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Paris was burning. They'd pursued Voldemort there. Following the explosions as he teleported. I strongly suspected he was destroying himself in one location and recreating himself in another. Voldemort started his firestorm in the center of Paris.
People were ripped off their feet and torn into the blaze. Asphalt melted as the city burned. Some people sunk down even as others had the oxygen ripped from their lungs by the fire. It was so hot. Harry couldn't keep up with his spells. Harry had to duck out as the man made natural disaster took its course.
Dumbledore suggested lifting the rivers to help combat the blaze but Harry talked him out of it. They both needed to be at full strength to take on Voldemort. Divided or weakened we would lose. Either of them would. Or at least it wasn't the guarantee that both of them together was. Together they could destroy him.
So they watched the city burn from a hill in the suburbs. A young girl and her mother passed them and the young girl asked "Are we getting dead yet?"
Harry swore over the sound of the fire storm. Harry vowed to make Voldemort pay for this. Harry would. Harry wasn't sure when or how but Harry would make him regret this.
Dumbledore was crying softly. He was crying as he watched civilians burn.
It hadn't been like this since the second world war. Voldemort last time had kept a lower profile than this. He hadn't burned cities to the ground just because he could.
Harry wondered briefly if being a spirit had driven him mad in part. It was certainly possible. The wraith which had been Voldemort was a loose collection of memories and shattered soul pieces. Without a fluid connection from the top of the Sephiroth to the lower portions who knows what would happen to the mind. That connection needed to be stable for magic to occur and for a person to retain their personality. Without it… well. Just look out over the melting city.
Harry gathered Dumbledore in his arms and helped him to his feet once the fire died down. It took hours and citizens were combatting the blaze. Already from the french ministry obliviators were at work to hide the evidence of Voldemort.
But there was nothing to be done. Voldemort wasn't here anymore. He could be in an entirely different city in an entirely different country and repeating what he had done. Dumbledore moaned at the loss and in empathy. Harry steadied him.
"Sir? What happens now?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore collected enough of himself to answer. "We fight, Harry. We gather our strength. Voldemort will gather his."
"Azkaban," Harry interpreted.
"That and others. I shall need my order. You will need your friends. No man is an island and we cannot do this alone. We can't be everywhere at once. Voldemort can and will be everywhere we are not. We can only do so much. He'll do it again. London. Or Berlin. Perhaps as far east as Kyiv or Moscow. His reach shall be long and many shall perish. Fire, young man. He always had a talent for fire."
"He was destroying himself in one location and recreating himself in another," Harry observed.
"Yes. Who knows what kinds of powers he has accumulated since he fell last. Hogwarts and Beauxbatons should be safe. Voldemort won't risk alienating all of the wizards and witches and his allies. That's why he struck here. Paris had a low magi population relative to its size. Especially compared to Cannes."
"I'll go back to Beauxbatons. What will you do?" Harry asked.
"I'll start to gather my order. That's all I can do. This surely cost Voldemort some strength. Most cities are fire resistant. He must have put a lot of effort in to burn Paris. It isn't free for him. It costs him something. Additionally if it were so easy for him to do this he would have done it last time. He's declaring war on the muggles."
"Nucleics," Harry gesticulated.
Dumbledore shook his head. "He won't use muggle weapons. He'll use his magic and that of his allies. We must be careful. You especially."
"I'll be safe. Or as safe as I can be. We need a plan to trap him."
"I wonder…" Dumbledore scratched his beard. "Perhaps I can do something about that. I'll have to consider it closely."
"Do that," Harry agreed. "I'll put some thought into it too and we'll come up with something. I will go now. I must see Daphne safe."
"You love her," it wasn't phrased as a question. And it wasn't. Harry just nodded.
"She has my cloak. I trust her completely."
Dumbledore smiled softly at Harry. "I told you to keep it yourself."
"I would rather Daphne had it. It isn't your decision."
Dumbledore nodded, noting that. "Be careful, Harry. Don't do anything rash. Beware your weaknesses especially now."
"Daphne isn't a weakness. She's a strength. I draw strength from her. I mean that literally and metaphorically."
Dumbledore bowed his head. "Very well. I shall leave it to your judgment."
Harry bowed back. It was true the quickest way to harm Harry was through Daphne. But it took a different kind of strength and a different kind of potence to be vulnerable. That was the difference between himself and Voldemort. Voldemort didn't allow himself such weaknesses as another person represented. That would be too much. If Harry had any saving grace it would be through Daphne. It was a soft spot in his heart.
Harry apparated away.
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When he arrived at Beauxbaton it was to a mess of buildings. The library du Flamel had been torched. The guest quarters were in shambles. The high glass ceiling of the hall had been shattered. Harry brushed past all of that and the stares he received. People's eyes were wide. They were scared. Harry ignored everyone and made his way to the Hogwarts Express. He found Daphne there in the room she modified. She stood and embraced him deeply when he entered. There were others there. Lisa, Michael, Susan, and Ernie. They were all there. Harry frowned over Daphne's head at them. He took them all in as they stared at him. When it was time to look away it wasn't Harry who dropped his gaze.
"Voldemort is back. He built a body using the sorcerer's stone," Harry murmured. His voice carried to them all.
"It's like that, then?" Susan asked. Harry just nodded. Susan brushed her plait back and remained sitting.
"Voldemort burned Paris. The city remains but its heart is gone. He burned it out and killed thousands. Tens of thousands. He's declaring war on the muggles." Harry elaborated.
Daphne looked up at him with big wet blue eyes. Harry stroked her hair and put her face back into his breast.
"What will we do?" Ernie asked.
"You? Nothing. Voldemort is not your enemy. Why should you fight him?" Ernie bit his cheeks at Harry's words.
"I want him to be my enemy," Michael announced. "He's my enemy even if he doesn't know it."
Harry nodded in agreement.
"This war will be something else. It won't be like the great war or world war two. It will mostly be wizards fighting other wizards. Voldemort will have his allies. He'll attempt to bring down the wizarding governments of th eworld to his own ends. He'll kill muggles because he wants them to die. Dumbledore is already gathering his order to oppose him. For us, the young who will inherit this world, it fall on us to make a decision. What kind of world do we want this to be?"
They were all quiet. They glanced at each other.
Susan stood. "You know who killed my family. I oppose him. I want a peaceful world between wizards and muggles. I don't want you know who to win."
"I can guide you. For now go to your classes. In all likelihood the tournament is canceled. We'll be heading back to Britain," Harry informed them all.
"What shall you do?" Daphne asked him.
"I'll oppose Voldemort and hi sallies. As best as I am able. I'll follow Dumbledore's lead. He knows better than I do. He has opposed Voldemort before and he fought Grindelwald. He has better experience than me."
"I need to write to my aunt. Excuse me." Susan excused herself and left.
Harry nodded and let her go.
"I should write to my family too…" Ernie trailed off. "Just to let them know I'm alright."
"Of course you should. You all should. I doubt Voldemort hurt any Magi today. He wouldn't risk it but your families don't know that." Harry dismissed them all and held Daphne in his arms.
[You should write to your mother.] Harry entered Daphne's mind and informed her. She stepped out of his arms and he let her go.
We'll talk later? Her eyes asked him.
"Of course," He answered aloud and within her at the same time. She shuddered as his words reverberated inside her. She bobbed her head and left for the owlery. She took his cloak with her. The silvery material in her fingers. Harry let them all go. He sat down and began to think. He needed to come up with something which would force Voldemort into a well warded area. Some place he wouldn't want to leave. Couldn't, even. There were only a handful of places like that. Hogwarts perhaps. Azkaban for another. That was assuming the citadel hadn't already fallen. That would be one of the first places Voldemort would target. Harry held the welder wand in his fingers and thought closely. Dumbledore had something. The beginnings of an idea. Who knows how far that would go. And assuming the old man could be trusted. He believed Harry would live if Voldemort attempted to kill him but there was no guarantee. Something needed to be done about the piece of Voldemort's soul which resided within him. He had to kill someone. It needed to be murder. There was no other way.
Someone hand him a shovel because he was going in. He needed to reverse this and comprehend the source of Voldemort's immortality. He couldn't be allowed to return to a wraith either. His body being destroyed again would be progress of a kind but it wouldn't be enough.
And who was to say that Voldemort didn't have multiple horcruxes? He most assuredly did. Intentional ones instead of whatever the fuck Harry was. He needed to be careful. Especially now that Voldemort had a body again. Possession would be… bad. In a word it would be bad. The soul within had to be his own. He needed to rip it free and destroy it.
There was so much to do. So much research to be done. How would he destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul even if he did murder someone. And Daphne didn't need to know. None of the details at least. She needed to know Voldemort was immortal but not how or why. Amortal maybe. Sometimes we know what we have to do. Deep in our bones.
Research and destroy. Those were his goals.
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-WG