He's Just Like His Father! Hungry!
Disclaimer: SEE FIRST CHAPTER
Review Answers:
Umbra Lycan: I confess, I haven't actually decided on whether or not Galacta is going to be in this story, or if she's just an Easter egg from the conversation Lily had with Galactus…suppose all I'll say is keep reading to…actually…do you know what? I've just had a terribly-evil little idea…so thanks for that;
Jostanos: I think you'll probably be kept to be like Hansel – fattened up until he's ready to feast;
Dennisud: I have plans in motion, both good and bad, as well as crazy-gone-cuckoo-nutsy-tonto-bonkers;
Yorae Rasante: Like I said to another, I've literally just had an evil idea that will either make people laugh, cry, curse the living daylights out of me or maybe even give up on this story as it'll be too much too far for them…ah well, onwards;
"Happy Halloween, Lily-flower…"
James was out for the count before he'd even finished replying.
Lily scoffed, shaking her head as she too closed her eyes…
'Happy Halloween, Mummy…'
Lily's eyes snapped open.
And a warm, all-encompassing, all-devouring heat surged through her, from deep within her belly, bringing tears to her eyes as she placed a hand over the spot where the warmth came from.
"Happy Halloween…Harry Potter…my little Prince Cosmic…"
ARC 0: Lily's Choice
Chapter 4: The Phoenix and the Dragon
Two Years Later (nine months as an unborn foetus and fifteen months alive)
"LILY! IT'S HIM! TAKE HARRY AND RUN!"
"Should we?" asked Lily, earning a soft, creepy, but also cute-sounding child's laugh from behind her as she faced the door to her room.
'No, Mummy,' laughed a voice that definitely betrayed the fact that its owner was only fifteen months old. 'Daddy told you this was coming, but we want it to happen, so you can be free of that loser and I can rise and become the King I was born to be.'
"As you wish, my love," said Lily, not even shedding so much as a tear of pain or regret as she saw a faint flicker of green under the door to her baby boy's nursery. The flash told her that James was dead now and, sure, that was a pity and all that, but, in all honesty, he'd been dead to Lily ever since the Halloween Night where she'd first heard her little angel's voice resonating throughout her mind and magic.
And, since then, she'd only had one love, one lord, one little spark in a world of weak darkness and weaker dunderheads.
'When we're done, can I eat him? Now he's dead, he's just a corpse of wasted magic,' asked the child's voice, earning a soft, proud laugh from Lily.
"You know you can eat anything you wish, my Prince Cosmic…and any-one," answered the redhead, watching as the door to the nursery clicked open, followed by the tell-tale, if not slightly-cheesy creak of its hinges, like something out of a supposedly-scary horror movie.
Given who was on the other side, in another universe, Lily knew she might have been scared, or agreed with the fact that the deformed, psychotic monstrosity that strolled casually into the nursery was the magical world's idea of a horror movie monster…and not just because he looked like a Basilisk had forced itself onto an unwilling, unfortunate man or woman.
Point was, in this instance, she wasn't scared.
This thing, which called it the Dark Lord Voldemort was scary…
But her Prince was much scarier than him.
"Ah, the now, sadly, widowed Lady Potter," chuckled Voldemort, heaving a sigh of disappointment as he explained, "How unfortunate a situation this is, wouldn't you agree? You and your husband both had such promise, but, as I've just seen, he was so pathetic, he couldn't even fire off a single spell to try and protect you…or your son."
"He only had one good quality about him, I agree, Voldemort," drawled Lily, earning a surprised, if not loathsome look from the so-called Dark Lord of Magical Britain, which was most-likely because she'd just dared to use his name and not call him Lord, Master or even You-Know-Who.
"And…what is that?" asked Voldemort.
"His seed," answered Lily.
"Yes," agreed the Dark Lord, chuckling softly as he added, "A pity he then had to soil himself with such lesser ranks as you, my dear little Mudblood. After all, he was the last scion of such a powerful, prominent pure-blood family, but he broke the cycle, and lost all ranking, when he decided that a simple little Muggle-born like you was capable of being the Lady Potter."
"Oh well, at least my child will inherit," insisted Lily, earning a click of the tongue from Voldemort.
"Sadly not, my dear, but this need not be your end: there is one on my side who wishes to show you how much better your life can and will be, Lily. All you have to do is step aside…"
"Oh, is that all? Okay then!"
Voldemort blanched, his eyes wider than wide as he wondered whether the pain and loss of her husband's death had caused her to go insane: he'd expected her to beg and plead, maybe even try and deceive him into offering her life in exchange for the little boy hiding behind her apron strings, not that he would actually spare the brat, after all.
The prophecy was clear; Harry Potter had to die, or Voldemort himself would be destroyed and all would be lost.
But still…was she actually going to let him kill her only son?
"Well?" asked Lily, actually bowing to Voldemort as she stepped aside, revealing the green-eyed form of the boy in the crib. "What are you waiting for, oh mighty Lord Voldemort? Here he is…hope that your little deal with that limp-dicked dunderhead, Snivellus, was worth it…anyway, go ahead."
Voldemort stepped forwards warily, though not before he flicked his wand at Harry Potter, casting a spell to confirm it was indeed him.
"What?" asked Lily, scoffing in disbelief as she looked from Voldemort to Harry, whose eyes briefly flicked to his Mummy's as she smiled coldly.
"You need an invitation? Go on…do it!"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Unfortunately for the Dark Lord, at the same time he cast the Killing Curse, already revelling in his victory, as well as the fact that, once again, he had defied Death and cheated Destiny and become the most-powerful, greatest sorcerer in the world, something else snapped out at Voldemort.
A thick, black, almost-gelatinous something that latched onto the green flash of the Killing Curse, as well as Voldemort's wand, wand hand and left arm before, to the horror of the already-celebrating Dark Lord, what had been an air of celebration turned into sheer agony, terror and no small amount of disbelief as he watched his wand, curse and wand hand disintegrate before his eyes, where it began to be absorbed, almost like it was being consumed by the black mass that proceeded to swallow him up.
As the mass slithered up his arm, turning his veins and arteries black, while causing his skin to grey and start flaking, as though it was turning to naught, but ashes, Voldemort's screams tore through the house as he looked from the mass, and the boy who seemed to be on the other end, to Lily, who was smiling proudly as she watched the so-called Dark Lord being turned to a mass of flaky ashes and bits of decayed skin.
As Voldemort watched, his eyes widened when Lily chuckled knowingly before she lowered herself down until she was kneeling, but instead of bowing down to him, she was turned towards the crib, a note of ecstatic delight that would have made Bellatrix jealous as she praised the infant.
"Good boy, Harry: go ahead! Keep draining all his power…you can do it, my beautiful Prince…take as much as you want…make him suffer for daring to think he could challenge a little godling like you, my precious! Go on, just like your Daddy; go ahead…you eat him all up and Mummy will give you whatever…or whoever you want when this is over!"
"WHAT IS THIS MAGIC?" Screamed Voldemort, earning a cold, cruel laugh.
One that didn't come from Lily, though the sound of it made Voldemort's head turn back to the child in the crib, who was now laughing heartily before he licked his lips as the mass on Voldemort's arm proceeded to fly straight into his open mouth.
At the same time, the Dark Lord's eyes widened in alarm when a soft, cold, powerful voice echoed through his mind;
'Whoever said the 'power you know not' was anything to do with magic, silly, yummy little pretender-Dark-Lord?'
Voldemort's eyes met Harry's…
And red eyes met a gaze that seemed to turn black in the child's sockets, before Harry's irises went from emerald-green to a shade of eerie, otherworldly gold that appeared to be flecked with purple lights, giving him a beyond-ethereal, almost-inhuman look as he kept slurping up the energy that he seemed to have taken from the Dark Lord himself.
'You got tricked, Snake Face…and now, the Dragon is eating the Snake for his Halloween dinny-din-dins! Thanks for being yummy! I promise your powers will go to a good cause…meaning making me a force that even makes Dark Lords look weak…just like my Daddy…'
"Ha-ha…Harry?" asked Voldemort, before he screamed again as the mass now reached his shoulder, causing more flakes of skin to scatter from his left side as Harry continued feeding on him…if that was what he was doing.
"Oh, Voldemort…" sighed Lily, before Voldemort's eyes widened when he heard the infant's voice again.
'His name's Tommy, Mummy; Tom Marvolo Riddle…ha-ha! His name's a funny word made up of all those letters.'
To Voldemort's horror, disbelief and rage, Lily then waved her hand through the air, causing the letters of his filthy Muggle name to form in the space between them; with a few quick flicks of her fingers, she then rearranged them to form the words that had become synonymous with the greatest sorcerer in history.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle spells out I Am Lord Voldemort?" asked Lily disbelievingly, shaking her head with a beyond-dumbfounded look in her green eyes as she dared to laugh at Voldemort. "You mean to say that, all these years, the power this world's feared has been nothing more than an anagram made up by some silly little boy who is probably overcompensating for his inferior sizes…and I'm not just talking about the size of his ego, much less anything that boys like you think with."
'Small or not, Mummy…he's so yummy!' laughed Harry, the mass he was using to devour Voldemort's energy, as well as – apparently – his body now slithering down the Dark Lord's chest and lower body. 'So much power! All wasted because he's nothing but a scared, angry little boy who couldn't be loved or worshipped…not like me.'
"And you will be worshipped, my sweet," agreed Lily, moving to Harry's side as she kissed him on his small head. "With this power, as well as everything else that will be yours as you grow up big and strong, everyone will kneel at your feet, worship you as a God and call you their Lord and Master, just like the Cult does for your Daddy! They will hail you as the Master of Earth, Lord of the Magical Realms and King of All! And all the while, they will bring you fresh sacrifices to devour, toys to play with and fools and traitors to slaughter!"
'Sounds fun!'
Lily laughed.
Voldemort paled.
Harry, meanwhile, hummed, mentally, before he looked back to Voldemort, 'Bored now…time to slurp you all up, Tommy-boy! Have fun in my tum with all the other magic Mummy's given me!'
His eyes flashed that strange colour again.
Voldemort saw only one way out…
And he hated it!
"WAIT, HARRY! WHAT IF I SERVE YOU?"
Harry giggled, 'You already are, silly…you're serving me for dinner!'
"N-n-n-no!" gasped Voldemort, his voice weak from the drain on his core, as well as everything else that Harry was pulling out of him. "I…I mean what if I really serve you? You…you are a being with…with great power; the…the greatest power ever! But…but for now, you…you are vulnerable, as long as your enemies…as they can get to you…so…please! I…I beg you, Harry…my Lord…my Sovereign…my Master! Please…sp-spare me…and I…and all my forces are…are yours to command…and to consume!"
The mass…and the drain…stopped.
Lily looked to Voldemort, while Harry closed his mouth, licking his lips slowly, his eyes shining amusingly as he hummed before he looked the Dark Lord in the eyes, a hungry, but also empowered look showing through his otherwise-infantile appearance.
"Interesting…" muttered the small boy, the word actually coming from his lips as he giggled softly before he jerked his head.
Suddenly, Voldemort flew up to the crib, where Harry licked his lips hungrily again as he locked eyes with the half-dead Dark Lord.
'Tell me more…Tommy-boy…but if I don't like it, I get to gobble you all up…even your silly little pieces out there…'
JLHF
Six Years Later
"Where are we, Harry?"
"America," replied Harry, earning a surprised look from Lily as she touched down on otherwise-solid ground, having been teleported away from their regular home when, without warning, her beautiful, bouncing baby boy of now seven years old told her that there was something very important he had to do, but he would need her help.
Had she been any sort of lesser, duller-minded parent, Lily would have questioned Harry on his demand, but, as she had been ever since she'd made her pact with Galactus himself, she was neither a lesser, nor duller-minded parent.
She was his faithful herald – as both his Father and Harry himself had decreed she would be – his devoted servant and, as she had always been, his loving Mummy, who would never deny her son, nor would she refuse his wishes, not even if he woke her in the dead of night, demanding that she hear him and give him what he wanted most.
So, when she looked around, noticing only the wilderness of the Everglades around her, Lily frowned in curiosity, "Why are we here, my sweet?"
"I had a dream," said Harry, taking off at a brisk pace, which was Lily's cue to follow. "I don't know if it was Dad sending me a message, my power giving me the heads-up or just sheer dumb luck, but what I saw…it's not something I can ignore, Mum."
"Why?"
"Because…" said Harry, ducking under a low-hanging branch.
As he did, Lily's eyes widened when she saw an almost-crazed, if not determined look of hunger flash across her son's beautiful face, the sort of look being one that he hadn't had on his face since the night James had died and Harry had been given one of the biggest power-boosting feeds he'd ever had. His hands also appeared to be shaking while, as Lily followed Harry, she saw him rub his hands excitedly, before he laughed softly as he continued filling in the blank.
"What I saw in my dream…it had so much power! I swear it was almost at a level that could rival mine, and even then, it would only be after the thing that holds this power grows up a bit. It left me so hungry, Mummy, but…but there was something else too; something that's whispering to me from…from beyond the stars…out there, in the heart of my Father's great power, the Power Cosmic."
"Have…" Lily began, swallowing nervously as she both feared and felt curious about the answer to the question she asked, "Have you consulted your Father about this dream, sweetheart?"
"Why do you think we're here?" asked Harry, a note of amusement in his words. "Dad says if I find that power, I can introduce it to him and he'll help me decide whether I keep it and claim my first true friend and acolyte, or I just swallow it up and absorb all its immense powers into myself. Either way, I'm so excited, Mum; I've honestly never felt any power as great as this…except when I've been visiting Dad, of course."
'Of course,' agreed Lily, before she gasped when, as Harry passed another tree, he stopped suddenly, Lily following suit.
There, just ahead of them, deep down in a dip off a bank ahead of them, was an overturned reddish-coloured car, which was sparking and smoking dangerously; in the front, Lily could see a young woman with her face heavily smashed through the window, while the man was gasping and struggling to get out of the car, but he seemed to have been locked into his smashed vehicle's upturned seats.
As Harry leapt down the bank, Lily following suit, the emerald-eyed lady gasped again as she felt a powerful field of defensive energies wrap around them, before Harry kneeled down and, peering into the back of the vehicle, he offered a hand through the smashed windows at the back.
"It's okay…don't be afraid…you're okay now…"
"I…I didn't…I didn't mean to…" gasped a small, female voice, earning a third gasp from Lily as she drew her wand.
Ignoring the chance that MACUSA would detect her magic – though, given her power had been blessed for years by her baby's powers, as well as Galactus himself, and given she could use her magic freely at home in Britain and other countries without detection or trouble, she didn't hold her breath on that happening – Lily cast a levitation spell to flip the car upright, before she watched as Harry used his own power to rip open the back seat, before he climbed into the seat next to the owner of the small voice.
"Hey! Get away from her, you…you monster!"
Lily's blood boiled, but rather than interfere, since she knew Harry could deal with the problem himself, she watched as her son sneered at the man in the front seat before he growled, "If I'm a monster, what does that make you? Your daughter needed your help because she wasn't feeling well and all you could do was yell at her and make her anxious with your prattling because of an accident."
"An accident?" asked the older man hotly, sneering at Harry, the blood from his own wound trickling down his face. "She killed her best friend! How is that an accident? She killed a child…"
"A child who tricked her into going to a sleepover and played a cruel prank on her," argued Harry, earning a blush from the young girl next to him, whom Lily then noticed had a head of red hair that was a darker shade than hers, as well as green eyes that seemed to sparkle with tears of relief, as well as shock and adorably-strong light.
In a weird way, Lily imagined she was looking at a younger version of her, although, at the same time, she saw Harry edge closer to said girl and, without speaking, the elder redhead nodded in understanding.
Look like her, the girl might do, but this was no Lily.
This was the source of the power that Harry had felt and, even though he'd been conflicted before, he was not so unwilling to listen now.
This girl…
He wanted her.
'And what you want, you get, my beautiful Prince Cosmic,' thought Lily, watching as Harry glared daggers at the Father of the girl.
"She was left screaming because that evil girl filled her sleeping bag with live spiders, before the other kids took photos and laughed at her; some best friend, but all you care about is that she put a lying, two-faced weakling in her rightful place…six feet under!"
The venom in Harry's voice made Lily tremble with intimidation, while Harry scoffed as he added, "Also, it was an accident; in her anger, she tapped into a power she didn't know she had…an awesome power at that, and made sure the selfish little bit couldn't laugh at her again. So what if she wound up covering everyone else in blood too? So what if they were left afraid of her? Weaklings deserve no mercy when they dare to tickle the sleeping dragon and peasants who challenge Goddesses should only ever be squashed, blown up or gobbled up like so much little candy!"
"What sort of freak are you?" snarled the man.
"The kind who's getting hungry," sneered Harry, looking to the redhead behind him as he added in a more-cheerful voice, "But you can call me Harry, if you want to, Jean…sorry; I accidentally read your mind, so I know your name and…"
Before he could finish, Harry found himself on the receiving end of a powerful, binding hug from the girl, Jean, who sniffled as she muttered a string of thanks and disbelieving gratitude for the fact that he not only agreed that what had happened was an accident, but that he believed she wasn't a monster or a freak…but a Goddess.
Patting her on the back, Harry gently pulled away before he asked, "These people obviously don't understand you, Jean; they think they can dump you on some Chrome Dome weakling traitor and run. But you don't need some Sit-and-Spin douchebag to make you a real power in this world; you don't need anyone holding you back. You deserve to spread your wings and fly high…like a bird…"
Here, Harry looked to his Mother, where he winked before he went on.
"Like a phoenix!"
"Phoenix…" whispered Jean, earning a nod from Harry as he looked back to her.
"Yep…risen from the ashes, more powerful than ever…and I want to help you be that, Jean…if you want to be?"
Again, Jean hugged him.
And Lily knew.
She'd just gained a future daughter-in-law.
After all, young in body, her son may be.
But every great Prince needed a Princess to sit by his side and rule the world with him.
And when you were the Son of a God-like being, who better than a Goddess to sit by your side?
JLHF
Soon After
"Hmm…"
Suffice to say, Jean Grey – as she revealed was her name – was in awe of the supersized deity whom Harry pulled her into his mindscape to meet, the sight of the almighty Galactus looming over her both intimidating and filling Jean with awe, homage and no small amount of wonder. Then, when Galactus conjured up his more-human appearance, Jean was still amazed, but also hopeful and a little nervous as he circled her and his son and heir, inspecting her closeness to him, as well as their apparent connection curiously as he walked back to the front, where Harry licked his lips nervously as he looked to the all-powerful being.
"Well, Father?" asked Harry, tightening his hold on Jean's hand as he asked, "Can I keep her?"
Jean let out a soft laugh as she heard him ask such a silly question, but, at the same time, she felt a great deal of respect and thanks to the boy who was her first true friend, as well as the only one who'd shown he believed in her, unlike her parents – both of whom, she now knew, were dead, having been finished off by Harry, though, as he said, out of respect for Jean, he hadn't absorbed their energies, but let the earth reclaim them.
She knew she should have been scared of Harry for what he'd done, as well as how he'd dismissed her family, but found her to be something and someone he wanted to keep close to him, but, in a weird way – that might have been compared to a certain red-and-black-dressed prison doctor turned psychopathic clown from another universe by anyone else – Jean could only feel safe, strong and loved around Harry.
His power.
His faith in her.
His strength.
And even how he believed she was meant to be a Goddess, instead of just another mutant, much less one held back by people like Charles Xavier.
Yes, Jean was grateful.
She just hoped…
"Harry?"
Both of them looked to Galactus as he smiled fondly, before placing both hands on both their left-and-right shoulders respectively, his eyes shining with warmth and power as he nodded.
"You have found yourself a truly worthy Queen to rule your world with, my son…go…with my blessing…my children!"
Harry's eyes shone brightly as he bowed to his Father, while Jean did the same, both of them sharing eternal gratitude to the almighty being before them, who chuckled softly as he tousled Harry's hair before he hummed thoughtfully as he looked to Jean.
"However, if I might make one small adjustment to your powers, my dear Dark Phoenix…"
JLHF
Present Day
"Now, just one more thing before we get started on celebrating your big day, my special boy."
Eleven-year-old Harry Potter looked up from his now-empty plate, while he frowned in curiosity as his Mother walked around the table, where she proceeded to hand him and Jean not one, but two oddly-pale, yellowish-coloured envelopes.
Both of which had similar texts written on them in emerald-green ink;
Mr H Potter
Potter Manor
Unplottable
And, on the second…
Miss J Grey
Potter Manor
Unplottable
"About time," laughed Jean, earning a soft laugh from Harry as she looked to her beloved. "Now, the fun can really begin, Harry."
"That…and so much more, Jeannie," chuckled Harry, looking up at his Mother as he shrugged ruefully.
"Guess Harry Potter, and Jean Grey, are going to Hogwarts, Mum!"
JLHF
At the exact same time, in a lavish-looking office in a school, a certain manipulative old man who liked to think he knew how things would go, for the Greater Good, felt the coldest of cold chills run down his spine, making his heart ache with foreboding, while his stomach tied itself in knots as he felt the Mother and Father of all dread-filled sensations coursing through him.
Had he been aware of such things, Albus Dumbledore might have used a certain well-known phrase to sum up the dread he felt;
"I've got a bad feeling about this…"
However, ignorant as he was to anything he couldn't control, or think he could control, the old man just put his feelings down to the suspicions he had surrounding the inevitable return of the Dark Lord Voldemort.
And the necessary deaths and sacrifices of both Lily and Harry Potter.
For the Greater Good, of course…
Arc 0, aka the Prologue, is now over and it looks like things aren't as cut-and-dry as a certain manipulative old fool thinks, but can the supposed Head of the Phoenix handle the fury of the Dark Phoenix and her Cosmic Dragon beloved? (I very much doubt it)
Also, did Harry actually accept Voldemort's offer, or is Dumbledore just thinking of a return that isn't going to happen?
Keep Reading to Find Out
Next Chapter: Arc 1 begins and Harry and Jean prepare themselves for the stupidity, but also the necessity of a world of fattened sheep, narrow-minded insects and silly little worms…say, was that a flash of red at the door? Ha…speaking of worms…
Please Read and Review
AN: Harry's Feeding Power
Also, in case anyone's wondering, especially after the tease in this chapter and an earlier one, the method that Harry uses to feed is somewhat inspired by my favourite anime – The Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime – and the power in that series known as Gluttony/Predator/Beelzebub, which allows the MC to consume his targets;
Weird? Maybe.
Do I care? Not really; such is the fun of Fanfiction