Key:
"Words."
Thoughts / "emphasis" / Title of Books or spells used
~~Parseltongue~~
¬¬Foreign Language¬¬
"Magical language."
The World Turns
1st August 1994 – Room of Requirement
The spirit of Salazar Slytherin had had many interactions with his apprentice over the past thirteen months/nine years of their lessons, yet the one that happened in the early hours of the day after his student's debutant ball was one of the strangest of the lot.
The living Lord of Magic had arrived in the flash of his lightning travel with two unresponsive forms alongside him. Salazar watched the Room formed a clean stone floor beneath the pair that the Founder's connection to Hogwarts' memories told him were the injured Longbottoms. He watched Harry step away from the pair and then hold out arms that glowed with swirling runes. The Founder frowned. While Harry's attempts at creating a fluid, on-the-fly means of projecting runes was an amazing one, Salazar knew his apprentice had still been a long way from the end product he now used. The mystery continued as the runes formed of Harry's magic settled both beneath and on the staring Longbottoms and then the Lord Danu began chanting in the language of the druids. A language that was the old Brittonic tongue with some Goidelic – ancient Gaelic – terms mixed in. A language that Salazar was not a master of the tongue. It had been Rowena and Helga who had taught the other two Founders, and it had been through their knowledge that Salazar had taught Harry how to heal the Forbidden Forest.
Yet here was the living Lord speaking the tongue as though he was a native. Rowena had only ever heard the elders of the Grymm Coven speak as fluently as Harry now was. Salazar's frown deepened. The ritual the living Snake Lord was using was designed to free the Longbottoms from their mental prisons, breaking the hold the Lestrange family spell had on them. Yet, even more so than Harry's attempts at manipulating runes on a purely magic level, the Founder knew his apprentice had been nowhere near finished with the creation of such a thing. Especially as a glance at the arrays he could see beneath their prone bodies told him Harry was mixing in both a body and mind healing component and a full memory ritual. That should have been impossible.
The Room responded when it sensed the end of the ritual. Beds formed beneath the now sleeping Longbottoms and the room changed into a comfortable bedroom. The pair of Slytherins left the pair to sleep and settled in Salazar's study. Harry had collapsed into his usual chair, resting his elbows on his knees with his head low.
"Can you at least tell me why you've put the Room's time dilution to its maximum setting?" Salazar nudged after the silence stretched out. The room could dilate time with factors far larger than what the pair had been using, with each higher setting taking more power from the Room's reserves. The highest setting was a full 368 days for every real-world day outside of the Room, but at the cost of the Room's time manipulation needing a full lunar month to recharge before they could reuse it.
"I had my debutant ball last night," Harry said, shaking his head at something the younger man had thought. The tips of Harry's ears were peaking through the loose hair, emphasising the many changes the powerful mage had gone through since his first time sitting in the chair. "Last night. I now understand why you always cautioned living my days split, master. It's to ground me."
Salazar was no fool. "Have you experienced more time dilution?"
Harry sighed once, his slumped shoulders straightening, and the Founder watched his descendant pull himself together. The mage threw his hair back, a wandless charm tieing it back with a leather thong, and then sat up straight. An inch-perfect Lord Slytherin. "The Aos si gatecrashed my ball. A representative from all three Courts. They gave me the gift of a new home. Caer Danu, built by the Fae."
Salazar allowed his surprise to show. Any gift from the Fae was both something to cherish and something to be concerned over, but a home crafted by them was a delicate situation all on its own. Harry continued, describing the gifts he gave to the Seelie and Unseelie representatives, and Salazar expressed his agreement and praise at the offerings. Yet the Founder could not imagine what he had provided for Puck of the Court of Midsomer (K)Nights.
Made famous by the English Bard's play, the Court of Midsomer (K)Nights were the outsiders, rebels, and neutrals of the High Fae. While wars and strife between all three Courts happened, the Court of Midsomer (K)Nights accepted anyone from either side who wanted to forge their own destiny away from their Seelie or Unseelie obligations. Yet this quasi-neutrality also came with the danger of being the most capricious of the High Fae Courts.
The Founder nodded when Harry explained his third gift, only to frown when the young Lord sighed again. "The ball ended after that. I took an early night so I could think of everything with a clear head, only to wake up somewhere else. Certain spirits decided I needed an intervention."
"I had warned you such things could happen," Salazar reminded his apprentice. In taking on the Peverell name, Harry had opened himself up to Death's realm. Spirits with a strong enough need, or just those powerful enough, could, with Death's blessing, reach across the veil and draw the Lord Peverell into a dream to converse.
"You never expected the Tuatha to use it as a means of training me how to be a proper Lord Danu," Harry snarked. Salazar blinked. He was about to correct the other mage, only for the younger man to wave his hand. "I know I'm a Tuatha now, Sal. I mean the originals. Lord Dagda, Lady Morrigan, Lord Lugh, Scathach, Brigid, Manannan mac Lir, Dian Cecht. The original Tuatha."
Originals were right. The names were legends and myth, even to Salazar. They were the children of Magic. The first mages. The Dagda was the very first human born with the innate power to manipulate magic. His wife, the Morrigan, had such an intimate connection to Death that it was her bloodline that gave birth to the first Peverell. Lugh and his numerous wives had birthed many secondary bloodlines, while Scathach the Shadow was the 'Warrior Maid,' unmatched in her ability to train up legendary warriors. And while both Brigid and Manannan mac Lir were also legends, the last name explained Harry's sudden ability to heal the Longbottoms. Dian Cecht, son of The Dagda, was said to have the power and skills to heal anyone from anything save a beheading or broken spine.
The Founder let out an explosion of air. "Then it appears there is nothing more I can teach you."
"Not quite, Master. They said it was your right to finish my Peverell Family Magic and alchemy lessons."
"And is that why you've put the Room at the level it is?"
"Of course not," Harry snorted, mock glaring at the smirk Salazar sent him. "It'll take at least a year for the Longbottoms to heal. And I learned something else in the years they had me in the dream. Gofannon taught me the secrets of his smithing and how to create blood metal."
Salazar stared at his apprentice. While the goblins had many tricks in the art of blacksmithing, he and Godric had learned that they had lost just as much. A war with the dwarfs had seen goblin Master Smiths targeted to destroy the Children of Gofannon's ability to create powerful weapons and armour. The Snake Lord threw his head back and laughed. He couldn't wait to see what the living mage could create with his unique view of the world merged with skills lost to time.
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OoOoO
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Harry spent the first week of the intense time dilation caring for Neville's parents. Helga Hufflepuff had developed a ritual that would allow for someone to relive their life from the outside looking in. While not as personal as reliving memories through Occlumency, the Founder had created it to heal a former student of hers who had suffered massive memory loss. The Memory Charm that Lockhart eagerly used was still a few centuries off from being invented, so the loss had come about through some other means. Helga theorised that if magic enabled the manipulation of time, then it existed beyond the confines of time. And given that magic was literally everywhere in the world, it had direct access to every moment of a person's life.
The ritual would connect a person's mind with magic and allow them to see every moment of their life as though watching Pensieve memories. And it didn't matter if a person had their memories lost or manipulated, as magic would show them only what did happen. Of course, the Founder wouldn't let an opportunity for learning and growth to pass someone by. Her ritual would force the subject to do the Mind Arts process of watching an event on endless loops until they came to terms with whatever they were watching. The person would be in a magical coma for as long as it took for them to overcome their traumas.
Harry's dream training had shown him how to break the Longbottoms free of the Lestrange memory cage, albeit at the expense of the memories the spell had its roots in. And given the couple had been under the spell's effects for over a decade, Harry suspected it had infected almost all of them. Which was where Helga's ritual came in.
Harry had near enough brute forced Helga's ritual together with the one to free them of the Memory Cage and the one Sirius and Bella had gone through. He hadn't wanted to do it that way, but there was no telling the pair's thoughts on rituals, and he wouldn't let their stubbornness keep them weak. He had a promise to Neville to keep.
The Lord of Magic had expected the Longbottoms forced Occlumency mastery of their past to take over a week. Salazar speculated the pair had extensive knowledge of Occlumency, suggesting that they would have gained emotional mastery over their memories. The Founder pointed out that such mastery would remain, even if the memory itself didn't. Salazar proved his expertise as the pair woke after four days.
As Harry brought the couple a meal on their second day of consciousness, he noticed a calculating gleam in the pair's eyes.
"You kidnapped us from St. Mungo's," Frank Longbottom accused. Harry wandlessly sent the trays to the pair while staring at the man. Although Frank struggled to meet Harry's tri-tone eyes, he kept his gaze on the Lord of Magic's face.
"I did," Harry confirmed. Helga's ritual would take a person to the very second prior to the ritual's start, so the pair seeing Harry take them and leave golems in their place was to be expected.
"You're a Parselmouth. I heard you hissing when you were casting."
"A variation of a Notice-Me-Not charm," Harry explained. "Between the golems and the charm, no one will notice I swapped you out until you're ready to face the world."
"And you'll just let us go?" Frank scoffed, getting a hissed 'Frank' from Alice. "It's easy to simulate ten years of being stuck in the Janus Thickey Ward. You-Know-Who is the only known Parselmouth."
"Known," Harry emphasised. A Pensieve appeared on the table between their beds. "That will project Neville's time in Hogwarts. The school remembers, and it hopefully helps ease your worries."
Harry left the suspicious couple, stepping out of the medical room and into Salazar's study. The man himself was leaning against his desk, arms folded against his chest. "Well?"
"They think it's a trap by Riddle," Harry informed his mentor, taking the chair nearest the desk. "I'll let them think it over for a few days before asking Fawkes and Sebastian to talk sense into them. Or maybe even Nick, given that Frank was a Gryffindor."
Salazar nodded once. The pair fell into an easy silence as the Founder considered his thoughts. The green eyes that mirrored Harry's had dimmed as the spirit's focus was on his thoughts, and Harry watched their glow return as the man came back to the present.
"You are a Transfiguration Master. I doubt I have to explain why the spells always fail."
"Because despite Magic being a part of nature, using transfiguration is forcing something to be something it isn't. Reality will eventually force even 'permanent transfigurations' to fail at some point and the object to revert to its natural state. The only time it can actually be permanent is either through runic enchantments that are constantly powered by an external source or with transfiguring living beings, as the soul can interact with the spell. A bad human-transfiguration can stay that way because the soul is tricked into thinking it's the form it should be."
"Excellent," the Founder nodded. "Alchemy is the Branch of magic used to get around this limitation of transfiguration through transmutation. To use alchemy even at its most basic levels, a mage must understand the structure and properties of what they wish to transmute. This understanding can be its atomic or molecular structure, the target's place in the world and how its presence influences the rest of reality, or its connection with the flow of magic. Whatever path one takes, they must comprehend the very nature of what it is they wish to change."
"Sounds like mastering Occlumency and merging with an animagus form," Harry pointed out, getting a nod to his words.
"It is. Your Occlumency is your comprehension of yourself to keep outside influences from transmuting your core personality into something new, whereas the animagus merging is a mage self-transmutating their core to accept the animal part of themselves having a bigger impact on their thoughts and feelings."
Harry blinked at the confirmation. He understood that the comparison wasn't one-to-one, but it still offered a new way for him to look at the Mind Arts.
"The second stage of alchemy is deconstruction. The breaking down of the target into a more malleable state, allowing it to be reshaped into what the alchemist desires. It is not unknown for warrior alchemists of ages past to use this stage as a weapon of war and not finish the process via the third stage: reconstructing that malleable form or energy into the desired shape."
Harry shuddered at the thought of an alchemist using the second stage on their enemies. Given Harry apparently had an exceptionally talented alchemist gunning for him, the concern was valid. Salazar's look told the mage that his ancestor shared the same thoughts.
"There are many paths by which alchemists achieve the transmutation, and most have nothing to do with the actual molecular makeup of what is being changed. Some alchemists have focused entirely upon a list of elements they believe make up reality. Others pick symbolic substances as their medium of choice. You could pick food spices, for all that it ultimately matters. The important thing, the core foundation that alchemy is built upon, is that of Equivalent Exchange. If you decide everything is made of cinnamon, coriander, ginger, peppercorn, and saffron, you must have a rigid system of calculating how much of each spice everything is made of, and how much of each you need when transmuting something."
"I'm sorry... what?"
Despite the seriousness of Sal's words, the Founder burst into joyous laughter at Harry's bafflement. The living Lord of Magic hadn't been so open-mouthed shocked at one of his master's lessons in years.
"Transmutation is the fundamental changing of one thing into another, apprentice. In order to do so, something of equal value must be given up." Salazar explained once he had calmed down. "There is one rigid Law of Transmutation that cannot be broken, and one semi-rigid Law that you should only break in emergencies. First is the Law of Conservation of Mass. Even magic is tied into this law of physics. Perpetual motion machines created by magic are just that, machines fed by magic to keep producing more mundane energy. In simple terms – and listen carefully, for this is so simple that it is almost a falsehood – to transmutate an object of ten pounds, a sacrifice of at least ten pounds of material is required."
"And the truth?" Harry pushed.
"Energy is lost through the release of light and heat during the transmutation process," Salazar explained. "While some might believe magic can make up the shortfall, and it does, its primary focus is containing the power released as the transmutation breaks the atomic bonds. This means you will need far more than ten pounds of sacrifice to transmute a ten-pound target. Remember this."
"I will," Harry promised, and Salazar only continued when he was sure the message had sunk in.
"The second Law is that of Natural Providence. That is, like sticks to like. It is far easier to transmute an object into something comprising the same basic makeup and properties rather than into something that doesn't. It will cost far more energy to transmute something of stone into a fluid, or vice versa, than transmuting stone into another type of stone or a fluid into a new fluid."
"But it can be done," Harry said, showing his understanding of the lesson. "Like Shapeshifting over animagus transformations."
"Something like that, yes," Salazar nodded. "As you have no doubt concluded, transmutation is akin to the Ritual Magic you have mastered. As with rituals, you must maintain a delicate balance of the energies used in the transmutation process or else a backlash will occur. The alchemical process is a magical mathematical equation that must balance on both sides. Should you fail in balancing the equation, pray for a serious injury or death. Alchemy can take terrible prices for those who fly too close to the sun, apprentice, and many alchemists have found themselves in cursed half-lives over a miscalculated equation."
The Founder left the warning hanging between them before continuing. "I will go into transmutation circles and arrays soon enough, but know that Masters of the art can do a mental version of your rune creation trick. They calculate the transmutation equation and array in their mind and guide the magic and sacrificial energies through the array, even though they haven't physically drawn it out. As amazing a talent as this is, I would suggest only using such a skill in an emergency. Especially considering your rune creation trick would work just as well with transmutation arrays."
Harry held up his hand, and the pair watched as glowing runes appeared on the skin. They shifted and spun, sliding up the fingers until they free-floated in the air. It was at that moment that Salazar recognised the runes forming an Old Norse equivalent of 'as you wish.'
"Cheeky sod," the Snake Lord snorted, getting a grin back from the younger mage. "While alchemy works on living beings – Herpo the Foul created the first Chimeras using it – using non-elixir alchemy on a human is a delicate process. Unless you are using the alchemy to augment a ritual, there are usually far less taxing ways to get what you want. All your Blood Magic rituals are proof of this. Even the creation of homunculi is far easier when not using alchemy."
"If that's the case," Harry mused with a frown. The mage pushed himself back in the chair to have it tilting on its back legs to make it easier to look up at his master. "It sounds as though the permanence is the only difference between alchemy and other magics."
"Correct. Outside of using it in battle, forcing the effects of the change to become rooted in reality is all alchemy has over other magics. It is theoretically possible for your Inner Blood Magic rituals to be reversed. No one has ever had it happen, nor do we know how it could come about, but it is a fact of magic that it is possible. This would not be the case if you made the changes via alchemy."
"I think I'm good with a theoretical, Master," Harry stated, getting a smirk back. Only for the older wizard's smirk to turn into a sigh.
"The nigredo," Salazar stated, holding out an inky black stone that looked like a jagged piece of coal. "The first step on the path to creating a Philosopher's Stone. It allows for the manipulation of shadows in a limited form of Shadow Magic, is an amplifier for the deconstruction process of transmutation, and creates an elixir that helps stabilises the darker impulses of the mind. While it won't heal any mental damage, it soothes the symptoms to allow for the sufferer to face their nightmares."
"The albedo," the black stone shifted to a brilliant white, perfectly cut crystal in an octahedron shape. "The next step on the path of creating a Philosopher's Stone. It creates a perfect purification elixir, and will aid in healing other types of mental damage. Again, it's more a pacifying of the effects of the damage to allow for healing to occur, rather than a means of healing the mind."
Harry's eyes narrowed. He was seeing a pattern with the stones. The stone changed again, this time to a round, unpolished yellow stone.
"The xanthosis. A channeller of both solar and lunar energies. Hogwarts uses xanthosis stones for the storing of the sun's light for this Room. It also aids in healing the soul. And finally, the rubedo. The last step prior to the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. The rubedo augments all areas of transmutation, and even some non-alchemy magics, and creates a near-perfect healing elixir at the cost of the stone itself."
The stone was one Harry saw in his memories. The stone Dumbledore had hidden in the Mirror of Erised. A jagged red crystal that shone and shimmered, almost producing its own dark crimson light yet also near blindingly reflecting the light of the room. Salazar vanished the replica and gave his apprentice an expectant look. One Harry didn't fail to respond to. "What does a Philosopher's Stone look like?"
"No idea," the Founder shrugged, lowering his hands to rest them on the desk's edge. "No one has been stupid enough to make one."
Harry caught himself before he echoed his previous shocked reaction. Instead, the Lord of Magic took a slow breath. "Master?"
"Think, apprentice... Harry, what have I said about the merits of alchemy over other areas of magic? Equivalent Exchange that requires the alchemist to account for loss of mass through energy discharges. Rituals that can do what alchemy could do only easier. Think of what everyone says a Philosopher's Stone is capable of. Immortality. Now use your intellect to work out what type of Equivalent Exchange that would require."
Harry's face morphed into one of horror. Salazar's solemn nod made his raging emotions worse as the Founder continued. "I can think of a dozen Evil rituals that would grant someone quasi-immortality and a healing factor to rival the strongest vampire. And as disgusting and monstrous as they are, they would require far less loss of life than a Philosopher's Stone would. Flamel isn't famous for making one, Harry. Nor did I once consider him a Lord of Magic in alchemy because he did. It is because everyone believes, as I once had, that he created the Stone without using the obscene human sacrifice that calculations a first-year alchemy student could perform state are required to make it.
"Dark Lords throughout history, even the most perverse and monstrous, have avoided making a Stone because of those equations. Riddle, a monster who thought splitting his soul seven times was a smart idea, hasn't created what every alchemist worth their title knows how to make. Because the sheer scope of human sacrifice required to make something that grants immortality, an elixir of life, and doesn't break down after use, is insane. It's excessive and wasteful. To make the Philosopher's Stone in the only method everyone agrees works requires a willingness to slaughter on a scale unimaginable."
As Harry stared at his ancestor, one thought rattled through his mind. That what Salazar had just described was the enemy he was up against.
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OoOoO
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It took a month of Room time for the Longbottoms to accept they weren't trapped in a Death Eater fakery. Even with the appearance of the Gryffindor House ghost Nearly Headless Nick, the Sorting Hat, a phoenix, and the sharing of many of Harry's memories, the pair had remained stubbornly defiant. Yet once they accepted the truth of the world that they had woken up in, they threw themselves into getting healthy and fighting fit.
Frank had noticed something in Harry's memories that most of Hogwarts had missed. Neville's change of wand. Given Neville's first wand was Frank's, the man had recognised it quick enough and saw it as proof that his mother had lost her mind. The discussion of wands had led to Salazar working the couple through the process of finding their perfect ones.
Harry knew he could have sat in on the choosing process to quiz his mentor on how to create a focus, but the mage had little interest in exploring that avenue of magic. Instead, he spent that time building everything he needed for his forge.
Blood metal was the collective name of magical metals forged using a mix of blood and enchanting; There was carvorite, a powerful magical and other energy conductor; dargonite, the ultimate insulator that almost acted like cold iron in how it limited magic; cogmium, an extremely light metal that was many times stronger that steel; goblin-wrought steel and silver, otherwise known as Wootz steel/silver, that was made from a cogmium base; and the legendary mithril, also called ithlion. Each metal had to have a pre-created casting mould enchanted to help guide the molecules to form in the required way.
While the goblins still knew how to cast Blood Metal ingots, they had lost the actual process of forging the materials into being more than what the base metal provided. Goblin-wrought silver naturally absorbed the effects of anything that didn't destroy it, but the goblins had to use standard enchanting techniques to give the weapon other properties.
The trick was, as the name suggested, using blood. While forcefully taken blood could work, it could cause peculiarities with the final product (Gofannon's words. Harry didn't want to consider what the Tuatha had considered a 'peculiarity'). Harry used Cadwaladr's blood, as he wasn't sure how the mixture of phoenix tears and basilisk venom in his own would affect the process. The smith then had to decide on what enchantments they wished the final product to possess and inscribe each enchantment on a separate ingot. These bars were stacked up and encased in an outer-shell that was engraved with a special array that would tie all the enchantments together. This combined bar, sometimes multiple feet thick depending on the required number of ingots, had to soak in blood until the entire thing turned dark red. The forging process then began using a magical forge, where the bar had to be flattened out and folded over for three times the amount of ingots used. This part of the process was almost normal to what Vernaculi had done for centuries, with the only difference being quenching it in boiling blood. Between the blood and the casing, the enchantment arrays were magically rearranged within the folds of the metal to become part of the material's core essence, no matter what shape the smith later hammered it into. The ending process was quenching in room-temperature blood for a third of the time it took to make the item.
While Harry was testing out his dream-training skills, his ultimate goal was the creation of weapons for himself and his family. He had become a firm believer in the there being no such thing as having too many options. Overkill was a goal, not an accident.
He would offer the Longbottoms a choice of weapons. Frank had been adamant not to take anything while Alice accepted a dagger as her emergency backup option.
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OoOoO
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2nd August 1994 (10 years, 9 days diluted)
The trio would be in the Room for a day real-time, leaving early morning on the 2nd August. Salazar had given Harry a serious look just prior to them leaving. "I release you from being my apprentice. You have exceeded my expectations, Harry. I confirm thee a Lord of Magic seven times over, a Master of magics twice that number, and someone I am proud to call my student, my descendant, my heir, and my friend."
Harry stared at the man who had become one of the most important people in his life. The Founder had taken hold of his shoulders and squeezed them tight, telling the living Slytherin Lord that the man knew what he was feeling.
"And I'll always be here for you," the Founder promised as Harry struggled to find the words. In the end, the orphan pulled his ancestor into a bone-crushing hug and let the tears flow, uncaring about the watching Longbottoms.
Yet despite all the progress that the year of time dilation had brought, it had meant Harry hadn't been part of the world when it changed.
To the collective shock of the mundane world, US President Bill Clinton, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and other leaders of NATO, the UN, and the EU made a joint announcement. A secret project called the World Missile Shield had been in development in complete secrecy. A world-wide series of powerful weapon satellites capable of targeting and destroying nuclear missiles without causing fallout. To prove this, the US and Russian leaders launched their nukes at each other, only for the satellite web to destroy the missiles with ease.
Had Harry been outside of the Room, his thunderbird connection to Earth's skies might have allowed him to feel a tremendous release of magical energy at the time of the WMS satellites firing. He wasn't. He hadn't. And the mundane world celebrated the end of the threat of a nuclear war despite no one being able to find out who had developed the fantastic technology, nor how it worked.
The following week would see Yeltsin declare the success of the WMS as his greatest achievement and announce his retirement. He would nominate one of his acting prime ministers as his successor. Lothar Vogal was a proud Russian of German descendant and a cousin to an influential Russian magical politician. The State Duma would vote him in as Acting President with a surprising, overwhelming majority. A victory he would repeat when the people would vote him in as president the following March.
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OoOoO
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Malfoy Manor
The Malfoys knew something was off when Kreacher appeared during their breakfast.
"Presenting Lord Black," the house-elf proclaimed seconds before Harry appeared in a spark of lightning.
"Lucius Malfoy, present yourself," Harry ordered, conjuring a table in front of him. Despite the unorthodox nature of Harry's visit, the lord of the manor did so without question. He knew when he was outclassed. "While we might not see eye-to-eye, you have done your best for your family, Lord Malfoy. You have given love to a Daughter of House Black and the child she has blessed you with. It is time to cement the alliance this past year has forged."
Dobby appeared with a long, slender object wrapped in a silk sheet the dark blue colour of House Black. The thick cord holding the silk closed was the red, black, and green of Harry's other Houses.
"Step forward and receive the symbol of our House's union, Lord Lucius of House Malfoy."
Despite the surprise start, Lucius was on firmer ground. Although almost never performed in the modern day, the mini-ceremony was a show of the more politically powerful House declaring that the union between the two families pleased them. While Houses Black and Malfoy were on equal footing, given everything else Harry was, Lucius had no ego issues going through with the ceremony. The blond pulled the cord to allow the enchantment to unwrap the gift, only for the Malfoys to gasp as one at what they saw.
The trio knew what they were looking at, even if only Narcissa had seen something similar in person. A blood metal piece whose swirling pattern was tinted with a soft red to show a forged-in enchantment. Such things were literally priceless. Lucius and Draco openly gaped at the piece, while Narcissa's wide eyes stared at her Lord.
"How?"
Lucius turned to her, and their years of marriage meant he understood her question. This wasn't a piece House Black had owned. At least, not one his wife had ever seen before.
"Someone gifted me with the knowledge of how to make it," Harry told the trio. Lucius stared down at the object. Regardless of what it was, it was the first blood metal piece crafted in almost a thousand years. That alone made it the new centrepiece of his family's legacy. The man reached out to take it, only to stop when the Lord of Magic spoke again. "You must accept it into your House, and allow it to take your blood."
Lucius swallowed painfully. He knew what that meant. The object would be bound to his blood and only respond to either someone of House Malfoy or someone who perfectly represented its values. He nodded and gripped the handle of the cane.
While the handle was a snake's head similar to his current one, the shaft was of interlocking ravens that ended with a second snake's head as the cane's tip. The handle came alive long enough to bite his palm, causing the wizard to hiss, and they all saw the metal shimmer as the cane bound itself to his House.
"My Lord, I don't -"
"Feed it your magic, Lucius," Harry interrupted, banishing the table after Dobby collected the sheet. Lucius did so, and once again his and Draco's eyes widened at what they saw while Narcissa's narrowed in suspicion. "You know how to fence, I imagine."
"Of... of course," Lucius stuttered as he took in the cane's new appearance. The rounded shafted had narrowed and elongated to form a slender blade with a small guard to protect the man's hand when thrusting.
"Good. Now drive the point into the ground. Trust me, you won't damage it."
Draco snorted at the idea of a blunt impact hurting blood metal. Cissa's gaze turned serious as the instruction confirmed her thoughts. Lucius did so, and the blade separated into a wicked-looking whip. Each link was one of the ravens, while the snake-head tip now hissed and swayed of its own accord as it looked for an enemy.
"It'll shred flesh and bone as easy as it breaks a Protego," Harry informed the amazed Malfoys. "And I imbued the snake with a paralytic venom. I'm giving your wife permission to show you how to use it."
"Am I to share my weapon, Lord Black?"
"Cissa?"
"Mother?"
Harry ignored the males as he stared into his godmother's intelligent eyes. While House Black's magical library was infamous in its depth of knowledge and destructive Dark power, the family's physical armoury was unknown to anyone not of Black blood. Never was Snape's words about his generation of Blacks proven more than when Harry became Lord Black and saw the armoury's manifest. All bar Regulus had bound to one of the family's ancient artefacts.
"I want you and the others to get used to using your weapons. The family is at war and we must all be prepared."
"As my Lord Black commands," Cissa curtsied, getting a nod in return.
"Protect each other while I'm out of the country," he ordered the trio. "We have enemies everywhere. And I am a patronus message or palantir call away from returning should you need me."
He flashed out before they could respond. An hour later would see Harry Potter arrive in Magical Kashmir. The Asian branch of House Danu, the Danavas, had claimed the Vale of Kashmir as their own land and done the impossible. They had created a magical imprint of the Kashmir Valley and put it out of phase with the rest of the world. While the family vanished even before House Danu stepped from the world with the High Elves, they left Magical Kashmir in the care of a council made up of every magical society within the Asian continent. The Kashmir Council had kept faithfully to the Danavas' command of equality and fairness for millennia, and the valley had been home to many waves of Magical Muslim refugees when their Islamic countries went through a period of rabid anti-magic attitudes.
It was here that would be Harry's home for the month of August as the honoured guest of the Mandarin. While also meeting the Patil and Li families, along with everyone they wanted him to meet in their social circles, Harry was introduced to the very top of the Asia's Magical society. He didn't hide his status as Lord Danu nor that he was a Lord of Magic, and he forged many promising alliances in the four weeks he spent there. Cadwaladr loved the visit as his crimson familiar got the opportunity to fly outside of the Room. People would stop to watch his crimson form soaring Kashmir's skies while often being accompanied by a thunderbird.
It wasn't all politics, sight-seeing, and enjoying time with his dragon. The Mandarin had organised for Harry to take exams in every subject he was knowledgeable about, including those that weren't taught any more. Asia was notorious for keeping records spanning thousands of years, and this went double for its Magical side. While no examiner knew Shapeshifting, Arcane Magic, or even the depths of Harry's Necromancy and Blood Magic knowledge, they had plenty of records of past exams to judge his skills. The results were exactly what everyone expected.
Despite being out of the country, Harry's influenced continued to affect Britain. The Longbottoms stunned the country as they appeared awake and healthy, and then banished Augusta Longbottom and her brother Algie from the family. The shocks kept coming as Frank Longbottom took his place in the Wizengamot and worked side-by-side with Lucius Malfoy, sporting an eye-catching new cane, to drag more political power into the Potter-Black bloc.
It took Neville a week to stop pinching himself every time he saw his parents. Parents who were proud of him and encouraged his dreams.
The Quidditch World Cup Final saw Harry's allies and friends share a giant box. Lucius' new cane continued to draw everyone's attention, and everyone groaned at the proper introduction of the Weasley twins to Padfoot and Moony, just as Harry had promised.
But with every positive came a negative. Despite how much everyone enjoyed the final, a mass attack of Death Eaters broke the party atmosphere. While the terrorists attacked everyone indiscriminately, the largest group attacked Harry's family, only to find a willing wall of defiance facing them. With Bella protecting the teens, the Death Eaters faced a force who eagerly matched their ruthlessness. Sirius made up for his rusty skills with raw talent and an immediate dive into Dark magic his family was famed for. Andromeda proved once and for all that healers weren't afraid to get dirty as she manipulated medical spells for deadly results with her daughter covering her, and Narcissa and Lucius fought back-to-back against the Lord Malfoy's former running buddies.
No one dared to question the group's methods of protecting themselves and the children. Not when Amelia Bones herself made a comment about it being a shame that they couldn't have gotten more of the mask-wearing bastards.
While the possible return of Voldemort horrified the thoughts of the British mages, it was a far different Dark Lord's name on the lips of Europe. The monthly changeover of Nurmengard prison went as far from standard as it could go, and the ICW instantly requested the British Ministry of Magic make Albus Dumbledore its representative so that they could lean on the man who had originally stopped Gellert Grindelwald.
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OoOoO
Omake:
I struggled with writing out Harry's dream sequence at the start of the chapter, but couldn't get something I liked. So here's the gist.
Harry wakes in a grey world. It reminds him of a place he visited in Ireland. He turns to see a group of people, each with striking features. The conversation can be summed as so:
Harry - "What is this?"
Morrigan - "This, young Lord, is Death repaying us for birthing her Peverells."
The Dagda - "Your Slytherin spirit-father has done an admirable job teaching you to become a warrior and leader, but only a Tuatha can teach a Tuatha."
Gwydion - "Welcome, blood of my blood, to the longest night of your life!"
SN:
Last Edited – 5th February 2024
Word Count – 6,809
Previous Word Count - 6,776