Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or FF7, they are the property of Square Enix and J.K Rowling. The only thing I own is my OC for this story.
Chapter 10: Introduction to the Order
Reincarnation Confusion
Harry and Aurora looked at the remains of the monsters they had just slain. He'd accompanied her while they patrolled for monsters that day. Harry was more than a little concerned about how many they'd had to take care of, though his dispassionate expression didn't show it. Withholding a sigh, he shook his head ruefully.
Monsters were appearing with increasing frequency, an outcome that of course had been predicted, but they underestimated just how quickly things would escalate.
One look at Aurora confirmed she was having similar thoughts.
Thankfully, they had Lord Slytherin and his own allies to help deal with the monster problem now, so they weren't keeping the monsters at bay alone anymore.
Their alliance with the Dark Lord and his men was fortuitous indeed, buying themselves a few more years at best to prepare for the inevitable clash between the mundane and magical worlds.
While the time frame didn't seem like much, it was better than nothing, and it was more than they would have had if they had continued to go it alone.
They would need all the time they could get with how disparate and divided the magical world was at the moment.
They needed to do their best to remedy this fact, as a united magical world would be better equipped to handle whatever weapons the mundane would throw at them.
It was an unfortunate fact that humans generally feared what they did not understand, leading them to try and destroy it or keep it locked up in some lab for study without any of the common rights granted to most people if it was sentient.
There was a good deal of magic at the Wizarding world's disposal, especially now with the use of materia being reintroduced into the world, that was powerful enough to warrant the mundane being wary of magic.
Memory modification magics were one of the first that came to mind.
Vincent had kept the two Ultima, or Ultimate Materia, safe for all these millenia. They had the capability to allow their users to hit all their enemies at once without being hit themselves. He had given them to the reincarnates for safekeeping shortly after they had been reunited.
He had been commanded by the Planet to give them to two individuals specifically. He himself was bestowed with the Black Materia, of which there was ever only one in existence and used to summon powerful spells such as Meteor. He wasn't really sure how to feel about that, as he had almost destroyed the world with said materia in the past.
Luna had been bestowed with its counterpart, the White Materia, which can be used to speak directly to the Planet and had immense cleansing powers.
Oh, there would be some who would welcome the magical world and all the possibilities it held with open arms, these would be the ones who would wish to study and understand magic in all its various forms. They would unfortunately, likely be the minority of the populous and would be able to do little to help if some idiot bureaucrat got it in their head that genocide was the answer.
It had happened before the witch burnings at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church in the early 1500s, although the persecution of witches was also because of social and economic pressures as well.
The publication of the Malleus Maleficarum, written by a man with a hatred of women who spoke their minds, didn't help matters.
Then there was the mess that was the Witch trials over in the Americas, ranging from Salem to Connecticut and beyond.
Although the majority of those killed in those instances were just ordinary people and in no way magical, a fair few magical people had been killed as well. It had largely been a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or being too young to control their magic properly.
To be certain some good had come out of those events, like the invention of the flame freezing charm, a spell that made fire unable to hurt anyone, but those innovations had come at the cost of the lives of countless witches and wizards as well as innocent civilians.
Then the Catholic Church had gotten wise and took their magical foci away from them, preventing them from escaping their fiery fate.
Wandless magic was unfortunately an uncommon practice in Europe at the time, and still was to this day. From their research, it was mostly done by students of Uagadou in Africa.
It was events like these that had led to the Statute of Secrecy being established and enforced. However, the British magical community in particular was rather backwards compared to the rest of the wizarding world, who had wised up and paid attention to the changing times and advancements in muggle technology.
To be sure the international magical communities were far better at upholding the Statute than their British counterparts, but with the exception of the wizarding War with Voldemort that began over a decade ago there hadn't been any significant breaches of the Statute by the British Magicals.
And that had been covered up rather neatly by the cooperation between the British Ministry and The mundane monarchy when they still had a good relationship. Ever since Fudge had become minister though that relationship had been dwindling and it was going to be a pain to repair thanks to the idiot.
It could not last, as the muggles would figure out how to detect magic one way or another. Magic didn't mix well with technology, which was part of the reason why most wizarding communities went without electronic devices.
The japanese magical community were making significant strides in making technology and magic work and if they could figure it out would be a significant boon the the magical communities as a whole.
I.E they would be able to blend in even better.
The magical world would be discovered eventually, either because their wards (physical and mental) weren't strong enough to hide them from the mundane or because an idiot witch or wizard didn't know how to blend in and got caught.
The mundane weren't stupid by any means. Oblivious sometimes to the point of incredulity, but they were smarter than most wizards gave them credit for.
The monsters were slowly but surely returning, coinciding with the reemergence of the Planet's champions. They would eventually grow too widespread for the reincarnates and their allies to control and mundane would eventually be affected which would also lead to the eventual reveal.
Despite all his experience from his past life and his present one, Harry could not even begin to make a decision on which of these outcomes would be best.
The only thing he was certain of was that either way, there would be a storm. It only remained to be seen which option he foresaw would produce the smallest and therefore easiest storm to weather.
Well, no use in worrying about it too much. He would do his part to prepare for the inevitable, but he wouldn't let it consume his entire thought process. Especially since they still had this ridiculous war between the Light and Dark factions of the British magical community to deal with.
He said it was ridiculous because you couldn't control the magical alignment you were born with and some people were just predisposed towards Dark magic.
It was a fact you were born with. Either you had a Dark magical core, a Light magical core, or a Neutral magical core. Having a dark magical core didn't make you evil, it just made you more inclined to certain magics and spells.
Contrary to popular belief, dark arts spells weren't all about maiming, torturing and killing (although there were definitely many dark arts spells that could be used for such purposes).
They in fact had some really useful healing spells which worked better when cast by and on someone with a dark magical core. Harry knew all this because after his third year at Hogwarts, Draco realized exactly how much he didn't know about his heritage and he took it upon himself to teach his former rival all he needed to know about being the heir to a powerful pureblood house.
He also taught Hermione when it was found out she was also a descendant of a well respected and powerful magical house.
It was because of Draco that he had learned to take pride in his heritage, whereas before he had only been vaguely aware that he was from old blood and was at least fairly well off thanks to Lily and James.
He also learned that despite both of his parents having Light magical cores, he had been born with a Dark magical core.
Just to be clear, having parents with the same magical core only made it more likely that any child they had would be born with the same magical inclination.
It was not a guarantee that such a thing would be the case. A perfect example was himself.
He was glad to have learned this fact since he had often wondered why some spells gave him trouble. Oh he could still cast them, it just took him longer to get the hang of them and they took more out of him.
Case in point: the patronus charm. It was honestly astonishing how quickly he had managed to learn how to cast a patronus with his magical inclination.
Although he had had a very good motivation to learn it, seeing as both of his lifetimes were filled with very unpleasant, unhappy and downright traumatizing events.
No one wanted to attract the abominations that were Dementors, and honestly the quicker Harry and the others could fulfill the Planet's request to destroy them was just an added bonus in his book.
With one final glance around to make sure they had gotten all the monsters in the area and picked up all the dropped items, he gave Aurora a peck on the cheek. He then took her hand in his and activated an exit materia, returning them to Shinra Manor.
He wondered if his fiance would be amenable to a night of cuddling, snogging and just taking the time to do normal couple stuff since they rarely got a chance to do so.
They might need it after a day like today
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Harry was once again in his room at Privet Drive, only this time he was bored out of his mind. He honestly spent as little time in this house as he could, despite the blood protection that was supposed to keep him safe from Voldemort.
Well, he supposed it was entirely unnecessary now that they were allies.
Before he had regained his memories, he would finish his chores as quickly as possible before either heading to the library, since Dudley refused to step foot there, or find a remote spot in the neighborhood where Dudley was unlikely to find him and hide.
In either case, he was either studying or simply reading for the joy of it or occasionally watching the clouds and thinking of nothing in particular..
It rather irked him that at school in general he had been unable to reveal his full potential.
Harry was quite the smart and crafty young man, as he wouldn't have been able to survive the Dursley's otherwise.
He could have even been a Ravenclaw, or honestly any of the other houses for that matter.
In mundane school he couldn't do better than Dudley or he would be punished.
At Hogwarts he knew his fame would have made him enemies regardless of whether he had known he was famous or not.
It served him well to have everyone underestimating him regardless of whether they were friend or foe.
He enjoyed living more than he wanted recognition for his actual intellect, as only a few people had recognized what he had done. Hermione was one of the first, though she kept quiet on the matter and even played along once he had explained why he hid how smart he was. She was rather pragmatic after all.
If his enemies underestimated him he was more likely to come out alive in the event of a confrontation it was a fact.
After regaining his memories and adjusting to being reincarnated, he had to train to reach his old level of skill and make plans to move the wizarding world into the 21st century. He and all the reincarnates took time for themselves, careful about burning themselves out as it would help no one.
They just had so much to do that they only took the minimal amount of time to recuperate before they were off again.
Harry had to be here at least 7 days out of the summer for at least a few hours each day in order to keep the blood wards around the property strong, contrary to what the Headmaster wanted him to believe.
They found out that only Harry being physically there would power the wards, and the monitoring device Dumbledorehad tied to the wards would detect if they grew weaker or if they came down altogether.
The reincarnates didn't want the headmaster to become suspicious in any way, so Harry was forced to spend time in his relatives house.
However, the reincarnated teen's information network had picked up on a plan to move Harry to a safe house for the rest of the summer, concocted by the Order of the Phoenix.
Or as Harry liked to call it, the Order of the Fried Bird.
They also caught wind that Mad-Eye Moody would be leading it, and they had learned that Moody's magical eye had been able to pick up on the difference between magical doubles created via materia and the people they were based upon. They were able to make a few in their fourth year in order to get things done.
Even if it hadn't been Barty Crouch Junior who had been wearing Moody's eye during that year, and said imposter thankfully hadn't caught on, he only realized that there had been times that something had been strange about certain students.
They, or namely the Slythrins, had diverted his attention appropriately so he wouldn't have time to investigate. It had still been a pain to have to watch their backs even more than they were used to in order to keep the Moody imposter from catching on.
They did not want to chance the real Moody, extremely paranoid old war veteran that he was, discovering their charade.
So Harry was forced to spend more than the time required for the wards in a home read (prison) he had been forced into since he was fifteen months old.
He finally had a spark of an idea that would let him alleviate his boredom when he caught sight of his magically-enhanced phone sitting on his bedside table and decided to give his fiance a call.
She picked up on the third ring.
Her first comment let anyone listening know how well she knew her fiance.
"I take it the boredom finally got to you?" He could hear the amusement in her voice, giving him the urge to pout which he resisted.
This was one area where he differed greatly from his past life as Sephiroth.
The one winged angel had been calm, collected and able to sit still for long periods of time without going crazy. A benefit since he had to sit behind a desk filling out paperwork for long periods of time in the past.
Harry on the other hand, while he could sit still and focus when needed, always had to be doing something that interested him and had to have some form of physical activity as an outlet for his excess energy. He blamed quidditch and genetics from James Potter for making him an adrenaline junkie.
"Yeah," he admitted sheepishly.
Aurora only laughed softly knowing her fiance hated to be cooped up.
"So other than being bored, how have you been since the last time I saw you?"
This started a more enjoyable pastime than staring at a wall since he had forgotten to get more reading material and didn't want to leave the house, since the Order would be arriving any day now and he did not want to explain how he managed to get past the Guard, as he had taken to calling them, that monitored Privet Drive.
They talked for several hours about literally everything. That was the great thing about Aurora past or present, he could tell her anything and she never judged, and always offered sound advice or merely silent support as needed.
He had lost count of how many times he used her as a sounding board for ideas in the past, even Draco had done so on occasion. Aurora just had a way of seeing things from a different angle that most people didn't have.
After they hung up the phone, because Aurora had to get back to work, Harry decided to take a nap, hoping time would pass more quickly that way.
He didn't notice the footsteps walking past his bedroom door.
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He abruptly awoke a few hours later as the sun was starting to set, sensing the presence of dementors closing in on his neighborhood.
He knew that the Ministry was stupid, but he hadn't thought them suicidal. It was certain that the dementors had been sent for him; he was the only wizard registered as living in this area.
Harry was the heir to several powerful and influential pureblood families, including some that had been thought lost and their own laws would not be kind to them when it was found out someone in the ministry had sent those abominations after a pureblood heir.
Not to mention the Lords and Ladies of the Wizingmont would be baying for that person's blood when they found out.
Whoever had sent the Dementors was pretty much digging their own grave with this stunt.
Having heard his cousin head out shortly before he took his nap he knew Dudley was in danger, which was the only thing that made him break his self isolation at the Dursleys. Knowing his luck, the slightly older boy would walk right into a dementor and Harry would be forced to save him.
With a sigh and cursing his terrible luck, he holstered his wand, slid on the aurora armlet (and yes he did see the irony of the armlet's name) and tetra elemental, making sure he had the White materia that Luna had given him only a few days ago on his person.
Knowing the little seer as he did she had probably seen him being attacked by dementors and given him all he needed in order to test out their theory on how to get rid of the despicable creatures.
He left his room, walked down the stairs not even giving his aunt and uncle a second glance as he walked past them and out the door, pinpointing the dementors location.
He dared not walk any faster until he was past any observers who might report strange occurrences to Dumbledore.
As soon as he was out of range of his watchers (although Mundungus Fletcher, the old drunk who was on watch right now, wasn't much of a watcher) he picked up speed until he was nothing more than a blur to anyone watching.
As he traveled, he gathered a fragment of Holy power from the white materia while thinking of the happiest memories he could in preparation to fuel his patronus. They had theorized that combining the Holy Materia's power with the patronus charm would allow them to destroy the Dementors.
Of course there were only a few amongst the reincarnations who were actually able to use the White Materia's power so it would be up to them to test that theory, Harry included.
Past or present he always did get the nasties jobs it seemed.
He again cursed his stupid Potter luck when he found his cousin heading directly for the Dementors and they were not going to let easy prey get away.
He was in front of his cousin so quickly it startled both the heavyset boy and the Dementors, and that split second distraction was all Harry needed as he channeled the power of Holy into his patronus charm with a shout of "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
Then the world exploded in searing silver white and calming warm green light as his stag patronus charged towards the dark creatures. It had been changed slightly by the incorporation of Gaia's own purification powers, the essence of the white materia.
He watched it in shock and a little awe, green eyes slightly widened as the Dementors were gored by fearsome antlers, shrieking in agony as they were burned from the inside out by the power now contained in the patronus.
One unlucky Dementor was even sent flying when the stag kicked it hard into a wall.
Soon, the Dementors, the bane of British witches and wizards everywhere, were nothing more than ash.
Ash which was swiftly blown away by the wind as a breeze came out of nowhere.
On this night that had previously been so quiet, the wind whispered to Harry the Planet's pleasure at the destruction of the abominations.
Harry had recovered from his shock by this point, and shrugged. At least they had found an answer to riding the world of Dementors.
While he was sort of grateful to them, since he would likely have been so far under the old meddler's thumb that it would have been difficult to extract himself in a few years' time when his memoires would have returned naturally, even with all his experience in the past. He really, really hated Dementors.
And that was how Mrs. Fig came upon him and Dudley, who was so in a daze from Dementor exposure and likely the blinding light his patronus had emitted, he did not even register the old woman's presence right away.
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Harry watched bemusedly as Mrs. Fig just sighed and shook her head exasperatedly, muttering something about him having an uncanny ability to attract trouble to which he couldn't disagree, much to his chagrin.
Since he had told her the unedited truth of his past life and his Hogwarts years, she knew exactly how much trouble he got into on a semi-regular basis. He really did love Mrs. Fig, she was like a slightly crazy cat-obsessed grandma.
He might not like normal cats all that much since they always tended to claw him for some reason. Mrs. Fig's cats were a different story, seeing as they were part Kneazle like Hermione's cat, and quite intelligent as a result.
The trio slowly made their way back towards Number Four, carrying his cousin between them with Harry keeping his wand out in case of other surprises.
While he doubted there were any since the person who had sent the Dementors after him had likely thought them enough, knowing of his bad reaction to the creatures. It never hurt to be prepared, as Moody would say, and which he agreed with wholeheartedly "Constant Vigilance".
Of course as soon as they got to his relative's place his aunt immediately started shrieking about what he did to her precious dudders and to reverse it immediately. His uncle went purple in the face, calling him a freak which earned him a deadpan look from the teen.
He wisely did not try to come after him with his fists, likely recalling the beatdown that Harry had given him the last time he had tried to lay hands on him, which resulted in his arm being twisted painfully behind his back. Vernon was also being mindful of , who was watching him with eagle eyes.
He might have put up with the occasional beating before, but he was so far past putting up with it after his memories returned.
Vernon left him alone and he would leave them alone. He would do chores but he would no longer tolerate them verbally abusing him, and in his uncle's case, occasionally physically abusing him.
He would not tolerate his cousin playing the game known as "Harry Hunting" anymore either.
If they didn't comply, he had no problem sending the death eaters after them and watching how they dealt with trained ruthless and cold blooded killers.
Their relationship had improved dramatically since he ignored them and they pretended he didn't exist except when giving him chores to do.
He banished thoughts of the past to the back of his mind, ignoring his aunt and uncle with practiced ease as he reached his goal, grabbing some of the chocolate that was kept in the house at all times for the Dursley males. He walked back over to his cousin and after a sharp look at his aunt who had begun to protest as soon as he tried to feed the chocolate to Dudley, gently coaxed his cousin to eat the sweet.
With every mouthful his cousin's pallor, which had gone ashy, improved. He explained patiently that Dudley had been exposed to Dementors and with a little bit of chocolate for the next few days and plenty of rest he would be right as rain.
His aunt had gone pale herself, knowing what the creatures were and having likely been told her sister just in case.
She nodded gratefully, though she did so with a sour look on her face and continued to fuss over her son.
Mrs. Fig, seeing he had everything under control, left with a warning that the Order would likely arrive shortly and to be prepared.
He knew this and sighed as he went upstairs to pack his things. While he looked forward to seeing Remy and Siri, he was not looking forward to being surrounded by the rest of the idiots that made up the order.
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True to Mrs. Fig's prediction, the order arrived later that night.
Thankfully, it was after his relatives had gone to sleep.
Harry grimaced and then winced as the pink haired witch they had sent with the retrieval team, named Tonks, once more tripped over her own feet. She was not subtle at all, unlike Moody and Remus. He wondered with a mental grimace why they had even sent her with the other two. He was honestly surprised that she hadn't woken his relatives with all the ruckus she was making.
Then again his uncle and cousin at least could sleep through an earthquake so at the same time he also wasn't surprised.
When Remus questioned him to see if he was the real Harry Potter or an imposter, he highly approved. After all, if someone could send dementors after him they could also kill him (supposedly mostly untrained as he was) and replace him.
He looked at Remus, curious as to how they would be getting to Grimmauld Place. He knew of his godfather's house, though he had never been there before, for obvious reasons, seeing as it was being used as the headquarters for the Order.
The werewolf just smiled before unshrinking a broom from his pocket and motioning for Harry to mount his own broom.
He looked around himself, noticing the others mounting brooms as well, though Moody's was modified.
He shrugged, eager to be in the air for a little bit.
That was one thing they had lost with reincarnation, the ability to fly unaided, although he hadn't really felt anything for the ability in the past.
He truly did enjoy flying in his current life.
The next two hours were spent flying in circles, not taking a direct route to headquarters. Supposedly to shake off any pursuers that might have been alerted to Harry being moved, or whoever sent the Dementors after him.
When they finally reached headquarters, his first impression of the house was that it had once been quite grand.
Now it was in disrepair and in desperate need of a thorough cleaning, most likely the same applied to the inside of the house too.
He knew that Sirius wanted to return the manor to its former glory, but couldn't while the Order was occupying it.
As soon as they stepped in Tonks' clumsy streak kicked in and instantly a loud screeching racket filled the hall.
Harry winced.
He knew Sirius' mother had been given the okay to terrorize the Order after she and her son had reconciled, he just hadn't realized just how shrill she would be. This was one of the few times he cursed his advanced hearing thanks to mako enhancements.
He noticed the apologetic look in the painting's eyes when she caught sight of him, though no one else did. He just subtly shook his head conveying that he understood and would not hold it against her.
He also made a mental note as they passed where her painting hung, after Sirius made a show of silencing and putting the cloth back over his mother's painting, to speak in depth with the woman later. She was family after all, even if no longer alive and in painted form.
He was led into what seemed to be a parlor of sorts where members of the Order had gathered and prepared himself for interrogation with a mental groan.
He really did not want to deal with Dumbledore. But he was unfortunately Harry bloody Potter, gryffindor's golden boy of the light and had to put up with the old coot for now.
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With a long drawn out groan that had Ron laughing at him, Harry flopped down on the bed in the room that he and the currently red haired former SOLDIER First Class were sharing.
His only response to the puppy's laughing at him was to give him the finger. He was too tired to even glare at the often obstinate former red headed young man.
One thing was for sure he was looking forward to the day he no longer had to pander to the washed up old manipulator anymore with each passing day. His training was taking a nose dive because of him. Harry couldn't even help out with monster hunting because he couldn't slip away to do so, now that he was with the order. The same went for Ron, though at least the twins were still able to slip away to help out so it wasn't all bad.
He was not looking forward to his stay in his godfather's house at all, and wondered disparagingly how his godfather could put up with the Order. He had only been here a day and he already wanted to leave.
He could already feel the urge to skewer something and knew he would have a lot of pent up frustration to deal with when he got back to school.
He hoped the others were up for a grueling spare because he would likely not be able to hold himself back after dealing with the Order for several weeks on end. That or he hoped he could slip away to do some monster hunting.
He tried to meditate a little and organize his thoughts from the day before he went to sleep.
Soon enough, his eyes closed and his body relaxed into sleep, having long mastered being able to pass out at the drop of a hat. He prayed he would have a good dream to counter the long day he was likely to have tomorrow.
End Chapter
Author's Note: Sorry it's been a while since I last updated and a merry christmas to all my readers.
Thank you for all your continued support.
Purplerose97
Next Chapter: Harry gets put on trial and makes an impression with quite a few people when he shows just why he was such a good general in his previous life.
