Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!


Title: Mage Arms (Working Title)

Posted Date: March 16 2024

Inspiration: Mechanical Arms Anime, Blue Beetle

Tags: Technomancy, Sentient Guardian, Bad Dumbledore, Good McGonagall

Possible Challenges: Timeline in the 2000s, Harry goes to different schools, Snape goes to Prison, Magical Codex Library


"Boy!" Petunia called out as she looked over her son and straightened his collar while he was busy sucking on a lollipop. Some footsteps came around the corner and a smaller, thinner boy with loose clothes and uneven spectacles frames walked forward to her.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia?" The woman sniffed as she looked down at the smaller boy.

"I am taking Dudley out to get his school items and I won't be home for a few hours. You will use that time to clean out the attic." She gave the order to the boy. "It had better be clean by the time we return, understand?" The smaller boy looked down and nodded his reply. The woman sniffed haughtily again before taking her Duddikins out of the house to catch the bus. The boy waited for a while before letting out a sigh.

"Bummer." Harry Potter placed a hand on his stomach to try and ease the growling it was giving off. "Better get to it, maybe I can grab something before they return." Harry went up the stairs and to the spot where the hatch leading to the attic was located. With a pole specifically for him to use, Harry reached out to grab the handle and pulled it downwards to open the hatch. A second reach and pull helped to lower the step ladder for him to begin his ascent to the attic, the cleaning items left on the ground for now to avoid bringing something he did not need later. Harry sneezed a few times as he poked his head through, ultimately going back down to wrap a cloth around his nose and mouth before moving up.

As expected, the attic was quite dusty since no one else went up to clear out the stuff kept there. Harry had only been up in the attic twice before but this would be his first major cleaning and he was not looking forward to it. At the least though, anything that he could find that the Dursleys would not want, he could keep them, but he would need to find a good spot to store them. For the time being, Harry was on a "scouting" mission to see what was there to move.

There were small boxes with old papers regarding the household that Vernon apparently stored and forgot about them. There were old tin containers holding notes and coins that Harry guessed was Dudley's secret stash that he forgot, and promptly went into a box that Harry had designated for himself. There were old clothes that Petunia had in boxes that Harry could donate or sell at the upcoming yard sale. And there were other knickknacks that he could use if needed.

And all of them were so dusty!

"I am going to need the vacuum for this." Harry sighed lightly at the mess he had to deal with. He continued with his task until he came across the stack of boxes that were placed in the corner. He reached out to grab the closest box only to misjudge the weight and ended up bringing the entire lot falling on him.

"Ow." Harry moved to adjust his spectacles and dust himself off when his arm hit something that sounded different from the other stuff. He blinked a few times to get the dust off before giving it up as a lost cause and moved to open the small windows of the attic to get some ventilation and waited for the wind to finish blowing whatever dust there was before he could continue. It was as the dust settled and the sun shining through the window that Harry spotted something different among the other items in the room. He walked closer to the spot and tried to move the other items away.

He got his answer in the form of two small trunks that had been hidden under some newspapers and a tarp that got moved after that disaster. One of them was a rectangular trunk with a cover made of light leather with old stickers of flowers and stars on it and an old lock on it. The other smaller trunk was oddly enough made of wood with old metal bands by the edges typical of a treasure chest, with a rusty lock to add to the look. He was wondering about why they were hidden with his hand checking the surface of the first trunk when he felt something beneath his fingers. Using them to brush away the dust, Harry found some letters etched into the leather surface. It took a while to clean it off and using a little bit of saliva to get the color out, but he was able to figure out what it spelled and could not help staring at it.

Property of Lily Evans.

"This belonged to my mum?" Harry lightly placed a hand on the inscription with a touch of disbelief, then his eyes moved to the other trunk. He quickly went to check it out and found the same inscription etched into the wood, this one done with something that burned the wood slightly like it was with a hot knife. "And this is mum's too?" His joy was temporarily interrupted by the sounds of some of the kids outside running about, and that brought the thought of the Dursleys to the front of his mind and dragged his happiness down to reality. They made it clear that they did not like him and they made it their goal to have him as miserable as possible. If Petunia found out that his mother's trunks were here, they would probably burn it in front of him just to spite him.

He needed to save these trunks. But where could he put them? He could not put them in his cupboard, there was barely any space for him in there. And he dared not leave them out in the open outside of the house in his usual hiding spots, Dudley and the others had been getting more active in hunting him down and had managed to find two of his hiding spots. And he definitely cannot afford to leave them here since Petunia would make sure to check the attic for something to blame him for. He considered his options before snapping his fingers.

The old shed in the backyard. The Dursleys never went there if they could help it since it contained just garden equipment and they made him the only one to use them. There was some space that could hold both trunks if he cleared the shed a little, so he could go ahead to hide these two now until he could find a better spot to place them.

Harry grunted as he pulled on the first trunk, the weight surprising him given how small the trunk was. It took a while but Harry managed to get that down to the ground floor with some rope he found before he took a break to catch his breath. After getting a floor mat for the trunk, Harry pushed it to the back door and then dragged it to the shed. He then repeated the routine with his second trunk, this time with the knowledge of what to do helping to expedite the transfer. He was able to get the two next to each other while he fiddled with the lock to open the shed, and then moved the items inside to make space for him to move them in. He was so glad he had taken the time to dig out a spot that allowed him to hide some of his food supplies if the Dursleys decided to cut him off the meals at their whim.

After moving the stuff around, he made enough space to push the trunks one at a time, grunting at the effort as he did not want to damage the trunks against the equipment. He had a tough time with the first one which ended with him cutting his hand against the rough edge of a shovel and his blood spilling on the lock of his father's trunk. He bit back a scream and just pushed on to get the trunk into the space. He stopped to catch his breath and check on his cut when he heard something unlocking, drawing his eyes to the lock that was glowing briefly before the latch came off.

"Huh?" Harry looked closer to confirm that the latch was off, reaching out to grab the lid to pull it open and looked at the books and small oddities inside. He looked at his hand again before his eyes moved to where the other trunk was. He went to grab the other trunk, and moving it, smeared the blood on that lock and watched the blood seemingly absorbed into the lock, glowed briefly and then the latch came off as well. Harry took a breath and opened up the lid to look inside.

In the trunk he just opened, there were neatly folded clothes and several books placed in a corner. What interested him was the books were tiny and put together in neat stacks. He had never seen books so small before except on those display cases from the shops. He picked one out and carefully pulled it out of the trunk, pausing as it grew larger once it passed the threshold. "Wow!" He opened up the cover and wondered at the content, before a flash at the corner of his eye drew his attention to the other trunk that had light coming out of the gaps. Harry looked out of the door to make sure the Dursleys had yet to return, even though it was only 30 minutes since he started cleaning. Then he reached to open the other trunk.

There were more books and other nick-nacks in the trunk, but what stood out the most was the glowing cube that would fit the palm of his hand quite nicely. There was no proper way of describing the colour of the crystal, it was as if a rainbow had been captured inside so it was giving out various spectrums of light and it was oddly hypnotic to Harry who slowly reached out with his hand with slight hesitation, as if he was afraid to interrupt the flow. It was right as he paused above the crystal that the blood that was still coming out of his hand flowed to his index finger and one small drop dropped off the tip and onto the crystal, interrupting the colours. For a moment, Harry thought he broke it when the crystal glowed brighter.

"Blood detected."

"What?" Harry blinked before stepping back as something issued from the crystal that made the hair stand on his neck and then the crystal started to float out of the trunk and hover in the air, a bright beam of light coming off it to cover the entire room.

"Familial match found. Family Magic matching previous user. Beginning assimilation."

In a flash, it flew straight for Harry and slammed into his chest with enough force to send him crashing back to the ground. Harry gasped for air from the sudden impact, before he winced from the heat that followed shortly after, spreading from where he got hit to his limbs and making his head pound from what appeared to be his heart beating hard, and where his scar was, there was the sensation of something wanting to claw its way out of it.

Then he heard a pop with what sounded like someone screaming for a moment before it went silent along with the pain disappearing, leaving behind silence and something smelling bad in the shed. Harry groaned as he laid on the ground before he tried to move, his body feeling like he got the kicks and punches by Dudley while his arms felt like noodles. It took a while for him to push himself up enough to lean against the wall and reorient himself.

"What happened?" Harry raised a hand to cradle his head when he felt something sticking to his hand. Pulling back, Harry made a face and sound at the sight of something black and slimy on his hand. "Oh, gross!" He took a sniff and gagged at the scent. "Smells gross too." Harry grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up to clean off whatever was on his face, grimacing from the stickiness that made the cloth want to get stuck to. Harry supposed it was a good thing he wore one of the dirtier shirts so he could just dump this in the washing later.

"What happened to the crystal?" Harry remembered it speaking before slamming into him, making him pause at the thought before he moved a hand to his chest with the shirt still raised over his head. At first he felt only skin, then towards the dead center of his chest, Harry felt something smooth and pointed under his fingertip. Pulling the entire shirt off, Harry looked down and started at the crystal that was somehow embedded inside his chest. With all that was going on, he could be forgiven for saying something he overheard his relatives at times.

"What the bloody hell is this shit inside of me?!"

~ooOOoo~

(1 day later)

The sounds of something shrilling loudly woke Albus Dumbledore up in the middle of the night, and almost got him tangled in the blankets when he leapt off the bed. His brain took a little time to adjust from the suddenness, but once done the sounds started to make sense and he quickly rushed out of his bedroom and to the office where the portraits were yelling from the rude awakening and Fawkes was screeching from the sudden awakening.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore waved his wand to silence them all before rushing to the table that held all the silver devices that dealt with surveillance. There were five in particular that got his attention; two had completely blown up spectacularly to damage the table and the cupboard nearest to it, the third was in the middle of a literal meltdown with the hot metal scorching the wood from the heat, the fourth had rusted and fell apart into pieces, and the last device was the source of the sharp sound while giving out smoke ranging from white to green to red to black in thick columns. Dumbledore sucked in a breath at the last one; all of these devices were meant to monitor a certain location and more importantly, a particular resident of that spot. And if four had failed and the last was failing, something was happening to his ward.

The office door slammed open, prompting him to turn to find his deputy headmistress entering the office in her night clothes, followed shortly by the potions master already dressed in black and a scowl on his face.

"Albus, what is going on?" Minerva McGonagall was very agitated from the sudden wake-up call that rang in her bedroom, and the panicking portrait that came to tell her something was wrong in the headmaster's office did not help matters. "And what on earth is that racket?!"

"My sensors for a ward who is apparently in danger." Dumbledore waved his wand to silence the device while still giving out the multi-colored smoke. "That being Harry Potter."

"Harry!" Minerva gasped while the other guest deepened his scowl.

"Are you sure he is in danger and not throwing a tantrum?" Severus Snape ignored the glare given by Minerva. In response, Dumbledore pointed at the table with the broken devices.

"Something is happening and I need to find out if Harry is safe." Dumbledore reached out for Fawkes when Minerva stepped forward with her clothes transfigured and with fire in her eyes.

"I am coming along." The woman gave a glare that was daring him to refuse. He instead turned to his potions master who merely sneered.

"No, I won't."

"Severus, remember your promise." The tone used by Dumbledore was enough to draw attention from Minerva and earned a bigger sneer from Snape. The potions master merely moved forward to grab hold of his arm, partially because the phoenix was giving Snape the stink eye. Everyone knew that the phoenix was very picky about who could hang on to it for transport, and Snape was one that did not have its permission to grab the tail.

Dumbledore ignored the drama and asked the phoenix to transport them to where Harry Potter was. With a flash of fire, they disappeared from the office…

And appeared a few feet away from a house that was burning an intense white in the middle of night that had them raising their arms to block the glare and from the heat that had them stumbling backwards.

"Merlin!" Minerva gasped at the flames. "Harry!" She almost rushed in before Snape grabbed her arm and pulled her back from the inferno. "Let go of me!"

"Calm yourself, McGonagall!" Snape snapped at her while his eyes moved about. "We had to deal with the possibility of the muggles interfering!" Indeed, there were residents crowding the street outside of the house with some helping to get the neighbours away in case the fire started to reach them. Some of the others were passing about buckets of water to try and contain the blaze if not snuff it out enough to stop the flames from spreading.

"We should go around the back." Dumbledore said as his eyes moved about. "The muggles are more focused on the front yard. And if my memory serves me right, the back has no houses near it." Minerva and Snape just followed Dumbledore for the moment as they took a detour while casting invisibility spells on themselves to hide their progress, cutting through the adjacent building and vanishing one of the fences to get to the backyard of the burning residence, only to pause at someone standing there.

Whoever it was, there was no way to identify other than the person wearing it was small, like that of a first year student if not younger. They were completely covered in some type of white armour that appeared almost organic with how form fitting it was, with gold lining round the edges of the limbs that glowed from the flames. It appeared to be wearing some type of white cloak that had a hood to cover the head, while showing the small shoulder pauldrons shaped like leaves that had intricate designs on them and what appeared to be crystals encrusted on them, with the armour transitioning to the gauntlets that had patterns of angelic wings spanning from the wrists and gold tip fingers. The overall look ended up giving this person the look of a child wearing a slightly oversized muggle raincoat with big boxing gloves.

At their appearance, the small one turned to look at them, giving them the chance to see the face that was apparently hidden behind a mask with a mouthpiece covering the bottom half, leaving behind the eyes that showed glowing blue eyes beneath the shadow of the hood.

"Who are you?" Dumbledore raised his wand at the possible invader, but they did not answer, merely tilting their head before turning around to leave, clearly not interested in listening to Dumbledore. "Halt!" A spell left his wand and straight for the attacker only to hit a barrier. It did get their attention as they paused to turn at them before speaking with a young voice that sounded both male and female, natural and not natural at the same time.

"Subjects are magicals. Detecting intent to impede mission. Beginning procedure to take down targets."

"What?" It was only thanks to her feline instincts practically screaming at her that Minerva grabbed both men to drag them to the floor right as a blade of light flew right where their necks would have been, instead hitting the tree behind them. The invader had swung their arm lazily to fire off that blade, and now was facing them with the cloak slightly moving in the breeze.

"Scanning for identification."

The eyes glowed brightly before a beam of light quickly shot out and hit them along with the surrounding area, making the trio glow a bright green before Snape hissed while grabbing at his left arm that had the sleeve smouldering from something. It suddenly burst into flames, prompting the potions master to use his wand to put out the flames, leaving a hole in the sleeve to show off the tattoo on his arm. Said tattoo was glowing a bright red with the snake moving about in the skull's mouth.

"Subject identified: Severus Snape. Subject has the Dark Mark. Subject is a known enemy of Mistress Lily Evans, proceeding with extermination." Their attacker crossed both arms before swinging them down, two blades of light coming out of the wrists in response. This got a response from the three professors who quickly got back on their feet, their magic screaming at the pure light coming off the blades that reminded the elders of the type found from the churches.

"Are you the one who did this?" Dumbledore readied his wand. "Where is Harry Potter? Answer me." The tilt of the attacker's head had Dumbledore firing another spell at them only to hit the same barrier.

"Subject identified: Albus Dumbledore. Subject is demanding the location of the Host. The Host's memories show the Subject's appearance in the placement of the house and multiple visits to wipe memories and bind core. Subject has been attacking this unit. He is the enemy." The attacker's eyes turned red and seemingly blurred to appear in front of them with the arms raised to slash at them. A hastily conjured shield did not help as the blades sliced through it like a hot knife through butter, forcing them to move back. Their attacker took the chance to raise a leg and kicked Snape off the ground and through both the tree and several fences.

"Severus!" Dumbledore transfigured some of the wreckage into dogs to attack their assailant, only for the armoured being to merely wave a hand to change them back before doing something to push Dumbledore back into the neighbour's house and leave him embedded in the wall, his wand sailing into the air before being grabbed by the attacker who looked at it and did something to make it disappear. Before they did anything else, they were set upon by Minerva who was transfiguring everything within her reach to attack and distract them.

"Where is Harry!" She fired off an overpowered stunner at the attacker, and actually stumbling them briefly before a wave of energy issued forth from them and all her transformations were forcefully reversed or destroyed, and Minerva was sent flying off her feet and crashing to the ground. With the air knocked out of her, Minerva could not stop the attacker walking over to grab her by the neck and lift her up while deactivating the blade on the arm and disarming her of her wand, bringing her face to face to the being.

"Subject identified: Minerva McGonagall. Subject is the Gryffindor Head Of House for Mistress Lily Evans. Subject is demanding the location of the Host." The hand brought her closer to their face. "Why do you seek the Host?"

That question, among every other words spoken from the attacker, actually made Minerva pause to look at the being closer. Thinking of what had happened, the being merely responded to their attacks, and there was how it addressed them that sounded like it was a golem. She decided to just answer them while stalling.

"Harry Potter is supposed to be here with his relatives after the death of his parents. They were the only ones viable to take care of him, even if they are the worst sort of muggles to be around." Minerva answered the armoured being. "We received an alert that the residence was under attack so we came to see what was happening, and we found you." The attacker stayed silent for a while longer before the eyes turned green.

"Readings indicate Subject is telling the truth." The armoured being slowly lowered her to the ground before releasing their grip on her, letting her take a much needed breath of air. "We can only tell you that the Host was in danger, and We had to protect him from the people intent on killing him."

"Host? You are talking about Harry Potter?" Minerva asked while moving her head about. "Where is he?"

"Safe." Despite the height difference, the pressure issued from the armoured being made her feline side cower at the obvious predator this one was. "We will be leaving."

"I think not."

Several ropes sailed through the air and wrapped themselves around the armoured being, who merely turned their head a little to see Severus having returned with wand at hand and a menacing expression on his face.

"I could care less about the spoiled brat, but I do not want Dumbledore harping about it, and you know something about Lily." The wizard coughed out some blood while maintaining a steady hand at the armoured being. "You will be coming with us."

"We think not."

A simple flex broke the ropes before the armoured being disappeared only to appear right behind Severus and cut off his wand arm. The man let out a yell before he got knocked out by the punch delivered to the head that sent him crashing to the floor.

"Subject is neutralised. Proceeding with permanent termination." The attacker announced while holding up a palm with a magic circle appearing on it and aimed at Severus's head.

"Wait, don't kill him!" Minerva approached only to have the other hand aimed at her.

"Why? He is an enemy with the Dark Mark."

"Dumbledore stated he was working as a spy for him to infiltrate the Death Eaters." Minerva said while raising both hands. "He is one of the good ones even with his attitude."

"Do you know what is required to obtain a Dark Mark?" An odd question to be asked at this time but Minerva shook her head.

"The candidate needs to kill a regular person with a Killing Curse, control a magical with the Imperius Curse, and then torture a child with the Cruciatus Curse for as long as possible." The attacker answered while maintaining the palm at Severus. "The Dark Mark is a variation of the Protean Charm bastardized with soul magic, so the candidate has to actually want the Dark Mark to ensure it can be stuck to the soul after it has been tainted and broken from murder and torture. No one can claim to take it under duress or compulsions, they have to mean it."

Minerva could not help the gasp as she stared at the attacker and then her eyes shifted to Severus. She had her doubts about the headmaster's claims of the man working for their side, but the man kept brushing her and others away with his words that he trusted Severus. But if what this person was saying was true, if Severus did all of this?

Did that mean Dumbledore knew what the man had done to obtain the mark, and still let him work among children?!

"How do I know if you are telling the truth?" Minerva had to ask that question if only to give the benefit of doubt.

"Ask the ones you call the Unspeakables. But Subject Severus Snape must die."

"Even so, please let him live, if only he can serve his sentence behind bars if he is genuinely guilty." Minerva tried to reason with them. The attacker looked back at her for some time before the magic circles disappeared from the palms and they lowered their arms.

"We will let him live for now, but we will watch carefully." The armoured being took a few steps away, pausing to look at the cut off arm. With a wave of the hand, the arm burst into flames along with the wand, reduced completely to ashes. They looked at her one more time. "We will be leaving. Do not follow." The cloak moved before it split to form large wings that made them look like an angel emissary. Then with a quick flap, the armoured being went straight up and quickly vanished into the night sky, leaving Minerva with an injured Severus and an unconscious Dumbledore among the burning wreckage, with questions and doubt on her mind.

And no Harry Potter to show for the effort.