RWBY: Foresworn

Chapter IX: Misanthropy is the best medicine

"I strongly suggest you leave my daughter and her friends alone, Callows." Qrow growled, not turning to face the cackling scorpion-faunus. Qrow and Tyrian had clashed a few times, but each time the fight had been inconclusive; that wasn't saying that Qrow was a bad fighter, considering Ruby had seen her father fight Winter Schnee one handed, without even trying that was saying something.

"If I live and breathe, the Prince of Murder; the Huntsman of Misfortune, the Cracked Mirror, the Bad Luck Charm…Qrow Branwen, a True Huntsman has entered the fray. Her Grace will be most pleased if I can dispatch you."

Qrow smirked "You took the words right out of my mouth." Then with that Harbinger and the Queen's Disciples collided in a clash of sparks.

(Hogwarts)

"Welcome back one and all. It gladdens me to see so many faces both old and new, returning to Hogwarts; alas there are a few who are not." Dumbledore announced, captivating everyone with the elegance and eloquence.

"These are dark times ahead, as people are well aware of the…incursion at Diagon Alley by Death Eaters and their Leader Lord Voldemort; accompanied by creatures, I didn't know could exist. Hogwarts, is still the safest place for all of you…For further information on these entities, I yield the floor to Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom."

Harry and Neville got up, whispers were feverish and spread like Australian Wildfires. "That's Harry Potter! Holy shit, he's jacked…" and "What'd Neville do to become that cut. Dude, think Neville could take Potter?"

"Bollocks, Potter will take Longbottom anyday of the week."

And the most common one "Are they single."

Harry laced his hands with a mixture of wind and thunder dust before clapping his hands. Everyone jumped as a thunderclap rocked the hall "Thank you, Headmaster…" Harry popped his neck and he headed to the raised dias of the Teachers Table and sat on the edge of said dias.

"I'll keep this quick. Those creatures are known as the Creatures of Grimm, for those of you who remember the Dementors, think Dementors but minus the feelings of cold and au natural psychological mind-rape that they emitted; replace it with sheer tenacity and single-minded desire to eat, grow and multiply. Neville and I, are…very good at killing them. They are resistant to conventional spells and as a result, we learnt how to wield weapons to defeat them. We cannot guarantee that they'll not appear again, so We are going to be running an ongoing workshop to those interested in fighting the Creatures of Grimm." Harry turned to Neville.

"That everything?"

"They could do with a demonstration of what we've learnt…" Neville replied a grin on his face "…I did hear people saying that I could take you."

Harry let out a chuckle "You…take me, Neville? Goodwitch never allowed us to fight…"

"She's not here. Besides the walls here are sturdier."

"Are they, Neville? I certainly know that the grounds are a lot harder than Vale and Beacon."

"Harry, you must remember that your team was…unique."

"And yours wasn't…Why do you really want to fight me, here and now?"

Neville grinned "The best demonstration is one between us. Besides…"

Harry turned "Headmaster, would you like us to put on a demonstration of what we would be teaching?"

"What do you need?"

"Protective wards locking the pair of us in and our kit."

Snape opened his mouth to protest but McGonagall shot him a dark look, causing him to close his mouth. A call for Dobby, three trunks appeared. The students gulped as Harry helped Neville into his extremely bulky armour, with the booster-pack. They chuckled as the school began to open up a betting pool; the odds were heavily in Neville's favour; more money began pouring onto Neville winning when Neville pulled out his hammer.

Dean and Seamus snickered; Harry made lightning move slow if he wanted to. It was Harry's speed and reflexes against the hammer and strength of Neville; both trainees knew that whilst this match was obviously one-sided, it was more balanced than most knew. For what good was a one-hit confirmed win if one could not hit the target.

"Dean, Seamus…does Harry have a chance?" This came from Ginny, she'd grown out of her delusions of being with Harry Potted; but from those delusions came a favoured respect borderline zealous protector.

"What good is strength if you cannot hit them? Remember, Harry's faster than Neville…"

Ginny nodded, Harry was a powerful wizard one that relied on speed and reflexes to keep him out of trouble with a lot of raw power shields. "I see, Harry needs to exert more energy and hit Neville with strikes that should, would and could kill Neville; but the armour that Neville has protects him from all but the most lethal blows in Harry's armour, slows him down meaning he's revealing Harry where he's going to hit…" She turned to Dean and Seamus "…This fight is more equal than it appears."

"Yup. Neville is brilliant but Harry…he's something else."

Memories of fighting in the streets of Vale and at the school, rushed through Ginny's mind. How Harry had become a colossal titan of force, steel and no mercy. She remembered watching him casually cut through Grimm, Faunus Terrorists and those mechanical soldiers without a care in the world. Oh and the insults and battle cries, more snarls of a mindless creature.

"He's the sword and Neville's the shield. Harry's the uncontrolled pure savagery and Neville is the embodiment of defence."

There conversation had carried, the school watched with baited breath. Harry, tall, thin and lanky, with hair looking like a crows wing, his red, silver and green eyes glittering and spiralling in a kaleidoscope of colour; and his sword a definitive killing weapon. He reached into his pocket and pulled a coin "Like that, huh?" Came the distorted voice of Neville.

"Always." With that the coin flipped, everyone watched, the coin spiralled upwards, and began its descent. Harry moved his hand to the mecha-shift; took deep breaths to calm his beating heart.

Neville thumbed the cartridges of his hammer, and began to flood the engine of his armour. There was the unmistakable sound of the coin hitting the floor, then gears whirred and engines roared. Everyone's eyes widened as Harry's sword became a scythe. With that the two clashed, everyone's jaws collectively dropped; even amongst the staff. They watched as Harry; dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, dodged and even pirouette like a ballet dancer out of Neville's thunderous hammer blows, which cracked the floor of the Great Hall.

"Stand still you fucking scarecrow psychopath!" Thundered Neville, as lighting crackled across the hammer, the ozone positively burnt as it went towards Harry's gut.

"How about no, you attempted fucker of my sister."

"That was one time!"

"ONE TIME TOO MANY!" Harry roared, "Right, fuck this…BRANWEN THUNDER RAVE!" The scythe took on a luminous yellow colour as blades of pure lightning shrieked across the arena.

Neville, growled…Harry was a fucking wanker sometimes. They both knew it, Harry would always be the first to lower the bar of a respectable fight to something dishonourable. Harry's skill with lightning dust, was no exception and the reason why Neville would dub the 'fucking wanker'. Harry was fast, faster with lightning running through his body.

Neville…was frankly not. Although his skill with Earth dust was on par with Harry with his lightning. Unfortunately, lightning trumped earth. Neville managed to pull up a shield to disperse the lightning causing minor malfunctions across the armour. "So, you've learnt to block and dodge."

Neville, responded by activating the engine. Harry stopped "Fuck me."

"That's Velvets job." Neville retorted as he rushed Harry, Harry dived to one-side only for Neville to push his arm out.

"LONGBOTTOM BISECTION!" Harry couldn't dodge as the armoured arm slammed into Harry, rattling his intestines, causing his breathing to become erratic, blood, spit and saliva gushed from his mouth as he was flipped over.

"THUNDERSTRUCK!" Neville roared as thunder dust rushed around the hammer in a vibrant shroud of white, the hammer strike slammed across Harry's back right between the shoulder blades.

Hogwarts watched as Harry was bodily thrown across the arena and towards the protective barriers. But, Harry never hit the barrier, he had managed to shift his scythe to a sword and slide on the hilt. "Not bad, Potter…for all your bravado you're the only one who gets up after I've hit them."

Harry chuckled "And you're the only one to tank my Raves."

"First round to me?" Neville stated.

"Aye. That would have ended me, if you hadn't pulled it."

"Like you don't ever pull your attacks."

"I like you alive, me not pulling makes people dead." Harry retorted.

"Potter, how much are you pulling your attacks?" Snape sneered.

"Close to 80%, I like my friends in one piece, but minus the devil fruit and weird side-effects."

"That's fifty points…" Began Snape, only to stop as Harry and Neville looked at one another.

"I, Hadrian James Potter, do hearby…" Harry began as a dark green spectral light began to resonate off the pair of them.

"Mr. Potter! Please, I ask you leave Professor Snape be." Called the Headmaster, his own aura flaring.

"No, Headmaster. You begged me to save the Terrorists life earlier this year, and yet not even three hours back he has regressed into his petty, primitive, prick like state that has bullied and tormented me, for sins of dead men since I was eleven. So, no Headmaster. He owes me a life-debt, I have no need of his life-debt…I quite frankly want his life or utter molecular unravelling." Harry growled.

That had been an extremely tense discussion with the Prime Minister. Snape gulped, he knew that Potter had saved him from the tender hands of the Hit Wizards; i.e. they'd have probably beaten him until an inch of his life, for him to spill his secrets. "You do this, Potter and you'll prove me right…You're just like your father."

Harry's eyes turned hard as coal, he was so incensed his eyes had turned black. In that moment, an incorporeal version of Harry appeared. This incorporeal form possessed long black hair, down to his shoulders, his eyes black with green pupils, skin alabaster white and his features much sharper and almost manic. "Harry, listen to me…I know you want his head and life, as do I; think of Velvet."

Harry stopped, his eyes turned and locked onto Neville "Everyday and every night. We have a job to do, Snape; is a part of that job. We know what a Death Eater aspirant has to do to be given the mark. Answer me this Neville, where was this concern before me before crushed the Lestrange brother in the Alley? Where was this concern when you broke three of our former peers?"

Neville stopped "Harry, you know what the LeStranges did to my family. A blood-feud is something completely different compared to this. What I did, is questionably fine but this…this is flat out murder."

"He let my father die and begged to spare my mothers life. If he truly gave a shit about my mother, he would have tried to spare my father as well. That turned out to be a lie, but still, mum and dad died to protect me. For that I'm grateful, still means I want his goddamn head."

(Qrow et al.)

"Ruby, stay out of this fight."

"But it's our fight to." Ruby protested as her father effortlessly batted Tyrian away.

"This has nothing to do with it. It's to do with my quirk." Qrow retorted to his daughter.

(Land of Darkness)

Salem grinned, her alliance with Tom Riddle had provided her with ample eyes on the mysterious Hadrian Branwen. "So disillusioned, so jaded…my, my what a potentially dangerous adversary and even more dangerous ally. Sweet child, shafted by everyone so desperate to rage…chained by the manacles of fate and destiny; groomed for martyrdom."

Her eyes flashed "That stupid fool, Tom Riddle. There are many ways to achieve immortality; but splitting your soul…there is no way that you could dare to deem yourself my ally. We share a mutual enemy, as I share a mutual enemy with him."

She turned to her surrounded council "Leave me." The moment they left, Salem grinned.

"Sende meinen Geist zu meinen Auserwahlten. Sende meinen Geist zu meinen Auserwahlten. Sende meinen Geist zu meinen Auserwahlten. Ihre Erzfeindin ist an eine zersplitterte Seele gebunden, ich werde mich um sie kümmern. Denn niemand soll dich gefoltert und gebrochen haben, außer ich." (Send my spirit to my chosen. Your nemesis is bound by a splintered soul, I shall deal with them. For none shall have you tortured, broken save I.)

(Hogwarts)

The vision disorted and flickered away. But Harry, found himself frozen. His eyes rolled into his head and unaware of anything he else he fell backwards.

Neville watched in horror, as Harry hit the floor; head glancing off the edge of his sword and smashing into the floor with a sickening crunch as blood slowly began to pool around him.

Hermione turned to Ron "Harry's luck. Only Harry's luck."