AN: Next chapter is here, and I find that this story is going a lot slower than I expected. Heck, it's only at the end of this chapter that twenty-four hours have actually passed. It makes me wonder just how long this story is going to be. Obviously, I'm not going to spend too long on it, as it is only supposed to be a short piece, so it'll be maybe twenty chapters I'm thinking? Anyway, I have a question for my readers, it's in regards to Harry's Saber Servant. There's been some discussion about this in the forum, and the popular option seems to be a female Lucifer, based off the one from Shin Megami Tensei, but utilising some of the Highschool DxD world as background. Both myself and Black Bullet of Seven have done omakes with this 'Servant', and I'd like to know what your opinions on her are? The other primary options for a Servant are Youmu Konpaku from Touhou, and Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft. Other ideas are, of course, welcome. Oh, two more things! One, the poll for the next 'verse' is still open on my profile. Right now, Percy Jackson is in first place with 123 votes, 3 ahead of Campione. Second, someone in a review last chapter asked how wizards could know about TYPEs. Well, TYPEs are planet-wide threats, and everyone in the know about the supernatural knows about them. Just because they're a part of the nasu-verse doesn't mean wizards would be clueless about them in a cross-over world.
Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN
Chapter 04 – Evening Arrives
The group entered the small shop, and Harry found a small smile crawling across his face. While to an ordinary person the shop would appear small, dusty, and a little creepy, it was different for someone who could literally feel the different magical melodies dancing through the air.
Being magically sensitive was almost a prerequisite of being a wandmaker. After all, a core and the wood it was sealed inside needed to be in harmony to work properly, and there were rather major differences even between components gathered from a single source. If three tail hairs from a unicorn were gathered, and one of them was a match for mahogany wood, that didn't mean the other two hairs, or even the entire original hair, would also be a match for mahogany. Heck, it might be a match for mahogany still, yet not that particular piece of it.
"Oh my!" Lily jumped in surprise when Ollivander did his 'appearing suddenly and scaring people' thing, but she was the only one to do so. "I must say, you three are probably the most unique individuals to have ever entered my little shop, and definitely the most unique since I took over from my father."
"Understandable." Harry replied.
"Now, may I ask what you require of me? All of you are too old to be looking for your first wand." Ollivander raised an eyebrow in question.
Lily was the one who answered. "Well, Harry here was summoned from another world the other day, and we want to know whether his wand was affected at all, what with it being a wizard's most important tool." At this Ollivander's eyes crinkled in amusement, having already realised that Harry would have other things to rely on if his wand failed him. "His two companions didn't have their wands on them when they were all summoned, so they need to acquire new ones."
"Well, I can't really think of any reason that a summoning would affect a wand, but I have no reason to decline looking it over, just in case." Ollivander's tone of voice conveyed his opinion very clearly. He, as a wandmaker, knew that a wand could tell you a lot about a person, and it was rather obvious that people were trying to understand Harry's character.
Harry's lip twitched upwards in amusement. He had no issue with Ollivander looking over his wand. True, he wasn't shouting from the rooftops everything about himself, but he had no intentions of hiding either. If someone asked him if he was a Dead Apostle, he would answer in the affirmative, but if they didn't, he wouldn't bother enlightening them. Oh, there were some questions he would avoid answering, or at least answer evasively. He did derive a fair amount of amusement out of frustrating people after all, and being mysterious was fun in its own way.
Shadows gathered over Harry's palm, and when they dispersed, his wand was revealed in his hand. He handed it over to Ollivander, who seemed rather interested in it, his eyes widening slightly when he first caught sight of the rather unusual wand.
"Interesting, very interesting." The wandmaker muttered to himself as he ran his long, thin fingers up and down the wand. "Considering the company you are in, perhaps I should not have been so surprised, but nevertheless I am. A very powerful wand this is, and in capable hands too."
"Excuse me, Mr. Ollivander, but could you tell me what's so interesting about Harry's wand?" Lily asked. "I remember you saying his Holly and Phoenix feather wand was 'curious' when we bought it, so does this wand share a similar... connection to that one?"
Ollivander chuckled. "Not at all, this wand is completely different to that one, and it is something I never would have ever imagined being crafted, but that is purely down to what this wand is made of, its component parts. Yes, a very interesting wand indeed."
"What is it made of?" Lily wondered aloud, and Harry was amused to see that, rather than being an invasive question, this alternate of his birth mother , was simply intensely curious about, well, everything.
"Well, the wood itself is from the Forest of Einnashe." Ollivander saw Lily's confusion, so he elaborated. "The Disembowelling Sea of Trees, the seventh Dead Apostle Ancestor. It is a living vampiric forest that randomly appears every fifty years, devours all those that enter it, and then disappears for another five decades."
"Oh, you never mentioned that one when you were telling me about the Ancestors." Lily said to Harry, who shrugged.
"That's because it's dead in my world. It was killed several years ago, though the exact details of what happened are unknown. Supposedly, it was the 'Mystic Eyes of Death Perception' that led to its death, but seeing as the only known possessor of those eyes was nowhere near it when the forest manifested, it's somewhat debatable whether that's the truth of the matter." Harry blandly replied.
"Interesting." Ollivander muttered again, before returning to Harry's wand. "Now, this wand actually has five other parts to it, aside from the wood it was crafted from. It contains four hairs from four separate individuals, all soaked in the blood of another."
"Blood?" Lily asked. "Is that really a valid wand core?"
Ollivander nodded. "Yes, it is. Actually, it is a very good wand core. However, most people are rather... leery of using such a substance, despite the magical potential. Actually, there's a law against wandmakers collecting blood to be used in wands, so I'm guessing the blood was provided by Mr. Potter, along with every other component of this wand."
Harry nodded in reply. "All of the parts of the wand were given to me, so I gave them to the Ollivander in my world to craft a wand with."
Ollivander chuckled. "Normally, I'd ask where you managed to acquire succubus blood, but that is probably the most mundane and common material used in this wand, especially so since it's being used as an enhancer for even more potent parts."
"Now, on to the four hairs in the wand." Ollivander moved things along, obviously wanting to talk about what else his wand held. "The four hairs in this wand are from three separate species, two of them being divine in origin, and the other two being vampiric."
"Divine? Vampiric? Wait, I thought you said three different species?" Lily was just bursting with questions she wanted to ask.
"Yes, I did say three, didn't I?" Ollivander smiled at Lily, who was acting like an eager schoolgirl. It was actually rather cute, what with the way her eyes sparkled with interest and how she was so focused on the bit of wood in the old man's hand.
"Well, the two divine hairs, if my identification charms are correct, came from Stheno and Euryale, two of the three legendary Gorgon sisters. The two vampiric hairs, however, came from the Brunestud sisters: Altrouge, the ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor, and Arcueid, last remaining True Ancestor." Ollivander regarded Harry closely, before his eyes flickered over to Alt next to him for a moment.
"That's certainly... something." Lily said slowly, and in a somewhat unsure tone. "How would you even get your hands on materials like that? I can't imagine that such people would just give up something like that, not to just anyone at any rate, and those components aren't the sort of thing you can find just lying around."
Ollivander's eyes once more flickered to Alt stood at Harry's side. "Oh, I believe acquiring them was easier for him than you might expect it to be." There was an undertone of amusement in the wandmaker's voice. "Now, I believe I have two beautiful ladies to find wands for, do I not?"
Altrouge stepped forward. "I'll go first, and please, call me Alt, that's the nickname Harry has for me." Her eyes glittered in amusement, though they remained unseen behind the sunglasses she still had on. Harry was contemplating giving her some coloured contacts so that, when she inevitably removed those shades in public, people wouldn't instantly go 'vampire!' at the sight of her, but he hadn't actually made then yet.
"Very well, step forward, and let's see what sort of wand is right for you." Ollivander agreed. Almost immediately, he handed a wand to the Dead Apostle Ancestor, and Harry was rather amused at how easily the old wandmaker was taking the situation.
Harry's vision shifted until he was viewing the magic inside of Alt and the lingering magic in the wand core interact. It was rather curious that the materials were reacting better to Alt here than the wands he had tried himself when he had first came to Ollivanders in his birth world. Perhaps it had something to do with this being a border world, but gaps and differences between the two different magic systems seem to have been... 'fixed' somewhat.
"Dragon heartstring seems to be working best." Harry muttered to himself, though Lily and Ollivander both heard him, as of course did Alt and V/V. "Yew seems to be the right wood as well. I have no idea about focus length though, I'm not good enough to identify that."
"Correct." Ollivander had a gleam in his eye when he observed Harry now. "I take it that you have some skill in wand-crafting then? It is not just anyone that bothers learning about the intricacies of this craft, and rare are the ones with an aptitude for it."
Harry shrugged, and with a gesture, he summoned Prismakreuz into his hand. "I read, absorb, and learn everything I can, regardless of topic or subject. The only times I've ever really used what I know about wand-crafting is in the creation of various... focuses for my magic."
Ollivander held a hand out for Prismakreuz, after looking to Harry for permission, and then let his fingers run up and down the shaft of the staff, before examining the headpiece. A ring of mithril, with a cross in the centre, three of the points reaching past the outside edge of the ring and being viciously sharp and pointy, just like the outside edge of the ring is incredibly sharp. At the centre of the cross is a jewel that glitters in the light, refracting both light and prana around inside itself.
"Interesting." Ollivander murmured. "I had wondered why your wand shows such little use, and I guess this is the reason. While not quite as efficient as a wand, this staff would be capable of handling a far greater flow of magic, an immense amount of it actually. Judging by the style, this was designed as a weapon, rather than a tool, like a wand is, and that says quite a lot about you on its own."
Ollivander looked over Prismakreuz for a while longer, before returning it to Harry and getting back to Alt's wand. "As Mr. Potter said yew and dragon heartstring seems to be the best materials for a wand, out of those I posess at least, and I can add myself that your optimum focus length seems to be around nine and a half inches. I have a few wands that could be the one, so let's try them out, shall we?"
It took five more attempts before Altrouge found a wand that accepted her, letting out a shower of red and black sparks. Alt gave her thanks for the wand, before tucking it out of sight into her pocket. She'd practise with it later, and see if the knowledge transfer Harry had given her and V/V was working as it should.
Of course, the only one left to get a wand was the Aristotle amongst them, TYPE Venus herself. Ollivander seemed to regard her very closely for a short while, and Harry could easily pick up on the intense curiosity emanating from his soul. He didn't know what she was, it seemed, but he could easily tell what she wasn't.
"Hmm, I believe it may be best to start off with my more unusual ones in this case, as I very well doubt a regular wand would work for you." Ollivander remarked, before hurrying off amongst the shelves of wands, retrieving a box here and there, making a small stack of them, before returning.
"Try this one first, the wood is from a whomping willow, and I actually have no idea what the core is, it's something that was left behind by my father and wasn't labelled. Let's see how that react to you, before we move onto something else." V/V looked at the wand for a moment, before shrugging, and waving it about.
The wand came alive in V/V's hand, growing leaves and branches, becoming a miniature tree. Of course, unlike a regular tree, it seemed to grow long, spindly legs, and three mouths filled with vicious teeth that snarled at everyone. Suffice to say, she dropped it.
Everyone watched in silence as the 'wand' scuttled along the floor, disappearing behind the end of a shelf, the noises it made quickly fading away.
"I think that wand might not be for you." Ollivander delicately remarked. "I'll retrieve it later, but for now, let's move on."
With that, the wandmaker handed her a different wand. This one reacted almost as spectacularly as the previous one, twisting and changing into something that could possibly be classified as 'alive'. It was rather amusing to see how the one after that reacted as well, and the ones that followed, all of them following a similar pattern.
Ollivander eventually decided to use more 'inanimate' materials for V/V's wand, digging out magically conductive materials that weren't organic in nature. Harry had to lend a hand at one point, providing materials for the wand, which it seemed, would have to be constructed for her.
In the end, Ollivander and Harry agreed that a wand crafted of mithril with a core of crushed ruby and topaz dust would work for V/V, and not come alive when she tried to use it. Thankfully, Harry managed to summon the required materials through the shadows, and it would take no more than three hours for the wand to be crafted for her.
"So," Lily began, once Ollivander had disappeared into the back of his shop. "Just how much stuff can you summon with those shadows of yours?" She asked.
Harry shrugged. "Whatever has been stored in my Imaginary Space. I know there's a massive stockpile of apples in there under preservation charms, some designs for stuff I'm creating, jewels, mithril bars, and other raw materials, and I think there's some weapons in there too, in addition to my bike and other stuff."
"Your bike?" Lily asked curiously, thinking Harry meant 'bicycle'.
Shadows coalesced beside Harry, before fading away to reveal his 'bike', or other words, his 'motorcycle', Harry having decided to 'show instead of tell', and wondering exactly what this version of his birth mother would make of his creation.
Lily, for her part, was shocked into silence. The motorcycle that Sirius rode was a monster, large enough for even Hagrid to ride, but Harry's made that look small by comparison. It was a gleaming silver colour with black, green, and purple designs down the sides, runes. The seat on the bike was long, but that was more likely because rather than sitting upright on the bike, the rider would almost be laid along its length.
"Wh-What sort of bike is this?" Lily stuttered. "I've never seen anything like it before."
Harry chuckled. "You wouldn't have, I made this thing from scratch myself. By hand-crafting every part myself, it gets around that pesky law about enchanting muggle objects, especially seeing as this is run purely off magic, and it has numerous charms built into it for safety and comfort.
"Safety, you say?" Lily wondered just what about this beast of a machine was 'safe'. "And what's its top speed and acceleration anyway?"
"Erm... I don't actually know what the top speed is." Harry coughed. "I've had it going at around three times the speed of sound once, and it was still gaining speed then. As for acceleration, it can go from zero to Mach one in one point eight seconds if you absolutely gun it to the maximum level."
Lily's eye began twitching as she looked at the alternate of her son- no, a little speed demon with an amused smile on his face. "Tell me again, what about this is 'safe'?"
"Well, like most things I make, it's locked onto my magical signature, so no one else can use it and injure themselves, and my reactions are better than the bikes. There's a collision avoidance system built into the bike using a combination of wards, charms, and enchanting so unless you're actually aiming to crash, you won't. When started, the area around where the rider goes gets warded to high heaven in case of accidents, and can withstand great impacts without damage." Harry replied.
"Have you had it checked over?" Lily asked him.
"It's been looked over by a Charm's master, a Runes master, and a qualified Arithmancer." Harry told her, not mentioning that it was him who possessed those masteries, or that he also had masteries in every subject Hogwarts taught aside from Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. He had a NEWT in the latter, and hadn't been overly fussed with the former. Oh, and he had no official high level qualification for Muggle Studies either, but he thought he was fine in regards to 'normal' humans, despite not even being a member of the species any longer.
Lily sighed. "At least professionals have made sure it's okay." She rubbed at her forehead, where she could already feel a headache developing. She then frowned. "Wait, you built this from the ground up? Wouldn't that take knowledge of physics, or at least engineering?"
Harry raised an eyebrow. "I did keep up with the muggle world, and education within it." Again, he made no mention of the fact that his knowledge was on the level of a University graduate in most areas, and in certain areas even exceeded that. Hey, there was a reason he was called the Infinite Archive after all, though he had heard rumours of yet another name coming out for himself, the Eternal Librarian.
Lily didn't bother giving voice to the fact that a typical fifteen year old, magical or muggle, would not have the knowledge needed to create a motorcycle from nothing, not even parts. It seemed that her son was scarily intelligent, or perhaps simply ambitious to believe that he could pull off the ideas he had in his head.
Was that the reason he'd been sorted into Slytherin?
"Is there anything else you need to do in London while we are here?" Lily asked. "Seeing as we're here anyway, it'd be best to get it done now, before we have to head back to Hogwarts." She was honestly rather curious herself, what sorts of places would Harry visit?
"Hmm, I don't know." Harry clicked his tongue. "There's nowhere I desperately need to be, but I was thinking of dropping past the Clock Tower, though I don't know how good an idea that is. No offence, but with your current outfit, you just scream 'witch', and from what you said earlier, it seems the two groups do not get along too well."
"Perhaps another time then?" Lily shrugged her shoulders. "Now, shall we wander around for a while? It will take some time for the wand and robes to be finished, and I would dearly love to get to know you better, along with your two... female companions."
Both V/V and Altrouge felt a shiver run down their spines at that. It didn't matter how old or powerful you were, no one could ignore the 'mother-in-law' effect, especially when she wants to know if you are suitable for their precious children.
xxxxx
When they eventually got back to Hogwarts, Lily was scrutinising V/V and Alt closely. The former had been completely blunt in telling her what she was, and Lily was seriously beginning to believe that the angel-looking girl really was TYPE Venus, the answers she was getting all pointed towards it, though there was some confusion, especially when the 'Land of Steel' came up.
Alt on the other hand, well, Lily wasn't entirely sure about her. She was fairly certain the girl was not human, and fairly old as well. At one point, Lily noticed she mentioned Middle Ages of the fifteenth century, and she spoke like she had been there herself, and obviously the only humans who'd lived that long were Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, and the girl was neither.
So what sort of beings could live that long? Well, there was undoubtedly a number of spirits of one form or another that could exist for centuries, easily at that, and then there were Gods, though they were all gone now. Hmm, the only 'race' that she could think of, aside from the previously mentioned, that lived that long were the vampires.
Harry had rattled off their names and rank earlier, those like Primate Murder, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, Sumire, Strout Svelten, Altrou-
Lily almost tripped over herself as she thought of the ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor's name. Alt could quite easily be a shortened version of Altrouge Brunestud. The primary means of distinguishing a vampire from a human was the red eyes, and 'Alt' wore shades everywhere.
Could it be?
Could Harry really be that close to a Dead Apostle Ancestor? She recalled Ollivander telling them what the components of Harry's wand were... and how he had said that 'acquiring them might be easier than she believed it to be'. If Harry truly was as close to Altrouge Brunestud as she thought he was, then was it really that far-fetched that she'd let him use one of her hairs as a part of his wand?
Lily almost walked into Harry's back when he stopped suddenly. This action allowed her to regain control of her thoughts that had been running a mile a minute. Following the tilt of his head and where his blindfold was aimed – as she couldn't see his eyes because of it – she looked to see whatever had caught his attention.
Lily didn't see anything particularly special herself. There were a few students wandering up and down the central staircase, and that was it, aside from one girl who was sitting on the banister and looking at them with an expression filled with mischief.
Harry began to laugh.
It was an odd sound, and describing it was difficult. His light, musical voice was magnified several times over in the merriment, as if flowers were blossoming and the local wildlife was singing along with him, as if he was some sort of Disney princess. However, there was some indefinable part of it, one that couldn't be heard yet was still a part of the sound, that resonated with raw emotion; lust, love, hate, anger, rage, passion, joy, regret, mirth, excitement, aggression, pleasure, frustration, and everything else.
It was a decidedly odd, but by no means unpleasant sound, even if it caused a shiver to run down Lily's spine when she heard it, like it was something not meant to be heard by mortal ears. It was a most beautiful melody, but also a truly terrifying one, like what one would expect of the fair folk.
Lily froze in place as she saw the girl Harry was looking at jump off the banister she'd been sat on. Her wand was halfway into her hand and an 'Arresto Momentum' spell on her lips when she saw the girl had already landed lightly on the balls of her feet and was walking towards them.
That... that was... what had just happened? The girl walking towards them had just jumped down from a banister on the third floor, and she walked away from it just like that! What the bloody heck is going on, and why does she have the feeling that this has also got something to do with her dimensionally-kidnapped alternate son?
She took a closer look at the girl walking towards them. She was Asian, her features sharp and slanted, as well as pale of skin. Her eyes seemed to be... golden? Yes, her eyes did appear to be the same colour as molten gold. Her hair was somewhere between a rusty red and dark pink, and she walked with the bearing of royalty, an unconscious grace that would put kings and queens to shame.
"What a surprise to see you here, Amat-" Harry began to speak, but was stopped by the girl putting a finger to his lips.
"My name is Amy, Amy Kami." The girl, 'Amy' apparently, interrupted Harry.
Harry snorted. "How original, no one will suspect that."
'Amy' flicked Harry's forehead. "Shush, it's not as easy to maintain this puppet across worlds as I thought it would be, it's taking some getting used to. Is it my fault that mortals are to blinded by ignorance to see what's right under their nose? Even if they did suspect something, their arrogance wouldn't lead them to the correct conclusion. If nothing else has changed about humans, it's that."
With that, Amy wandered into the Great Hall. Before she went through the doors however, she shouted back to Harry over her shoulder. "I stand by what I said before, you really should take a peek at Cally on Ogygia, goodness knows that girl needs to stop being such a hermit."
"Harry, who was that?" Lily asked. "What was that girl?"
Harry looked at the red-haired woman and a small smirk worked its way onto his face. "She's someone I know, and would you believe me if I told you she was a goddess?" He chuckled. "Oh, I already know Dumbledore was behind getting my wand checked out, so don't feel like you have to hide anything for me, let's see how he deals with certain... nuggets of information."
With that, Harry also disappeared into the Great Hall, leaving Lily a little confused and worried about what Harry had just said. She knew that Dumbledore didn't tell everyone everything, that was blatantly obvious, but if Harry was withholding information himself, wouldn't that mean this conflict is just going to drag on?
Oh, she hated the fact that they'd been forced to summon him, essentially to fight their war for them, but still... there was that traitorous part of her mind that said, with Harry here, the 'war' could be over before it even began. Dumbledore was the Leader of the Light, and if Harry was being deliberately unhelpful and not telling him things, did that not mean Harry was indirectly a cause of further suffering, pain, and Death?
xxxxx
Harry wandered through the school library. His eyes rapidly flickered over the spines of some of the books, reading their titles. He was searching for books that hadn't existed in either of the worlds he was already familiar with, and while there was a lot that were identical to their counterparts, there was the occasional one that was different.
Whenever he found one of these different books, he created a duplicate to place in his own Library back home. He would also use a quick flash of Structural Analysis to immediately understand the contents of the book as if he'd read it page to page. Granted, that might count as cheating, but Harry wasn't reading for entertainment here, but to expand his already ridiculous knowledge-base.
He wasn't known as the 'Infinite Archive' for nothing after all.
"H-Harry?" A female voice came from the end of the row.
Harry tilted his head to see who had just come around the corner and into the same aisle as him. "Oh, hello, Granger." He greeted the girl neutrally, before returning to scanning through the books on the shelves in front of him. Right then he was in a section devoted to an obscure aspect of Arithmancy and its applications in potions and alchemy.
"Granger?... Not Hermione?" The bushy-haired girl asked.
"Worlds are different, Granger. What is true here will be false in other worlds, therefore it should not be a surprise that a Harry Potter does not have the same level of relationship as the one native to this reality did with you. In some worlds, you're a Dark Lady far worse than Voldemort, and Harry Potter kills you. In others, you could well be a male in a submissive-dominant relationship with a female Harry Potter." Harry told her, not really paying much attention to the examples he was using, merely diving into the Kaleidoscope and pulling out two worlds at random.
A squeak from the girl drew his attention. Looking back at her, he saw that her face was incredibly red for some reason. He mentally rewound for a moment, before snorting as he realised it had been his words that had elicited that reaction. He shook is head and once more returned to looking for new books.
"S-So you didn't get along with your world's version of me?" Granger asked once she had stopped her cheeks from burning red hot, even if they were still decidedly pink.
"For a while I did. However, she did not know the meaning of personal space or invasive questioning." He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "Or she simply rubbed me the wrong way and I over-reacted, that's also a possibility. Regardless of the actual reason for it, our friendship... collapsed in third year."
Hermione sighed. "So it was just you and Ron then." She muttered, inaudible if it wasn't for Harry's incredibly sharp hearing.
Harry shook his head. "I have never been friends with Ronald Weasley. As individuals, we are simply too different to mesh at all. While I wouldn't say that the redhead was a 'monster' with no redeeming qualities, he was also not the most pleasant of company, and there was definite friction between us that prevented any sort of positive relationship forming." Harry's lips twitched upwards at the word monster, that was a description he would apply elsewhere, to others.
"So... do you mind me asking who your friends were?" Hermione asked, and Harry was a little curious about just how timid she was being. Even the Hermione in his world, the one who he'd separated himself from, had a rather forceful personality, even when she was not the happiest she's ever been.
"Amongst the students, I suppose you could say Alicia Spinnet was perhaps my closest friend. I got along well enough with everyone when necessary, certain individuals aside, but... I never really connected with any of them. Most of my friends and acquaintances were made outside of Hogwarts, and with... rather unusual individuals." Harry replied.
Harry grinned slightly as he felt Hermione's soul spike with curiosity. "Are... Alt and V/V not Hogwarts students?" It was amusing how she stumbled over those two names, like she realised they were nicknames but had no clue what their full name could be.
"They'll stick with me while I'm here, though they weren't originally students of this school." There, that would lead her to believe that they were enrolled in a foreign magical school, rather than this being the first time either had been in formal education.
Harry titled his head to the side and glanced out the window. Reaching out, he could feel V/V's soul in the owlery, the souls of multiple owls surrounding her, the Aristotle's soul radiating cheerfulness and the birds' curiousity. Alt's soul he found in the Forbidden Forest, rather close to where Elestia's clearing was in the other world, yet he felt no equivalent to the forest spirit at all.
Come to think of it, he could feel no equivalent to Holly here either. He could feel Holly herself, who it seemed was investigating the central ward stone of this Hogwarts, both Lens with her – and he really needed to think up a name for the 'White Len' that he could use to address her by – but there was no 'Lady Hogwarts' in this world.
"..." Hermione was quiet for a while and fidgeted, unsure what to say or do. This Harry wasn't being open and friendly with her like the Harry she knew... yet he wasn't pushing her away, insulting her, or anything like that, even though he'd said that he and her alternate no longer got along.
"Were you here looking for a particular book?" Harry eventually decided to break the silence.
"Ah, well, not exactly." Hermione nervously shifted from foot to foot. "At the end of last year, I asked professor Vector whether it was possible to make a sort of production line that would make potions more quickly than a brewer would by themselves, but she said that the one making the potion needed to have a certain amount of magic in their body, and sh-"
Hermione stopped what she was saying as she found three books in front of her, held in the air by some of Harry's long purple hair supporting them. She blinked and took another look at them. Those weren't Library books, they didn't have the colour-coded mark on the spine that labelled them as such.
"Wha- Are these yours?" Hermione asked.
Harry hummed an acknowledgement without turning to face her. "Yes, they are. They do, however, hold the answers to your questions about a magical production line. Put simply, yes it is possible, but the automated brewing devices would have to both be infused with magic and channel it at the same time. If you want to know more, just read these books, I'm not going to spoon feed you all the answers."
"Th-Thank you." Hermione took the books off him, looking at them great interest, before hurrying off with the three tomes. Before she was completely out of earshot, however, she managed to call back, probably louder than she had intended in the library. "I'll get them back to you just as soon as I've read them, and thank you again!"
"Hmm, I wonder what it was she actually wanted?" Tamamo wondered, materialising next to Harry. "It was fairly obvious that she didn't come upon you by chance, but none of her questions were really invasive enough to be an interrogation, so what was her purpose here?"
"I'm thinking that she was put up to it." Illya put her thoughts forwards, also materialising. "Remember, there was a purpose behind them 'summoning' Harry to this world. Obviously, if they're going to go to the trouble of actually bringing you here, they will want to manipulate you into doing what it is they want you to do, and it is so much easier to control someone when you know what makes them tick."
"That's going to lead them nowhere." Harry sighed. "While the people here wear the same faces and names as those in my world, their personalities are not identical, even if some are exceptionally close to their counterpart's. Even then, there are none here that I'm particularly attached to, aside you girls of course, and if they think to catch you lot in their webs of machinations, then I will personally slaughter them."
"Lily." Jack said, also materialising.
Understanding what she was asking, Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Lily Potter has made a favourable impression on me. That, however, is not enough to make me want to fight for the cause she believes in. While she is not the sheep I expected, she is most definitely not the wolf this world needs."
"So what are you going to do here? I know you made a deal with Fate to sort this world out, though you can't act until the time-line has settled to avoid irreparable damage, so you must have made some sort of plan, some ideas that you want to expand upon." Tamamo glanced at the book Harry was flicking through over his shoulder.
"I'm going to relax. Screw lessons, I already know the syllabus perfectly. I could, if I so desired, teach at this school with my level of knowledge. I will attend Care and Divination though, the former because I like meeting interesting creatures and the latter out of minor curiosity, but for the most part I intend to continue on with some of my own projects." Harry told her, shrugging his shoulders.
Illya snorted. "I saw some of your designs before, wasn't one of them the creation of a giant, piloted mech? You know, the sort of thing you find in anime? Of course, knowing you, there'll be a fully functioning one standing out in the grounds by the end of next week."
Harry shrugged, a slight grey tint coming to his cheeks as he blushed lightly. "I've pretty much got all that planned out. I'm creating a Neural Interface System based primarily off Etherlite, while the power source, I'm thinking, could well be some form of Mana Crystal, probably one tied to lightning or fire. Weapon Systems are actually really simple, or at least conventional weapon systems are, I think I'll add in some of my own designs. Hehehe, hahaha- ouch!" Harry rubbed the back of his head and glared at Illya, who had smacked him over the head with the flat of one of her blades.
"No mad laughter for you!" Illya wiggled the sword in front of him like one would wag a finger at a naughty child. "Bad Harry. Creating weapons of mass destruction is fine, but remember to build safety features into them, okay?"
Harry looked at the white-haired girl incredulously. "Illya, I possess enough raw power to literally tear planets into pieces, I am a weapon of mass destruction all by myself, making a giant mecha robot is not really going to increase my destructive potential, merely what options I have available." He shook his head. "It's not like it's even the first robot I've built either, remember that Prismarad, my bike, is a transformer now."
"Oh yes, however could we forget that?" Illya rolled her eyes. "Honestly, are you sure you're not a mad scientist at heart? A magical, vampire, god, aspect-y mad scientist of-... You know what, when you step back and take a look at things, you're really fucked up, aren't you?"
Harry laughed. "I guess I am. Still, does any of that really matter? I am happy as I am, and I'm not intentionally harming anyone else, so why can I not be what I want to be? Choices, Actions, Reactions, Consequences, Decisions, Options, they are what define us, so I begrudge none the right to choose what they will, for I will also make the choices I decide to make, and always for my own reasons."
Tamamo rolled her eyes as she latched onto Harry's arm. "So philosophical of you." She needled, before frowning. "I've been meaning to ask this, but what are we going to be doing on a day to day basis? You said you're going to work on your own projects, and you're pretty much skipping all of your classes, so why did you allow yourself to get sorted into a house? We all know that you could have fully prevented the hat from accessing your mind, thus it not being able to sort you, and you have the patience to outlast that tatty bit of fabric, so... what?"
"Easy access." Harry answered. "Most of Voldie's supporters have family in Slytherin. I promised Fate I'd sort this world out, and so help me, I'm going to do it properly. Don't be surprised if in the next few weeks certain 'unpleasant' individuals suffer from fatal and near-fatal accidents. I won't have anything to do with this of course, as the Slytherins themselves will give me a rock solid alibi." Harry grinned, and in the evening light, it looked truly terrifying.
"Harry, with Holly, you could have easy access to anywhere in this school. She's already hacked the wards and taken over the entire place with no one the wiser, so getting about is not a problem, though I know she primarily did it to mess with the identification wards over the school to render the 'Marauder's Map' useless." Illya pointed out. "So there must be another reason.
"Of course there are, but easy access to my victi- I mean 'upstanding' classmates, is a rather major reason. In Slytherin, it will also be easier to gather information on Voldie, and relay false information back to him through the Death Munchers' children. If you think I'm just going to overpower the guy with raw strength like I did before, you're mistaken, I like to have a bit of variety in my life." Harry chuckled with his Servants at that, remembering how the last Voldemort had been killed, through overwhelming power.
"Anyway, supper should be ready soon. I must head down to maintain appearances, but don't worry, Zelretch phoned me earlier and told me that Sakura has taken over my kitchen again." The boy pouted at that, unhappy with someone else in his kitchen. "She made enough food for everyone, and that includes you three. You can eat in the kitchens, an empty classroom, the Chamber of Secrets, or wherev-"
Harry stopped speaking at that, realising that he was talking to thin air. His own cooking might be superior to Sakura's – which is something that pleased Harry immensely, even if she was quickly catching up and was set to overtake him – but she was still a good cook, and when presented with food cooked by her, not even a god would delay eating it if they could help it.
He mentally tracked his Servants as he headed down to the Great Hall for food. Hmm, perhaps he should have joined his Servants instead, he'd just recalled what fare the house elves usually served during meals and he wasn't looking forward to it.
"I wonder if Sakura would mind if I stole her to be my personal chef, or at least someone who could whip these bloody elves into shape." He muttered to himself.
xxxxx
"What was that, Lily?" Dumbledore asked the red-haired woman in front of him.
"Harry's wand is made using wood from the Forest of Einnashe, blood from a succubus, and a hair each from, Arcued Brunestud, Altrouge Brunestud, Stheno, and Euryale, the latter two being two of the three Gorgon sisters from Greek mythology." Lily told him.
"That is most disturbing." Dumbledore frowned, looking around at the others in the room with him.
Gathered there were the Order of the Phoenix, which included a number of the school professors. Sirius Black, or at least the one that had come with the alternate Harry, was also in attendance. He was the only one who looked unconcerned with the news about Harry's wand, but then again, he had probably already known about it.
"Disturbing in what way?" Sirius asked, lounging around on a conjured sofa. Dumbledore idly noted that the man's magic seemed to be a little more potent, as well as seemingly slightly more complex, than their own local Sirius' wandwork.
"My dear boy, in every way. What sort of person must Harry be for such components to be compatible with him? Do not forget how horrific the vampires are! They are utter monsters, and that is not even touching upon the Twenty-seven ancestors. Why, a single one of them, even the weakest, is a threat far greater than even Voldemort and Grindlewald combined. I am most thankful that one has never sought to ally with our enemy, as Voldemort would then be unstoppable. In history, wizards have only ever taken out two ancestors, both of them amongst the weakest, and both victories came at great and terrible cost." Dumbledore tried to convey the seriousness of the issue, especially seeing the lack of concern in the man's face.
"Really? None of the ones I've met have been like that." Everyone froze at Sirius' words.
"Padfoot, correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounded like you've met an Ancestor before, and more than once at that." James Potter said, looking at his friend's alternate as if he expected him to shout 'hahaha, got ya! It was a prank.'
"Of course I have. It's a little difficult to hang around Harry and not meet people like that. Most of them seem really lazy or unconcerned, especially that goddess that visits him occasionally, Amaterasu I think she's called. Then there's Sumire, who I met for the first time about two weeks ago at the beach, drunk enough to try and use me as a pillow. There's the two succubi around Harry's house, and the fae which drop by occasionally. Then there's th- Hey, why are you looking at me like that?" Sirius was internally laughing his head off, and thanking Harry for giving him permission to reveal certain 'secrets' of his. The promise of a pensieve memory of their faces later was well worth it.
"Black," Snape sneered. "Do you really expect us to believe that an incompetent little brat like Potter could ever survive even one second in such company? Don't expect us to believe your 'little pranks', you imbecilic idiot."
Most of the room relaxed at that, obviously passing off what Sirius said as some kind of trick. It was curious, however, that Lily didn't seem to be dismissing the thought out of mind, and it was something that Sirius took note of. Had Harry or one of the girls said something that made her more likely to believe the truth, as unbelievable as it was?
It was at that point that James remembered that Snivellus had just insulted his friend, even if it wasn't actually him but an alternate, and promptly began a shouting match with the potions professor. Both of them threw insults at the other, with everyone else watching them like it was a tennis match.
Sirius frowned as he settled back in his seat. Granted, he wasn't the most mature person around, but he believed that these people shouldn't be acting like they were. If they truly wanted to sort the Wizarding World out, including getting rid of and preventing another Voldemort, then they seriously needed to grow up.
Right now, their every hope was pinned onto Harry, and if Sirius wasn't aware of the strength of the no longer human boy's character, then he might have worried about how that pressure might break him. Perhaps... perhaps Harry might agree to lift the geass he'd placed on him to limit his pranks if he could convince Harry that he might be able to trick these people into taking responsibility for the world around them.
It was a thought, if nothing else.
xxxxx
Later that evening, Harry was sat in the corner of the Slytherin common room. In his hands was a book from his personal library back home, a tome on 'Divine Authority'. It was an uncommon book on Magecraft, more because of how rare divine beings were in the modern day than any other reason. True, there was still a number of gods and goddesses still around, but almost all of them simply slept the time away.
Len and White Len 'played' by Harry's feet, and so long as they didn't get too vicious, he wasn't going to interfere. Next to Harry, Alt and V/V were both looking through books themselves. Alt had a fiction book she'd found in the Hogwarts library and was reading it, despite Harry saying that muggles were far better at writing stories than wizards were. V/V was reading a different book, one about dinosaurs, and seemed to be enjoying it.
Harry felt a nearby soul focus on him and approach. Once the person was stood in front of Harry, the book in his hands was knocked flying, and that irritated the slightly unstable boy a little. He looked up, already knowing who was in front of him, to find Draco Malfoy looking down his nose at Harry.
'And so it begins' Harry thought, as he rose to his feet, his expression remaining purposefully blank. 'Let's see what it takes to put this mortal brat in its place.'