Harry woke up feeling fully refreshed. It had been a few days since the Battle of New York. He happily whistled a tune as Dobby set his breakfast at the table. Luna would be back in a week and there was nobody asking him to fight. That set the mark for a great day.
He had been hiding in his flat ever since he left the Asgardian brothers. Several reporters were still mingling in Nilla Square and inside the store hoping to catch him, but like normal, he ignored them.
He understood the need for the press. Heck, his girlfriend still published issue of the Quibbler on occasion. But he had told everybody what they needed to know. Everything else that they wanted was just that, a Want, not a Need.
There was still one thing Harry needed to do. Today he would take the scepter to Black Island where his doomsday vault was warded to Atlantis and back. The ICW and MACUSA had both made claims that they needed to inspect the scepter and insisted that they store it from harm's way. But he wasn't budging.
Thanks to his new position and the fact that it was acquired in the line of duty, they didn't have a legal leg to stand on.
After his meal, he informed Dobby of his plans and then portkeyed away.
Breathing in a fresh breath of the crisp sea air was quite relaxing. Harry walked up the white sand beach and past the sprawling Black Manor. Into the jungle he went.
Sure, he could have flown or apparated but it was relaxing to walk the worn path while listening to the sounds of the ocean and the jungle.
Twenty minutes later he came to a small shack.
Inside he rolled up the rug and carefully unlocked several protections allowing a metal hatch to appear on the wooden floor.
With a drop of his blood the hatch unlocked, and a handle appeared. He lifted the hatch and jumped into the dark hole in the ground.
After close to a minute of falling, the narrow tunnel down expanded into a large cavern. Black feather wings slowed his descent.
As his feet touched the ground, floating balls of fire illuminated an excavated area larger than a quidditch pitch.
He felt the magic in the area thum to life and build. The hairs on the back of his neck began to stand.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no Dobby?"
The magic in the area slowly receded as the protections released him from their aim.
Originally, he had a slightly different password in mind. Right as he was about to speak the final word his house elf appeared. The elf disobeyed his orders to stay on the beach and began to chastise him for using a password a few others were aware of.
His shock at seeing the house elf caused him to blurt out the elf's name. Realizing his friend had a point, Harry left the messed-up password since he didn't think anyone would ever guessing it.
Harry bypassed the crates, trunks, and odd things laying around. As he passed a set of shelves, he pulled out a baseball inscribed with runes and set it on a shelf.
Approaching the far wall, he walked up to a large door that was made from goblin steel. Willing the resurrection stone to materialize, a ring form on his right hand.
When harry pressed the ring into the door it melted down into a pool on the floor.
The silvery liquid twitched as harry stepped over it. If the ring was used without also being the Master of Death, the liquid would entomb any who walked over it.
Harry was now in a five-meter-wide chamber built entirely from goblin steel. He pulled out the trunk and started to undo the protections. Harry had built a dozen of these vault rooms in his bunker and this was the fourth one he was activating.
From experience he knew that they worked best when there was no other magic protections to disrupt the supply of mana to the goblin steel.
Pulling out the scepter he took another look at it. The thing was once again trying to enter his mind. Since he was not in public, he had no problem letting the power of the deathly hollows flow through him. When he did so, his mind slapped away at the tendril of power that was reaching out to him. Much like a mother would push away a child's hand from the cookie jar when they acted while they thought she wasn't looking.
He narrowed his eyes and grunted at it, telling the scepter to behave.
It was then that he noticed that large blue orb at the head of the scepter seemed to being drawing a power from within it. Containing said power but also perverting it.
Harry thought for a moment. A vault would secure it just fine, but if he removed the perverting protection, it would contain it even better.
He infused his will into the vault, the floor swirled as a metal chair and table rose form the ground. Harry took a seat and placed the scepter before him.
With both his wands he began to cast diagnostic charms over the scepter.
It was easy enough to remove the orb from the scepter, which at that point became nothing more than rare alien metal.
A stand rose from the table and Harry placed the orb on it as he continued to investigate.
He then began to use his wands to poke and pull at the bindings that tied the orb together like a knot. Slowly, they began to unravel. Once he had it halfway undone, the orb began to dissolve as it had become unstable.
Harry's eyes widen as a small yellow stone floated before his eyes. The thing was still trying to reach out into his mind, but it was no longer a mischievous child try to steal from him. It was a new being that was afraid and looking for a home.
Before he even realized it, the stone had floated closer and touched the center of his chest.
"YEEEOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!"
Harry was howling in pain. He felt something enter his mind. Unlike Voldemort, this presence wasn't a ranging beast bashing down his walls. Unlike Dumbledore, it wasn't trying to slink in unnoticed. The presence walked in unhindered and looked around as if his defenses were nothing. And it was true, they did nothing to stop whatever it was.
Pain continued to course through his whole body as his life flashed through his eyes. Things he hadn't even remembered or been aware of, even with his amazing occlumency abilities.
He saw his mother singing him to sleep. His father using a sticking charm to affix him to a toy broom. Padfoot was helping him chase the cat through the living room. Remus was trying to teach him his colors. Images and scenes appeared on after another. If the pain hadn't been present it might have been one of the most wonderful experiences he had ever had.
But then 'he' came. His father yelled, his mother collapsed and a jet off green light flew towards him. Harry endured. It's what he always did. He endured through the cupboard under the stairs. He endured his relatives. He endured the cold nights, the hungry days, the sweat stained rags that were called clothes.
He realized that his chest was beginning to smoke. Harry's hands were still on the table but even with all his might he couldn't move them. He could see a golden yellow light flowing through the veins under his skin as his flesh began to char.
And then she came. She always came. His heart stilled and his eyes closed.
He found himself standing in a grassy field while countless stars floated overhead. Before him stood a pale beauty wearing black robes.
"Hello Master."
"Death."
"My, my, you seem to have gotten yourself into another situation again."
Harry sighed. "I would like to say it was unexpected, but I was carless."
"That you were. To gaze upon an infinity stone is dangerous enough, but to actually come in contact. That is another matter entirely."
"Infinity stone?"
"Six singularities were compressed into stones when the Big Bang happened, and the universe formed. Time, Power, Space, Soul, Reality, and the one that is trying to fuse with you, the Mind stone."
"Can I stop it?"
"Perhaps. When foolish beings come into contact with the stones the immense power obliterates them. Only a small few have the strength of will to resist and separate themselves from them. No mortal is able to handle them."
Harry nodded. "So I just need to will it, not get lost in my memories and then I should be able to separate myself from it."
Death smile. "If that's what you wish."
Harry gave her a side eye.
"I don't see why you don't let it just fuse with you."
"Because I would burn up. Just from contact I died. You said no mortal could handle them."
"True. But while you are mortal, you also aren't."
While Harry contemplated her words, she continued. "When that foolish dark lord caused a piece of his soul to be stuck in you, your body adapted to fight against it. Once it was removed, you were stronger for it. When the basilisk injected its venom into your arm you became stronger for it once the threat was neutralized. To this day you have an incredible strong mind and resistance to possession while being immune to poisons and venom."
"So what are you say? I should just die over and over until my body can handle the power of the stone."
"Sure, why not?"
"What does the mind stone even do?"
"Isn't that obvious? It holds dominion over the mind. It is said that it has the ability to reach out to every mind in the universe. Your own mind would be strengthened considerably. When it comes to mental practices you would be the apex. I believe you have already experienced an improvement to your memory."
Harry turned and sighed as he stared at the stary sky. Death stepped beside him and joined him.
"Master, do whatever you like. While there are countless beings in the universe who would do horrible things to get it, the stone will also be as safe as it can be in one of your vaults." Harry gave her another glance. Death only shrugged. "Don't forget that I am Death, the past, present and always ongoing future. I will always be. The stones may be interesting, but it the end, to me, they are just trinkets and baubles."
"I guess." Harry said.
"But our time is coming to a close. I believe I know, but I must ask. Master, would you like to move on or return?"
"Send me back."
"YEEEOOOOOWWWWWWWW!"
Harry's body had been restored but the damage was coming again as the stone sifted through his mind. He did feel it pause for a moment but then it continued viewing his life. While in the realm between life and death, he hadn't made a decision. He left it to be made in the moment. Harry chose to do nothing.
The stone ran through his memories as the power continued to bath his body. By the time his Hogwarts letter came, he had died again.
"Send me back."
This time the stone stopped completely. He could sense confusion. The power continued to wash over him, but no memories played through his mind. It was as if the stone was no longer watching them, it was now watching him.
It was hard to tell time but it felt like he had lasted twice as long.
"Send me back."
Now he felt the stones amazement and then a torrent of power exploded from the stone. He only lasted second.
"Send me back."
The power increased.
"Send me back."
The power kept increasing. But it didn't seem as if the stone was trying to torment or hurt him. He felt as if the stone had realized he was acclimating to the power and was helping him to do it faster.
"Send me back"
"Send me back"
"Send me back"
"Send me back"
"Send me back"
"Send me back"
"Send me back"
It had been over an hour since the last time he had died, and the stone hadn't been able to increase the power anymore. His body released a golden glow as the stone had buried itself in his chest. His flesh was no longer charring and was starting to heal.
The stone turned its attention back to his memories.
Harry lifted his arms since he could finally move again. His body was over filled with energy and felt as if he was going to pop. Harry closed his eyes and focused on expelling the pent-up energy.
He wasn't sure how long he meditated but when he came to, the stone was viewing the memory of his last conversation with Death. He could feel it bristle a bit at being called a trinket, but the mind stone also didn't object.
Harry figured it was all about comparisons. While it may be one of the top cosmic forces in the universe, to Death, it was a trinket. The memory continued to play at an accelerated rate. He watched himself lift his arms and then start to meditate.
When the memory caught up with reality, the stone went quiet, and his mind suddenly expanded.
Everything he had ever heard, read, seen, smelt, or experienced was at the tip of his fingers. He began to make correlations about things he had never considered. The final problem with his quidditch figures was no longer a problem. He was a bit surprised when he came to the conclusion that the Tesseract must contain the Space Stone.
But he had no desire to collect it. He wasn't Ash Ketchum. He didn't need to collect them all. He had been mad enough when he became to Master of Death, but he had gotten over it once he learned he wasn't cursed with immortality.
Harry spied his reflection on the polished goblin steel walls and saw his eyes were glowing yellow. He looked down and saw that the gem in the center of his chest was glowing brightly. He remembered his occlumency practice and settled his mind.
His eyes stopped glowing and the stone retreated into his body. He touched the burnt whole in his shirt and only felt flesh. He needed to make sure that Tony never saw that. The man would never let him live it down if he realized that he had a glowing light in the center of his chest like Iron Man.
Harry took count of his mental faculties. With the stone not engaged his mind was still much more active but it wasn't running at full speed. Harry stood up and was about to reach and grab for the discarded scepter when he realize it was floating.
He didn't even need to consider knowing that it was telekinesis. With a raise of his hand, the scepter rose and then fell before zooming into his palm. What amazed him the most was that it wasn't magic that had lifted it. The effect was fueled solely with the power of his mind.
Harry exited the vault and let it close while he tossed the scepter towards his stock of precious metals.
He then pulled out his broom and flew out of the cavern and reapplied the protections before placing the rug back over the invisible hatch.
Portkeying back into his lab, Harry got to work on finishing a set off quidditch figurines. He lost track of time as he created a dozen more sets. With the powers of the Mind Stone, they were created extremely quick along with a dozen enchanted quidditch pitches for the figures to play in.
The mind stone had a definite effect on his magical powers. Everything was smooth and quick. While he had always been a quick cast and able to fling spells at the speed of thought, it was now utterly ridiculous. He now had to slow himself down from burning out the core of his holly wand.
After trying with the Elder wand he was casting the charms and enchanting the figures so quickly the spells formed a beam of magic instead of individual spells.
He then got started on the cards. The cards were all blank, but the base enchantments had been completed. Now they just needed the data to be inserted.
Harry smiled when he realized that the hardest part of his project had just become incredibly simple. What he needed to do next was get data on quidditch players and their brooms to be able to assign stats to the players.
He laughed to himself while thinking that some cosmic being was cursing him for using the powers of the Mind Stone to statistically analyze sports players.
When he had one thousand cards made he apparated to the New York MACUSA headquarters.
"Woah." Harry mumbled to himself as he appeared.
He had never had such a smooth and pleasant trip before. He hadn't even made an effort and yet he appeared silently.
He walked into the building with a smile on his face. There were some people he wanted to avoid while he was here today, just because he didn't want to deal with the hassle. But thankfully the Sports and Games department didn't include any of them.
The receptionist was a bit surprised when he asked to see every record of every professional game in the States in the last twenty years, but she took him to the file room.
She was verry happy that he was content with just looking through them instead of requiring her to make copies.
Three hours later and Harry had flipped through every file they had, including the manufacture reports and the quality testing of the brooms.
As Harry stepped out of the building, he realized that it was around noon, and he had spent a full day working on his project and wasn't the least bit tired.
After returning home he meditated for an hour and found that yes, he could still slow down his mind and drift to sleep but he would most likely only need to do it once a week.
With the MACUSA records he had all the stats he needed for players that played professionally in North and South America.
If he headed back to Britian he could probably get all of Europe and Asia. Australia and African didn't have leagues of their own. Australia had a much more violent game while Africa's magical communities were far to spread out to make a quidditch league a possibility, that and they didn't seem to care for broom flying. Which was understandable since they were the known leaders of self-transfiguration. Why learn to fly on a broom when you could turn into a bird or some other animal.
Harry checked in with Dobby and found that the only thing on his schedule was a meeting with the goblins, but they hadn't arranged a time so it didn't have to be done now. If it was urgent then they would have sent him a date. So Harry put it off for now.
Dobby and he agreed that there wasn't any reason not to pop over to England. It would be great to see Teddy and he was sure Ron would love to help him test his figures and he probably had his own pile of stats that Harry could skim through.
Harry was once again pleased with his title of Grand Imperator as he legally made his own trans-continental portkey.
With Dobby holding tight, they were off.