The lost child

The atmosphere within the room was not one that any had felt before, it was so mixed that no one could determine the reason. Albus was annoyed that his control was waning due to this situation. Secrets that were best left buried were beginning to resurface, undermining years of hard work.

All the time in which he had worked to guide the wizarding world into a new era. Subtle manipulations from behind the scenes. It was all going to waste. He knew that the potters were beyond angry at him. They were a large part of the current plan as not only were they involved with the prophecy but they were also a large political force and thus he needed their loyalty to ensure he was able to pass the bills he wanted. This just made the chances of him having their votes as a guarantee had been shattered.

He was just lucky that the majority of the order were so deeply in debt to him or blindly followed him whilst completely unaware of what was beyond the thin, thin walls of the wards that concealed their world. It would only take one wrong move and the entire statute would come tumbling down.

The situation of the magical world was balancing upon the knives edge. A situation that was so precarious that he was actually surprised that they had not been exposed yet.

Ivy potter was not a happy girl. She had always had an issue with the old man. There had always been something off about him. True he was like a grandfather to both her and her brother when they were younger but as she grew she started to notice the slight inconsistencies, cracks in his facade. She could not say anything of course, this was the great Albus Dumbledore, the leader of the light and all round great man. You just did not do that.

Lily was flustered and enraged. Her mind going all over the place due to what she was seeing. First it was her child being abused to almost the point of death then a mad man taking him in. She was of split minds about that Karasuba person as she was doing a good thing for a bad reason. It was becoming abundantly clear that her baby was not going to be like she had imagined. That thought pained her.

03

Horcruxes, memories, and shopping

Harry groaned. He had just spent the night having his bones re-grown, and he hoped he didn't have to repeat the experience anytime soon. First of all, this "Skele-gro" potion tasted absolutely terrible, and feeling his bones re-grow was not, by any stretch of imagination, a pleasant experience. He had spent the entire night turning and trying to lessen the ache of the magic taking place inside him, but had not succeeded at all. It was only after the magic died down that he had been able to slip into blissful sleep, if only for a few hours.

Pomfrey nodded at this, it was to be expected when his list of injuries was that long. If the arm had been broken it could have been easily and painlessly fixed, The fact that the bone had healed wrongly did not help as the safest method in such a case was to re-break, re align and then skelegro to ensure that the bone healed properly. No it would not be a comfortable night for the boy.

As he looked around, he spotted Karasuba sitting on a chair, in the same position she had been each time he had turned to look at her. For some reason beyond his comprehension, she had flat out refused to go back to MBI Tower without him, and had even threatened the staff when they had told her they would force her out if need be. Needless to say, they had relented when they had been faced with a nodachi wielded by a woman sporting a bloodthirsty grin that sent shivers down their spines.

"Scary" came a mumble from a certain red head gaining a mass of head nods from the men in the room who had been on the receiving end of there significant others or friends wrath. Not a fun experience. James shivered as he remembered his wife during her pregnancies. The fact that Sirius had been there laughing at him whilst he was having his life threatened by the woman that he love did not help matters at all.

As he tried to get out of bed without making too much noise, as he didn't want to wake Karasuba up, he found himself pinned to the bed by said woman, who was apparently very much awake.

"Going somewhere, Harry-chan?" she asked, her voice teasing, though her eyes were not so playful.

"Ah! Uhh...I didn't want to wake you up, I just wanted to get a drink." he explained, a little fearfully. Even if he didn't think she would hurt him as badly as the Dursley's, he still wasn't sure that she wouldn't hurt him at all.

With a grin, she got up and stretched, making her look like some kind of giant cat. Once again, he noticed how beautiful she was, though he frowned when he saw the dark circles under her eyes. He was fairly sure they had been there before, but he had paid them no mind. Now, though, he couldn't help but notice them.

"Karasuba... Do you sleep well?" he tentatively asked. He only hoped that he wouldn't make her mad when he asked.

He was rewarded with an arched eyebrow, and a slight tensing of her body. Normal people would have missed it, but after being beaten black and blue by the Dursley's, he had learned to be observant of people's body language.

"And why do you ask, Harry-chan?"

"Because...I care about you?" he mumbled. He was not very good at expressing his emotions, a side effect of his upbringing, and while he cared about Karasuba, as she was the first person to spend so much time with him and treat him like a human being, he was still rightfully afraid of her.

He did not expect the woman to blush bright red for a second, before looking at him with her eyes narrowed.

"Karasuba did what?!" came a scream from the scientist almost as if it was an impossible thing for the woman to do such a thing. Considering that this Takami actually knew the woman in question it was quite possible that it was an impossibility.

The next second, he was lifted by the collar of his clothes and thrown back into his bed.

"Stay here, I'll get you a drink." she said in an icy voice, before turning to leave.

"Karasuba?"

"What?" she growled, not turning to look at him.

"Thank you." he said, honestly.

Karasuba didn't answer, and left the room, leaving a surprised Harry behind.

"Oh My God!" exclaimed Takami the others looking towards the woman "i cannot accept that she is a tsundere. No!" she groaned at the revelation. The only ones who understood what she meant were the gangers, Ivy and lily. The Grangers due to the term having expanded from japan recently and becoming part of common language despite its origins within japan. It was similar to both Lily and Ivy, the fact that both of them knew but not James and Sirius, her twin, did not see the times within the muggle world as important and treated them as a fascinating detours to a place that held no relevance to their lives.

-Break-

As she stormed out to find someone to get a drink for Harry, Karasuba had to refrain herself from growling in anger. He "cared" for her? What a joke! He didn't know what Love was, and neither did she, so there was no way he would be able to care about her! And WHY for the love of whatever retarded God created the world she was on, did she react like a love struck human schoolgirl? She was the Black Sekirei, the one feared by every MBI employee, a natural born killer, and if Takami was to be believed, a psychotic mass murderer. She personally preferred to say that she simply had a more gory way of relieving her stress than most people.

But on to the main problem: Harry Potter, while he was still a pathetic weakling, had the potential to become strong enough to warrant her interest and become her Ashikabi. She needed him to understand her, she needed him to feel like her! If a mere week was enough for him to "care" about her, as he so defiantly put it, then there was a serious problem with his psyche! How could he, after suffering so much at the hands of his own family, and from what she had been able to piece together, everyone else, still want to get close to someone?

Then she came to a realization, it was to her he was the closest to. It didn't seem he wanted to get close to anyone else, now that she thought about it, that she took the time to think rather than act as she usually did. In a sense, it was actually better that if his ability to feel had been destroyed completely, as it would mean that if she played her cards right, she would be able to guide his growth in the right direction all the more easier. If she managed to be the one person he looked up to, well more than he did already, then she would be able to influence him to get him where she wanted him to be.

She shivered in pleasure at the realization that if he grew up to her expectations, she would be able to wing herself on him, which would grant her the power she needed to squash that annoying Yume once and for all, and then she would take care of Miya. Yes, the benefits far outweighed the few drawbacks. So she would have to wait, so what?

With her insane grin once more plastered on her face, she went to find a drink for Harry.

There was a horrified silence within the room. The boy-who-lived was in being raised by such a being. One who acknowledged what she does and her being a murderer. No this was not a good sign. Takami however was groaning at what her other self was going to have to deal with. She herself was just glad that she did not or had not had to at this point. Pinching her nose in frustration she could only pray to any merciful god out there in the hopes that she would never be placed in such a situation.

-Break-

After another examination to make sure all his bones were properly healed, Harry was allowed to leave, along with Karasuba and Haruka. Karasuba looked like something good had happened to her, but he was smart enough to know that it would be stupid to ask the grey-haired woman about it. He had quickly caught on the fact that she was not likely to react well to personal questions, so he had decided that unless something was really troubling her, he would avoid asking her.

They were headed for Gringotts, as apparently Break-bone had been able to find his notes about the ritual needed to remove the piece of soul in his head. He was quite glad that they would be able to remove it, as the idea of having a piece of the soul of someone whom Haruka had described as an "insane psychotic bastard" gave him the creeps. That and he was quite worried that said piece of soul would influence him. His mind was supposed to be his own, and he would make sure of that.

-Break-

"Ready Harry?"

Once again, he was laying on the block of stone he had been on the day before, and once again he was strapped to it, with a leather piece inserted in his mouth. From what he had gathered, the procedure would be even more painful and difficult than to free his magic, as while the block was tied to it quite closely, it was simply an inanimate piece of magic, little more than an object performing the duty it had been created to accomplish. The piece of soul, however, was actually alive, and while not a "full" being like a human, it did possess some basic intelligence and will of its own. And that made the procedure all the more difficult, as it was likely to try several tricks to avoid being destructed. What those tricks were, neither Harry nor the Goblins had the slightest idea, but it was quite clear that they were better off preparing for anything.

"That was actually a very concise and accurate description" said bill Weasley, he had had to deal with thing similar in Egypt. It was true that magic had deferent levels of sentience from none all the way up to adaptive and complicated logic systems. The later was almost always found within very old wards where the magic had grown more saturated over the years allowing for a small level of consciousness. One such example would be Hogwarts itself. The castle being upon a ley-line nexus as well as all of the children within the castle had thoroughly saturated the stone that the castle was built of. This made the castle sapient to a level.

Surprisingly, the ritual was not nearly as complicated as what he had believed, but he was quite sure it was because the Goblins had dumbed the principle behind it so he could understand what awaited him. Basically, the piece of soul was tied to him, and strengthened the connection by leeching on his magic. That was a good thing in his case, as it probably still hadn't gotten the time to adapt to his new level of magic power, and by forcing Harry's magic to sever the connection, there was little it would be able to do to protect itself. Once it would be separated from him, the last part of the ritual consisted in transferring the piece of soul into an animal and off said animal. However, before any of this could be done, there was a cleansing part of the ritual, destined to erase the taint of the piece of soul, in case it tried to latch onto the magic of its host and contaminate it. If such a thing happened, usually the host magic got corrupted and usually ended up not obeying the person, making them end in some sort of timed bomb, that would eventually blow up when they tried to summon their magic.

The wizards all gasped in horror at such a thing happening. There magic was the defining feature in their minds, It was the reason that squibs were looked down upon it was seen as a stain upon the honour of the family if one of the members failed to be able to draw upon their magic. It was also the reason why , in Britain at least, they were sent into the muggle world or killed. The sheer thought of ones magic turning upon them was enough nightmare material to keep them awake for months.

"Begin!"

Once again, a chant started, and he waited, feeling something touch the scar on his head, prodding it, before slowly entering it. The sensation felt kind, benevolent, and was not at all intrusive, unlike what he had imagined. Then whatever had entered his scar touched what he assumed was the part of soul, and it surrounded it, containing the taint, enveloping it, before it started purifying it. Per Se, it didn't remove anything from the fragment, instead it cleansed the Dark Magic inside it, and sent Light Magic to pacify the budding personality inside the soul piece. It was apparently one of the very few times Goblins made a difference between Light and Dark magic.

This shocked the wizards in the room at the fact that the goblins did not recognize the difference between the two types of magic. It was only natural to them that there was such a difference, one was evil and the other was good. To not know this was anathema to them. The muggles in the room nodded and agreed with the goblins at this. Life was not a simple morality code of black and white, there were many different types of grey and it was incredibly rare for one to be at the far ends of the spectrum. A good example of such would be nuclear power.

It was created for the purpose of being a weapon which was obviously a bad thing. When it was used despite costing many people their lives it also saved many more due to the war that was being fought at the time. The same knowledge that had been used to create the weapon was then used to create power plants that had improved the lives of many more people. Each of these applications were at different levels of grey due to the context.

Then came the hard part. Now they were going to force Harry's magic to sever the connection with the soul piece, and it would not let it go quietly. The chant suddenly grew louder and got a shrill quality, hurting his ears. However, he was more worried about what he was feeling coming from his scar. It felt as if some kind of worm was wriggling beneath his skin, and the sensation was enough to give him goosebumps, his hair standing up on his neck. It was a very unpleasant sensation, and it was getting worse by the second, as the piece of soul fought against the magic trying to cut off the magic it was feeding on.

All of a sudden his eyes widened, and he felt his body arch, his muscles bulging under his skin, and his mouth open in a silent scream. He felt as if someone had dripped his body in a container full of acid, and his head was feeling as if it was about to split open. He could vaguely feel his limbs thrashing around, but it was merely a distraction. The pain was even worse than what he felt the day before, as it was coupled with the knowledge that if the ritual failed, the piece of soul may take over his mind, making him into a replica of the very person who had tried to kill him.

For what felt like hours, he could only scream his throat raw, tears falling down his cheeks as the pain ravaged his body and mind, his body moving erratically, as if some mad puppeteer was using strings to move them in grotesque ways. A small part of him was amazed that none of his bones had broken nor had any of his muscles been overexerted, but he was quite willing to bet that he would pay for it as soon as the ritual was over.

There was a horrified silence within the room as they heard the descriptions of what was happening. The occasional wince at a description or reaction in what was going on. None of it was a pleasant thing to watch and they could not imagine how terrifying it would have been to go through with such a procedure.

-Break-

In the room next to the ritual room, Haruka and Karasuba were waiting for the procedure to finish. The Ministry employee finally gathered her courage, and asked the grey-haired woman:

"What are your intentions towards Harry-kun?"

The Black Sekirei grinned, her hand on the hilt of her nodachi, without turning to look at the woman that she considered as little more than a nuisance.

"Oh? And how is this your business, Haru-chan?"

She had the pleasure to hear the witch gulp audibly, and she could almost picture her fidgeting, something that amused her greatly.

"Harry-kun has suffered greatly at the hands of his relatives, it is the Ministry's job to see that he finds a suitable family. And he is a symbol of the Light, so it is our responsibility to ensure that whoever adopts him cares for him and do not use him for their own gain."

"Oh, really? And I suppose that after finding him a good family, you'd stay in contact with him, maybe asks some favours, like supporting your Ministry from time to time. That is the very definition of using someone for your own gain. Aren't you quite the hypocrite, Haru-chan?"

Karasuba felt the witch stiffen, but her senses didn't pick up the sound of anything having being brought out, so she didn't take out her nodachi. If Haruka ever so much as pointed her wand at her, she would slice her into tiny pieces and claim self-defence. And if whoever governed the magical part of the country wasn't happy, she'd be more than happy to deal with the teams they'd send to retrieve Harry.

"I don't care what you think, but Harry-chan WILL stay with me. I will make sure he becomes strong enough to decide what HE wants to do. And if you want any part in his life, you will go through ME. Anyone I don't approve of won't approach Harry-chan unless they wish to suffer a very...painful end. Is that understood?"

As she said that, she leisurely stroked the hilt of her nodachi, ensuring that the young woman understood what she exposed herself to if she didn't comply to her wish. She wasn't sure that the intimidation would work, as for what she had seen, wizards and witches seemed to be quite proud, and since she hadn't showed any indication of having magical power, she seemed to be looked down upon. That is, when people were not in her immediate vicinity, since the sword at her side and her usual manic grin made it quite clear that those stupid enough to be insulting towards her when she was around would most likely suffer.

"As much as I hate to say it, I agree with Karasuba on this one" said Takami getting funny looks at her. "What whilst she might not be entirely stable she does protect what she considers her with ferocity. She would not allow harry to be used for any reason and she would ensure that he grew strong whilst under her care." explained the woman

Lily however was not a happy woman as she was seeing time after time what had happened to her son and was having many mixed emotions about it. It was also brining back memories of the time she and her mother had conversations about the future. Things had not gone as she had hoped and dreamed. True she had a husband that she loved dearly and children that she would not replace for the life of her but she was upset about the fact that she had failed her eldest in an almost irreparable way.

Haruka was about to answer, when a loud alarm started ringing, and a voice barked orders in what Karasuba recognized as the Goblins' language, Gobbledegook. That stopped both women from continuing their one-sided argument, as Haruka went to ask the nearest Goblin guard what was happening, the Sekirei right behind her. Usually, she would not have been overly concerned, but she had a feeling what was happening was somehow linked to Harry.

The Goblin Haruka was interrogating was not very forthcoming with information, though as soon as Karasuba walked up to him, he paled and started talking.

"Something's gone wrong with the procedure. Apparently the fragment of soul had tied itself to Mr. Potter's soul, and any attempt to dislodge it only harms him. Our best Curse breakers and Healers have been called to find a solution quickly, otherwise he is going to die or become Voldemort's new body."

Haruka gasped, but Karasuba was almost snarling. She was furious. She had found someone who could genuinely relate to her, and was willing to spend time in her company, even though she was a psychotic murderer, something she had not hidden from Harry. His only reaction had been a shrug, before he asked if she intended to hurt him. When she had answered that she did not, he had simply said: "Then why should I care?", she had felt a pleasant warmth in her, something she had sorely missed. And now some Dark Lord residue wanted to take over her Harry?

Almost everyone was shocked at the possessiveness that the psychotic woman was showing towards the boy Takami however was not that surprised.

"She is a Sekirei, whilst she might avoid it as much as possible and deny it one of a Sekirei basic instincts is to find their Ashikabi. Harry who is hers due to her reacting to him, whilst they are not bonded yet she has a base instinct to protect him. She might not show it in a normal way but she is not normal since she is an alien." explained the scientist in an almost bored way.

Lily who was still apprehensive about this was just glad that her son would have someone there to protect him. Whilst she did not like this Karasuba person she was still glad.

Ivy was just glad that her brother had someone to be their for him. The violent personality of the woman made her nervous but if what the woman, Takami if she remembered right, had said then this 'alien' would be loyal to her brother, something that she was glad for.

James was not a happy man. First his son was considering disowning himself. While he had another son to be a backup heir it was an insult to his family if the heir was to do such a thing. Then there was this woman that his son had gotten close to. True she would keep him safe but there was a high possibility of his son being corrupted and turned dark by her. No he was not a happy man.

Albus was having to hold in a growl, another of his plans was currently being derailed. His plan on having the boy be a martyr was in the process of being destroyed. Yes he knew about the horcrux, he had learned about that magic in his time with Gellart. They had both decided it was not worth the risk. The knowledge about that foul piece of magic was still there due to the horrifying nature of how it was created.

The other thing that was annoying him was the fact that those within the order now knew about the piece and thus were less likely to react well to the boy due to there fear.

With a growl, she opened the door, strolling past a surprised Goblin guard and a startled Haruka, before stopping in front of the door leading to the ritual chamber. She had been told that external interference could mess up the rituals something fierce, but she didn't care. If she had to choose between trying to help Harry, even if it could fail, and not doing anything, then there wasn't even a choice to be made in the first place. With a grin, she cocked her leg back, before kicking the door open and entering the room without a care in the world. She could see Harry trashing around and scream, while the Goblins chanting were surprised upon seeing her but were professional enough not to stop chanting.

Strolling up to the boy, she grabbed him by the collar and slapped him twice, before looking at him in the eyes and growling:

"Listen, Harry-chan, if you lose to that piece of soul I am going to kick your ass so hard you'll regret you were ever born! So be a fucking man and fight this fucker!"

there were a series of gasps from the room. One did not just do such a thing within goblin territory it was tantamount to suicide. The only one in the room who was impressed rather than horrified was Filius, him being from the nation he understood that the goblins respect strength above all else. It was one of the reasons that despite their hatred for the man they had not made any moves against Albus. However he had to wonder what the effect of her interference would have upon the ritual.

She wasn't sure of the effect her words had on Harry, though she thought that for a moment she had seen something akin to determination in his eyes before a wave of magic blasted her into the nearest wall, breaking a few of her ribs. That only made her grin though, as she got up to her feet easily, clutching her side.

"That's more like it! Show us what you're made of, Harry-chan!"

In truth she thought it was a good test of character for Harry, after all if he wasn't able to at least fight back a piece of soul, then he would really disappoint her. If he was to one day be her Ashikabi, she wasn't going to let him go all scared pussy on her, and if he had to fight a piece of the soul of a supposedly extremely powerful bastard to prove his character to her, then so be it. She would not settle for a weak man, even if said man was able to understand her feelings. He may have a lot of power, but if he didn't have the will and the guts to use it, it was useless to have it in the first place.

This caused Filius to chuckle as it was a familiar ideology "well she is not wrong about it being a good test of character, she has already made it clear that she wants the boy to be strong" said the professor.

"considering that the bond makes a Sekirei submissive to their Ashikabi, I am not surprised in the lightest that she would consider it such." said Takami giving a bit more insight into why Karasuba was doing the things she did, well other than being unstable.

With a scream that sent shivers of pleasure down her spine, Harry was engulfed in a dark light, before his body fell back on the stone he had been tied to, his breathing calming down. The Goblins quickly began to chant again, though this time it was much quieter and more soothing, though their gravelly voices made it strange to the ear.

After a few minutes, they stopped chanting, and begun speaking in hushed tones. Karasuba just shrugged and went to check on Harry. As she expected, he was unconscious and looked exhausted, however his scar was no longer the angry red it had been when they had met, as it was now more pinkish, and would probably fade to a dull white with time.

It was at this point that the doors banged open, this time pushed by a very irate-looking Haruka, who was followed by a no less irate Bone-breaker, who, upon seeing Karasuba, zeroed on her.

"You! Are you crazy?! Do you have any idea of what your actions could have caused? How much damage Harry could have taken?!"

At this point, he stopped, his eyes on the nodachi resting on his neck, courtesy of a grinning grey-haired woman.

"Now, now. All is fine now, right? Harry-chan got rid of that soul piece..."

"No, it isn't "fine"!" yelled Haruka, who was looking at Harry warily. "The Goblins said that he did get rid of the soul piece, but not before it transferred the memories it contained to Harry! Now he has Merlin only knows how many memories of torture, murder and destruction in him! We don't even know how he will react to them! For all we know, you just caused the creation of the next Dark Lord!"

Now it was Haruka's turn to stop talking, as the look Karasuba was giving her made it quite clear that not only she didn't care, but also that if she continued speaking, unpleasant things were going to happen to her, most likely involving sharp objects stuck in her body.

"Don't think Harry is the scared little kid you make him. If he managed to stay sane after all that happened to him, then more memories like that will not change him that much. Besides, I don't think you even begin to understand just how mature he is. After all he has lived through, I would be surprised if he isn't already more mature than some so-called adults."

"Again the psycho is correct. He has already shown that he has a steel will." said moody with a nod of respect to the boy " I am however worried about the fact that it has transferred memories to the boy." this garnered looks of worry from those in the room. None nearly as much as the potters.

The discussion was cut short when the Goblins responsible for the ritual told the people present that Harry would probably not wake before the next day. Just to be sure, they offered to make him stay in the hospital he had been treated at, in case there was an emergency of any kind. They also explained they had used some magic to make it easier for Harry's brain to process the memories and differentiate those from Voldemort from his own. Unfortunately, there was little more they could do, after all, Mind Arts were not their forte, and even human Healers would have had trouble considering Harry's circumstances. Right now his mind would probably reject any external intervention, and it was best to not overexert him by adding that to the already heavy toll his brain would be under.

"mind arts?" came the question from Hermione not realizing that she was asking the question for more than just her. Those from the mundane world were also curious although they could make an educated guess.

"The mind arts are a complicated branch of magic" started Snape whilst deliberately ignoring the head master. "These mainly include two branches, occlumency, the art of protecting and organising ones mind-scape. Legilimancy the art of viewing another's memories and surface thoughts." said the potions professor not even realising the sheer scale of horror he had just provoked within the mundane.

"there are also spells and potions that brush against this, Veritaserum which is a truth compulsion potion and memory charms." finished Snape, say what you want about the man and his attitude but in his fields of speciality he was a veritable genius.

It did not go unnoticed by some within the room that Albus was directing a glare at the potions professor. Though the reasons were unknown it did not help his already crumbling reputation with those in the room. Only those who were blindly loyal remained wilfully ignorant of the byplay.

-Break-

Harry groaned as his head hurt. He knew that something had not gone quite as planned, but he couldn't for the life of him figure what. The last thing he knew, he had used his magic to try and help the ritual, but the piece of soul had latched onto it and used it to connect with him, and then, well he couldn't remember.

"Finally awake?"

Albus had wide eyes at this as he had not heard that voice in a long time. Rituals and potions of a dark variety had long since disfigured its owner to the point that the voice was almost unrecognizable. This caused him to question why he was their.

The others were confused, wasn't this supposed to be voldemort? Whose voice was that? Why did it care about the boy when it was supposed to be a part of the monster that was the dark lord. Only a couple of the group could even contemplate or guess what was going on.

Jumping upright, Harry found himself facing a handsome young man, probably sixteen, perhaps a little younger. He was quite tall, towering over Harry, and had a handsome face, dark hair and eyes. Instantly his instincts kicked in, and he analysed the young man, searching for any kind of clue in his physical language. Fortunately, it betrayed no hostile intent, so Harry allowed himself to relax a little.

"Who are you?" he asked. He had to force himself a little to ask the question, as at the Dursley's, such a thing would have earned him a beating easily. He had started growing out of his old habits, since Karasuba had pushed him to assert himself, but it had only been a week, so he wasn't quite there yet.

The young man, however, didn't seem to take offence, and instead smiled warmly.

"Ah, well I will explain that in a moment, but for now, where do you think we are?" he asked, making a gesture to show around him.

Both males were in a sea of darkness, with images occasionally drifting by. It felt wrong, yet Harry couldn't really see why. After a little while, he spoke:

"My mind?" he answered, unsure of himself.

The image of the mind scape shocked those who had never been in one. They were rather unremarkable things unless the owner had access to it to modify it. It was one of the reasons that they were easily manipulated as unless something had left a particularly large impression upon the person they would not have anything other than the void they were seeing.

There were those that were different Miss Granger for example due to her almost eidetic memory her mind-scape was easy to navigate due to it being a well posted library. It was organized and ordered with the doors flung wide open. It was like going on a field trip to Severus, it was also why he knew most of what happened within the Gryfindor house.

Thus it was that Snape was not surprised by the view of the boys mind, true it was darker than some but that was probably been due to the abuse. The darkness was also a probably a by product of the boy needing to hide himself from everyone.

Snape could not help but wonder what the boy would do with the knowledge that he can access his mind, will he attempt to create a form shield or will he not realise that it was something that can be done? The thing that worried him now though was that the Weasley twins were here and now knew about the mind arts they would surely look it up if only to make sure that their pranking plans were kept secret.

"Yes! Indeed, we are in your mind, Harry. Now, as for who I am, you could say I was Voldemort before he went insane and power hungry. Please call me Tom." said the young man, as he looked genuinely happy that Harry had figured out where they were.

Upon hearing who he was talking to, Harry recoiled slightly. While he had no memories of Voldemort, the man had apparently tried to kill him, and he wasn't very comfortable with talking to the man, especially in his own mind.

"Don't worry. I know I didn't really come across as someone you could just talk to with my actions in the real world, but please, allow me to explain myself."

Normally Harry would have tried to flee or find something to hide, however the pleading look on Tom's face was too real to be faked, so he slowly nodded, making the older man smile warmly as he sat down and gestured to Harry to do the same.

"Thank you, Harry. First of all, allow me to explain why we both are in your mind, and why I am quite different of what you have been told about me.

This caused most within the room to lean forward. Very little was actually known about the man. Whilst it was true that he had claimed to be the lord slytherin. It was known that he was a parseltongue. He had however appeared out of nowhere and had steadily became more and more violent. The chance to know more about the creature that had plagued the world for a whilst could only be a positive in trying to find a way to defeat the man.

More secrets were being revealed. Important ones that Albus had kept to himself for decades. Now it was going to be casually spilled to all and there was absolutely nothing that he could do about it.

As you know, I created Horcruxes, or soul anchors, whichever is the easiest to understand for you, to become immortal. Unfortunately, in my haste, I had disregarded a warning in the book where I found how to do so. To put it simply, splitting my soul did make me immortal, however, it also irreversibly damaged my soul. Now, I know the Goblins haven't told you this, as even they don't know, but you aren't the only anchor I made, and to be frank, you were an accident."

"Excuse me?" asked Harry, confused. He was an accident? He had thought that creating an anchor was a deliberate process.

"Please, let me explain. You see, I created my first anchor when I was still sixteen. At first I was planning for it to be the only one I would create, however once I created it, my mind was affected by the after effects. Damaging my soul to create it had apparently amplified the worst aspects of my mind, and I was so drunk on my apparent power that I had what, at the moment, seemed to be the idea of the century: if one anchor made me immortal, then I would create more, to use as fail-safe, making me truly immortal and not depending on the state of a single object.

As I grew older, I created more anchors, further damaging my soul and causing my mind to descend into insanity. I became...twisted, distorted, a shadow of my former self, a monster driven by less than noble ideals. When I had wanted to better the world, I now wanted to rule it, since I "knew better". That's when you come into play. For reasons you will learn later, I decided to kill you, but unfortunately for who I had became, something went wrong and my spell ended killing me instead, separating my soul from my body, as my anchors kept me from truly dying. However, in the process, my damaged soul further split, and the piece that had detached itself from my main body latched onto the only viable container allowable to me: you.

"that explains quite a lot actually" grumbled moody. It was a well known fact that the dark lord had started out using politics to get his goals only for him to spiral into full blown violence. This made it easy to see how any original plans or ideas had been corrupted by such a decent.

Now, the reason why I am here is simple: when the Goblins tried to remove me from you, I was purified, cleansed of the damage I had suffered at the hands of my former self, I regained some reason. However, I knew that nobody knew about my other anchors, and as such, I had to give you my memories. You'll need them, as I'm sure that the monster that was once myself will come after you sooner or later. Not only that, but I could also help and mend some of the damage your mind received at the Dursley's. Few people know this, Harry, but I was an orphan, and I lived a less than happy childhood, though yours was still worse than mine. I can understand where you come from, Harry. I truly can. And let me say that I want nothing more than to make up for my mistake. And mending some of the scars your so called family left on your psyche can help you, otherwise you will never be able to truly exploit your full potential."

Harry just sat there, too stunned to even utter a word. Finally, his brain managed to piece together what he had been told, and he croaked:

"What?"

"Ah, I guess it's a bit much to take in, unfortunately I can't really afford to take my time, since me-this personality- is dissolving quickly. Let's just say that I'll be helping you organize your mind, okay? Oh, and find yourself someone to love. I made the mistake of thinking I was alone in the world, and I still regret it. See you!" said Tom, waving cheerfully at him as his body dissolved into green particles.

And with that, the most bizarre encounter Harry had had in his entire life came to an end as he felt memories, feelings that were not his own, crash down and enter his mind. For a moment, he felt as if he was going to be overwhelmed by the onslaught, as it was like a tidal wave crashing down on his mind and about to break it. However, as he was about to give up, to let the foreign memories destroy him, the wave receded, and became a light stream instead, only one or two memories at a time.

The feeling was extremely strange, as he knew that what he was seeing weren't his own memories, his own feelings, though they felt as though they were his own. He was glad that Tom had apparently started to help him filter and organize what he was receiving, otherwise he would have lost himself in the flow. As for the memories themselves, most were gruesome, extremely so, though for some reason he wasn't as repulsed as he should have, probably a combined effect of his upbringing and of Tom's actions.

And so, little by little, he managed to integrate the memories as his own. It was a long, tedious process, but for some reason that Harry suspected to be Tom, organizing his mind efficiently came easily to him. The most surprising part, though, was that he was not only receiving Voldemort's memories, but also his knowledge. He didn't know how much time he had spent organizing the flow of memories, but he had gone from "total beginner in magic", to " Master in several fields of magic and knowing more than your average wizard in the others". It felt extremely weird to find that a piece of information he could make no sense of moments earlier, was in fact quite easy to explain thanks to the latest one he had gained.

And so, he worked.

Shock, that was what the wizards felt at this revelation. The mundane though were quite intrigued at the notion of such a memory dump. True there were those who were horrified at the notion of the dark lords memories being within the boy, they could however do nothing about it.

Albus was in a confused state. The prophecy clearly stated that the power he knew not would be instrumental in the downfall of the dark lord. The first thing he had thought it was was love as he had known that tom had very little of such an emotion in his life. Then he had come to the conclusion that it would be the horcrux itself due to the connection it would create between the two. Now however he had no idea what it could be. The bond with the alien? The knowledge? Love? He did not know.

The potters were horrified. Their already mentally damaged son had just had an entire lifetimes worth of knowledge dumped into his young mind. By what appears to be a purified and repentant version of the dark lord. This was either a very good thing for them or a very bad thing.

-Break-

Later that day, Karasuba was sitting in one of the few rooms not strictly devoted to the bank's business and polishing her nodachi as she kept an eye on Harry when she saw him move. At first it wasn't much, but then his eyes fluttered open and he groaned.

"I think I'm starting to have enough of waking up feeling like shit after dangerous magical rituals that can potentially be lethal."

She just grinned as she watched him groggily get up. One of the few rules she had set for herself was to not help him too much. He needed to toughen up. He may already be tough after his experiences at his relatives' hands, he was still too meek and depended too much on people. She wanted him to learn how to do things by himself.

"Awake then? How do you feel, Harry-chan?"

"Like shit. I've got the mother of all headaches, and I'm trying to get used to know things I'm not supposed to know."

That made Karasuba curious. Putting her blade back in its sheath, she walked over to where her potential Ashikabi was sitting.

"Oh? Like what?" she asked, her usual grin on her face.

Harry just gave her a glance, before he sighed and waved his hand. As soon as he finished, she found that she couldn't move, no matter how hard she tried, something that made her grin even more.

"Impressive. Mind freeing me, Harry-chan?"

Shrugging, he waved his hand once more, and she found that she could now move.

"If you think that is impressive, wait until I can use some of the more powerful spells Tom knew. Some of them can literally level houses if you put enough power in them."

"Tom? Who's that?"

"Tom Marvolo Riddle, the true name of Voldemort. The funny thing is that he isn't even a pure-blood, he's a half-blood preaching about blood purity."

Takami was finding this amusing, she had been watching the magic users since the start and seeing the different reactions to things that they had not known had given her a profound sense of schadenfreude. The arrogant and prideful people were literally gobsmacked about what was revealed. From the soul containers to the purified version of the man and finally what she could only assume was some sort of hierarchy within their society.

Karasuba blinked, unsure of what he meant. The way he was talking made her think that he had learnt quite a few things since he went unconscious, all of them related to the politics of the magical s.

As she pondered what "pure-bloods" and "half-blood" could mean, Harry seemed to understand her questioning look, as he scratched his head.

"Oh, sorry about that. Pure blood refers to someone who is born in a family where everyone up to the grandparents have magic, while half-bloods have at least one person in either their parents or grandparents that can't use magic.

Apparently, in Britain, there's a lot of fuss around blood purity as they call it. To put it simply, pure-bloods are the old families, and most of them are convinced that those who aren't pure-bloods are inferior to them, and they go quite far to keep their blood "pure" as they call it. Some of them even marry their cousins to ensure that, bloody morons. They even try to make laws to restrict the rights of those that aren't pure-bloods."

"So, basically, they want to keep the power for themselves? And they screw their own families to make sure their children aren't half-bloods?"

"Yeah on both counts."

Karasuba gave Harry a look that told him just how stupid she thought the British wizards were, not that he could blame her. While Tom had eventually accepted it, Harry, for his part, found it incredibly idiotic. The pure-bloods were basically screwing themselves over, since in a few generations they would be so inbred that their genetics would become deficient. It was a good thing he was so curious that he read far ahead of the school program (that and he had to make sure he understood the subjects well enough that he wouldn't get beaten), otherwise he wouldn't have known that.

"Anyway, Harry-chan, the Goblins want to run a few tests on you, just to make sure you aren't possessed by that fragment." the grey-haired woman said, causing the wizard to groan as she grinned. She knew full well that it was indeed Harry she was talking to, she could feel it.

"Should have expected that. It's either dangerous rituals or tests these days for me. Hopefully it'll be the last time, because I'm starting to really have enough of those. Let's get this over with."

The wizards in the room were confused about harry s explanation about them breeding themselves into a dead end. Genetics was just not a thing in the wizarding world. Whilst there were those that knew about the science they were blatantly ignored as it was 'Muggle concepts' and as with everything muggle it was inferior to their amazing society.

They were also highly offended by the boy and not at all happy about the boys comments about their society, they knew that it was not perfect but that, as always, was the fault of the dark side, it was of course not their fault as they worked for the greater good.

-Break-

The moment Harry entered the room, several Goblins pointed their axes to him, while Haruka pointed her wand, looking slightly uneasy. It was quite obvious that right now they were almost expecting him to start cackling madly and throwing killing curses around. Sure, he knew how to do that, he had Tom's memories after all, but he was only seven, and recovering from a life of malnutrition! He had only enough power to cast a powerful stunner at most, before he fainted from overexertion! Though, considering how much reserves he had, when they would be full, he would be able to cast quite a lot more, though he doubted he would ever use the killing curse. Sure, it was efficient, but if he missed the risk of touching someone he hadn't meant to and killing them by accident was real.

Shaking back those thoughts, he walked towards the throne-like chair he had been pointed to. While he didn't like the idea of people trying to determine if he was himself or not, he couldn't really afford to tell them that, unless he wanted to have an unpleasant encounter with axes that would result in his death, and probably a new war between wizards and Goblins if it ever got out.

As he sat down, he was given three drops of a water-like potion that he instantly recognized. Veritaserum, uh? Guess it's the best way to check, since there's no way to resist the serum. While that was true, someone with enough training in the Mind Arts could purposely leave details out, details that sometimes could make all the difference. Unfortunately, there was no way to lie when asked a very direct question, like what your name was.

"Name?" asked Stone-breaker, his axe quite close to Harry's neck.

"Harry Potter." he answered immediately, much to the relief of everyone present.

"Have you been influenced in any way by the piece of soul of Lord Voldemort that was stuck inside you?"

"Not to my knowledge. However, I met a man that called himself Tom Marvolo Riddle in my mind. He was Lord Voldemort before he went crazy and power-hungry."

Everyone in the room tensed, and Stone-breaker asked another set of questions, to which Harry ended up describing his encounter with Tom and everything he could put into words that happened afterwards. It took the better part of a half-hour and several more doses of Veritaserum, but the people present managed to get the entire story out of Harry, though most of it came as a shock to both the Goblins and Haruka.

"Lord Voldemort was a half-blood? He created more Horcruxes?" asked the ministry employee, too shocked to focus on anything else.

The Goblins, despite having heard the same thing, had a very different reaction, the guards were still pointing their weapons on Harry, however their faces had contorted in a mask of fury. Stone-breaker, Rip-bone and Bone-breaker, the latter two having being called at some point during the interrogation, were shouting things in Gobbledegook, and if Harry was to believe Tom's knowledge of the language, they were cursing like sailors. He managed to catch the gist of their conversation, though.

Goblins had apparently a very, very big dislike of Dark magic, and as far as Horcruxes went, they were the Darkest of the Darkest, meaning that they really, really wanted to destroy all of the ones they came across. To know that, according to Tom's memories, there were at least five more, made them beyond furious, as the very idea of splitting a soul was against nature, and Voldemort had done it repeatedly. And the fact was that only Harry knew where they were, and what defences were around them.

Albus was horrified at this as, yes it confirmed his thoughts of how tom would act in his creation of the items. It did however give the boy the knowledge that could end the war before it began, before his plans to martyr the boy could be put into action. This was not acceptable.

Finally, the group seemed to reach a decision, and Rip-bone made a sign, immediately making a guard give Harry the antidote. The young wizard felt immediately better, not that the effects of the Veritaserum were uncomfortable. In fact, the serum made the user slip into some kind of blissful state, making it easier for the person to answer the questions, and the magic it was laced with forced the person to tell the truth.

"Harry, I am sorry to ask you this, but could you tell us what you know about those other Horcruxes? It is extremely important that we destroy them. So long as they exist, Voldemort will never die, and the fact that you were one means that he is still alive in one form or another."

Carefully choosing his words, Harry answered:

"There is a problem. I can tell you what and where they are, and I am sure you would be able to get past the protections Tom placed around them, but at least one of them will be impossible to retrieve for now."

Seeing as the Goblins were about to protest, he quickly raised his hands in a placating gesture.

"Please, listen. I don't doubt that you have what it takes to get the Horcruxes, but one of them has been handed to Lucius Malfoy, and another to Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix has put hers in her vault at Gringotts, so that one will not be too difficult to get. It's the one Lucius has that will be difficult to get. As far as Tom memories goes, Lucius has a lot of power in Magical Britain, and it would be impossible to get inside his manor to get it without ironclad proof that he still has it.

There's another one that will prove difficult to get: Tom hid it in a special room at Hogwarts, and only I know how to get inside and get it. Not only that, but we can't really storm Hogwarts' grounds without a reason, and alerting Voldemort that we know about his Horcruxes would be counterproductive.

I can tell you where the others are, but those two will be the most troublesome to get."

The three Goblins nodded. It was easy for them to understand what he meant, as all three of them had, at one point or another, worked in England, and were familiar with the blatant racism that was shown towards their species there. It was so bad that they couldn't do anything without proof of the involvement of Lucius Malfoy in reprehensible activities, and their accords with the wizards prevented them from looking for said proof. Not only that, but if the man had half the power Harry said he had, then it was quite possible that proofs would be outright ignored. Nobody wanted to anger powerful people, save for other powerful people.

With a sigh, Rip-bone simply said:

"Well, for now, could you give us the memories of where they are hidden, so that we can at least get rid of those?"

"Sure. Uh, does someone have something to put them inside?"

"Wow"said Takami, "Your community is all kinds of fucked up"said the scientist. She was actually impressed by the sheer scale of the corruption that was being displayed by the UK magical communities.

"No its not." came a retort from amongst the crowd "It is only some specific people" came the shout in response. The fact that the people in question were part of the government was ironically forgotten.

"No it is corrupt, I am actually considering pulling my daughter from your clown show of a school." said Mr Granger with a deadly seriousness. Surprisingly though the potters nodded in agreement with the sentiment to the shock of those there. The potters had been firm supporters of the light for a long time and had always went to Hogwarts it would be a devastating blow for them to withdraw.

-Break-

After a last check-up, Harry was deemed fine enough to be let out of Gringotts' care, and both he and Karasuba hurried out, though not for the same reasons. Harry did so because he feared that if he stayed any more, he would need to partake in yet another dangerous ritual, and he had had his share for the year. Karasuba, for her part, wanted to leave because staying in a bank with warriors surrounding her made it difficult for her to ignore her bloodlust, and she knew that if she wanted Harry to one day become a worthy Ashikabi, alienating the species that overlooked the financial part of the magical world by slaughtering some of them was a bad idea.

She looked Harry over, and she had to admit, she was quite happy with how he had ended after gaining that Dark Lord's memories. While he hadn't changed physically, his posture had changed quite a bit, going from slumped and trying to disappear to standing straight and proud, showing confidence, the kind of confidence that wasn't outright arrogance like some people could display. That was a very good thing, it meant that he had gotten over most of his mental scars. Sure, she knew they were still there, but like physical scars, they probably had faded to the point where they should be far less noticeable.

"So, where to, Harry-chan?" she asked, her usual grin plastered on her face.

Harry simply glanced at her, before saying:

"To the book store. Thanks to Tom's memories, I've got a lot of knowledge on European magic, but I'm rather curious about what I can learn from Japanese spells."

And with that, Haruka led them to the book store, while the grey-haired woman was inwardly cackling in glee. Harry had learnt a very valuable lesson: there is always something to learn. It was a good attitude, after all considering that with the knowledge he had, he could simply decide he didn't have to learn more, but he didn't. Of course, she was thinking of the variety of potentially lethal spells he may be able to learn, after all magic was made to be used, right?

Lily had been terrified when she had heard about what was happening during the ritual. He could have been overtaken by the piece. However the purifying had done its job and now her son had decades of knowledge at his disposal. The fact that it had given him confidence and despite the fact that he could have decided that more studying was not needed, his intelligence had shown in his choice of the book store first.

Despite her fears she could not help but be happy and proud of her son. He seemed to be healing and she was happy for him. She could not however help but fear for the future. It had become clear that her son was not going to have anywhere near a normal future, thus she was scared for him.

-Break-

The evening saw the group of three looking to a sign saying what Haruka translated as "Animals and youkai for Wizards and Witches". It was quite common for magic users to have magical pets, and Haruka had said that Harry could probably use one.

As they entered the shop, they found that it was, unsurprisingly, bigger on the inside than on the outside, a use of magic they had found in most other shops, save for the wand maker's. The shop had two floors, the first being linked to the second by spiralling stairs made of wood. It was tastefully decorated in red and golden tones, and the overall feeling it gave off was quite inviting.

The animals were separated by types, the birds being on one side, the mammals on another, while the back was apparently dedicated to snakes, which, unlike in Britain, were considered like servants of the Gods, sometimes Gods themselves, and were not feared or shunned as a symbol of Evil. The upper level was reserved to the more magical species, as most of those that were present on the ground floor were more or less variants of "normal" species, like owls, cats or dogs. Haruka told the two of them that owls were apparently used a way to deliver letters in the magical world, and Harry simply shrugged as he already knew that thanks to Tom's memories, while Karasuba snorted.

Harry though it was unwise to tell Haruka he was a Parseltongue, after all, while snakes were not ostracized in Japan, the ability was probably not common here either, therefore he preferred to keep it to himself.

James was shocked at this, his son a potter was a parselmouth? As far as he knew the potters had never had one. True it was not impossible as the potters did have a relation to the blacks and they had been known to have a parseltongue every now and then. However it still shocked him. He was a die hard Gryfindor and had always been proud of it.

Lilly however was fascinated by the fact. True it was not seen well in Britain however she was one which had always enjoyed studying things and thus would be happy to find out more about the magical language.

He didn't want the Ministry to start knowing too much about his abilities, and he was quite sure that they would try to compile as much information on him as they could, after all information was power, Tom knew that better than anyone. By changing his name he had been able to gather followers that were attracted by his charisma and power, something that would have been impossible to do had it be known that the Dark Lord Voldemort was a half-blood.

Looking around and seeing no animal that interested him particularly, save for the cats (cats had always been good to him at Mrs. Figg's, they were one of the few comforts he had had when he was still living at the Dursley's'), he climbed the stairs while Karasuba browsed for herself. Harry was quite sure that if she ever found an animal she liked, it would probably be deadly, and he thanked whoever he could that Nundus were NOT allowed as pets.

He was on the last stair when he saw a black cat, slightly bigger than most he had seen at Mrs. Figgs, that was sitting on a table and licking it's paw. Its fur was as dark as night, and shone slightly, showing it was in good health. The most surprising thing about it were the two tails it had, clearly making it a magical species. While he knew most of Europe's magical species thanks to Tom's memories, his mind drew a blank as to this particular one.

Upon noticing Harry's gaze, the cat stopped it's Grooming, opting to return the gaze. Neither Harry nor the cat turned away, and it took a good minute before Harry tore his gaze away, his eyes burning from the fact they hadn't been properly moistened. The next thing he knew, he had a black cat bumping into his leg, demanding his attention like only cats could, and he crouched, scratching it behind its ears and under its neck, making it purr loudly.

It was at that moment that an elderly woman came upstairs and saw the scene. Harry assumed she was going to pass next to him, however he heard the sound of hasty footsteps going down the stairs. Deciding he didn't really care, he continued to scratch the cat, which had been purring all the time, pushing into his hand with its head each time he scratched the side of its head. Now that he could see it up close, he could see that it was indeed bigger than a normal cat, though it was more...graceful? Than the ones he had seen at Mrs. Figg's.

A few moments later, the same woman came back, dragging Haruka with her and pointing at him. Karasuba was behind the two of them, grinning all the while. Once the Ministry employee saw Harry and the cat, she pinched her nose in a gesture that said Why me? and sighed, before the old woman started to speak. Haruka hurriedly translated what she was saying.

"Harry, she says that you shouldn't touch that Bakeneko. Apparently it belonged to her mother and has been here for the better part of a century, and only recently transformed."

"...Sorry, I don't understand."

"There's a species of magical cats called Bake-neko, or ghost cats, that can live up to one hundred years old. If they reached that age, which happens only about once for seven members of their species, they become Bakeneko in the truest sense of the word. Once they reach that state, they grow another tail and gain supernatural powers. Unfortunately, or fortunately, they can bring fortune or misfortune to their owners depending on how they feel towards them."

"So there shouldn't be any problems, right? I mean, he lik-ouch! What?"

The cat had hissed and scratched him, drawing blood. It looked at Harry, then towards the woman, and gave a subtle jerk of its head towards the woman. While most people would have been puzzled as to what it was supposed to mean, Harry understood immediately.

"Oh, you're a girl? Sorry, then." he said, scratching the female Bakeneko behind her ears. He was surprised when she stood on her hind legs, putting her paws on his shoulders and licked his nose.

The woman then said something else, and Haruka looked at her quizzically. Asking something to the old lady, she then turned towards Harry.

"Well, she says you can keep her. She's been doing nothing here for the last years, save for scaring some customers, so she says that if you want to keep her, you can. Her name is Rin."

Looking at the Bakeneko, who was still licking his face, Harry managed to ask:

"So, Rin. Wanna come with me?"

He was not expecting her to understand, apparently she had been around Japanese people all her life, so there was little luck that she'd be able to make sense of his words. Well, that was what he was thinking, until he saw her get back on all fours and start walking leisurely towards the stairs. Once she reached them, she turned to look at him and patted the ground next to her with her paw, in a gesture that meant "What are you waiting for? Come on!".

Harry just sighed, and resigned, finally acknowledging that nothing that happened to him could ever be normal.

-Break-

Later that day, they had gotten back to the wand maker's shop, and the man was grinning in a rather disturbing way, though neither Harry nor Karasuba reacted to it.

"Aah, Potter-San, welcome! I have finished your wand, and I have to confess that it has been the first time I took such pleasure in crafting a wand. Why, it was quite tricky, indeed!"

Disregarding the man's enthusiasm, Karasuba asked:

"I trust you have it around? It would be such a waste if you didn't bring it right now."

The man's smile dimmed a bit, but he simply walked to the back of his shop, before coming back with a beautifully crafted box. It had small gravures all around it's frame, but neither were they too ostentatious or exaggerated, they were simple, yet beautiful in their design.

"Here it is. Do open the box, Potter-San, I am sure you will find my work to be satisfactory. In fact, I can think of no wand that would best deserve the title of masterpiece."

Taking the box in his trembling hands, Harry carefully opened it. Inside the box was an eleven inches wand. It was beautifully crafted, with a handle that he was sure would perfectly fit him, no matter how much he would grow. The wood was a deep golden brown, though he could see faint golden and blue lines that circled around it. Small signs were drawn on it, and Harry recognized them as Runes, though he didn't know them.

Carefully grasping the wand, he gave it a small wave, and a giant flash occurred, forcing everyone in the shop to close their eyes, lest they get blinded.

When they opened them, though, they were stupefied to see a what looked like a golden fox with nine tails sitting in front of them, and a feminine silhouette made of ice. Both gave Harry a deep bow, before vanishing, the fox leaving small dancing flames and sparks, while the ice woman left ice crystals and snowflakes.

The unique reaction to the wand had the wizards shocked in amazement at the occurrence The reaction was usually just a light glow or a warm feeling depending upon the strength of the wizard and the connection between the wand and its chosen. Something like this had never been seen by those British wizards. The connection had to be extremely strong for it to give such a powerful reaction.

The wand maker was bouncing up and down with a grin so large it threatened to split his face in half, looking exceedingly proud of what had happened, as if he had been the event's instigator. Harry, for his part, was looking overjoyed to finally have his wand, as it filled him with a sensation of deep acceptance, similar to how he felt when he first made contact with his magic. Haruka was looking rather baffled by what had happened, and Karasuba was grinning, again.

"What was that?" asked a curious Harry, as he studied the wand with a respectful stare.

"That, Potter-San, was something that was essential for you to be able to use your wand at its full power. Those manifestations mean that the beings that gave parts of their bodies so that you could have a core for your wand accepted you and who you truly are."

""Who I truly am"?"

"Yes, it is a rather difficult thing to explain, but you have to understand that for a wand like yours, where there are two cores, both need to bond to you, otherwise your wand wouldn't work. That does not mean that someone who has bonded with both cores can use the wand to its full capacity, no, for that, the magic of the beings that gave the elements constituting the core need to acknowledge your inner self, your personality, what makes you yourself. Most wizards reach this state far later in their life, and there aren't any manifestations, as it is a gradual process. It can also happen that someone will never be able to use a wand to its full power, simply because they are insufficiently linked to their wand, or because they are not true to themselves.

Allow me to give you a simple example: if someone was to have a strong urge to protect people, but later in life became an Auror and at some point stopped protecting people because of new regulations or a change of personality, their wand would either never work as well as it could, as the owner went against their true self, against what they wanted, or gradually stop working for them altogether.

This means that if someone was to have a complete change of personality, often due to some kind of traumatic event, then the wand would subsequently either work better for them if they finally did what they truly wanted, or stop working if they went against what their true self was when they first got their wand."

It made sense, Harry mused. If the wand was attuned to one person, then if said person changed too much, the wand would either work far better or stop working altogether.

He didn't even realize that Karasuba had already paid for his wand and was pushing him to return to MBI's Tower.

Silence reigned in the room. So much had happened during this part that they did not quite know what to do. The fact that the dark lord was immortal, that a part was rebelling against him. It had all been to much and thus they slowly started to leave the room for the dining room before heading their own ways as tomorrow would be another long day. With more twists and turns