Whether Beautiful Destruction becomes a full story is still up in the air...but I'm sure you'll like this other potential Potterverse/Nasuverse crossover. As with Love and War, it's primarily a Fate/Apocrypha crossover with Harry being paired with a Fate/Extra character. Unlike Love and War, there's no WBWL elements, little bashing of Potterverse characters (save for some retrospective bashing of Dumbledore), Harry doesn't get a Servant, ends up having to babysit Jeanne, and there's no extra Servants. Wait, what? No extra Servants? How can this be? Well, I took the same trope I used for the possible story King of His Heart and the published story Knight of Betrayal and Taiga Cub...and applied it to another Saberface character. No prizes for guessing who that is, but if you need a hint...well, it's obvious, umu!

OF EMPRESSES, SAINTS, HEROES AND WIZARDS

CHAPTER 1:

REVIVAL

The lovely young woman looked at the bottle of liquid dubiously. Tears ran down her face from beautiful pale green eyes. "Umu…so, you say that if I drink this, I will fall into a slumber I may never wake from?"

"Yes. We will keep your body safe and hidden, princeps. Perhaps one day, when the infamy around your reign has ended, you can be awoken, and find what you seek. Otherwise, you will be in the embrace of Somnus forever, until Mors takes you into Pluto's embrace. But the enchantments on that potion will keep you alive while you slumber, perhaps even as long as your august great-uncle Claudius' memoirs(1)."

The woman smiled sadly. "I never truly agreed with what Mother did to him, feeding him those mushrooms. I liked him. Uncle Cl-Cl-Claudius, wiser than he seemed. I think he knew what she intended, and ate them anyway. I didn't understand why until now. I don't regret being an emperor…but to be an emperor is to walk a tightrope. I can see why he wrote those scrolls and buried them. Umu…well, this seems like a medicine for all my ills. No more headaches, perhaps the best night's sleep I have had for years…even if it may never end. Qualis artifex pereo. What an artist perishes with me." With that, she drank the bottle, grimaced at the taste, and then lay back on the bed.

The man who gave her the bottle then took off his cloak, and draped it over her body. "Umu…too late," the woman said quietly, her voice beginning to slur as her eyes drooped shut. "This…is…loyalty…"

And then, her eyes closed. Soon, there would be rejoicing at the death of a tyrant, by suicide. History would distort the matter, by claiming that she was actually a man, and that she had perished by suicide using a sword. In truth, it was a lonely girl, one who once stood astride the known world, now lying, dead, at the age of thirty, at a time of her life when she should have been enjoying it. It seemed like a beautiful flame had been snuffed from the world. In truth, the flame was being kept hidden, away from eyes that would judge her.

Her empire rose, then crumbled and fell. The religion she had been pressured to persecute became a dominant power in the world, and the Roman gods died off. Her life was twisted and distorted into the history books, not bothering to try and learn more about the person behind the history.

But the rose of Rome, the Flower of Olympia, would bloom once again, and have a second chance…

The darkness was very much Stygian, an almost physical thing that filled space, Harry reflected as they moved through the catacombs underneath Rome. This was probably his first major work for Gringotts as a cursebreaker, having done more minor jobs, effectively apprenticing under Bill and Fleur, once Britain had gotten too much for the three of them. Too much fame and infamy, not enough privacy or space to spread his wings, so to speak.

Oddly enough, this cursebreaker work was done not in Egypt or the Middle East, which was where most of Gringotts' operations happened, but deep beneath Rome. He felt a little ill at ease doing this, as it meant leaving the Delacours' estates, and thus his seclusion. Then again, Gabby was getting a bit too clingy lately. He much preferred that Squib friend of hers, Laeticia, and even then, he wasn't sure he liked her religious ways. Laeticia wasn't truly pushy with her religion, but she and Harry had had a number of disagreements about God and His existence or lack thereof.

Still, this was surprisingly interesting. They were currently looking through what was once the mausoleum of the Domitii Ahenobarbi, or rather, a deep, hidden part of it, which had been heavily warded off. And having just broken through those rather nasty wards, he and Bill were currently making their way through the passageway very carefully.

The reason for the significance of this find was that this mausoleum had been the burial place of the former Emperor Nero. Nero's birth name, according to Hermione (who did consultancy work with them when she wasn't working at Clock Tower, of all places!), was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. Nero was just part of his regnal name, the name he took to rule. So this was a potentially interesting find, if only because they might be able to find the mortal remains of Nero.

Thinking back to Hermione, Harry wondered how she was doing working with Magi. Magi were considerably more amoral than wizards, at least in general, and their magic, while more customisable than wizarding magic and more energy efficient, was also much harder to use. She lucked out in becoming an assistant to Lord El-Melloi II, one of the more progressive Magi, but still, it was hard for her to advance, though at least Magi were more meritocratic than wizards. To some degree, anyway.

Ron had married Luna, and already, they had a few kids. Harry, however, was content to lead a single life, at least for now. He needed to find a woman who would fall in love with him for reasons other than his fame or finances.

As they made their way through the dark passages, lit only by Lumos spells, Bill asked, "Did you ever hear of the Nero Redivivus legends?'

"No, and I get the feeling you're going to tell me," Harry snarked.

"Hmm. Supposedly, Nero was said to still be alive, having fled to Parthia, part of what's now called Iran. There were certainly many impostors. A bit like the pretenders claiming to be one of the Princes in the Tower during Henry VII's reign. Some Biblical scholars who link Nero to the Beast from the Book of Revelations point to that legend as part of it." Bill frowned to himself. "That being said…all those wards…you wouldn't put those up just to protect treasure. They weren't particularly dark or malicious like some of the Egyptian ones, though many of those were Egyptian, as well as Greek, Roman, even some old Etruscan stuff. It was more like stuff meant to deter people rather than kill them."

"But why?" Harry asked.

"Good question, to which I don't know the answer. And it's not the sort of thing to lure people into a false sense of security, either. Romans tended to go for overkill when they warded tombs, taking after the Egyptians. If a would-be tomb raider wasn't turned into giblets, then it definitely wasn't enough," Bill remarked. "Ah, we're here."

They ended up in a chamber that, oddly enough, seemed rather different to the other tombs they passed through. It seemed…oddly grander somehow, even if that grandeur had faded. However, the main feature their eyes were, understandably, drawn to was the glass-covered bier. After all, it had a body on it, seemingly fresh, despite the age of the mausoleum.

Bill frowned, looking at the inscriptions that were displayed in both Latin and Greek, the latter language actually being a lingua franca in Rome. "…Here lies Lucia Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was known by her regal name of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the fifth Imperator of Rome. Here she sleeps in rest eternal, until the time has come for her to wake once more," he translated.

"Sounds a bit messianic," Harry said, frowning as he peered at the woman on the bier. "But Nero was a guy, wasn't he?"

"…Actually, there's a few sources, earlier than Suetonius, that claim that Nero was a woman," Bill said. "They're not generally known to Muggle scholars. Apparently King Arthur and Mordred were women too, according to the writings of Merlin."

Harry's frown deepened as he peered at the young woman lying on the bier. She seemed to be in her twenties, utterly beautiful, if somewhat short. Her hair was a beautiful golden colour, with a little cowlick sticking out like an antenna, her braiding making it look like she was wearing a laurel wreath the same colour as her hair. She was dressed in a red, vaguely militaristic dress with epaulettes, though her dress also showed a wonderful view of her cleavage…and a transparent front to her skirt showed her legs…and her underwear. This was Nero? The infamous tyrannical emperor? He could even see dried tear tracks on her face. She looked like no demon empress, but rather, a fallen angel.

"How come she's so well-preserved?" Harry asked. "Is there a stasis charm or something on the bier?"

"Maybe…but I'm detecting some other charms," Bill said, waving his wand. "Regenerative charms…her body's about your age now, Harry, but she was thirty when she committed suicide. She's alive, though she's also in stasis. Huh…something not unlike the Draught of Living Death. Keeping her in a state not unlike a coma, but without causing muscle wastage or anything. The potion must have been expensive to create if it's like that."

"…Can she be woken? Should she?"

Bill chewed at his lip. "…We don't know how much Nero's personal history was distorted by people like Suetonius. Apparently Nero was very popular with the common citizens, though the upper classes were another matter, and of course there were the Christians. And, well, for all we know, she's not actually Nero, just one of his family put to rest here. But Nero was not known to have any real magical powers. I am detecting magic circuits, albeit only a few, so she does have some magical ability…and her body is surprisingly well-conditioned. You'd call it superhuman in other contexts. But there's no records of her ever using superhuman abilities, save perhaps while competing in the arena or at the Olympics. Still…I think we should wake her. She's no revenant or Inferius, and I think that we were lucky that we have translation charms capable of speaking in Ancient Greek or Roman Latin."

"Not that it hasn't stopped Hermione from trying to cram that shit into my head," Harry grumbled mutinously.

"Just get ready to Stun her if she does prove belligerent," Bill said, before beginning the spell, stopping only to place a translation charm on them both. The glass bier seemed to fade away partway through, and then, the woman's chest began to move up and down, her breathing soft. Then, her eyes opened.

They were green, like his own. No, not quite. Compared to his deep emerald, they were paler green. They were still as beautiful as the rest of her.

She sat up, gingerly, and then looked at the pair of them. Eventually, she said, in what turned out to be Ancient Greek, "…What strange garments Mors and his attendant have…or are you mortal men?"

"We are wizards, ma'am," Bill said. "You've been sleeping for a long time. A very long time."

"Umu…I feel like it," the woman said. She swung her legs down off the bier, and stood, swaying a little, but managing to keep her balance. She then winced and clutched her head. "Well, this is certainly not Elysium, for I would be free of the migraines my dearest mother inflicted on me. It feels too comfortable to be Tartarus…and I daresay that Asphodel would be considerably more duller. Then again, it would either be Elysium or Tartarus that awaited me, not the grey wastes of Asphodel! For I would be too great to waste away with the faceless denizens of that land!" She then began coughing as her hamminess abused a throat not used for nearly two millennia.

Harry, despite fearing that this woman could be one of Rome's most infamous rulers, went over to her, holding her as she coughed. What he saw was a young woman in distress. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, it just seems my voice, like all great instruments due to time and tide, has…rusted a little," the woman said. She looked at him, and smiled, her smile radiant, like the sun, even in the dark chamber, lit only by Lumos spells. "My thanks to you, wizard. To you both. I had feared that my internment would progress to my crossing the River Styx."

"You're welcome," Bill said. "But…what is your name? I mean, there's a name on this bier, but we were…confused, as you are considered by most sources to have been a man."

"A man? Umu, what a strange form of damnatio memoriae," the woman remarked, looking bemused. "Then again, perhaps they couldn't stand the thought of a woman leading them. I do know many of my statues were smashed, and statues of a cousin of mine were shown off instead. Well, I should introduce myself then." And then, she gestured, as if she was an actor on the stage, or milking a giant cow. "Only one ruler blossoms with the stars of her scintillating sword. She is the Emperor of Roses, whose hands are as elegant and beautiful as they are talented! With the melody of the Muses themselves, her sword does sing! With the strength and heat of Vulcan's forge does her very heart roar! She has the strength of Hercules, the mind of Minerva, and the beauty of Venus! Feel privileged, then, to stand in the presence of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus!"

Harry stared, before he looked at Bill. "Is it me, or does she make Lockhart look humble?" he asked in English. That provoked a laugh from Bill. Still, Harry had just helped revive one of the more controversial Roman emperors…only, she was a woman.

It looked like the infamously variable Potter Luck had struck again…

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

Yes, it has.

1. This is a reference to Robert Graves' I, Claudius, which purports to be based on an autobiography of Claudius' life and times, written on scrolls in Greek and preserved to be uncovered in nearly two millennia, according to a Sibyll's prophecy. That being said, Claudius and Nero had a better relationship than what was portrayed in the sequel Claudius the God. Here, Claudius, while highly suspicious of Agrippina, nonetheless had a fairly good relationship with Nero, though he didn't allow her, as stated in Nasuverse source material, into high offices.