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: Prologue for Master of Death (Part 1)
Posted Date: September 11 2022
Tags: Master of Death Harry Potter, Time Travel, Overpowered Harry, Possible hints of Crack, Bad Dumbledore, Canon Goblins (More Listed Below)
Challenge(s): (Listed at the bottom)
The world was burning.
Buildings were ruined.
Bodies were scorched.
The earth was cracking under the stress of all that had been laid upon it from years of abuse.
If one were to the landscape before them, they would say that it was the very picture of the apocalypse. Buildings destroyed with the few intact leaning on their sides, fires and smoke sprouting from cracks in the earth, whatever vegetation was there have been dried out and turned ash-white from both the flames and the ashes of whatever was burning.
That was, if anyone was actually alive in this hellscape for the past 75 years.
Among the wreckage, a lone figure made his way through the burning rubble, uncaring of the smoke and the charred corpses lying about. The figure did not even flinch when his foot crushed the arm of a petrified body and reduced it to ashes from the agitation. He moved on to a building that could have been a place of importance but was now reduced to rubble, pausing briefly to look at it before moving to an opening in the wall and slowly descending to the depths below. It did not take long for him to reach the underground levels that showed more ruined offices and blocks, along with the remains of what used to be a fountain feature made of solid gold. The man walked past that and ruined elevator shafts to go to another big hole in the ground, not pausing as he dropped off the edge and slid off the rubble until he hit the next level.
He continued with this routine until he came to a room that was somewhat more intact than the rest of the building. Not by much given the huge cracks in the walls and the spells that used to protect this room had long faded to time, but it was clear that much care had been given to this room to maintain the structure and the doors. The man moved to one of the doors and walked through it, taking a moment to sneer at one of the few shelves still standing that had crystal balls on them, and then through another crack to a room that appeared to be the only one still in relatively good shape compared to anything in the general area. The room itself was a sunken stone pit roughly 20 feet deep with benches scattered all around it with descending steps like an amphitheater, only this was colder and less welcoming. Scattered about the room were tables with a mix of mechanical equipment and thick tomes coated in dust, with no specific order to the madness.
In the middle of the room, upon a raised stone dais, stood a tall stone archway that was so ancient that it looked ready to crumble, with a tattered black curtain lightly swaying and fluttering as though there was a breeze despite being underground. About the base were cables connected to it with a computer doing something and a big generator that looked like it was put together with whatever available parts he could grab his hands on. Every once in the while, the curtain floated up and down with the light coming off it. It was here that the figure walked to, stopping in front of the archway as the ends of the curtain floated to him, seemingly inviting him to come closer. The figure reached up to remove the hood, revealing a young man roughly in his late thirties with a notable stubble and long messy hair reaching down the neck, a few light scars on his face with a faded lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead, and a pair of emerald green eyes that looked older than it should as he looked upon the archway.
"A few more minutes, and it will be over." The man muttered with a voice that sounded unused for many years.
It had been roughly 75 years since everything went to hell in a hen basket. And while Harry Potter had forgotten how long it was precisely, he still remembered how much of it came about.
After the mess that was the second wizard war, Harry had hoped that he did not need to fight again and fade into obscurity, to be left alone from all that had happened. But that was denied as everyone kept trying to drag him into the limelight, forgetting that they had condemned, judged and cursed at him for the many things he had no control over during his time at Hogwarts and his time on the run. Some of the more problematic people kept trying to sink their fangs into him to leech off his fame and fortune. That was one of the reasons he had a falling out with the Weasleys; Ginny did not bother understanding why he did not want to go to parties and lavish from the outpouring of gifts and praises, nor why he did not want to continue where they left off from their brief stint at a relationship. Ron had once again let the fame and fortune get to his head and went about trying to retell their history in a manner that portrayed himself as the lead who did the work instead of Harry. Molly kept pushing for marriage between him and Ginny, tending to shriek out when he refused. Arthur was more or less just following what his wife was doing instead of acting as the head of house as he should. Bill and Charlie were not around so he would not know how they would feel, although they may choose to stick with the family on their part.
Percy was a surprising one; while they would never be friends, the former Head Boy and Ministry brownnoser apparently tried to be a bridge to act in between, but he was slightly siding with Harry given all that had happened over the war. He had even confided with Harry on how he wanted to get away from it all for some peace and quiet, and was looking into leaving the country soon given what was going on in the restructuring of the Ministry. It was honestly shocking that the former Ministry brown-noser who had once sided with the likes of Umbridge had become so disgusted with his home country that he would try his luck across the pond.
George was the only one of the family that had maintained contact with him since he understood the pain that Harry had endured. He never fully returned to his old self after Fred's death, and it took Harry and Angelica to get George moving forward to avoid worrying if he did not pick their calls. He was also the one who supported him in leaving the general area and helped in whatever manner possible when Ginny, Ron or Molly kept trying to get to Harry.
Hermione was a disappointment in the making. Even with the facts facing her and all that had happened over the years, she still wished to cling on to the idea that authority was to be obeyed without question, and she was still stubborn on some of the mistakes she had made and not apologize. She kept harping on Harry to marry Ginny, join the Aurors, essentially planning out his entire life without any input from him. Harry eventually silenced her and gave her a major rant about all she had been doing before kicking her out of Grimmauld's Place along with the Weasleys except for George.
Andromeda was not in a forgiving mood, what with her daughter having died in the battle and leaving behind a child who would likely be discriminated against for his lineage to Remus Lupin and the small possibility that he would inherit traits if not transform into an actual werewolf in the future. While Harry was the designated godfather, she made it clear she did not want him around for quite a while. Harry was saddened by it but understood that she was venting her grief and anger, and truthfully he was not sure if he was even sane enough to care for a child after all of this. He would at least ensure that the child was well taken care of at a distance.
What really broke the back for Harry was the trials that came roughly 2 months after the war. One would think with all that had happened, they would have invoked heavier punishments for all involved. While the old guard for the Death Eaters were summarily judged guilty and sentenced to the Veil or the Dementors Kiss, the latest generation were a contender for the masses. Some argued that they had to be Imperioused or forced into service, while the majority, particularly the hardliners or those who had been attacked by the younger generation, were baying for their blood for all that they had done to them or their children. A good number were sent to Azkaban for life, but a few were still allowed to walk free, all because they ran out of Veritaserum and they did not bother with oaths to test for truths and loyalties. Some of those who follow Dumbledore kept preaching second chances, and so some of the new generation Death Eaters were able to walk out of the Ministry as free men or women, even if they were under watch. It also did not help that there were unmarked supporters willing to play the long game and stay hidden until then.
Harry argued loudly with some of those who let them free, but Kingsley who had become the interim Minister at the time clearly demonstrated his devotion to Dumbledore and showed a case of "Cornelius Fudge Syndrome" by telling Harry that he was to learn to forgive and that he should accept that pure-bloods were better than him, a half-blood, not to mention that Harry should be supporting the Ministry at that time by becoming an Auror as Dumbledore had evidently told them.
Harry's answer to that? A completely blown up office, two corridors and atrium, along with bruised bodies of Aurors who attempted to strongarm him into compliance. Kingsley got the special treatment of being hung from his ankles while showing what he wore under the robes, along with a blown up recording all over the Ministry, Diagon Alley and Hogwarts over what he had said and done during his time in the Order of the Phoenix, including certain actions that would see him not get elected in the coming term.
Harry swore off Britain at that point and left the country, but not before getting into his vaults and emptying them of their contents. While he may have settled the issue of breaking into Gringotts with the goblins, the creatures were still pissed with all that had gone on and kept trying to find ways to stop him from accessing the gold for "reparations". And Harry did not want the Ministry or anyone else getting their hands on his family legacy after all he had to go through with Dumbledore, Voldemort and all the other people.
Thankfully, he had obtained a fair amount of gold due to Rights of Conquests over the war, so he granted the goblins with all the goblin items in exchange for his vault. He remembered to grab shrinking trunks with expansion spells to get everything in, and then made sure that whatever properties he had was sealed away, and ensured that he got citizenship from another country before ending his British Citizenship. All of this was done in the nick of time as the Ministry decided to try and stop him from leaving the country while getting to his vaults, one method being to tie him down in marriage with a pureblood witch. The only thing they got was an empty vault with a single letter describing the type of stupidity they have with enough vocabulary to rival a sailor, with copies made to the Quibbler and international newspapers. That just made Magical Britain the laughing stock of the magical world as the other countries made it clear that they would be watching the country very carefully. Not helped when the British Muggle Queen found out about it and was very angry at all that had happened under her nose and the circumstances that had forced one of her subjects fleeing for asylum.
For some time, Harry went to other countries to enjoy life while dodging mercenaries and Aurors sent to force him back to Britain, thankfully he was aided by the people of the other countries who made it very hard for those after Harry. Harry had to laugh when he heard how some of these people sent the Aurors and mercenaries on wild goose chases and even profited by granting them fake leads to go to different areas. It probably helped Harry's case when he suggested to Neville in a letter to ask for the services of a shaman from Australia to look at his parents, and within a month, got a reply from a very happy Neville that his parents had greatly improved compared to the twenty years they had been under. Neville and the others who believed in him and understood his issues with the government had no problem uprooting themselves to move to other countries and telling the Ministry to leave them alone.
During this period though, Harry read the different newspapers around the world and watched how Magical Britain was imploding from all that had happened. It said something that a good number of muggleborns and half-bloods followed Harry into leaving the country and taking up a secondary citizenship to get away from it all, but a worrying trend was coming up from these episodes. While the pureblood movement had been all but eradicated by that point, there were some overseas who were taking up the reins left by Voldemort and Grindelwald, and there were more attacks to the muggles than usual. What little he had gathered at that time suggested some of the wizards had been doing muggle baiting for some fun, but tensions were getting very bad.
It was roughly 3 years after his departure from Britain when Harry read the news about a wizard getting caught on camera while robbing a bank with a few guards injured. Somehow he was not surprised that it would be a British wizard that got into trouble. The Obliviators tried to suppress the news, but the recording went world wide and everyone was suddenly able to spot odd incidents going about with people suddenly losing memories and other things. Satellite images of buildings and castles in areas previously thought untouched fuelled the conspiracies, and then more people got attacked by wizards who saw this as a reason to hunt down those beneath them.
It barely took a few weeks before the Statue collapsed and the muggles went on a witch hunt like none of the magicals had seen before.
Muggleborns were the first to be attacked, the majority were young children who started displaying accidental magic at a young age or already doing magical studies. While some parents were okay with them, most were afraid or nasty like the Dursleys or the matron from Tom Riddle's Orphanage and saw them as the spawn of the Devil that needed to be "cleansed". Quite a number were sent to labs to be studied by the scientists, some of the less ethical having less compunctions to do more invasive procedures. Some of the muggleborn adults were in the odd position where they would either be attacked or to work with the muggles, the more disgruntled would do the latter while a number of the former refused to give up their friends from the magical side.
Purebloods were the second to be hunted, not helped by how many were ignorant to the trends of muggles or how much disdain they have towards anyone who were not magicals. And that led to a big and public revealing incident that had both sides firing either guns or spells at each other, all caught on camera and televised.
Magical creatures were found with a few captured for studying and attempts to replicate the abilities in some twisted rendition of Jurassic Park. Some rich man funding those works even quoted "Spare no expense" as he watched a Nundu get dissected with the young cubs being isolated in cages.
It was honestly a mess, and it was a mess which led to Harry learning of his new abilities.
He was in the tropics, roughly 7 years after he left Britain, Harry was getting groceries for his hideaway when several witch hunters appeared and started attacking a group of children who were unable to cast their magic when one of the hunters employed something to render them useless. His habit of saving people kicked in and Harry went swinging with a chair and some planks of wood. He was doing fine until one of the hunters took out a gun and shot him right in the gut, sending him over the railing and into the water below where he stayed under for longer than he should.
He should have died that day.
Instead, he became something more.
It felt like he was in a limbo, seeing rough images of people in different settings. Some were at peace, others were being attacked or at war. But no matter where or what, all had one thing in common.
Death.
Harry would wake up from whatever place he was to find himself washed up on some solid ground a few miles away from where he fell into the water, and for whatever reason, he had the wand, the stone, and a certain cloak on him.
The Three Deathly Hallows. Something he believed to no longer be valid given that he had lost the stone and snapped the Elder Wand after the battle. Even as he examined himself, the items in questions glowed and seemingly sinked inside his body without a trace.
Harry spent the next week trying to gather as much material as he could to understand what was happening to him while monitoring the situation about the world collapsing around him. He only had the Tales of Beedle the Bard as a reference from his time on the run, and he was a little reluctant to involve Xeno Lovegood given what had happened before. Intellectually, he knew the man was desperate to save Luna. Emotionally, he would stay away for the time being.
It took him a while but he got it from texts he read in other countries. It was surprising how prominent the symbol of the Hallows was in other cultures despite originating from England, the items themselves sometimes deviating from a wand, stone and cloak, with the sole common factor being that it was in regards to death. What was a little concerning to him were the common opinions that whosoever possesses the three symbols shall become the Master of Death, and based on the Asian and Egyptian texts, he would be an avatar for the aspect of Death regardless of culture.
There were also references to rituals that were in regards to combat between the two mortal enemies similar to Rights of Conquest with the winner gaining the spoils of the losing side, but this dealt with extending the lifespan of the winner. Harry did not like how much his final battle with Voldemort was similar to the ritual described in the text he had found, especially in regards to the soul shard that had been left in his scar for so long.
Harry did not dwell on it long as the witch hunt was getting worse. The muggles had managed to study magic enough to create nullifying zones to remove magic in certain areas, and within those areas, the magical beings were effectively culled without mercy. If it were regular humans or beings like the goblins, they would be mowed down like weeds and then taken for dissection, but that may be a nicer fate compared to beings like the Veela or Sirens as some of the more depraved have designs for them.
Harry had to intervene at that point, his first appearance in the magical world a long while being in France to protect the Veela Enclave from being invaded by the muggle army. Both sides certainly did not expect a man in a dark cloak to suddenly appear in the air and slamming into the ground, followed shortly by the earth splitting to swallow a majority of the invaders before spikes of stone and flames erupted to skewer the rest. The few survivors from that attack would flee the scene with stories of the grim reaper having appeared to aid the Veela, each one getting more outlandish.
For Harry though, he was more worried about one Fleur Delacour descending on him like a bird of prey, followed shortly by a very grown up Gabrielle who literally tackled him to the ground once she heard of his arrival.
After some admonishment from the two and some more hugging, Harry learned what had gone on from Fleur who had evidently divorced from Bill roughly 2 years after his departure to raise her daughter away from Britain that had predictably gone stupid from all the crap. It did not help that Molly and Ginerva kept on disparaging her even after all she had done to save Bill while the man himself did not put up much of an argument. Bill even tried to get her to stop working to be a housewife, something that Harry already knew was not to be said to the proud French Veela. The relationship between Hermione and Fleur could be described as cool at best, and Fleur had taken umbrage on his behalf regarding the muggle-born's constant lecturing at him.
It was only lucky that Britain had that xenophobia issue that they allowed her to take back her daughter, otherwise matters would have gone worse.
But he was right in intervening with the assault as the army was not giving up on attacking the enclave. During his brief trip inside the enemy camp undetected, Harry was sorely tempted to use a few choice curses and hexes on the men who laughed out ideas on what they would do with them before getting handed over to the scientists. He made sure to mark them so that he could find them and end them justifiably.
After the third raid within the month he stayed outside of the enclave and the continued news of magicals being attacked, Harry had enough of this and decided to get a touch more proactive.
The first thing he did was to turn the entire region around the Veela Enclave into a giant chasm to deter foot soldiers before manipulating the weather to create what would be a category 5 tornado to cover the area with the enclave safe within the eye of the storm. It looked a lot like his movies where nature decided to rampage against humanity and Harry had to admit that it was very impressive seeing what might be considered an act of god punishing the muggles with his might.
After ensuring their safety and checking on other enclaves, Harry went to the general area where he knew the Bermuda triangle was. With his newfound power and knowledge, he manipulated the tectonic plates beneath the ocean to generate the magma required to create a series of islands big enough to house a few thousands at the least, along with smaller islands meant for obsidian pillars with runes inscribed to ward off the entirely new archipelago from any enemies. Finally, he created one more island to serve as the arrival point for all the people to come and be processed, ensuring that no one who practiced the stupid blood bigotry or those seeking to harm the people would be allowed into the new place. It took him the better part of a week to create the islands from scratch, and it was definitely big enough to be seen from space and the satellites for that matter, but he was able to prepare a sanctuary for the magical beings. He felt proud of his creation even as he sent out messages to certain people he could count on.
A new Avalon for all the magicals.
This was meant to be a fresh start for all, he would not have the same mistakes that sent them into this mess happening again.
Within the next couple of weeks, wizards, witches and all manner of magical beings started to appear on the island to be vetted. A number of them had tracking charms attached which were deactivated and removed before they could continue on to the islands which have segregated accordingly. There were a good number who complained about not going through but they could not help their dark hearts or intentions that kept tripping the wards he had in place. The rest were able to move quickly and Harry did glimpse a few of his old friends before they moved on. Some greeted him just fine, a few had a few choice words with him which he could care less about.
Luna was… well, Luna. That was the only way he could describe the now young woman expecting a child in the few months while she was surrounded by dozens of magical creatures like some Disney princess.
Still no Crumple Horned Snorkack.
As much as he would love to talk to his genuine friends, he had to deal with the muggles getting more intense with their hunts. And it would appear that the muggleborns who had originally joined their services had started outliving their usefulness if the recent culling among their ranks and visits to the autopsy table were of any indication. Harry went about trying to find said muggleborns to see if they were genuinely forced into the service, or just angry at the wizarding world to get some revenge, with the former allowed to go to Neo Avalon while the latter get a fitting punishment depending on their actions.
It was roughly a couple of years after raising the islands and during one of his raids that he got a blast from the past, and what, or rather who, he found was something that had perhaps broken whatever faith he had left in his past life.
He had known of the young woman's contempt for anything that offended her sense of order and authority, but he would not have imagined Hermione Granger to be aiding the muggles to hunt down the magicals. All her work was focused on bypassing all the spells that would allow magicals to hide from the muggles and also to deal maximum damage by combining magic to modern weaponry. Harry had to wonder why she was doing this and a small part of him really hoped that she was forced into this line of business, so he waited for her to be alone in her apartment and asleep before he could stun her and then look into her mind.
Turns out he was so wrong about her.
Hermione Granger was a hidden bigot of the highest order who believed that the magical world on the whole was in need of a twenty-first century kick to the rear, and all family magic and information should be made public no matter the consequence. She could not stand the idea that there were secrets that she could not gain access to, and the idea that someone else was more worthy of those secrets than her. Harry also had confirmation that Hermione looked to Albus Dumbledore like a god who should be allowed to rule over all and had evidently been spying on Harry to pass information to him for a while, but when Harry broke off after the final battle, she could not do much spying for Kingsley and the rest of the Order. 2 years after she graduated from Hogwarts, Hermione Granger went to the British Government and told them everything about magic, effectively making her the first person who actually broke the Statue.
But what she did later in life truly made Harry see her as the monster she apparently was.
Around the time he had created Neo Avalon, Hermione had pointed out a coven hiding in one area of Scotland, letting the soldiers attack and round up the refugees. One of whom was Rose Weasley, her very own daughter that had been estranged for a good few years due to how different they were in attitudes. Rose pleaded with Hermione to release the younger children in the coven while she was being restrained to the dissection table surrounded by scientists and generals. The older woman merely looked at her and answered her with one set of words before leaving her to her fate as the scientists came forward with syringes, scalpels and bone saws without any anesthesia:
"It's all right my dear, it is all for the Greater Good."
Harry had left her mind at that point and proceeded to empty his stomach all over the floor, too disgusted at the woman he had once called a friend with the screams of her daughter ringing in his head. In his anger and desire to fix the mess they were now in, he unleashed all of his power to extract every bit of information from her mind and soul, not caring that he had awoken her in the process and had her screaming with blood coming out of every hole of her. He cursed her with a spell to make her relieve all the horrors she had helped to inflict on the innocents, taking particular care to make her experience what she did to her own daughter as he could tell that the daughter was no longer among the living.
After a few hours of going through the information and ignoring the woman's agony, he left her paralysed and set the apartment to burn and explode after a few minutes. As he watched it all burn, something cleared in his head and Harry realized to his great horror that Granger had gone beyond what he had thought.
She had cast a Fidelius Charm to hide the fact that she had combined magic with nuclear weapons to target all the areas with high magical protections.
And the army was close to completion.
Harry fired off messenger patronuses like it was going out of style before heading back to Neo Avalon to reinforce the protections and to increase the size of the arrival point to handle the incoming crowd. Within the next couple of days, people started pouring into the area and made their way through, with about 50 odd people getting rejected due to their intentions or bigotry. For a few, Harry would allow them in with the use of the Unbreakable Vows to ensure their cooperation. The rest would take an express flight on Air Potter to the next few miles out to sea.
It was going fine for another 3 days until a muggleborn appeared with a hysterical look and claiming the army was on the way. Harry got higher up into the air to find what appeared to be an entire contingent of the navy and the air force coming in their direction, all of them firing their weapons shortly after, likely at the sight of him. Harry merely demonstrated why the Elder Wand was so sought after by manipulating the very elements to redirect the missiles away and to halt their progress. For some of the more stubborn ones, he played up the idea of him bending reality to his whims by using a mixture of illusions and the materials around him to make it seem that he was calling upon the gods to vanquish them. He held back the armies long enough for the last of the magicals to enter Neo Avalon, but there was one problem.
As the one who created the Neo Avalon, he needed to reinforce the barriers, but as Granger had included magic to nuclear weapons, he had to be outside to ensure the integrity of the barriers and to prevent any nuclear energy going inside, effectively condemning himself to never being able to enter the islands forever.
Neville and Luna were among the many who tried to dissuade him from the suicide mission, but Harry could only smile in sadness as he went through what was needed for the final task. At the very least, Harry did manage to spend some time with the few friends that had kept in contact with him all this time, patched up his relationship with Andromeda, and spent a few nights with a few of the girls he knew before in Hogwarts.
Who knew Katie Bell held a flame for him and was a wildcat? Or that Susan Bones and Daphne Greengrass could do "that" with their tits? Or Su Li being such a contortionist in bed? Or Padma also having a flame for him and doing fun things with her legs and feet?
Damn~
Then the final day came with news of the weapons about to be released, and Harry said a final farewell as he cast the spells to reinforce the barriers and to hide the islands from the rest of the world with a dimensional equivalent of the Fidelius Charm. All while the sky lit up with dozens of nuclear rockets flying through the sky and aimed right where they were. Harry admittedly choked on his tears as he watched the last images of Luna crying on Neville's shoulders as the barrier solidified and hid them from his sight, before his vision turned white and his body briefly burned before he woke up a day later elsewhere with a giant mushroom cloud in the distance.
The next few days were a struggle, not only to secure proper food, water and shelter; during this period, Harry had the first hand experience of his newfound regeneration and immortality as the nuclear fallout spread across the planet. He learned very quickly to wrap himself in thick clothing to stop the burning sensation from both the radiation and the heat from the explosion along with not seeing his arms switch between freshly burnt or shriveled like a mummy until he got out of the surface and into an old nuclear bunker. His organs felt like they were getting twisted during the healing process and a few times he got blinded and had to take a while to heal, not a nice feeling when he had to do so in the open a few times. At one point, he resembled an organic Terminator with the flesh having burned off his skeleton as he kept on moving through a particularly irradiated area in Ukraine.
Not the nicest feeling at all.
As though Hermione Granger wanted to make his life more problematic even in death, there were unforeseen consequences of mixing magic with nuclear weapons. The fallout had made the planet's natural lifeforce extremely unstable, and in the process of trying to correct the world, unnatural creatures that should have no place outside of the darkest of nightmares started appearing outside, each one displaying corrupted magical energy that could be used to hunt down any survivors from the fallout. These creatures were much like the zombies of muggle stories; they kept on trying to find survivors to feed on their flesh and life force, and they could take a crap ton of damage before they went down. And considering he had a lot of magical power within, he was a big beacon for all to find and seek.
For the years following what he called Judgement Day, Harry watched what was left of the survivors outside of Neo Avalon get slowly overrun by the creatures, the presence of these creatures uniting the people under one banner to survive. Harry did what he could to protect those genuinely in need of assistance but otherwise stayed away since a few still wanted to hunt down magicals to the last man.
If there was one thing Harry did enjoy, it was the utter genocide of the goblins. He should not be cheering on the deaths of an entire species, but the absolute clusterfuck he had to go through because of them made it really hard not to toast with a cup of firewhisky.
But the years were beginning to take its toll on him, and Harry was genuinely missing company to talk to. There were only so many magical portraits to talk to, and with the disruption of magic from the fallout, those numbers were dropping. To try and get over it, he traveled the world again, this time to collect as many magical books and items as he could since there won't be enough users left to use them. He also went to the various Gringotts banks to see if he could get into any of the vaults, mainly in Britain since it was one of the worst hit areas around. Turns out even the best goblin wards could not handle the might of nuclear weaponry, with many of the vaults cracked wide open for Harry to do some "tax collection". Harry even hummed a tune when he went to cherry pick some of the items belonging to Dark families like those following Voldemort.
It was roughly 25 years after the fallout that Harry stumbled upon some texts that spoke of an archway to a new world. At the time, he was bored so he just collected them and brought them back to his bunker to pass the time and absolute monotony. As he continued to collect more books and tomes on a similar topic, a spark lit up inside of him, and Harry began to go through the books closely and made notes on the archway that sounded very familiar. It took him a few months until he realized the archway being described resembled the one that used to be in the Department of Mysteries where he lost Sirius.
It took another week to actually confirm the Veil was the one being described, not so much of the lack of information but more of the emotional trauma he had to deal with. Just entering the Ministry was bringing back all the shit he had to go through his years in Hogwarts, but looking upon the room where Sirius Black met his end forced his eyes to leak out tears for the first time in many years. It took a fair bit of time before he was able to regain control and started finding more information in the Department of Mysteries regarding the Veil to combine what he did know.
It took him some time since much of the books were destroyed over the years, but it became clear that the Unspeakables were barely scratching the surface of the Veil despite having studied it for generations. The Veil evidently had several purposes outside of just sending criminals to their deaths; it was meant to be the ultimate judge of souls and to send them to either Hell or Heaven; it was also a gate that could, in theory at least, connect with another Veil of another world provided certain conditions were met and there was enough magical power to grant that access.
There was one tidbit that made Harry slightly hopeful for his situation; activating the Veil's true purpose required a toll of equivalent value, and he had wondered if he could exchange his immortality for this. He had nothing left on this planet, no one to talk to or interact due to the fallout and Neo Avalon now inaccessible to him.
This was his only choice.
And so, Harry spent the next few years doing all he could to repair the Veil so that he could finally pass on and hopefully end his immortality. It took him a couple of years to get all the pieces back together since the archway got destroyed from both the muggle army and the nuclear blast that hit Britain, but the magic of the archway was still potent enough that just fitting the pieces was sufficient to fix itself. The only issue was the lack of magic that stopped it from performing the task it was meant to do. With both the loss of magicals over the years and the initial destruction, much of the remaining power was spent on the repairs. Harry had to find a few untainted leylines to redirect to this room just so it can be empowered enough to get some of its initial abilities back.
As the Master of Death though, Harry had an alternative power source that could be used for the archway, and it would be appropriate given the archway's purposes. When he approached the souls who could not pass over, many agreed at the possibility of being allowed to leave the forsaken world they were forced to haunt. Of the remainder who do not want to do so, only a few were forced by the other ghosts to take part, if only because they were the souls of the people who had actively hunted and experimented on the magicals.
Harry did not see any problem with forcing said ghosts to help him out with the tasks. They certainly did not give any mercy for the innocents they condemned.
It was almost time, and not a moment too soon. Being the only being with magic and blood pumping in his veins around the vicinity, Harry was essentially a big snack for any of those monsters wandering about in Europe, and he could sense the ones in England were roughly an hour away from reaching the old Ministry. While he cannot die, he did not want to know the feeling of being eaten alive.
He needed to finish up on the final preparations.
Harry abused the power of teleportation as he moved between the various steps of the room to do something with the equipment and checked the readings. After that, Harry went to the generator and powered it up, letting the electricity go to the archway and powered up previously unseen runes to make them light up like bulbs from a Christmas tree. Harry then appeared in front of it and focused briefly for a certain wand, stone and cloak to appear on his body, and then turned the stone three times.
"It is time."
After his words, blurry images appeared about the room while the temperature dropped with mist appearing above the ground and ice started to form on the surface of some of the stones. Within minutes, the room was covered in a thick fog while ghosts appeared about the room.
"Thank you for coming, and helping me with this task." Harry thanked them for their appearance. The ghosts parted to allow four to hover close to him, four whom he should be very familiar with even after all these years.
"You have gone through plenty of trials, young man." Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost mascot of Gryffindor, spoke solemnly.
"There have been many cycles that have gone past, and you managed to hang on for so long." The Fat Friar spoke next with none of his cheer.
"Are you certain of this course of action, young man?" The Bloody Baron asked in a serious tone. "Once you start this, there is no stopping the process. No turning back." Harry looked to the archway briefly before looking at the ghost and giving a firm nod. At that nod, the last representative of Hogwarts came forward.
"This will be the last time we will ever speak with one another." The Grey Lady, otherwise known as Helena Ravenclaw, spoke softly as she stopped just a few meters in front of him.
"Perhaps of this world. Beyond the Veil?" Harry gave a shrug. "For what it is worth, it is an honor to have my magical education in Hogwarts, even if I was a bit lackluster and a rule breaker." The ghosts nearest to them chuckled at that, while Nearly Headless and the Fat Friar laughed loudly. The Bloody Baron merely huffed and moved further away, whereas Helena Ravenclaw moved closer still.
"You deny yourself of your intelligence. You have shown good instincts and skills once you applied yourself." She raised an eyebrow at this point. "But if this Veil is what you have theorized to be a gate to another world that could be similar to ours, I expect you to do a lot better, young man." Despite his age, Harry instinctively straightened his back at her tone, something shared with the few male ghosts around them.
"Yes madam." The female ghost nodded before giving a mischievous smile with a light in her eye as she leaned forward.
"Good, because I will find a way to haunt you in another world if this does open up a path to another dimension and you do not do better in your studies." She whispered in a manner that sent chills down his spine before she floated away.
"Females are scary. Female ghosts are scarier." One of the older male ghosts floated next to him.
"Son, you have no idea." All the other male ghosts nodded. Before he could comment, the room suddenly shook and there was a distinct roar that could be heard from the opening leading out of the room.
"Damn, they are here already!" Harry looked to the ghosts who nodded and moved to the Veil.
"We got this, boy! Go get those monsters!" One of the recently deceased cheered for him as he moved with the rest. Harry nodded and apparated out to the corridor leading to the Rotating Room to prepare the traps and seal off the chamber. He had raided a military camp a few years back and grabbed all the ordnance he could get his hands on for this purpose. It may not be much but he needed to buy as much time as he could without using his magic for this period since he needed to reserve as much as he could for the actual ritual. It was even more important as the Veil needed to build up magic to do the task required, and by the end of it would become another beacon to draw those monsters through.
He continued his way upwards, ensuring all of the traps were primed and ready to blow to at least slow the monsters down if not destroy them completely. He managed to set the last of the traps on the level just below the atrium when the roof above started to crack and the sounds of roaring echoed in the corridor. His attention got drawn to the old elevator shaft, where the light was flickering from the old lamp he found about, and like some horror film he had seen in his youth, crimson eyes appeared between each flash of light, then a limb that could barely be considered a hand with claws to make Freddy Krueger go green with envy stretched out to grab the floor, crushing the old tiles effortlessly to get a grip. Then a snout resembling a jackal's snout came out with half the face rotting and the other side being bare bones, which made the red light in the socket even more terrifying. It snarled at the sight of Harry, its drool dripping off its sharp teeth and burning the floor when it made contact.
Harry had only one thing to say.
"Bring it."
"RRRROOOOAAARRR!"
At the roar, the ruins of the elevator exploded to unleash the creatures that came from the top, all hellbent on getting to him. Harry triggered the rune to set the corridor ablaze first, the action merely serving as a distraction since fire alone would not work unless he were to use Fiendfyre, which he would not use this early on. He then triggered a second rune to unleash spikes from all four sides of the corridor, spearing a good number to kill them and to form a makeshift barrier to hold back the rest. But they were relentless and forced their way through without care for their fallen.
"Stubborn, aren't you?" It spoke of how used to danger he was that Harry could comment on them like he was talking about the weather even as he activated another trap that set off several claymores to blast them and to trigger another set of bombs to collapse the roof, blocking off their access while he went down to the next level only to find some of those creatures trying to force themselves through other cracks. He merely hummed before casting several spells to change the surrounding rubble into crystals to trap the creatures forcing their way and to act as another barrier for the ones chasing him. He then went on to the next level to get ready.
On and on he went while being chased by those monsters, each level getting more and more destroyed than the last when he activated the traps to slow them down if not destroy them outright. It felt like hours having to deal with the waves of the home invasion until Harry hit the level of the Department of Mysteries where he had the majority of the weaponry primed and the walls either turned to crystals or reinforced heavily to ensure the monsters could not dig their way through. Harry lightly panted from the exertion while his body heated up from the magic usage. It was not that it was hard to kill those creatures, having spent the first few years experimenting different methods to get rid of them, rather it was the sheer ferocity and tenaciousness they display to get their prey at all cost. It was as if they were hardwired to hunt down all living creatures in the area until all were extinct.
The rumbling of the room drew his attention to where the roof just collapsed at the far end of the room, and this time he paled as he saw the monsters had at some point consumed one another to create one of the larger variants that proved to be more resilient and actually more intelligent in some manner. At least it was in the form of a worm, albeit one with razor sharp teeth and blades poking out of the body to cut down anything in their path.
Harry set the timers on the bombs and triggered the guns before moving quickly through the department, setting off the other traps to prepare for the oncoming onslaught. It was troublesome but worth it in the end as he came to the Death Room right as the Veil was glowing brightly from the increase in magic. He sealed off the entrance with multiple layers of stone, iron and crystal before turning to the Veil.
"Okay, likely my last spell." Harry raised the Elder Wand and began chanting a long spell chain in a dead language to activate the Veil in stages, with runes etched in a language long past appearing slowly from the base and rising to the top. He wanted to go faster on account of the monsters pushing quickly based on the increasing strength of the vibrations coming behind, but the spell chant was very long and required very precise pronunciation to get it going. He had lost count of the number of times he had to restart the chant just to get the wording right.
Finally after 2 minutes of non-stop chanting, the symbol at the very top of the archway glowed for the first time in many years, and Harry had to shake his head at the familiar symbol of the Hallows shining back at him. He quickly made his way down the steps and up the slope, pausing right before it as memories of his fifth year came back while the room shook hard from the creatures desperate to get to him from the outside. And just like before, he could hear the soft voices of those beyond calling out to him.
Only this time, he would come to them as a friend. Whether or not he would cross over to the other side or go to another world, Harry just wanted it to end. He closed his eyes and took one last breath as the roof started to crack from the attacks.
"I come to thee at the close." The Veil glowed even brighter as the curtains parted to display the brilliance of light from within. Without meaning to, the cloak, stone and wand appeared on him, and with one step, Harry Potter walked right through the Veil, and the resulting magic blasted outwards and beyond, reducing all the monsters to ashes while collapsing the entire Ministry upon itself, forever sealing the Veil from the outside world.
Not that Harry would know, he just continued moving on and letting the magic take him through the tunnel of light, images flashing around him that showed his past long gone. It felt like forever until all went dark.
And then…
"Well, well, well. So we meet again, Mister Potter."
- Author Notes -
This idea is inspired from other stories involving Harry going back in time, but I have to decide on the type of path Harry will go. Here are the challenges I have in mind:
Harry Potter in 1940s / 1950s, new school
This would have Harry go back to the 1940s or 1950s when Tom Riddle is at Hogwarts and Dumbledore is still the deputy headmaster of Hogwarts. Harry will use this chance to create a new school to rival Hogwarts as a way of undermining the Pure Blood Faction before Voldemort comes along. Possible changes to history include Lily Evans coming to the school while James Potter goes to Hogwarts, Snape getting a better childhood, etc
Tags: New School, Muggle Queen kicks ass, Hogwarts decline
Harry Potter raising himself
This would have adult Harry raise the younger Harry of an alternate timeline, either directly after the attack on the Potters or sometime in his childhood. Adult Harry will go and deal with many of the common tropes in these type of stories such as the robbery of the Potter Vaults, the illegal marriage contracts, Dumbledore attempts to be guardian, etc. Both Harrys would have some form of attachments to girls / women, child Harry being more fluffy while Adult Harry could be more serious due to his relationship issues. Longbottom Parents might be saved for allies. Not sure if I plan to have child Harry go to another school before or during Hogwarts.
Possible Tags: Bad Hermione, Bad Weasleys (except Twins), Possible bashing of Lupin / Black / Hogwarts Staff, Arcturus Black alive and kicking ass
Dont' Fear The Reaper, Reptilia28 Challenge
This is a variation of the challenge. Harry goes back to either first year or second year where he has to deal with the problems that plagued him in the past while helping the entity briefly mentioned at the end with certain tasks to complete due to the meddling of Dumbledore. Will feature Harry with plenty of girls, might even include Delphini Riddle for the fun of it.
Possible Tags: Bad Hermione, Bad Weasleys (except Twins), Possible bashing of Lupin / Black / Hogwarts Staff, Plenty of Character Deaths