The only way to describe my conversation with little Harry would be 'funny'. Well, to me at least.
The kid was totally in the dark about absolutely everything. So, my dropping truth bombs after truth bombs broke his worldview quite a bit.
Not that I think he believed everything I told him, I'm not dumb. A lot of that was for Dumbledore. I do not doubt that as soon as Harry even mentions the Horcrux, the headmaster will drag him to his office and take a look at his memories.
I'm kinda counting on that actually. I want him to think that somehow I am Voldemort too. Whether I was made by another Horcrux or by some dark ritual doesn't matter. I want him to think that there was infighting among us. Hell, I even left the body of Fetusmort for Harry to take with him along with Pettigrew.
But why would I do all that? For power, obviously. I cast a compulsion on Potter to repeat what happened in the books, you know, shout about Tom's return and all that, minus dead Diggory of course.
So I did all I could to appear more reasonable, more approachable, and more sane. I was planning to play on Dumbledore's guilt about Tom to get what I want from this world. Was it a shitty thing to do? Sure, but I did not plan on killing the man. He had one foot in the grave already, I could wait for a while and absorb his power when he croaked naturally.
"That went rather well, wouldn't you say, Pyra?" I said and turned to the cute girl as soon as Harry touched the portkey and disappeared.
"If by well you mean you unnecessarily messed with the fate of this world, then yes, it went well. What are you planning?" She asked while scrutinizing my face. However, to me, she just looked cute. That expression changed to one of disbelief when I relayed my impromptu plan to her.
"Emily… I'm sorry, but that is super dumb and convoluted, " she said and ran a hand through her red hair.
"Of course it's dumb, I made the plan after all. But I can improvise, plus, I got more than enough power to deal with anything this world throws at me, no?" I grinned at her and continued.
"But the more important reason is that it should be fun. I know the story of this world by heart, and I want to see my favorite characters do something different."
"*sigh* You sound so much like Bobby, you know that?" Pyra sighed and shook her head in exasperation, and all I could do was to grin in response.
"Neat! Anyway, I think it's time to get the hell out of here. Do you know the way to the Gaunt Shack? There should be another Horcrux there, and I can get my hands on one of the Hallows too. It'll be a nice power boost."
"I'll share the location with you, I can't use this world's magic and apparate us there." She said as a bead of white light coalesced on her finger, which then floated into my ear.
"Brr~ That ticked! Okay! Hold onto me." With that, I apparated us to the ward boundary of the shack.
The house was dilapidated and the grounds were overgrown with wild weeds of all kinds. All in all, not a place you'd want to call home.
"Quick question. If I disintegrate this whole place with my Zanpakuto, will the stone survive, or do I need to actually go and undo the wards around here?"
"Hmm… If you use your Shikai, the stone will be fine, it's at the pinnacle of what people of this world can create and nearly indestructible." Pyra replied after giving it some thought.
"And if I used bankai?" I asked mostly out of my own curiosity.
"Unless you want to completely incinerate everything in a twenty-mile radius around you by accident, I'd suggest not using that. Even if you know how to use it, it's a complete overkill for this world."
"Huh— Good to know. Phew… Here we go!" I nodded at her and concentrated on my sword.
"Reduce All Creation to Ash !" I yelled out the command once I unsheathed the katana.
"Oh boy, this feels amazing."
As soon as I unleashed it, flames unlike anything I had ever seen erupted from my body. The fiery tongues danced around me, eager to devour whatever I focused my mind on. The sudden surge of power made my entire body vibrate with excitement, and I wished I had something else that vibrated at the moment. I was in my element, literally, hehe.
"Oooo! Pyra! You're seeing this shit! Can you do something like this too?!" I yelled at her excitedly, but my expression must have been off, because Pyra was avoiding my eyes. Strange.
"Y–yes…" She said and took a giant step back.
"hehehe~ Nice! You will show me, yes?! Now let's get on with the fireworks!" I paid no attention to whether she responded or not. My full focus was now on the property before me.
"TORCH!" I yelled and slashed down with the katana. The effect was instantaneous and brutal. Flame more intense than the one I released in the beginning flared up on everything my eyes saw. It was apocalyptic, and it was everything I ever wanted and more, so so much more.
"huff~huff~ T-that is something…"I released a breath I didn't know I was holding and spoke. It all turned to ash in a matter of seconds. Everything but the Horcrux. I felt it in there somewhere.
"Let's go and get the stone." I told Pyra and pulled out my wand.
"Ventus!" I used one of the few wind spells Voldemort knew and started blowing the ash away. The fact that it took like five minutes spoke volumes about how destructive the Zanpakuto could be.
"Jesus! Look at this! There are beads of glass everywhere under all that." I said and picked up a few of them to inspect.
"Yes, yes, yes. Your fire is awesome, but we should leave right now. That fire burned through the protective wards and shone like a beacon for all wizards to see. Grab the stone and let's apparate away, before Dumbledore or the Aurors show up." Pyra urged me to hurry. I happily obliged and ran to the place I thought should house the stone.
"Mmm~ There you are." I hummed and once again slammed the pommel onto the stone. If it worked on Harry, there is no way it won't work on this. And it did. I repeated the same process I did twice today, and absorbed another part of Voldy's power, grabbed the stone, and went to Pyra.
"Done! Let's get the hell out of here. There should be a plethora of uninhabited islands we can occupy for now."
"Warm or Cold?" Pyra asked.
"Cold"
"Kay. Boreray Island is our best bet. Completely uninhabited and quite a ways offshore too. A bit of magic to flatten some areas, and it should be quite the cozy place to hunker down for a while."
"Is that place big enough for Azkaban? Once I have it, we should move it somewhere else." I didn't want to start building a base, only for me to then abandon it a week or two later.
"Azkaban is surprisingly not that big. The movies exaggerated it." Pyra reassured me.
" Okay, give me the location." I said while grabbing Pyra and preparing to apparate.
—
Albus felt a massive headache approaching in the immediate future. It hasn't even been a full day since the disastrous ending of the final task of the Tri-Wizard tournament. He had plans, albeit vague ones, but the appearance of the strange woman and her companion threw a wrench into everything.
Not only did she tell Harry about the prophecy, a thing nobody save him and a few others knew about. No, she told him about Horcruxes, those vile things. She then somehow removed the one from Harry, without killing him, mind you, and everything pointed at her taking one from the place that once was the Gaunt Shack too.
"*sigh* I'm glad that young Harry no longer has to bear the weight of the wizarding world on his shoulders… the damned prophecy is nulled and void. But that woman… Severus, do you have any insights that I might have missed?" Dumbledore turned to Severus, one of the few members of the Order he shared this new development with.
"When she casts magic, the woman moves just like the Dark Lord did. It's identical, down to the minute detail, but I've never seen her or her companion at any of our 'gatherings'. Nor have I ever heard of a sword capable of dispelling Horcruxes without destroying them."
"Nor have I, my friend, nor have I. But that is the least of our worries, I'm afraid. There is an explanation to this, no matter how outlandish it might sound." Dumbledore looked at Snape with a pointed look.
"You think that this woman is the Dark Lord?" Severus scoffed at the idea. They both watched Potter's memories, and even if some signs pointed to it, the behaviour and the personality did not match in the slightest. The woman was… bubbly.
"Yes and no. The resemblance is uncanny when it matches, but Severus, magic of that magnitude is bound to be unpredictable."
"... A botched ritual? That would somewhat explain her killing Pettigrew, but what about that disfigured fetus? I looked like the Dark Lord, and she allowed Potter to take it. Why?"
"I don't know my boy. Only she and that companion of hers know what happened at the graveyard before Harry arrived. Unless we hear it directly from her, everything would be a guess." Dumbledore replied with a faraway look.
"What of Potter?" Severus asked, the distaste at the name evident to all but him.
"The boy returned with two corpses and proclaimed that Voldemort was back in front of everybody present. The ministry and the press will do everything in their power to paint that boy as a raving lunatic, and he knows it. I had to use the privileges of being a headmaster to get the Aurors off his back for a while, but I don't doubt that in a matter of hours I'll get a visit from Amelia and Croaker."
"He'll live." Snape spat out.
"Yes, he will, we will make sure of that." The look he gave Severus told him to hold his tongue.
"Is that all, Headmaster?" He replied curtly.
"For now. You may go." Dumbledore said and watched him leave his office with a sour expression.
With an aged sigh, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, trying to stave off the headache for as long as possible. Talking with Severus almost always went like this. Whenever Harry came up, he would clam up, no doubt superimposing James over any of Harry's actions.
~Trill~ A soft song resounded throughout the office, courtesy of Fawkes. His friend always tried his best to soothe him.
"Thank you, my friend. *sigh* Today will be a long day…" Dumbledore, with a final sigh, stood up and left his office.
—
*Yawn~*
"Who would have thought that sleeping under the stars would be this nice? " I mumbled sleepily and stretched my stiff joints.
"It wasn't that nice… the lack of walls made it hard for me to fall asleep." Pyra pouted and glared at me a little from where she was lying down next to the fire pit. Her hair was all disheveled and I could have sworn I saw a stick poking out somewhere in there too.
"But you said you slept outside when you traveled around your world?"
"We had nice tents, and the highest quality sleeping bags you could ever imagine. Why did I let you talk me into sleeping on some cushioning charms is beyond me… Ugh…" Pyra said while trying to untangle the mess, she called her hair.
" Pft! How about we go and before we return today, we steal a house from that island nearby?"
"Can't you just build it with magic?"
"Yes, but I want to do crime."
Pyra just rolled her eyes at my response before she broke into a fit of giggles, and what a nice sound it was. I definitely wouldn't mind hearing it every day, that's for sure.
"Well, it's not like we can buy anything, you have no money." She said after her laughter had settled down.
"Oh, right. Hmm… I can get a couple hundred pounds quite easily, but large sums will be an issue, not to mention Galleons. Goddamnit! I haven't even thought of that… never mind, let's go to London and steal a bunch of scratch off tickets, and hope we hit it big, hehehe~." I rubbed my palms together, fly style.
"Scratch-offs? That's your plan? Well, it's better than robbing innocent people, I guess." Pyra said, sounding unsure about it.
"Yeah, it is, or do you have a better idea? I'm all ears." I wondered what she would come up with.
"Vernon Dursley. He's quite rich, right?" Pyra said with a mischievous smile. One that I liked quite a bit.
"Ohoho, my beautiful Fairy! With you by my side, I can see my future as a crime lord shining brightly!"
"eh… Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I doubt being a criminal mastermind would be fun for you…" She tried to let me down as gently as possible. Bless her heart.
"What? No, no, no! You got it all wrong. Obviously, I'm the muscle. I can already see it." I stood up dramatically and got into the role.
"My friend, I suggest you think this through and sign this document. If not… I'm sure that Igorina will pay a lovely visit to you and your family."
"Да, boss lady"
"Pft! Igorina? Really?" Pyra snorted.
"Yes, the most effective muscle must come from Eastern Europe. Everybody knows this, Pyra." I rolled my eyes. Honestly, what did she take me for? An amateur?
"Um… H–How about we put Igorina on the back burner for the moment, and get some money from Vernon. With magic, of course."
"For now, but I will write this idea down! You hear me? Igorina will not be forgotten for long." I will not be deterred.
*phew~*
"Of course, Emily. How about when we reach a world with superheroes? Then you can play Igorina? Hmm?" Was it just me, or did Pyra sound rather desperate? Eh, whatever. I'm sure she will change her tune once she learns of her role as Svetlana Kalashikova.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go, Vernon should have a lunch break soon."
"Eh? How did you know?" Pyra exclaimed with surprise.
"I'm hungry, so that walrus of a man must be starving."
"..."
"Plus, according to the sun, it should be noon soon."
"Let's just go… I'm hungry too."
"See?! My logic is flawless."
Pyra deemed that something she did not want to engage in on an empty stomach, and just gave Emily the location of Grunnings. All the while thanking every deity willing to listen, Emily did not choose a normal system. The universe was not ready for that kind of disaster.
One apparition trip to an alley near Grummings later, and we had a clear view of one Vernon Dursley. He walked with purpose, and his eyes were firmly glued to the nearby fast-food chain. What I meant by that was that the guy was not paying attention to his surroundings one bit.
"Let's wait until he orders something and sits down. Wait… Did they have ATMs in the early nineties?" I whisper to Pyra frantically.
"Yes, they did. I wouldn't have suggested this otherwise. Confounded people look like they're high. That would raise all kinds of suspicion at the bank." Pyra whispered back to me.
"Heh. Great. Let's follow him inside." I tugged on her arm when Vernon vanished behind the now closed automatic doors. We quickly got on his trail and went inside.
" *sniff* Mmmm~ Smell like a reward. How nostalgic." I murmured when the all-familiar smell of deep-fried oil hit my nostrils. It reminded me of better times. Then I noticed the curious look Pyra was giving me.
"My mom used to take me to a place like this when I got good grades at school." I whispered.
"Sounds like a good mom."
"The best." Sensing that I did not want to talk further on this topic, she steered my attention back to Vernon, who was done ordering his meal.
"Jesus Christ! That would last both of us the whole day!" I couldn't help myself when I saw his tray, which was overflowing with burgers, fries, and at least two big boxes of chicken nuggets.
He obviously got a Diet Coke to wash it all down.
"Confundo!" I cast an overpowered Confundus on him the moment he found an empty table at the back of the restaurant and sat down. The effect was immediately noticeable when both of us sat down next to him.
Vernon had an empty gaze, his mouth was half open, and all in all, he looked like he had at least two dozen lobotomies done back to back.
"Hello, Vernon. Thanks for inviting us out to lunch! How kind of you to do that." I said with a big smile and took the tray and put it in front of us.
"...Y-y-s. u–lcome." He mumbled something unintelligible and continued staring into nothing. We, of course, took full advantage of that and ate as much food as we could. Sharing the giant cup of Coke between the two of us at the end.
"Thanks for the meal, Vernon. Now, do you remember how I asked you to borrow some money?" I asked.
"Huh? Mny?" That got his attention, but the fucker still managed to shake his head in denial. Nothing another confundus couldn't fix though.
"Dear? About the money?" I pressed
"Mhmm… ys….mny." Jackpot.
"Yes, darling. Money for me. Go to the ATM at the corner of this building, and take out everything your limit allows." A compulsion charm made the man stand up shakily, and very slowly waddle out of the restaurant. Once he left the building, which was more of a challenge than we anticipated, both of us slowly left the building.
"Don't forget to make us invisible, Emily. The cameras they have at this time might be shit, but let's not take any chances." A quick glance at Vernor, who was still fighting with all his might to insert the credit card into the ATM, told me we had enough time to dip into an alley and do it there.
It still took the man an additional minute to finally withdraw the money, and to our surprise, he had quite a sizeable stack of bills in his hand.
"I'll be taking this, Vernon. Thank you very much, darling." He let go of the money as soon as he heard my voice and mumbled something in response.
"Now Vernon. I want you to go to that store over there and drink at least half a bottle of vodka, then you will strip your clothes and wait for the police. Don't let them arrest you!" An overpowered compulsion charm later, and Vernon was on his way to hopefully ruin his life for the foreseeable future.
Once we were back in the alley and the disillusionment dropped, Pyra looked at me with an amused expression.
"What? Fuck him."