560Well, here we are with a third fic from yours truly. An idea which came to me while bemoaning the injustice done to HP/DC with the exception of perhaps 3 to 4 fics.
If any authors are reading this, then I would ask you to join the Emerald Library discord if you use the application. It is a wonderful place with new author and readers joining every hour and helping each other with brainstorming and other things.
Link is on the profile.
As always, Chapter 2 is already available on my discord, so I hope to see you there. You can chat with other readers and earlier reads on all my works.
Harry may seem OP to some of you, but canon Harry will be chewed out and spit within the first week of DC verse, so I have kept canon the same till the BoH, but after that changes are done.
A great many thanks to Lordlexx, KaliYugaFan for the amazing work they did on the chapter.
"Harry James Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, The-Man-Who-Conquered, defeated and powerless at my feet. Oh, how I have longed for this since I was struck down by my own killing curse."
Longing or not, the voice was certainly successful in conveying the speaker's satisfaction. Crimson eyes which had haunted his nightmares since his first year shined with glee and malice. The voice was that of Voldemort, the eyes were his, even the overwhelming power and the terrifying knowledge could only belong to his old nemesis.
The only problem, the bastard was inside Ginevra Weasley, his ex-girlfriend and quite a powerful witch in her own right. Turns out being the seventh daughter of the seventh generation made her more powerful than anyone had realised, even more than the now long gone Ginny herself. Power that was now merged with an already monstrously powerful Voldemort's.
Even as he lay there in the Potter manor's main hall, battered and broken, Harry couldn't help but reply with a spitball right into Voldemort's kneeling face and get the final word.
"The first time or the second time?"
This time there was no rage in Voldemort's eyes but why would he rage? There was no one in the world who could defeat him now. He had been the only one capable of standing up to Voldemort in magical power when they had fought in Hogwarts all those years ago, and after seven years Harry had grown even more, having taken the time to build up his repertoire and skill. There was no one in Europe and Africa who could defeat him, his three times consecutive winning streak in International Duelling proved that, but Lord Voldemort had been all that for far longer than Harry had been alive.
The cut apart and mutilated bodies of a majority of Hit Wizards, Aurors, the DA and his best friend Hermione painted a macabre picture of the prowess the Dark Lord held. All the Rituals Tom Riddle had done to turn into Voldemort had been redone on Ginny Weasley's body, granting the megalomaniac regeneration and increased reflexes.
"You should have killed me in the start Harry, your useless platitudes of friendship and Dumbledore's dogma of love and non-lethal action have cost you the lives of so many of your friends. All because none of you dared to use even a small cutting curse against me and all the time called out to a girl who was never here to begin with." Voldemort stood up and slammed his heel down, causing blood and gore to cover Harry's face with a squelching sound. Feeling Neville's brain matter splatter across him, Harry looked with horror at the pulped head beneath Voldemort's heel, a single eyeball remaining within the mess.
"I sent you the Patronus five days ago, and this is what you could muster up? Your Grandfather and Grandmother gave me a better fight than you ever could. They managed to take off my whole right hand, twelve Death Eaters and three Giants down before they died by my wand. They were both older than me and yet gave me more of a challenge than you ever could. I told you that there is only power and those too weak to seek it. You were powerful Harry, as powerful as I had been, but now with poor Ginevra's soul devoured by me, I am more powerful than ever. Had you had the Gryffindor-courage, you wouldn't be lying there in a pool of your blood with Longbottom's brains all over you."
While Voldemort's words were nothing more than poison meant to break the broken man even further, Harry's mind flashed back to all the times he had shared with with his friends, who now laid dead and desiccated in his home just because he wanted to give second chances and didn't want to use dark magic.
Hate flooded his mind like a torrential downpour, the memory of Malfoy's corpse missing an arm being found in the same graveyard of Little Hangleton, the memory of Voldemort killing Cedric, the memory of Ron refusing to come due to Molly not wanting him associating with the Weasley's, Hermione's spine being ripped out, Neville's legs being blasted off and his eye burst by his own teeth. Worst of all, a hallucination formed within his mind due to the blood loss and all the emotional breakdown. His parents came into view, shouting at him for letting their murderer live due to his own selfish desires. But the final nail in the coffin came from Voldemort himself, the monster once again back on Quirell's head saying reppetivel, "There is only power, and those too weak to seek it."
Returning his mind back to present, Harry raised his head and looked into the bloody pools of disdain staring at him. In the moment, clarity of the sorts monks could only wish for came over him, and Harry saw the world for it truly was. It was a jungle, full of predators and prey and Harry was done being the latter. Raising hand towards Voldemort, Harry willed his biggest secret into existence. The Elder Wand blurred into existence, and Voldemoprt immediately raised his hand with green light pooling at its tip, yet he wasn't fast enough. His eyes shining as brightly as the curse which marked him, Harry snarled with all of his hatred and anger for the animal in front of him.
"Avada Kedavra!"
A few hours later when the remaining Aurors took the memory of a barely awake Hit Wizard present there. A green flash, a wet squelch and a scream of rage and pain were the only things they could find, with Ginny Weasley's body showing clear signs of a Killing Curse impacting her with Harry Potter nowhere to be found.
Within two hours all the bodies were identified, and the sole survivor of the heinous slaughter easily admitted to Potter calling them all to his home. The reason, apparently the Dark Lord had returned and was inhabiting the body of Ginny Weasley, Potter's ex-girlfriend.
The whole Ministry was in uproar with the deaths of Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Ginevra Weasley, Luna Lovegood and many others known to have fought against Death Eaters and creatures in the Hogwarts Battle of '98.
One hour later the families of the departed wept in the Ministry atrium and the Evening Prophet was delivered right in the middle of that. Someone read the articles by reporter extraordinaire Rita Skeeter which explained quite artistically how Potter called his friends to back him up when his ex started dating Dean Thomas, an auror found dead amongst the carnage this afternoon. She told a tale of a jilted lover, who grew furious when none of his comrades supported him and then in his rage killed them all, his waning sanity from his school days finally snapping due to Ginvera Weasley's choice. His claim of Voldemort returning back was surely a lie, one said to garner even more fame than the Man-Who-Won currently enjoys. If there was an uproar before in the Ministry, now there was a downright stampede as everyone moved towards the Apparition points and the fireplaces to find and bring the deranged Potter to justice.
Shouting threats and sobbing in equal measure at the front was the Weasley family, everyone's face red and blotchy from tears and anger. A scant few feet away from the apparition points, everyone was shocked when Rita Skeeter's bloody body appeared in front of them, portkeyed by her signature quills. She had not been given a quick death evidenced by her broken fingers, her ripped teeth and her gouged out eyes and almost everyone lost their lunch at the sight, the blood already scabbed over her injuries and leaving a trail of crimson over her clothes.
"You know, I was 11 years old when I first came to know that I was the Boy-Who-Lived, the same day I also came to know I am a Wizard.", a voice whispered from all directions, a voice everyone in the atrium knew all too well. Molly Weasley opened her mouth to screech out her anger and wrath, only for no sound to escape her throat. Besides her, everyone experienced the same thing and a shudder went up many spines at the magnitude of power and skill required to silence more than 200 people at once.
"I was told that Slytherin's were the scum of the Earth, that no one who goes there isn't dark. I also learned Gryffindor is the best, Dumbledore is the best, purebloods are all bigots and many such things." Even as he spoke, many started to remove the silencing charm on them, yet they remained unsuccessful in their efforts. Their attention was grabbed by Harry Potter appearing in front of them in all of his bloody glory.
Foregoing the attempt at unsilencing herself, Molly rushed forwards and raised her hand to slap the green-eyed man but her wrist was caught in his vice-like grip. The next second her mouth opened in a soundless scream of pain as a sharp crack rang out in the silence.
"That was daring to call yourself as-good-as my mother. I may have lived at your home and ate your food, but don't presume you can ever equal my mother in my eyes. Maybe now you will think twice before harping your views down everyone's ears.
"Don't even think about coming forwards Ronald Weasley, or I can set your mother on fire right here right now. I have already killed one annoying cockroach, killing another self-entitled pig won't bother me too much."
Breathing heavily with his whole face red, Ron jerked his hand away from Arthur's grip and stepped back. Smiling at his first friend turned traitor turned best friend, Harry continued, "Now, now after so many years amongst you, I have come to recognise all of those are lies. Voldemort was right, you people are just sheep, ready to be herded by the loudest shout. Many of you turned on me when the Chamber of Secrets was opened, when I was entered in the Goblet of Fire, when I said Voldemort was back and then I am back to being the chosen one, the Boy-Who-Lived. You are all fickle and devoid of any rational thought. A week ago you all had been throwing parties and congratulations in my honor after I won the Duelling Championship and today a single page from this decrepit and vile shrew gets you all bayig for my blood?"
Dropping Molly's wrist, Harry took a step forwards towards everyone while she was whimpering on the floor. Turning his head towards her Harry spoke in a shrill voice in a crude attempt of mimicking her, "'Oh no you don't young man, You don't know what you are doing by breaking up with Ginny! You don't know what is good for you, I demand as your mother that you come back this instant and apologise to poor Ginny!'"
Sneering at the teary eyed woman, Harry growled, "You are crying due to a broken wrist, my mother stood up to Voldemort himself and spat in the face of fear to save me. You can't hope to match Lily Evans Potter in a thousand lifetimes, Molly Weasley, I hope that you remember that for the rest of your miserable life."
Turning his baleful eyes back towards the Weasley clan, sans the cursebreaker duo of Bill and Fleur, in front of him, Harry tapped his head and brought out a memory strand before dropping it into a conjured vial. Floating the vial into the Minister of Magic, Susan Bones' hands, Harry apparated down to the Department of Mysteries, shattering the Anti-Apparition wards of the whole Ministry.
Robotically walking to his destination, Harry's mind flashed back to just after he had shot the killing curse.
Breathing heavily with tears dripping down his face, Harry shook his head before standing up shakily, every small jitter in his limbs reminding that Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse was as good as old times. Not daring to look below at the scattered remains of his friends and dead face of Ginny staring up at him, Harry apparated straight to Hogwarts, more specifically to the Forbidden Forest. Immediately the chatter of students out for a class reached his ears, the COMC classes now being taught by a trained and professional expert after Hagrid being dismissed due to being found guilty of the acromantula colony so close to Hogwarts.
Shaking his head of the memories, Harry took out his invisibility cloak and moved forwards into the forest. After thirty minutes of walking and three dead acromantulas later, Harry arrived in a familiar spot.
Removing the cloak he kneeled down in front of a small plant and hissed, §Give me the Stone.§
Within seconds the plant burrowed down into the ground, before in its palace a small black gemstone came out. The moment Harry grasped the stone, a painful feeling travelled up his arm. Icy fire spread throughout his body as the blood from his fingers on the stone, the Elder Wand and the Cloak glowed silver before they all turned into mist and spread around him.
His eyes glowed silver as the mist flew inside his nostrils and mouth. Silence descended upon the forest for many moments, before a series of coughs came from Harry's position inside the mist still covering him. A thought of Evanesco and a wave of his hand later the mist surrounding him was gone. As he opened his eyes with a pained gasp, Harry fell to his knees at the sight in front of him. He had removed the mist, but along with it he had vanished more than 10 feet of forest around him. Even this wasn't the thing that had shocked him, many times his control had slipped during the years and results weren't up to his desires.
His mind was barely functioning at this point due to Voldemort's actions this afternoon but even then he could understand that doing what he did without a wand was impossible for anyone. Before he could think more on his sudden wandless magic, Harry coughed heavily, tasting blood in his mouth. While this wasn't a new feeling, he knew that nothing that happened today should have caused this. Voldemort had kept damaging Harry to a minimum, nothing more than the Cruciatus for less than ten seconds at a time and a cutting curse to his face.
"Your body is breaking down. You have grown in power far too fast for your already malnourished and weakened body to handle. That along with the negative effects the Horcrux had on your soul and the effects of Cruciatus Curse is causing your core to fluctuate."
At the sound of Hermione's voice, Harry broke down completely. Believing himself to be completely insane, Harry grabbed his hair and curled upon himself, thinking of Hermione's voice as nothing but mad hallucinations created by his deteriorating psyche. A fleeting touch on his shoulder got him to jump up in shock and then immediately hyperventilate at the spectral form of Hermione in front of him, still as beautiful and as unharmed as she had been this morning.
"He-Hermione?"
A few tears falling from the spectral Hermione's eyes, the brunette nodded. "You used the Stone, Harry. For a moment you wished for me to be at your side, and the Resurrection Stone did as you commanded it. Unfortunately, I can already feel unnatural, like Cadmus' wife did, so I would like to cut this short."
Half of her words went right over his head, busy as he was staring at the spot where Voldemort had ripped her spine right out through her chest.
"HARRY!"
Jolting as if shocked Harry looked into the brown eyes staring at him and tears sprang anew. Babbling out apologies and sobbing uncontrollably, Harry was completely overwhelmed with the emotionally wrecking day he had gone through. Frustrated at her friend and yet understanding why it was happening, Hermione touched his arm, once again sending a feeling of unpleasantness up both of their forms. This time though Harry looked up and stayed that way instead of devolving into a crying mess.
"Harry, I don't know how to break it to you," Hermione began sadly, causing an already confused Harry to brace himself for some horrible news like Voldemort still being alive or something similar, but nothing prepared him for what she said next.
"You are a literal time bomb now Harry. You merged the Hallows together inside you, but your soul and magic both were highly unstable after the Cruciatus you took and your contact with Voldemort. Your heavy usage of magic also didn't help matters, you are continuously growing in power right now, and at the same time turning unstable."
A wet choked sound came from his mouth and Hermione felt horribly bad for telling her friend about his impending death, but Harry had subconsciously accessed the stone's powers and summoned her and he had thought of her giving him answers to his problems, so she had done so, unable to escape the hold of the Stone on her soul.
"S-So Voldemort got the last laugh? The Hallows don't turn someone into the Master of Death, they just turn someone into a time bomb? At least I am going out in a literal blaze of glory!"
Hermione tried very much, she tried with every fibre of her being to control herself, but she was a soul and thus commanded by the Stone to respond to the Master's questions. She tried making herself think Harry had used a full stop instead of a question mark but her wishes didn't matter in front of his queries. He thought of the words as a question, so answers he shall receive.
"Yes Harry, Voldemort got the last laugh. No, the Hallows turn a Peverell by blood to the Master of Death but your soul has been damaged since you were a Horcrux. Also you were a lot more powerful than normal to begin with and the recent Cruciatus exposure disrupted your core. No you aren't going to go out in a blaze of glory, you are just going to blast into pure magic, turning everything in a 100 mile radius of you into nothing but vapor."
Harry's face blanked slowly, his eyes increasing the glow they were emitting. Hermione opened her mouth to comfort him but she was pulled back to the void she came from, existing in mortal plane becoming far too uncomfortable for her soul.
"Huh, so now I am a time bomb." Staring blankly into the darkening depths of the forest around him, Harry stood up slowly. Immediately another series of coughs wracked his frame and blood sprayed out with each exhale on his hands. Silently apparating away to the Ministry with his destination below in the DOM, he was utterly unprepared for the cacophony of voices in the atrium. Unknowingly applying the Invisibility Cloak's magic over him, Harry stood there for more than an hour as he heard the chatter around him.
Employing every ounce of mental control and Occlumency, Harry barely kept a lid on his growing temper as everyone around him jumped to blame him for the deaths of so many people. Yet the worst dagger to his heart came from the Weasley's who immediately started cursing him when the only surviving wizard told of what he had seen and heard. He took small solace in the fact that Bill and Fleur weren't present at the time, having their hands full with Victoire and Dominique both. But Bill and Fleur weren't the ones that stood with him as he went to Chamber of Secrets, they weren't the one who willingly went into a colony of giant spiders and helped him many other times.
'They also weren't jealous gits anytime you had something nice going for you,' he thought.
Mentally nodding to the voice in his head, Harry was about to silently move towards the Department of Mysteries when the Evening Prophet streamed in. He was almost halfway to his destination when a new wave of noise rose in the atrium. Whispers of 'betrayal', 'murder' and 'Potter' wormed into his ears. Intrigued by the mention of his name, Harry read the article printed by the Prophet over one of the wizard's shoulders. Now that he was somewhat cognizant, Harry could hear everyone agreeing with Skeeter's article, once again. At the forefront of these were the Weasley's, with Molly already having it out for him since he broke up with Ginny and Ron hating him for the same with the added reason of Hermione leaving him.
The deaths of his friends due to his inaction, the actions of Voldemort, the news of his impending death and all of the turbulent emotions over took his mind before condensing into a single one, rage so profound that Harry didn't even doubt his next course of action.
Disapparating to the Daily Prophet office situated in the Diagon Alley, Harry entered the premises silently and located the beetle immediately. Rita Skeeter didn't even have the time to realise what was happening before a multitude of spells slammed into her.
The first heightened her sensitivity by amplifying her senses and sensory nerves,and the second silenced her completely, preventing sound from escaping more than a few inches from her skin. The third one was special, a variation of Rennervate he had created, one which kept the target from falling unconscious despite the status of the body and mind.
With wide eyes and frantic expression, Rita started moving around, no doubt finding herself discomforted and overwhelmed by the exponentially enhanced sensations. Finding his patience waning, Harry splayed out his fingers and made a fist, removing each of Skeeter's teeth with a second's pause between each of them.
Before Skeeter could even feel her first tooth completely leave her mouth the overwhelming pain caused her to black out, only for a infinitesimal moment. The next second she saw her incisor leave her mouth with a spray of blood and torn gums. It was then that Harry revealed himself with his hand on Rita's elbow causing the blond woman to pale and trash even more.
Grinning at the struggling woman, Harry grabbed her wrist and twisted her hand downwards with a sharp crack ringing out. Leaving her broken arm at her side, Harry rolled up the cut out piece of article of this evening before hardening it in front of her eyes.
Pausing for a moment, Harry took in Rita's bloodied and tear streaked face with more than half of her teeth now on the floor. Plunging the hardened roll into her eye socket, Harry took it out before breaking her other hand while looking her in her remaining eye.
This whole time, Harry had been blocking his emotions with Occlumency, knowing that Rita had gone too far in her article. Insinuating that Harry had murdered Ginny and Dean along with others had been enough to make him explode, but outright saying that he had murdered Hermione in cold blood when she couldn't handle seeing her lover like this, that certainly made it clear to him that Rita will die, with everything that made her Rita snatched from the bug.
Her teeth would never grow back, the Black family curse would make sure that she would never besmirch another ear with her horrible lies. Grasping her hands in his hands, Harry mentally recited the bone fragmentation curse along with the pure intent of never making her hand work again. Pouring his anger and hatred for the dying woman into his intent and magic, Harry shredded her muscles and nerves apart making the damage permanent. For the rest of her life, her hands would be bereft of any movement and will perpetually give her a stinging pain, like a localised weak Cruciatus.
Rita's legs gave out at that moment, the woman slumping forwards with the hardened paper pushing into Harry's chest, causing it to get pushed backwards into Rita's brain. For about a second Harry looked wirth confusion at the unmoving woman, before he caught onto what had happened and just shook his head. He hadn't wanted to kill her, just leave her crippled for the rest of her life but as he looked down at her and remembered all the articles she had written over the years, Harry decided he couldn't care less about what had happened.
Vanishing the paper and causing a fresh wave of blood to pour out from her eye socket, Harry dried the blood with barely a thought and apparated to the Ministry atrium.
He arrived just in time to since everyone else seemed to be leaving on a witch-hun—well, wizard-hunt. Conjuring the signature quill of Skeeter, Harry stuck it to her robes and dropped her on the ground in front of them with an illusion of a portkey's portal.
He could hear it all once again, far clearer this time than in 1995. The whispers, the voices they called to him, the Veil of Death called to him. He could also hear the running and shouting coming from the corridor outside, his animagus form granting him hearing on a far above level than a normal human and most animals.
His decision made, Harry walked forwards towards the veil, already feeling his magic getting so out of control that a visible corona was starting to form around him. Blood was now freely leaking from his nose and Harry could feel his body decaying with more speed every passing second. Walking into the veil silently, Harry immediately blanked out as something attacked his mind, from within his mind itself. Something as familiar to him as his own mind was, something which materialised in front of him with a familiar set of red eyes, yet a changing face each moment. He was looking at a 11 year old Tom Riddle one moment, the next he was looking at a eleven year old Ginny in Gryffindor robes with a pale snakelike Voldemort following soon after.
"What the fuck would it take you to drop dead and not come back?" Harry snarled with hatred and rage coloring his voice and Voldemort just laughed in response.
"We are connected Harry, You are the very thing which has kept me alive despite my horcruxes being gone, and now when you are dying yet are still alive with the Hallow's at your disposal, your tether to the realm of the dead is strong enough for me to pull my whole soul into your body. I had already started doing so when you finally united the Hallows." At the surprised look on the man's face Voldemort just laughed and continued, "You may have darkness inside you Harry Potter, but you are so steeped into the foolish thoughts of forgiveness and not hurting anyone that you couldn't have done all of the torturing and the breaking of that pig's wrist by yourself. It was my emotions, my personality, my knowledge that was merging with yours."
An instinctive understanding of what Voldemort was talking about came over him and with it came the knowledge of what was happening. Voldemort was taking over his body and ejecting his soul at the same time with the frayed ends of the link they had coming closer each passing moment. Harry could feel Voldemort's excitement and the way he was accomplishing this. With a growl Harry centered his mind and with all the willpower at his disposal, he pushed back, the intent of making Voldemort leave his mind, soul and body filling each and every thought of his mind.
As soon as it had begun, it was over. Voldemort was only able to widen his eyes before he vanished into nothing but ashes. Somehow, Harry knew this was the end of Voldemort, the snake-face having finally been expunged from his mind and the world. Sighing to himself, Harry suddenly shot his eyes all around himself in the darkness as a titbit of Voldemort's words rang through his mind about Riddle's personalities, emotions and memories merging with his own. Before he could panic anymore and try to tear his own mind apart to find and remove the megalomaniac's taint from it, a vortex of darkness enveloped him and he blacked out immediately.
A few seconds later a massive wave of energy was released in the Phantom Zone, with a very large area around the source turned into nothing but vapor and atoms.
Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated, but if you are gonna call names and tell me I should stop this, then you are wasting yours and mine time both.