So, Halloween is upon us. Often, I post a number of oneshots that are horror-themed. But recently, I had an intriguing story idea. It's a crossover I have done before, and a certain character I have explored before. Yet I feel I can do a fresh story, pairing an older Harry in a WBWL fic with said character.

The crossover? Resident Evil.

And the character? Alexia Ashford.

Long-term readers of my fics may remember Henry Ashford and the Goblet of Fire, my first Resident Evil crossover that involved Alexia Ashford from Resident Evil: Code Veronica adopting Harry, and regaining something of her humanity as a result. Some parts of that fic I am really proud of, and some parts...I have to confess, I cringe somewhat. Yet giving Alexia some humanity and complexity worked out well, and I intended to do that here in this fic.

There was also another impetus to consider revisiting Alexia as a character. Long after I finished Henry Ashford and the Goblet of Fire, I came across Q Alias' works, pairing a semi-OC character, Grayson Harman (the son of the Ashfords' butler in the backstory of the game) with Alexia. Code Veronica and its reimagining The Antarctic Incident help give Alexia a complexity that is lacking in the original games, while still keeping her more monstrous elements. Indeed, The Antarctic Incident in particular has been something of an influence on this story. So too (albeit to a lesser degree) was her rather quirky portrayal in Liquid's novelisation of Code Veronica, one of their many AU novelisations of the Resident Evil games.

Doing this as a WBWL fic not only allows me to age up Harry enough so that he can be paired with Alexia, but it also gives her a maternal figure in Lily. In fact, I see Harry and Alexia's relationship being rather like that between Watson and Sherlock Holmes respectively from the BBC series Sherlock. In fact, the story proper will involve Harry, Alexia and Harry going on a pre-emptive Horcrux hunt during what would be Third Year in canon.

Just a reminder that, as usual, there's no guarantee this will become a full fic. But I hope you enjoy...


KICKING OVER AN ANTHILL

CHAPTER 1:

RECRUITMENT

Consciousness came back, accompanied by nauseating waves of pain. As she opened her eyes, she heard a cool and deceptively calm and collected girl's voice say, "Please, try not to move much. I will answer your questions, but let me assess your health first."

The way that voice spoke heartened her. As she opened her eyes, she saw the blurry image of a blonde girl in a purple dress. She managed to focus her eyes, and went along with the girl's assessments. After she was done, the woman chuckled weakly. "Playing physician to me, huh?"

"I am not playing," the girl retorted archly. "You know my qualifications well enough. General medicine may not be my field as much as virology and genetic engineering, but I could qualify as a GP if I wished to. However, I do not have the patience for most patients." Her expression softened, a rarity on the icy girl, not even a teenager. "But…I nearly lost you twice already. First to that warlock terrorist, and then, to my own brother."

"…Your brother? What did he do?"

"Amnesia? Short term, obviously, and thankfully," the girl said, frowning. The woman knew that frown on her charge. It meant that she was thinking carefully.

Eventually, she said, "What happened is that you confronted our…father," this word was said with a sneer most people recommended for faecal matter on shoes, "about CODE: Veronica. Despite your warnings, we followed, and eavesdropped. My brother had a gun on him. After our father refused to tell us, and threatened you, we entered and confronted him. My brother threatened to turn our father into a test subject, and when you tried to intercede…he turned on you. Our father took the opportunity to try and wrestle the gun away from my brother, and…the gun went off. It hit you, grazing your skull. Just barely, but…as you collapsed, my brother began to laugh. He told me it was one less obstacle between us. I knocked them both out, and then attended to you. It has been over a week since you were shot. I've had to fend off calls from that boorish husband of yours. He's been threatening to come to Antarctica. I doubt he knows where to find us."

"And your brother? Your father?" the woman asked, dreading the answer.

The girl shook her head. "Father is…alive and well. But I have made it clear that I do not consider him a parent or a guardian. In truth, that seemed to hurt him more than anything I could have done to him. As for my brother…he despised you, and wished you dead, betraying my bond with him. Turnabout is fair play. Even now, I have very useful data on T-Veronica."

The woman stared at her charge in horror, and yet, she knew this might happen. The girl was driven, and as devoted as her brother had been, he was too quick to show his jealousy and envy to anyone else who got close to his sister. Both siblings were lacking in empathy, though the woman liked to believe this was not inborn, but rather, due to their environment, which was far from healthy.

And in truth, that brat of a brother tried to murder her. He was far from the first, and the woman doubted he would be the last. True, he was just a child, but if what the girl claimed was true…then some dark corner of her heart felt some satisfaction.

"He's still alive," the girl said. "But…Veronica changed him. Neural degeneration was swift. His last coherent words were cursing your very name." She frowned. "I…must confess, I feel…strange at doing such a thing to my twin. I do not mourn him, or at least what he became. I enjoyed his protective nature, but…perhaps it was too possessive for my liking. A loyal soldier ant he may have been, and yet…he could not stand my having affection for anyone else but he. However, he was of use as a test subject. I now know what I must do, and I need your help."

The woman stared at the girl. "You intend to use Veronica on yourself?"

"Indeed, but while you were unconscious, I did some more in vitro tests. While I can modify Veronica to mitigate the neural degeneration, I need more than that. I believe I can safely infect myself, but I will need to go into stasis for a number of years. I estimate a decade."

"…But why? Why do you need to do this?"

"…I won't deny this is for personal power, and yet…there are other reasons. A longer lifespan, to discover more through science. Curiosity, to see if I can, to become a proof of concept. And to act as the vanguard for human evolution, as Spencer, Marcus, and their ilk always preach. They always claim that Progenitor will do so, even as they happily commit atrocities with it and its derivatives. In truth, they want the power of life and death over all humanity, with Progenitor, with Tyrant, and anything else they might derive from the Mother Virus." The girl shook her head. "They have discarded any pretence to improving humanity through viruses or eugenics. But I need someone to help me, to watch over me. My brother is alive in body only, his soul has gone to Hell. My father is an ineffectual fool." Her ice blue eyes turned to the woman, an unusual plea in her usually haughty and imperious expression. "I, Alexia Ashford, clone of Countess Veronica Ashford, need you, Lily."

And Lily Potter stared at the girl, her student, a daughter in every way but blood. A girl who was suggesting an insane plan. Yet some part of Lily knew Alexia would not give up on it. The best thing to do was to act as she always did to the girl…as a moral compass, as a conscience.

And with that, a destiny was gradually shifted


The trilling of the phone as he got back to his apartment was a surprisingly welcome sound for Harry Potter. A little shy of 19 years old, and his career with the DMLE had just been ruined. All thanks to an impulsive punch.

To be fair, Proudfoot had it coming. That prick always looked down on him, and on everyone. And he made no secret of his Blood Purist leanings. He only kept his position through nepotism, even though people whispered that it was only because of his father that Harry got his position. Proudfoot didn't press charges, at least to have Harry sent to Azkaban, but having him fired was bad enough.

And now, after a hearing, he was out of the DMLE. No longer an Auror. His parents had weathered the embarrassment: both James and Lily said they wanted nothing more than to subject Proudfoot's face to some panel-beating, even if they still chewed him out for succumbing to the temptation. But it also meant that Harry's chances of finding work had been somewhat hobbled. He wasn't hurting for money, but he didn't want to simply live off the family dime.

In a way, then, he was glad for the distraction. Few people apart from family knew this number, so he picked up. "Hello, Harry Potter speaking."

"Good evening, Harry. How are you?"

After a moment, Harry chuckled wearily. This was a young woman his mother knew from the famous Umbrella Corporation, a woman currently confined to her bed at home thanks to a lab accident that rendered her unable to move. A researcher and virologist that Lily had introduced him to, albeit through letters initially, and then, in the past few months, by telephone. He'd become used to the woman's haughty tones, more Queen's English than the Queen herself, yet strangely playful and childish at times. "As good as I can be given the situation, Veronica."

Veronica Lazarus hummed. "Yes, Lily filled me in on the situation. A crying shame what your impulsiveness had wrought, but I personally would have made the man a guinea pig for what he said about Lily, so I can't exactly throw stones."

Harry cringed. He couldn't be sure whether Veronica was joking or not. Still, he had felt her to have become something of a friend, or at least a friendly acquaintance. "Yeah, well, bang goes any hope for a Ministry job. Except maybe the Unspeakables."

"You magic users and your nepotism in your government. Umbrella may have some nepotism, but it's still a meritocracy, enough that, in most areas at least, you have to work hard to retain a position of any note. Still filled with a bunch of backstabbing scumbags, though." A sigh came up the line. "But I am sorry to hear about it. You have considerable potential that would be otherwise wasted."

"Thanks, Veronica."

"You're welcome. My colleagues and family called me cold-hearted and coldblooded, and rather accurately at that. But talking to you and to your mother is always worthwhile. It gives me perspective on things."

Harry shook his head. "I can't imagine what it's like to be trapped in the way you are, Veronica."

"It was a self-inflicted injury, born of my own decisions that I have to live with. Besides, if Stephen Hawking could ponder the mysteries of space-time and other cosmological conundrums, then surely I could still use my mind to ponder my interests in biology." After a moment, Veronica said, "Apropos of nothing, I am actually undergoing an experimental treatment, one of my own design. Soon, I will be able to walk around again. Now, your mother has helped me out during the decade or thereabouts since the incident, but on an irregular basis, given the jobs I have her doing on my behalf. However, as my time in isolation comes to an end, I feel I may need someone around me on a longer-term basis. I'm not sure I can trust anyone my father or the rest of Umbrella would send to me."

"Sorry, what? Are you offering me work?"

"Yes. I suppose the official title would be a personal assistant or something droll and mundane like that, though I can handle most roles a personal assistant or secretary would normally undertake. More accurately, I need an anchor, an anchor to reality. I tend to get caught up in my work, so I need someone to remind me of…perspective, I suppose. Lily did so for me many times before, but she's not here all the time. I also do not have friends. I never had the knack for it, and Lily is more of a mother figure to me. In truth, I wasn't sure I could be friends with someone until Lily introduced us. Yet I feel the urge for a friendly face when I re-emerge into the world."

He was struck by the suddenness and generous nature of the offer. He was surprised at how frank she was being about what she wanted him to do for her. "Well, I…it's a very generous offer, Veronica. But aren't you in Antarctica?"

"Yes, but in a very well-appointed facility. In fact, Alexander Ashford designed his own take on the Spencer Mansion in the Arklay Mountains in America. It's built into this facility. Alexander is currently working on your security vetting. If you accept, I can have you down here within 24 hours of the security checks being concluded. Lily can make a Portkey. I'll have her bring further details of what's expected of you. Take your time considering it, Harry. I do not wish to rush you…"


In a cold room, in an even colder tank, a woman with blonde hair floated serenely, festooned with wires and tubes, but otherwise as naked as the day she was born. Said occupant called it a hibernation tank, even if uneducated fools thought it was cryonic. Cryonics and cryogenics were about preservation, albeit of a brutal kind. She wanted her body to keep growing in stasis, adapting to the treatment imposed upon it by herself. She had stepped into this tank a pre-teen, and would soon step out a woman.

She'd call herself a goddess, but Lily's influence helped mitigate some of her megalomania, forcing her to look at things pragmatically. After all, Umbrella had been devising anti-BOW ordnance for decades, to say nothing of various WMDs. To believe herself invincible was hubris, though she was certainly far, far hardier than almost any other human in existence. And powerful too. But calling herself a goddess was perhaps a touch inaccurate. Maybe a demigod, but even then…well, even that had connotations of hubris.

And hubris was when one started to make mistakes. It was all very well to take pride in one's achievements. But to let it hobble one's intellect and judgement…well, that was unforgivable. Too many in Umbrella fell prey to that. Spencer, Marcus…even that little oik Birkin. According to Lily, Birkin was working on yet another Progenitor derivative, pretentiously and portentously named Golgotha. How droll.

She wondered whether she was doing the right thing. Indeed, she had thought as such ever since Lily, upon learning of her power experiments into psychoelectrokinesis, suggested testing it on a telephone call with her son. She could tap into the CCTV cameras of this facility, speak over PA systems, and had managed to basically do a telepathic phone call. Well, it was all about modulating electrical signals into what she believed to be an approximation of her voice as it was now if her larynx wasn't smothered in breathable hibernation liquid, but 'telepathic phone call' was not wholly inaccurate.

Would he be open-minded enough to accept her? A virus-mutated transhuman, and a somewhat damaged genius? She hoped so. True, it would be fine if their relationship was somewhat more professional. She had just hoped that, despite her reservations, she had a friend in Harry, or at least a nascent friendship.

Still, Alexia Ashford wouldn't have gotten to where she was today without having contingencies in place. She just hoped Harry didn't view her as a monster, or at least the kind of monster he couldn't tolerate. After all, he couldn't object too much to her plans for reforming Umbrella…

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

Oh dear. We have a WBWL fic, but with Lily involved with Umbrella, and being Alexia Ashford's Morality Pet/mother substitute.

In this fic, instead of making Alexander Ashford a more moral character (as moral as anyone can be in the upper echelons of Umbrella, anyway) as I did in Henry Ashford and the Goblet of Fire, I decided to make him a more morally ambivalent character, probably closer to how he was portrayed in the original game. He seems more heroic in Darkside Chronicles with the video the Redfields and Alexia watch just prior to the final battle, but that isn't canon anyway. I used a few characters as the basis of his own, though he's basically a more competent and less wussy version of Tytos Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire. Basically, a weak man who got usurped by his own ruthless legacy. I also considered him to be a less competent version of Viserys from House of the Dragon. A relatively good and competent man, but overshadowed by his family legacy and too weak to do anything about the sharks in the water.

As for Alexia, she is a hybrid of what she was like in the games, how I characterised her in Henry Ashford and the Goblet of Fire, as well as Q Alias' works (the only extant ones on this website are Code Veronica and its remake The Antarctic Incident) and the pseudo-novelisation of Code Veronica by Liquid. She still lacks empathy and has some megalomania. But Lily came along at just the right time to give Alexia a mother substitute. So, instead of basically trying to conquer the world with T-Veronica, Alexia has sort of returned to Umbrella's roots, trying to accelerate human evolution. I liked how Q Alias characterised her, as a sort of hybrid between the ruthless and sadistic monster she was in canon, a cold but genuinely inquisitive scientist, and yet also a surprisingly loving human being, even if that was restricted mostly to Alfred and Q Alias' semi-OC character, Grayson Harman.

Of course, I wanted to do my own take on her character too. Although I didn't really like Karen Strassman's very child-like voice in Darkside Chronicles, I did like the thought of Alexia still having a somewhat childish streak, and not just in the 'cruel child' way. This may sound unbecoming of a member of the nobility, but Grand Duchess Anastasia of the Russian royal family was notorious for her pranks, so much so that she was nicknamed 'Shvybzik' or 'little mischief'.

The irony is, in Henry Ashford and the Goblet of Fire, it was being Harry's adoptive mother than humanised Alexia. Here, in this story, actually having an adoptive mother of sorts was what humanised her. Of course, time will tell what that means for Harry.

No numbered annotations this time.