly transfigured the old bloodsucker's clothes into a maid outfit hadn't been the worst of it. Giving Lorelei a picture of the vamp in a pink fairy outfit, wand and tutu included, had been worth it, if only to see the stoic woman cracking up with laughter.
The clicking noise the camera made seemed to grab V/V's attention somehow, and the Aristotle slowly began to awaken. "Good morning, everyone." She yawned, stretching out and cracking her back. It was kind of amusing how human she was acting, especially considering that her purpose at one point had been to wipe humans out.
Harry and Altrouge, as well as the Servants plus Holly, watched quietly as V/V went through the process of waking up. Harry was a little tempted to conjure a bucket of water over her head, but he didn't, that would just be mean. Instead, he busied himself with tearing Voldemort's soul fragments out of the horcruxes he had retrieved last night.
"Hmm, what should I do with these?" Harry wondered, regarding the artefacts he now held in his hair. "All but the diary and ring are founders artefacts, so I suppose the school has possibly the best right to them. Ravenclaw has no living descendants, and Slytherin only has Riddle as an 'heir' of sorts. The Smiths are rumoured to be descended from Helga Hufflepuff, but whenever some sort of proof is asked for, none is ever given."
"You should at least keep hold of them until Voldemort is dealt with." Holly suggested. "If he knew that someone had negated his 'immortality', he might try and make more horcruxes, and I don't know about you, but that would just be a pain in the ass."
"Fair enough." Harry shrugged. The artefacts disappeared into another one of Harry's portals, aside from the ring and diary. The former he removed the resurrection stone from and stored that and the wand separate from the rest, while he simply burned the diary with black fire.
V/V, now pretty much fully awake, looked at Harry and asked, "So, what's today's plan of action?"
Harry shrugged. "I'll take it as it comes. I'm not sure whether I should be going to classes which I could teach, the boredom would kill me. Of course, I'm also pretty sure that they'll try and force me to go to class, or at least determine how skilled I am. I'm unsure how much to show them. You two can go to lesson if you want, you might learn something interesting."
Altrouge arched an eyebrow. "Harry, neither V/V or I are witches, and neither of us possess a magical core. Yes, I have circuits, but circuits and cores are different."
Harry shrugged again. He held his hand out, palm up. Light gathered in his hand, before a brightly glowing orb had coalesced and was hovering there like Harry hadn't just done something that should have been impossible by all the laws of magic in this world.
"And the fact neither of us have four years of magical education behind us?" Altrouge asked, though she was sure Harry would have a solution for that as well.
"I can copy my knowledge into your minds for that. You're both old enough and in control of your minds as to not be overwhelmed by that. If you had been a child, however..." Harry grimaced. "Yeah, there's a reason that's not a viable choice for the Wizarding World, that much information 'downloaded' into a child's mind? Not a good idea."
"And Wands?" Altrouge asked, her lip twitching into a small smile of amusement.
"Either claim they were on the table next to you when we were summoned, and thus left behind, or I can craft something for you myself. It wouldn't be as good quality as something made by Ollivander or another professional, but it would work at least." Harry replied, his lips also twitching into a small smile.
Altrouge let out a soft laugh. "Well, now that that's decided, shall we head to breakfast?"
xxxxx
When Harry entered the Great Hall the next morning, flanked by Altrouge and V/V - the former having put her shades back on again to hide her red eyes, while the latter had asked Harry to teach her a little shape-shifting, enough to hide her wings at least – it was to the murmuring of the entire student body and the professors.
Harry shrugged, giving the image of not being concerned, while his sharp hearing listened in on every conversation in the hall. Most of it was quickly discarded as idle gossip, a lot of it concerning him, but there were odd snippets that caught his attention. Some of the students were discussing what their parents were up to, giving him small, but useful, nuggets of information, others were talking about what was in the paper and what they'd heard about certain events, and others were discussing rumours, which while unreliable, could sometimes prove incredibly valuable.
He took a seat at the Slytherin table, Alt and V/V sitting on either side of him. The three began to eat, none of them oblivious to how the hall had gone quiet, or how everyone seemed to be watching them intently. It was as Harry ate the food before him, he realised just how much of an effect he might have had on the Hogwarts in the world he was born to.
The food he was eating right now was so, damn greasy! Perhaps he'd been spoiled back home, as whenever he wasn't the one doing the cooking, either Shirou or Sakura did it – damn, evil, kitchen stealing monsters! - and all three of them were accomplished cooks, and so was Rin come to think of it, though she was happy to leave the cooking to someone else. Even at Hogwarts, Harry had made sure to 're-educate' the house elves on how to cook. Now, should he do so in this world too?
Harry was brought out of his thoughts when a shadow fell over him. Looking up, he saw Severus Snape looming over him with a sneer on his face. Harry responded with an arched eyebrow that peeked over the top of his blindfold, curious how this encounter would turn out, especially as he could feel seething rage and hatred emanating from the man's soul.
"Where were you last night, Potter? Was the Slytherin dormitory not good enough for you? And where is your uniform? Is the great Harry Potter too good to be seen in Slytherin green? Well, answer me, boy, before I give you detention until you leave this school!" Ouchie, it seemed Snape really had a hate on for this world's Harry Potter, and was incapable of separating this new Harry from him.
"Well, seeing as I wasn't a Slytherin in the last Hogwarts, perhaps I might not know where the common room is." Harry stated flatly, not impressed with the intimidation attempt. "Even if I did know where it was, I don't know the password for it, meaning I couldn't get in regardless. As for the issue with my clothes, I was summoned here with nothing except what I was wearing, I don't carry a spare uniform in my pocket."
"So you are completely unprepared for school? Detention with me this Saturday" Snape snarled. "If you are not ready by first period, well, we'll just have to extend that detention, won't we?"
Harry's own reply was a small smile, one that had everyone watching shiver with an unexpected sense of dread.
xxxxx
Up at the teacher's table, James Potter and his wife, Lily, were only being kept in place by a firm grip on their arms. They'd both heard how Snape had disliked their son, and treated him harshly, but to actually see it person was a totally different thing. No longer could they believe that Harry was simply over-exaggerating things, not with the evidence in front of their eyes.
"Sirius!" James hissed. "Why are you stopping us doing anything about this?"
Sirius just raised one eyebrow at James. "Prongs, I might have only really known Harry for about a year, but even I can recognise that look on his face. Trust me when I say that you don't want to be anywhere near Snape when Harry enacts his revenge." Sirius shivered. "That boy is vicious!"
It was very true, and Sirius knew it, he had certainly been on the receiving end of Harry's revenge for the whole 'tricking him into sleeping with a TYPE' thing. One of the things Harry had done in revenge had been to implant the memories of another person into Sirius' mind, and let him experience the last day of their life.
It had been truly horrific, made all the worse by how the day had started. The memories had been of a completely ordinary, mundane male human. He had awoken in the morning, kissed his wife, hugged his children, and gone of to work. However, later that day, giant beings – that the man's mind identified as 'titans' – had attacked. The man had rushed home to see to his family's health, only to arrive quickly enough to see his wife eaten alive, his two children following her. The man was so out of it with fear and rage, that he did not notice another titan behind him, which grabbed him and shoved him in its mouth.
The man's last memories had been the teeth of the titan biting him in half.
Sirius had awoken the next morning to find he'd pissed himself in his sleep, and the horrifying memories didn't fade as dreams usually did. He'd asked Harry about that place, whether it was truly real. In response, Harry had used the Kaleidoscope to take him to that place, to the town of Shiganshina.
Lily gave Sirius a peculiar look when he froze up and began mumbling something under his breath, it sounded something like 'eaten alive, and broken walls', and she was kind of curious about what he was referring to with that. Perhaps she should try talking to... her son, and getting the story from him.
"You're saying that Harry is a prankster?" James asked with a little hope in his voice.
Sirius snorted and shook his head. "Not really. Yeah, he'll occasionally play tricks, but he's usually more focused on research or fighting. No, what you've really got to watch out for is Harry's revenge. Snape's only mildly irritating him right now, so he'll get off light, but if anyone really pisses him off... Well, that's a fate I wouldn't wish on Voldemort."
James' jaw clenched. "Sirius, you need to take this seriously! This is Voldemort we're talking about, the worst Dark Lord that the Wizarding World has ever produced. You keep acting like he's a naughty little child that Harry is going to smack back into line if he ever annoys him."
"James, I do understand what it means to have Voldemort around. What you don't understand is what it's like having Harry around. He's not a normal kid, James, and the sooner you acknowledge that the better. To Harry, Voldemort might as well be a 'naughty little child'. There's simply no comparison between them, to think that Voldemort stands the slightest chance against Harry is ridiculous." Sirius really meant what he was saying, Voldemort was literally incapable of killing, or even seriously inconveniencing Harry at all.
"Is that really so, Sirius?" Dumbledore asked, having overheard the animagus' words. "If that truly is the case, then we can end this war without a dreadful loss of life. I am sure we can find out where Voldemort is currently hiding and-"
Sirius cut him off. "That's not going to happen. Just because a prophecy says that Harry has the ability to off a Dark Lord, doesn't mean Harry actually will do it. He has no reason to after all, it's not like he cares about anyone here." Sirius felt James and Lily stiffen beside him, and expanded on what he was saying.
"Right now, in Harry's mind, none of you are anything more than faces and names. He has no emotional attachment to any of you, and truly wouldn't care if you happened to suddenly die. If you were injured and he was nearby, he would likely help, just don't expect him to be proactive about it. Also, he has refused to do anything for you until you do something yourselves." Sirius shrugged.
"Very true." An elegant, female voice said from behind them. "The Origin has decided that he will indeed help this world, but he shan't do so if this world refuses to help itself. Even if Voldemort is beyond you due to a prophecy, there's nothing stopping you targeting his foot soldiers, his suppliers, and his supporters."
"Hey, Serial, what are you doing out and about?" Sirius greeted Harry's manifested apathy.
"You know this woman, Sirius?" Lily asked. "I didn't see her arrive with you."
"Oh, you saw me, but I doubt you understood what you saw." Serial Phantasm's lip curled into a small smile. "Then again, seeing 'me', is not quite the same as seeing me. I guess you could say there is no me, but us, and I am a part of the us, which collectively are all parts of the origin."
Sirius laughed and shook his head. "Are you purposefully trying to confuse them?"
Serial raised an eyebrow. "Is it working?"
"Wha- who are you?" Lily asked, looking at the woman. She was beautiful, there was absolutely no doubt about that, and she was dressed in a fancy Victorian style dress. She had burgundy eyes and waist length silvery hair. Her features were like those of a porcelain doll, aristocratic, perfect. There was also something about her, Lily felt drained just being near her, and there was a distinctly unearthly feeling that made her skin prickle. She also took note of the plain, wooden spear that this 'Serial' was leaning against.
"Me? I am Serial Phantasm, I am Apathy." The capital letter on 'Apathy' could clearly be heard in her speech.
Sirius sighed. "Now you're being deliberately mysterious."
Serial shrugged. "It could be worse, imagine what Dream or Tyrant would do, or even worse, Shadow of the Heart?"
"Now, miss, could you tell me how you were able to enter Hogwarts so easily?" Dumbledore asked, his voice having turned somewhat serious, and his wand now pointed at the woman. He did not know who she was, or even what she was, but his impression of her was that of a void, drawing all things into it, draining them dry, and devouring them.
Serial gave Dumbledore an amused look. "How did I enter? Why, you let me in yourself, and it is beyond your ability to banish me. I do not recognise you as having any authority over me, so if you see me again, remember your place." Her words ended low and threatening, as she faded from view, disappearing who knew where. The notice-me-not charm she'd cast, which none of them had noticed until now, vanished with her.
"Sirius, who was that woman?" Dumbledore asked.
Sirius shrugged. "You heard her, she's Serial Phantasm. She is Apathy." He then nodded his head towards the Slytherin table. "Now, it might be a good idea to go stop Snape before he really gets on Harry's shit list."
All of them looked towards said table to find Severus Snape almost spitting mad and screaming in Harry's face, while said boy only smiled coldly back. The two females on either side of him looked to be getting angrier and angrier, however, and the way the shadows seemed to be dancing in Harry's general area was incredibly disturbing.
xxxxx
Snape's face had become a purple to rival beetroot as he looked into Harry Potter's amused face. Granted, this wasn't the Harry Potter he was familiar with, and neither was it the James Potter he truly hated, but he seriously needed to vent, and this boy was just as good a target as any other.
Just as he was about to verbally lay into him again, he became aware of someone approaching quickly. No, not just someone, the one, the only one that he loved, the one that he desired, the one whose death he had almost indirectly caused, the one who refused to be his.
"That's enough, Severus. Honestly, we didn't really plan things out properly. How is Harry supposed to have an appropriate uniform or supplies if he was summoned without them? I'll be taking him out to Diagon Alley right now, and we should be back by lunch, so he'll be fully prepared for tomorrow." Lily said. "Besides, it's a Saturday, there are no lessons today!"
Severus didn't know quite what to say to his once -and sadly, still, despite the gap between them – best friend, long time crush, and stalk victi- I mean, admirable woman. Instead, he just said nothing, as Lily Potter dragged her son's alternate and the two girls that had come with him up and out of the hall.
xxxxx
Harry followed Lily out of the Great Hall, taking the first good look at her since he'd entered this world. She was thirty-five, and like all witches and wizards, looked a little younger than she actually was. She had the appearance of someone in their late twenties, and rather attractive when compared to other humans.
Now, Harry was not getting the hots for his mother, not even an alternate reality's version of her, it was simple fact. Besides, while he could acknowledge human beauty, he'd been kind of spoilt with all of the supernatural eye candy that he'd gotten on a daily basis since he was five.
Harry was more interested in her as a person than what she looked like, and began to examine her soul and magic. There was nervousness radiating off her, and deep sorrow as well, which was to be expected really. There was also curiosity and very slight hostility directed at Alt and V/V, though that might well be a 'mother' wanting to know the sorts of girls her 'son' spent time with.
Deciding to be a little mischievous, Harry pulled at the shadows around them when they were in the Entrance Hall. Lily stiffened as the four of them were suddenly engulfed in darkness, before her vision cleared to reveal Diagon Alley in front of her.
"That was weird." She muttered to herself.
"Useful though." Harry shrugged. "Feels a lot better than most wizarding methods of travelling too."
Lily nodded her agreement, she wasn't fond of portkeys, apparition, or the Floo system herself. She then took a look at her son, or at least the alternate to him, swallowed nervously, and headed towards Gringotts to withdraw some money from the Potter vault.
They walked in silence, an uncomfortable silence for Lily, though Harry and the two girls with him didn't seem bothered in the slightest. What should she say? She wanted to get to know this Harry, but she had no frame of reference to go off. From what Sirius had told them, both she and James had been killed on that Halloween night, with him falsely accused and imprisoned. If that was so, just who had raised Harry, and how did he grow up?
Thankfully, from Lily's point of view, the alley was pretty much empty that day. While it was a Saturday, it was early morning, and all of the kids had been sent to school the day before, so there really wasn't anyone about. She was especially thankful for this when they reached Gringotts itself.
Lily squeaked in surprise when the goblin guards crossed their weapons in front of them when they went to enter the bank. She looked at them, and was about to speak, when she saw that not one of the goblins was looking at her. Instead, they all seemed to be focused on Harry and the girls with him, and Lily was shocked to see the warrior race shifting nervously from foot to foot.
"Is there an issue here?" Harry asked in his musical voice, though there were undertones of both amusement and menace in it as well.
"What business does a god have with us, especially one that reeks of darkness?" Lily's eyes went wide at that, and looked towards Harry, expecting him to deny being any such thing. Instead, she saw his lips quirk upwards into a small smirk.
"So, you can tell that much of my nature just from what little I'm letting leak out. I was rather disappointed when not a single human noticed it, but your race is far more sensitive to those sorts of things, aren't you?" Harry chuckled. "As for why we're here, this reality's version of my mother wishes to withdraw funds. I'm sure you are aware of what was attempted in Hogwarts yesterday evening. I'm also fairly sure that news of my appearance will have reached you in short order."
"So you mean no harm to the Goblin Nation, do you?" One brave goblin asked.
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I don't care about the Goblin Nation. If one of your race is fool enough to piss me off, then they'll suffer for it. Otherwise, I'm quite happy to leave you to your own devices. Is that good enough for you, or are things going to... escalate?"
Lily shivered as the air around Harry grew heavy with power, and he began to radiate malice in a way that began to claw at her mind, making her shiver in fear, and shrink in on herself out of a primal desire to remain unseen by this apex predator stood next to her.
The goblins swallowed heavily, and shook slightly in their armour. However, Harry's response seemed to garner some respect from them, and they withdrew their weapons that had been blocking their path, and even gave a shaky salute to Harry and his companions.
Lily gasped when the negative emotions coming from Harry suddenly ceased, and everything seemed to brighten once more, as if what had happened had never actually occurred. She took the lead in entering the bank, and approached one of the tellers, asking to be guided down to the vault for a withdrawal.
It wasn't until they were in the carts and on their way down to the vault that Lily felt confident enough to speak to Harry again, though she didn't know how to broach the topic, and decided to just be a Gryffindor and dive head first into it and hope for the best.
"H-Harry, what did the goblins back there mean about you being a 'dark god'?" She asked.
"It's technically what I am, or at least one part of what I am." Harry replied. "When I was thirteen, there was an... accident, and my soul was ripped into pieces. We managed to put me back together, though there was an 'extra part' that was added. In short, my soul was fused to that of a god, one of a dark alignment. Thankfully, my own personality managed to dominate the other one and subsume the other."
"I- I see." Lily sighed. "I guess... well, I guess that I shouldn't be too critical of you, as that... that would be rather hypocritical of me." Harry cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow above his blindfold. "You see, when we found out that Voldemort would be coming after you, I did some research into things that I... I wasn't supposed to. If Dumbledore knew what I was reading, or James, or Sirius, I don't know what they would say, they all hate dark magic so much..."
"I sense a 'but' coming." Harry encouraged the woman on.
"Harry." She murmured. "He was more important to me than anything else at that point, and I would have done literally anything to keep him safe. I found a ritual, a sacrificial one, that would keep him safe from at least one killing curse, and I tied it into a reflective ward, which would hopefully turn the spell back on the caster. I never got to use it, but from what Sirius has told me about your world, I think that might be how you survived that night."
"Hmm, that would be logical." Harry nodded. "It's irrelevant now, aside from your willingness to delve into the dark arts. Aside from that time, have you ever looked into more dark magic?" Harry asked.
Lily swallowed heavily. "Y-Yes, I did. Bellatrix, Sirius' cousin, is a truly phenomenal witch, and someone that few are willing to face in a duel. She's very good at what she does, but what makes her really stand out from others is how she doesn't hesitate to use mild to moderate dark spells in a fight to cripple and maim. Honestly, I admire her a little. Both for that, and how she is her own woman, refusing the marriage contract with the Lestrange family, though how she dissolved the contract without losing her magic, I seriously wonder."
Harry chuckled again. "So it seems that you are not an ineffectual little scaredy cat. I must say, you are making quite a good impression on me. To be honest, I did not expect to have as high opinion of you as I do. In this vein, is there anything else in the magical world that you would like to study, regardless of public opinion on it?"
Lily managed a small smile. While it might not be how she had intended it, she was actually connecting to this alternate of her son, even if only slightly. While he was by no means a replacement for what she had lost, was there a reason she couldn't come to love him as a parent was? Could she be a parent to this 'dark god' who was apparently her son? Was she simply desperate to have something fill in the gap her Harry had left? Was she latching onto this boy as a lifeline, a way to remember without the pain attached to it?
"Well, when I first heard about Magi, I was curious. I mean, every book that mentions them makes them out to be horrible monsters who would do anything in the name of research, like some sort of demonic Ravenclaw students. I've never met a magus, so I can't really say what is true and what is not." Lily admitted.
Harry chuckled. "Well, the books aren't too far off if that's what they say. I will admit, there are a lot of unscrupulous magi out there, who would do almost anything to further their research, things that you might say would make even a devil cringe. However, there are other magi out there who genuinely want to do good with their mysteries, or are mostly ambivalent to others."
Harry paused and clicked his tongue, idly wondering how long it would take to reach the vault. "A magus walks with death. That is the first lesson any magus really needs to learn. What they practise is dangerous. Their own spells, if they go wrong, might kill them. The politics of Magi might end with them dead or worse. There are creatures out there that will kill them if given half a chance. Heck, even Gaia might kill them in the right circumstances."
"You sound like you're familiar with Magi." Lily commented.
Harry snorted. "Yeah, you could say that. Anyway, after that important little lesson, I guess I can tell you about elements and origins. After that, perhaps the most basic of Magecraft, Reinforcement and Structural Grasping. Right, so the first thing to know about the elements is that there are five 'standard' ones, which are Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and Ether..."
Lily listened intently as Harry, in the space of fifteen minutes, taught her more about Magi than she had ever heard in her entire life so far.
xxxxx
When they were back on the surface, Lily had a rather thoughtful look on her face. What Harry had told her, for the most part, contradicted everything she'd ever heard about Magi before. Oh, true, there were some that were as depraved as the stories made them out to be. However, judging everyone by the minority, was like comparing every witch and wizard in the world to Voldemort.
"Well, getting your uniforms first is probably the best idea. We can pick them up later once they've got your measurements and pinned them up." So saying, Lily headed towards Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions.
Once inside, Harry, Altrouge, and V/V were soon all put up on stools to be measured for robes. For Harry and Altrouge, this wasn't much of an issue, aside from Harry's long hair getting in the way a little, but V/V was another matter.
"Excuse me, miss, but can you cancel whatever transfiguration you have that put these wings here." The assistant who was trying to put a robe on V/V asked. "They are very nice and pretty and all, but they're not very practical, and they're getting in the way of putting a robe on you."
"Ah, they're not a transfiguration." V/V told her. "They've been a part of me ever since my main body was killed. Even then, my primary body had something that closely resembled them."
"Primary body?" Lily blinked. "What do you mean by that?" Some time during the conversation she'd had with Harry about Magi, she'd forgotten that she'd wanted to get to know the two girls who had sort of claimed Harry as 'theirs', as well as a 'few others'.
"That's right, I never fully introduced myself fully, did I?" V/V realised, and then in all of her – in Harry's opinion, rather cute – innocence, she introduced herself. "I am False Angel V/V, an Aristotle. However, you would probably recognise me better under the title of TYPE Venus." She gave a little curtsey as she said this.
Lily, as well as the two attendants and Madam Malkin herself, froze at that statement. After a moment, Madam Malkin laughed it off, along with her assistants. Something like that just didn't happen, it was ridiculous to even think that. The attendant sorting out V/V's robe decided to humour her and play along, putting in the extra effort necessary to alter the robe to allow her wings to remain as they were.
Lily, however, remembered exactly what the goblins had called Harry, and what he had confirmed to her. If Harry was a 'dark god', then could that girl really be a TYPE? It sounded ridiculous, completely insane, but she wasn't about to simply dismiss it out of hand. If it was true, then what did that actually say about the company Harry kept?
Perhaps she should ask him about that 'Serial Phantasm' woman.
Anyway, regardless of what sort of company Harry kept, it didn't take too long to get their measurements for their robes done. Like has been said, V/V's took the longest and were the most difficult, but once that hurdle was overcome, things were done fairly quickly.
Flourish and Blotts' was a bit of a hassle as well. The Harry that had died had, apparently, taken Care of Magical Creatures and Divination as his electives. The former because he'd become quite good friends with Hagrid, and the half-giant had already introduced him to some of the more 'interesting' creatures around Hogwarts. The latter because he knew that there had been some sort of prophecy about himself, though he didn't know the words of it, and had thus gained quite an interest in Divination, specifically tarot cards.
Harry decided he'd keep the Divination elective, it was one he hadn't actually taken back in his original world, as well as Care of Magical Creatures. If nothing else, it would prove quite fun when Hagrid introduced them to the wonderful little nightmare fuel creatures that Harry loved so dearly. Also, he was wondering if it would be amusing to bring Primate Murder to class.
While that might sound like a bad idea initially, Primate Murder would listen and obey three 'individuals'. One was Gaia, her creator, another was Altrouge, who she spent most of her time with, and the third was Harry, who took her for walks and played with her like a puppy when he was younger.
Harry was pretty certain he could keep Primy from slaughtering the students, and his decision was in no way influenced that Zelretch had phoned him to let him know that the Beast of Gaia was whining pathetically without its mistress nearby, honest!
After Flourish and Blotts', they headed off to get potion ingredients, as well as parchment, quills, and ink. Or at least they were, until Harry insisted they get paper and fountain pens. He really didn't like having masses of loose parchment in his bag, it irritated him to no end.
Of course, Harry did slip away at one point. Splitting himself into Origin and Serial Phantasm, then throwing a powerful illusion over her to make her look and sound like himself. He then slipped down Knockturn Alley, searching out any books that weren't in his – seriously getting rather large, and beginning to rival libraries found in legend – home library at his house in Fuyuki.
The last stop on their little shopping trip in Diagon Alley was going to be Ollivander's wand shop, it seemed. V/V and Altrouge had used the excuse of 'not having their wands on them' when they'd been summoned. Lily, it seemed, was not quite sure whether to believe that or not, but regardless, Dumbledore had apparently asked to get Harry's wand checked out, as 'they didn't know whether temporal magics may have had an odd effect on it'.
Harry just thought Dumbledore wanted to find out more about his wand, as it was obviously not the holly and phoenix feather wand the local Harry had used.
Well, whatever the reason, Harry found himself heading towards the rather dilapidated looking wand shop once again, the alternate of one he'd been to a fair few times before in his own world. He wondered how this time would go.