Alchemists & Contracts

Harry flew as fast as he could, something just felt wrong and he didn't want to be away for this long, as he soared over the towns and roads he barely even noticed them his focus on Beauxbatons but even he couldn't keep up such a pace and had to land for a few minutes now and again to catch his breath, while he recovered he glanced about using his enhanced vision and spotted a drunk and was happy to see the med-e-spec overlay appear showing the man was intoxicated, his upgrade to allow functionality while in animal form had worked, but he didn't have time to dwell on this success as he took to the air again and raced off.

It was near morning before he could see the familiar spires of Beauxbatons, the sun was rising and mist was clinging to the forest as he glided towards the castle, he had calmed down now and realized that if Quirrell was a threat he was still surrounded by capable adults and so wouldn't be able to act quickly, his thoughts were interrupted,

"Skyroar Skyroar! bad thing has come, it hurt unicorn, skyroar help?"

It was one of the thestrals in their sing song voice, he wanted to investigate Quirrell but the safety of an innocent unicorn came first, he followed the thestral and kept his distance his eyesight allowing him to observe without putting himself at risk, in a small clearing was an injured unicorn and bent over it was some sort of snake like thing covered in a long robe, and it was drinking the unicorn's blood... yuck!

Harry flew closer until he could hear talking he then landed and tried to be inconspicuous, his specs provided many answers the thing in the robe was Quirill, he was suffering from unicorn blood poisoning, flesh eating disease, and possession!

"See what I am reduced to Flamel?! forced to survive on unicorn blood!" the snake like creature bellowed, now Harry spotted a tied up and injured Flamel lying on the floor, "your mental defenses are formidable indeed but even the best defence can be broken if caught unaware," it gloated, "I now know how to take the stone from your robes, ingenious really, but soon I Lord Voldemort will walk the world again as an immortal!"

As the creature began to rummage in Flamel's robe for the stone, Harry hid behind a tree and began to think of a plan, he knew if this was who he claimed to be a frontal assault would be suicide, but he did have other options, he changed back to human and looked through his avalible potions and settled on one of his own making, a rather nasty little concoction but it would only effect the area for a second or two before it would disperse, he'd than have to act quickly.

Voldemort had it, the Philosopher's Stone he stared at it with awe and greed and began to laugh as he wandered away from a despondent Flamel, he cackled to himself in a supervillain kind of way, with this he could build himself a new body, heal his puppet er... servant, and rule over the magical *smash* what was? Voldemort began to scream in agony as his skin blistered painfully and the blisters burst, he writhed in agony as even his eyes were blinded by blisters and pus but the stone remained firmly clutched in his hand.

Harry hovered overhead waiting as the creature calling itself Voldemort gloated and laughed and when he was in just the right position he dropped the vial he had clutched in his claws, what followed was a satisfying scream from the thing that had killed his parents, and he let himself slowly go lower he wanted to make this perfect,

Voldemort screamed, "I DON'T KNOW WHO DID THIS BUT I WILL, AND I WILL MAKE YOU BEG FOR DEATH I WILL-umph!" something heavy landed hard on his face,

Harry changed back as his foe began to threaten him and landed on his head, Voldemort fell down as the unexpected weight caused him to lose his balance, Harry Grabbed the stone not noticing the hand that held it began to turn to dust, he then stomped as hard as he could on the place where the voice had come from and with a wave of his hand dissolved the ropes holding Flamel, and sent the wand he'd spotted flying back to the old man who seized it, Harry then got out of the way and Flamel unleashed a barrage of spells that left a glass creator where Voldemort had been, Quirrel had been blasted out of existence and all that was left was a black wraith that looked at Harry with pure hate and hissed "POTTER!" and it rushed at him only to be stopped by Flamel, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" A golden Phoenix flew from his wand and forced the wraith th retreat, Harry slumped over as the stone in his hand cracked and turned black.

Harry woke up slowly, the first thing he saw was a thatched roof so this wasn't the academy, he glanced around to see various furs a few strung up chickens, a few buckets full of really pungent brown... oh it was whiskey, so this must be,

"Ello there, gave us a bit of a fright ya did," came a voice he recognised, Hagrid the groundskeeper towered over him looking worried, "feelin any better?"

"yes thank you Hagrid, i'm a little sore and groggy but otherwise ok, is Mr Flamel ok?"

"yup, he's just watching the abraxion playing in the field, i'll go let 'im know yer awake, he want's to talk to ya," and Hagrid left,

Harry sat taking in the odd sandalwood and whiskey smell, it was kind of relaxing, and after a minute or two Nicolas hobbled in,

"Hagrid said you weren't hurt?" Harry asked concerned,

Nicolas chuckled, "I wasn't young man, this is unfortunately my life until i can find who sent me a certain-"

"So you did get my letter?! why didn't you come and talk to me?"

Blinking Nicolas looked in surprise, "Well that seems like it actually fits, people of skill like us do seem to attract trouble, it was my assistant she vanished the cover letter and one potion before my wife spotted the seal on the older letter and stopped her, nothing melicious on Mary's part you understand, she was simply doing her job,"

"oh well that explains that," Harry sat up,

"So young man how is it that you ended up coming to my rescue?"

Harry hesitated and looked around and with a flick sent out privacy charms and locked the door much to Nicolas's surprise, Harry then reached into a pouch and withdrew a bundle on contracts, selected one, and gave it to Nicolas who looked it over,

"Well it seems you are much more than you appear young man, I actually carry a similar contract just for such an occasion," and he handed Harry a similar contract,

and after both signed... "My birth name is Harry James Potter..."

Harry explained much of his story, the Dursley's, the odd dream, ending up in Diagon Alley, some stuff he kept to himself but it felt really good to confide in someone like a weight lifted from around his neck, is this what it is like to have someone you can trust? sure Nicolas is bound by the contract but still...

After hearing Harry's story (and planning to make the Dursley's miserable) Nicolas began to speak of his connection to Harry's family from the past and what he had managed to work out since getting the letter, it was not pleasant to tell or hear.

The Evans family were magical inventors of the highest caliber, some things wizards took for granted had been created by them, it was their last invention that caused their doom, Owls had long been known as a magically sensitive creature that was known to the mundane world but didn't show any outward signs that mundanes would notice and so the Evans clan began researching them eventually realizing their intelligence and training the first ever post owls which they freely showed other wizarding families how to train them, it was this act of generosity that caused many of the darker families to wonder what other treasures the clan was hiding and they didn't take the Evans refusal to give them everything they wanted lightly.

At first it began with simple assaults which escalated into a murder, the Evans responded by sending their best casters after they guilty party but this was a distraction, when they returned they walked into a slaughter, their wives and children left bleeding and cold out in the open, and then the trap was sprung, those that didn't die in the ambush were afflicted with the curse, only the squibs and 'muggles' had been left alive as they were considered little threat, but even they didn't get off unscathed.

After Harry asked Nicolas explained he hadn't known at the time because he though his friend had betrayed him and stolen the sample of elixir he had been given in an attempt to duplicate it, he had been given reports of the attacks but filed them away instead of reading them, he had fallen for the lies told afterward, that the Evans clan were thieves who had stolen the creations of others, one such creation was house elves which were now treated as less than slaves.

"you seem remarkably unruffled my lad?" Nicolas asked,

"The curse is lifted, which means those that wronged my family are all dead, there is no one to be angry at so why waste the energy?"

"true enough, but it is a sad story, I wish I had known at the time and not believed the lies,"

"why? so you could have ended up being robbed, murdered and lied about as well? what a waste that would have been," Harry reached over and plucked the dead stone from the table, "more interestingly, what happened to this stone?"

"It is the strangest thing, after you helped me you held the stone and from what I can tell it has been drained of it's magic totally, I've never seen the... lad?" Harry had immediately looked shocked,

"OF COURSE! IT'S NOT THE POTION IT'S THE MAGIC, no wonder they couldn't get it working," Harry then spent a few minutes muttering to himself asking and answering his own questions and seemingly totally in his own world,

Upon seeing the look of interest on Flamels face Harry told him of the problems with the kingdom potion, he had worked out that the reason the potion hadn't worked is because it needed to be drunk in animal form, and also that the drinker needed to be saturated with magic as the second form would almost certainly take much more than a simple animagus, Harry assumed since he had drunk one of the kingdom potions a few days ago it had caused this to happen, but the philosopher's stone had it's magic tied up in it's purpose and didn't have the raw power to do what he needed, Nicolas nodded along and got as excited as Harry as he began to understand,

"Tell you what lad, I'll create for you several stones without the properties just with the raw magic, in exchange-" before he could finish Harry handed him a slip of parchment containing the method for brewing the 'youth' potion,

"I will find something else to give you, this was promised to you a long time ago,"

Nicolas gratefully took the slip like it was his first born and carefully tucked it away in an enchanted pocket, he then took the stone and popped it away to study and hopefully make Harry a magical gem to do what he needed, they then left the hut and Hagrid escorted them back to the school where they were met by Madam Maxine.

Harry wisely stayed quiet as Nicolas explained how he had been asked to speak to Quirrell outside of the academy and then been attacked by him, dragged into the forest and how Voldemort had shown himself and began to rant, he then explained how Harry had been able to 'sneak' up on the deranged monster and tackle him to the ground and got Nicolas's wand to him and how Nicolas had ended the abomination that had been drinking unicorn blood, Madam Maxine was horrified and was about to tell Harry off for entering the forest for a walk when Harry explained he normally won't go in but overheard the yelling and decided to help as it seemed Nicolas's life was in danger,

"Well alright then, no punishment, after all doing the right thing shouldn't be punished, but you head up and rest young man you have had a difficult morning," she said kindly,

Harry slipped in the door, he was still tired and all he wanted was to get a nap in before breakfast.

Fleur Delacore was taking an early morning stroll around the corridors, it was nice when it was empty, she didn't need her friends to run interference from all the young boys drooling at her or begging for dates, she tried to keep her allure under control and it was getting better but it was still too much for the hormonally charged boys, it was then she spotted one of the first years walking toward her she took a breath and prepared for the annoying encounter that would happen, it was really getting annoying that shou couldn't even take an early morning walk without being... he walked past her? she turned just in case he was coming in from her blindsp... nope he was going up the stairs, he didn't even pay any attention to her, he wasn't even slightly phased by her allure...how?

She headed back to the drom, someone there would know who he was, even boys who were not interested in girls were influenced by her allure even to a lesser degree and yet this boy had walked right past her and not even batted an eye, who was he?!

It wasn't long before many of her friends were hunting down information about Harry.