75I already have this chapter, for the most part, thought out, so I'll be updating it first. Before we begin, I have to start by saying that in this chapter Dumbledore is gonna kinda be a dick, this is not bashing, I love Dumbledore's character in the books, his motives, and his actions when seen from his point of view. But he'll be acting like a dick in this chapter for good reasons that I'll try to explain.
And before anyone starts on how Kore acts in this, she knows, Kore is this Goddess who loves and cares deeply, and she is trying to convince them not for their sake or her own, she's doing it for Harry. Please do try and keep this in mind before you fill the comments with "BuT sHe'S a GoDdEsS,"
Understand? Good.
On with the show!
Excerpt from the Daily Prophet, September 3rd, 1991.
The-Boy-Who-Lives!
By Rita Skeeter
Let it be known that you've heard it here first folks!
That Harry Potter, known to the Wixen Islands as The-Boy-Who-Lived, is alive! For the last ten years, the fate of Harry Potter was unknown when he had disappeared from his Muggle Aunt and Uncle's home between the months of November and December of 1981. Most had written the boy off as dead after seven years of searching for him. But as of September 1st, Harry Potter has returned to the Wixen islands, reappearing at Hogwarts for enrollment during the sorting of the class of 91. Being sorted into Slytherin, the house that gave us the darkest witch in the last half-century, if not all time, what does this say about our beloved boy who lived? Are the age-old rumors about the former dark lady's fear of the boy true? Is Harry Potter the next dark wizard, or does he just have cunning in spades? These and many other questions are being asked by many, but the headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore has refused to comment on any current student of Hogwarts and Harry Potter's godfather, Sirius Black, has also had no comment other than he has met the boy.
We at the Daily Prophet only have one question, where has our Boy-Who-Lived been all these years?
Sirius Black, London, England.
Sirius Black was pacing back and forth in front of the hearth at his family's ancestral home, the once-dark and dreary townhouse gutted and renovated years prior when his mother had passed, removing all manner of cursed and dark objects from the house. The once-dark home now was much lighter in color and atmosphere, white, silver, gold, and red now were the colors of the home with a more open floor plan and welcoming atmosphere, the thought of his mother would have hated it had always made Sirius smile. The only two rooms that were ordered to not be touched were that of the family library on the third floor, and Regulus' room, no matter if he had joined her, He was still his brother, and Sirius couldn't bring himself to destroy what was the last thing he had of Regulus'.
"You knew pacing isn't going to make time go by faster, Padfoot," Remus says from a chair by the hearth, his feet were up on a stool, and he was reading the morning edition of the Daily Prophet that Sirius had not touched while sipping his morning tea, looking the picture of a relaxed scholar.
"I know that Moony," Sirius says, stopping to run his hands through his hair, "I can't help it, our meeting with Kore is in twenty minutes and Dumbledore still isn't here," Sirius says with a sigh. Sirius and Harry had written back and forth for the last few weeks, in that time, Sirius had learned a lot about Harry's life with the woman who had raised him, Kore Despoina. Honestly, if one would ask Sirius, he would say the woman had done a better job than he thought he would have done. Harry had told him about growing up in L.A, his summers in New York, about his older sister who was an artist with D.O.A records and going to her shows, Harry had told him a lot about Kore, she sound like a fair and firm mother who was unbelievable scary when pissed off. Harry wrote about her as if she was Lily, and honestly, Sirius could understand that, his own mother being the sadistic bitch she was, he had often thought of Euphemia as the mother he had always wanted.
"It is unusual for him to be late, but he is a rather busy man, and as I said, we still have twenty minutes," Remus says, "So take a seat, relax, and have a cuppa for god's sake," Moony tells him and Sirius sighs as he takes a seat on the other side of Remus as he flicks his wand towards Sirius' cold cuppa, warming it up for him. Sirius picks it up and blows on it before taking a sip and leaning back, his head is full of thoughts about the upcoming meeting, Sirius wanted Harry in his life, and that went without question but was ripping him away from the woman he called family for the last ten years worth it? He didn't think so, the woman had let him go to Hogwarts knowing what it would stir up, all for the boy's happiness. That wasn't even mentioning how Harry would react to it all, Sirius didn't doubt Harry would hate him for doing it, kidnapped or not, the woman was still the one who raised him and, from what he could tell, raised him well.
Harry had a love for life and all things in it, trying to make friends wherever he went, even in Slytherin, he lived for a laugh and harmless pranks that would cause them, James' kid or not, the boy was a Marauder. He had told Sirius about all his friends at the summer camp he went to, the pranks he had pulled there, and the joy he found making people smile and laugh. If a child is a reflection of the parents who raised him, then Harry himself was a testament to the woman he spoke so kindly of, but Sirius wasn't going to let this opportunity to reclaim his godson slip through his fingers, not after searching for him for the last ten years. Every lead brought to him, every possible sighting of him, every rumor of the boy Sirius and Remus had chased down over the years, but it had always ended in disappointment until Harry had walked into Hogwarts to get sorted.
Looking back up at the clock, Sirius sighs, their meeting was in five minutes, Remus looks up as well and frowns. It wasn't like Dumbledore to be late for something he had deemed important, but Sirius was done waiting for the old Headmaster, so He and Remus both stood and left Number 12 Grimmauld Place and locking up behind them before checking the street before both disappeared with a crack, to reappear in an alleyway in downtown London. They were given an address by Harry in muggle London and following it they arrived outside the Claridge's hotel, an upscale hotel in downtown London. Sirius whistles at the sight, Harry wasn't lying when he said Kore and her Husband were well off, but it shouldn't be surprising with the whole Record studio thing, Remus looks over to him before they both shrug before heading inside and up to the front desk. The woman at the front desk took their names before telling them they were expected, and to head to the top floor to meet with Ms. Despoina and was given a room number before taking the lift to the top.
After a few more minutes they were knocking on the door to room 462, they didn't have to wait for long as the door opens up to reveal a strikingly beautiful woman. She was shorter than both of them by about a head with deep brown eyes that were almost black, she was wearing a pair of black pants that, in Sirius' opinion, should be illegal with how tight they looked on her, and she had a light yellow shirt with ivy growing around a skull that had D.O.A under it, on top of her head was a ski cap with more skulls and roses on it with her hair tucked inside. She had opened the door with a large smile before it slowly faded as she looked confused, poking her head out looking up and down the halls, before looking back at the two men she speaks, her voice high like chimes with the same accent that Harry had.
"You two aren't the gigolos I ordered," She says, sounding disappointed.
Sirius and Remus were taken aback at the woman's words, all they could do was blink and gape at the woman, before her face began to change from one of disappointment to amusement with a smirk stretching across her face before it hit the two men. Remus snorts and shakes his head as Sirius throws his own back and lets out a bark-like laugh before the woman giggles at the both of them.
"Sorry about that," She says with a grin, "it was the first thing that came to mind," as Remus sighs before sticking out his hand.
"No problem at all, Ma'am," Remus says with a small grin of his own, "We're the type that respects a good joke, Remus Lupin, a pleasure to meet you," he says, introducing himself.
The woman steps past his hand, throwing her arms around the man, surprising Remus as she pulls him into a hug, "Nice to meet you, Remus," she says with cheer in her voice, before pulling back from the man with a smile threatening to split her face, "I'm Kore, Kore Despoina," she says before turning to Sirius and hugging him as well, "and you must be Sirius Black, it's nice to meet you as well, come on in, I'll put the kettle on,"
The two men step into the luxury sweet, to find most of It filled with flowers of all kinds, Roses, Dahlia, Peonies, Belladonna, Foxglove, Daffodil, Wisteria, and on the mantel above the fireplace were Red Spider Lilies standing tall and proud like some kind of centerpiece or Memorial to the whole room. Finding a small table in the sitting room with four chairs around it, Remus and Sirius take a seat and wait for their host to return, looking around the room at the flowers, towards one of the windows sat a half-completed painting of the street below. Everything in the room was decorated to be bright and open, much like the woman who was staying in it, before long Kore returns with a tea tray and sets it down before taking a seat across from them and beginning to pour some into three of the four cups.
"So, I thought another person was showing up?" Kore asks, not looking up from her task, "The Headmaster of Hogwarts, if I remember correctly," she says before putting a cup in front of each of them.
Sirius and Remus look at each other before Sirius reaches for his tea and Remus answers, "Well, yes, unfortunately, the Headmaster is being held up by something, as to what that something is, we have no clue," the scarred man says with a small apologetic smile.
Kore just frowns, "Rather rude of him, but it's fine," she says brushing it off as Sirius finally fixes his tea to his liking before taking almost choking at the taste, his eyes wide as he draws his head back from the cup, "Is something wrong with the tea?" Kore asks, not the least bit offended, but with a curious tone to her voice.
"Merlin, no," Sirius says as Remus and Kore look at him, "Sorry it just, …caught me off guard, haven't had this blend in, well, a long time," he says before taking another sip with a small smile.
"It was Lily's favorite blend," Kore says with a smile and a sad look in her eyes, "Last I heard she was converting James to it," Kore shakes her head in fondness. Sirius watches Remus take a sip of the tea before watching the man's lips twitch as a soft fondness enters his eyes.
"You knew her, Lily, that is?" Sirius asks, and Kore smiles just a bit larger before nodding.
"We met in New York in the summer of '79, she was researching something to do with cheating death, we met at a fair on Long Island, and she was….something else," Kore sighs out the last two words fondly remembering the brilliant red head caught under the lights of the fairgrounds.
"Is that where she met him?" Remus asks breaking Kore from her memories.
"Him?" Kore asks, sounding confused.
"Harry's biological father?" The werewolf asks, raising a brow.
"Oh!" Kore says, "No, no they met a few months later, in England, right after Lily's and James' big fight," she says with a slight coloring to her cheeks.
Both men remember that, it was their first huge fight since they got together. James had found some dark and questionable tomes in Lily's personal library, and they had a huge row over it to the point they broke up for a few months. James had left the cottage and moved in with Sirius for that time, he had refused to ask Lily to leave even in the middle of his anger he still wanted to protect her, and Lily never once refused to let him in the house, all his stuff was there after all. They made up after he had found out Lily was pregnant and wanted to do the right thing and asked her to marry him.
"We were told, James and Harry's biological father met before," Sirius says, "That James had asked to blood adopt Harry as his own kid, and your brother didn't have a problem with it," the last Scion of the House of Black says.
"Yeah, they met a few months after Harry was born," Kore confirms, "Harry was a bit of an…Opsisedoodle between him and Lily, he is rather busy most of the year with his work and all and felt that he would make a poor father," Kore says before she takes another sip of her tea, "Don't get me wrong, he loves Harry very much and would do anything and everything that it would take to protect him, but as I said, they're very busy during most of the year, so when James' asked, he had agreed because he could see James was a brave and honorable man," she says with a smile that was sheared with both of the men.
She sighs before placing her cup down, "When we heard of their deaths, we were heartbroken, the world lost a brave man and a brilliant and beautiful woman, and I know it's late to say this, but I'm sorry for the lost you two had suffered that night," Kore says looking down at her cup, and both men fall quiet as feel the old pain of lost well up in their chest, and Remus sighs.
"It seems, …," Remus says with a soft smile as Kore looks back at the two men.
"That we aren't the only ones that lost people dear to them that night," Sirius finishes, looking Kore in the eyes.
Kore smiles with the two men before turning to Sirius, "We also own you an apology, Mister Black, I swear we didn't know that Harry had a Godfather, if we did, we would have contacted you, we would have let you see him, raise him, get to know him, I swear it," Kore tells Sirius, and Sirius could hear the sincerity in her voice, but he still frowns. He didn't know what to say, thanks to the actions of this woman's brother he had lost out on ten years of fulfilling the duty he had sworn himself to, so he doesn't answer, just looks down at his cup of tea, unable to answer.
"I know," Kore says, "I know that doesn't make up for all the lost time, all the years for you, but I swear we didn't know, the last time we saw Lily and James was for the blood adoption ritual and they didn't say anything about you, I'm sorry, so sorry that we did that to you." The woman says, tears start to collect in the corners of her eyes, so she takes a moment to wipe them away, "I can't even begin to imagine that happening to us, to lose Harry and not know where he was for all those years, Gods, the pain we must have caused you. I know for a fact if that had happened to us, Harry's father would have torn the world apart trying to find him to hell with any of the consequences," she says, unable to stop the tears now.
"But please, Mister Black, Please, Please, Please, don't take him away from me, Please, He's my son, I love him," Kore says, choking out a sob just at the thought of losing any access to Harry, "I can't lose him, it would break my heart," she says looking back down at her cup, tears flowing freely.
Could Sirius do it? Could he rip away what was essentially this woman's child from her? She had raised him for ten years, watching him grow, seeing his first steps, filling his life with such warmth and love that it reflected off everything the boy did and said. She was the one that had tucked him in at night, read his stories, calmed him from nightmares, and smothered him with all the love in her heart, treating him as if he was her own child and raising him like that too. As Sirius looks across the table at the woman who had raised his Godson for ten years, and felt the memories of Euphemia Potter raise up from the depths of his mind, he knew his answer.
"Call me Sirius, please," the man says, "and I-I don't want to take Harry away from someone who had raised him and loves him as much as I see you do, but I don't want to be left out of his life any longer," Sirius tells Kore, "I've missed so much of it already, maybe…maybe we can work something out," the last of the Blacks says with a small smile as he watches the woman across from him let out a shuddering breath of relief.
"Thank you, Thank you, Sirius," Kore says while trying to wipe away her worried tears as Sirius smiles at the woman, "With Harry being at Hogwarts most of the year, maybe we can split the summer, alternate holidays or-or something like that," Kore says, swallowing thickly.
Sirius sighs out as Remus watches the both of them, silently sipping his tea before speaking, "If I may make a suggestion," the scarred man says, placing down his cup, "Perhaps you two can wait to make the arrangements until a weekend, where we can go pull Harry out of school for an afternoon," Remus says, "As far as I've seen, Harry is very mature for his age and this isn't something that he should be left out of," he says with a shrug as Kore and Sirius looks at him.
"That sounds fine by me," Kore says with a smile, "But if this is going to happen, and it will, I promise, there are just some…things, you need to know about Harry, very important things," Kore says, hesitating a bit with her words.
"Things?" Sirius asks, "What sort of things?" His eyes narrowed a bit at Kore as the woman started to fidget in her seat.
But as Kore opens her mouth to explain, there was a knock at the door, all three occupants look at each other all thinking that the fourth member of their little meeting had arrived, and as Kore stands to welcome him, the door unlocks, and six people walk in. One was indeed Albus Dumbledore, but instead of the joyful face with twinkling eyes that Sirius and Remus had come to know so well, it was set in a grim and serious look, walking in behind him were four men in red cloaks with wands out, pointed at Kore. The last man was the current Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, his eyes darted around looking at the room before falling on Kore.
"This is her then, Albus," the Minister says, as he steps up beside the Headmaster, and the old man nods.
"I do believe so, Cornelius," Dumbledore says, his tone matching his face.
"Right, Ms. Despoina, or whatever your real name is," Fudge says, "You are under arrest for Fraud, Attempting to Defraud the Wixen Isles, Forgery of Government Documents, Helping Kidnap a National Treasure, and Aiding and Abetting said Kidnapper," the Minister says before Remus and Sirius stand and begin to protest, wanting to know what the hell was going on, but Fudge just ignores them, "Aurors, take her away," he says.
Agent Jonathan Doe.
They had gotten the warning late, far, far too late, someone high up in the ICW had made inquiries into the adoption of Harry Potter in MACUSA, and they hadn't caught in time to come up with official paperwork for it. The boy was on the registry of all known and claimed Demigods that the DoMC had, and arguably the most important one after Thalia Grace, Had anyone thought to tell the Department of Mist Control that Harry Potter was going back to his home country of England to attend Hogwarts, the DoMC would have concocted a cover story with all the proper paperwork to smooth things over. But much like the Demigods they sired, the Gods really ever thought about the little things before they acted.
So, Agent Doe rushed through the Ministry of Magic, hoping and praying he wasn't too late to stop what was sure to happen before if he did nothing. As he walks down toward the Auror offices, he hears them before he sees him.
"Please, if you just contact the DoMC in MACUSA, they'll explain everything, this is obviously an oversight of some kind," a woman's voice echoes from around the corner, and Agent Doe inwardly sighs, sure now she remembers they exist for this exact reason.
"Ms. Despoina, I have contacted three different departments in the States, two on the magical side, one on the muggle side, and none of them have records of you or you're adoption of one Harry Potter," the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW says, "The only conclusion that I can come to is that you have lied to young Harry about almost everything, we will get to the bottom of this I assure you," Dumbledore says as Agent Doe shoves a few people out of his way while rounding the corner before seeing a group of men surrounding the Goddess hiding among them.
"Supreme Mugwump, Sir!" Doe yells as he jogs up, and the man himself stops and turns to Agent Doe with a confused expression.
Dumbledore looks at the younger man that runs up to him, he was dressed in a muggle three-piece pinstripe suit that was rather fitting on him, he was a quite pale, but still young and rather handsome face, and his salt and pepper hair looked as if it was normally combed back was tussled from jogging up to him, he had dark brown eyes that would almost look black without the witchfire lamps burning in the halls of the Ministry.
"Yes?" Dumbledore asks, "May I help you, good sir?" The Headmaster asks, looking into the man's eyes.
"Yes sir, I'm Agent Jonathan Doe of the DoMC from America," Agent Doe says sticking out his hand to shake the Supreme Mugwumps' hand as the group he was with stops, Lady Despoina looking at him in relief, "I'm very sorry about all this, there seems to a mix-up at a few of our offices in the states, we are moving to digitize our files and a few things got lost in all the upheaval, one of those things being Lady Despoina Documentation and her Adoption of one Harry Potter," the Agent says as he reaches into the inner pocket of his suit to pull out some paperwork before handing it to Dumbledore who takes it to unfold and begins to look it over.
"As you can see, this has all been a huge mistake, mostly on our part I admit, but I'm sure if we can all sit down we can clear up any misunderstandings about this," Agent Doe explains quickly, his eyes flicking over to Lady Despoina, why and how she let them put cuffs on her he'll never understand, but he really needed to get them off of her before this becomes worse than it is.
"Now, if we can just take the cuffs off of Lady Despoina-" but before Agent Doe could finish what he was going to say, he is cut off by another voice belonging to a small man with a green bowler hat.
"Absolutely not," he states as both Dumbledore and Doe turn to the man, "She is being charged with kidnapping at most, Aiding in the kidnapping at the very least, of one of our national Heroes," the man says.
"Kidnapping? What kidnapping?" Agent Doe asks, "The boy was left abandoned on the steps of his No-Maj's relatives, one of his biological parents found him and brought him back to the states," the agent says, as Dumbledore narrows his eyes at the man who knew a bit too much about what happened to Harry that night, "After which he was adopted by Lady Despoina, the boy had no immediate family left other than the person who took him, that is not a crime," Doe says, but Fudge refuses to listen.
"No, the man didn't have the right to do so, he hadn't signed the birth certificate, and he was not present or active in the boy's life beforehand, so no, we are moving forward with the charges, whatever custody this woman thought she had was rendered null and void the moment she stepped onto the Isles," the man says, looking Agent Doe in the eyes, "Now, out of respect of our closest allies, we will not move immediately to trail and wait for you to get a team in place for the woman's defense but after her interrogation, she will remain in Azkaban until then," he says with a nod to the Aurors around Lady Despoina.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" The agent asks the ranting man.
"Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic," the Minister spits out as if he was insulted.
Agent Doe watches as the Aurors try to move Lady Despoina along, but are surprised when she doesn't budge, "Lady Despoina," Jonathan Doe says slowly and very carefully, "Please, just give me more time, just go along with it all, for now, I'll get this cleared up in no time, Please," the Agent says with a note of panic in his voice, "I'm sure I can smooth this over, I just need a little more-" but Jonathan is cut off by a whisper that makes him paler than normal in the witchfire.
"No," Lady Despoina whispers as she looks down at the floor and all the men turn to her as the Agent takes a step back.
"My Lady, please, let's not do anything has-," Agent Doe says, his voice pleading, close to begging the woman but he's once again cut off by her.
"THEY ARE TRYING TO TAKE MY SON!" Kore yells, and with her yell the floor beneath cracks in a web around her as she looks up towards the Agent and Dumbledore, and both men watch as the last of the brown starts to melt from her eyes, turning them as black as the void. Agent Doe swallows nervously as he takes another, larger step back, "I tried to do this the right way, I tried," Kore says before she whispers the last two words before she turns to one of the men, not in Auror robes, but in a black leather jacket, "When you see Harry again, will you tell him that, that Kore tried to do this the right way," she asks the man, and after a moment of pause, he nods slowly, "Thank you, Sirius, I really hope you don't get caught up in what's to come, I liked you," Kore says softly to the man who was looking at her with wide eyes.
"I can't make you do what I want," Kore says looking first at Fudge, then at Dumbledore, "I'm not as Scary or intimidating as my husband, nor as powerful as my mother," the Goddess in hiding says as she reaches up grabbing her ski hat and pulling off and letting her hair fall free, her white roots had almost completely taken over her black hair now there was but two or three inches of the black left, "But unfortunately for all of you, I know someone who is," Kore didn't speak the words at a threat, but more of a promise of what was to come, and no man in the hallway could mistake the dread and power that settled over them coming from anywhere else.
"Stun her!" The Minister quickly says, and the Aurors raised their wands, casting the spell as Agent Doe begins to walk backward away from what was to be the blast radius and ideally notes that Dumbledore and the two other men that Kore had spoken to do the same. The spells hit their target but fizzle and die before they could even touch her skin as Kore closes her eyes and looks back down, letting out a breath that turns to white mist in the air.
"As summer begins, and all life thrives, I walk this world alive, but with the turning of the sun, Autumn comes, and my descent begins again," Kore whispers words of ancient power causing a cold pit full of dread to burrow its way into the guts of all the men standing around her. They watch in fascination as the black bleeds out of her hair with every word.
"And as winter bares its frozen fangs, I eat my wings, that have kept me tamed, for the throne I now reclaim and ALL LIFE WILL DIE," Kore roars as the walls, ceiling, and floor shatter around her, the Aurors and the Minister who was closest to her, scream in pain as winters fangs dig deep into there flesh, freezing it black and solid as ice, Fudge falls backwards and shatters into pieces like glass. As Kore speaks, her form begins to shift and twist as if she was standing in front of a multitude of funhouse mirrors becoming taller, and leaner, the last of the brown leaving her eyes leaving them as black as coal and endless as the night sky. The clothes she had worn shift and twist like smoke and snow in a storm, creating a long black dress fit for a queen as an ivory crown with six tiny rubies fitted in it forms above her head before it slowly lowers onto her head, and as the crown rests on the queens head, she speaks the final words.
"So is the will of Dread Persephone," Kore says the final words in a whisper just as her eyes roll into the back of her head and she begins to collapse just before a skull as large as a whale and black as obsidian breaks through the floor, swallowing Kore whole before it pulls her into the depths of the underworld, and as Kore dies, and the dead sing and rejoice at the return of their Queen.
"Oh, Fuck," is the only thing that Jonathan Doe could say as he watches the worst possible outcome unfold in front of him.
Dread Persephone
As she appears in her domain once again, the Goddess of the dead stumbles as she stands, her hand pressing against her forehead to quell the throbbing headache just behind her eyes, she barely hears Hades' shock at her appearance, and she begins to understand why. It was late September, early, far too early for her to be here, Kore should have had another month or two before she had to make her descent to the underworld while Persephone slept within her, so why? Why did she force the change so early? Then Kore's memories from the last few months begin to flood her mind, Harry going to Hogwarts, (No, he was supposed to go to Ilvermorny) The letters from Harry telling her of meeting a Godfather, (She didn't know he had one of those,) Meeting the man and then, and then…
"Persephone, my love, what are you-" Hades tries to say before his wife looks up at him, rage burning in her eyes, and he is taken aback, and just before Persephone lets out a soul-tearing scream he has just enough time to summon a shield of shadows around it before Persephone lets loose. He hears the scream echo throughout the underworld, her rage shaking the world above, and the strain on his powers to keep his wife from brutally murdering him in that rage. What in the nine hells happened to piss her off so badly?! only one thought drifted through his mind, Harry. Something had happened to the boy; That wasn't good, far, far, from it.
As Hades drops his shield, he surveys the damage dealt to his castle, well what was his castle. The only things left standing were his and Persephone's thrones; everything else that was his formidable and intimidating black fortress was nothing but rubble, ash, dust, and ice.
Hades turns back to his wife, and if it wasn't for the fact that he was worried for her, if not a little bit terrified of her, he would be incredibly turned on by the look on her face. She looked like the Queen that had once granted him a place by her side to rule, after the war with the Titans, when he showed up in the underworld only to find her, their battle that had lasted weeks turned into a heated passion made of torn clothes and shaking the earth as they made love still covered in the wounds that had received from one another. But Hades had far more control of himself than his younger brother, and slowly and very carefully, approached his Queen.
"They're trying to take him," Persephone says in between deep breaths as she tries to calm herself, "They are trying to take my son from me," she says, stopping Hades short with a deep frown on his face.
"And what will you do?" Hades asks, stopping from approaching Persephone before folding his hands behind his back and standing tall.
Persephone turns on her heel and begins to walk forward toward the entrance of the underworld, "What else my love?" The Queen of the Dead says, "I'm going to pick him up from school and take him home," she says in a calm voice that betrays the rage she feels just beneath her skin.
"You do realize the effect you have on the world above when you walk it, my dear, do you believe it wise?" Hades asks, sounding as if he doesn't care either way.
"I don't care, I'm going to go get my son," Persephone growls out, and Hades tries to feel pity for the mortals that had drawn her wrath, but honestly couldn't find it.
As Persephone makes her way out of the underworld the old fashion way, she tries to regain control of her temper and sort through Kore's memories. She had told Melinoë not to let Harry talk Kore into letting him attend Hogwarts, she had ordered her not to let it happen but of course, her daughter would be a little rebel to the end, ever since Harry had freed her from her cave she's given that boy anything he wanted, the two little trouble makers. Persephone stops only once on her journey to pet Cerberus before continuing on to the Stix's, having no patience to wait for that lazy boatman she snaps her fingers to freeze the waters before walking over them and up the stairs that lead to the world of the living before slamming the door to Charon's office open.
The God himself jumps ten feet out of his chair before falling to the ground and looking up at who had just came into his office from the underworld before growing pale and punching himself to his feet quickly.
"M-My Lady," Charon sputters out, bowing at the waist, "I was not expecting you so early, how may I be of service?" He asks, but Persephone ignores him as she moves out of his office and into the waiting room of D.O.A records. The waiting room, like always, was filled with ghosts who quickly move out of her way as she made her way to the door, getting to the door she stops, and turned her head to the left. There was a group of Demigods, children about the same again as Harry, nine in total, some wore armor, the others just the orange shirt of Camp HalfBlood, and two had only what they took from home on their way to Camp. She felt their deaths wash over her, and knew how each had died, they died bravely in the face of death, and that was something she could not let go of. So with a sigh, she turns around and waves her hand, and the sounds of coins hitting Charon's desk, eighteen in total.
"For the children, Charon," she tells the lazy boatman, "and if they are still here by the time I come back, we are going to have a Talk, do you understand me?" Persephone tells Charon, who nods quickly and waves the kids through just before Persephone steps out into the mortal world for the first time in over eleven years.
It was an unfortunate fact that Persephone couldn't leave the underworld as quickly as her husband Hades could, while she could force shadows to do her bidding, it did have a limit, she could not travel through them herself. She was simply too powerful, too big to squeeze through them, her Husband, while powerful in his own right, had access to them through his divine domain and could bypass that little fact with his helm; She had no such luck. She was the opposite of Kore, she was destruction, and she was the absence of all life, which is why when she had step onto the streets of Los Angeles a cold wind blew through the city, for while other gods had to force the weather to change, Persephone changed it just for being on the mortal plane, she was a walking natural disaster. As the mortals around her try to bundle up against the coming cold Persephone closes her eyes, twisting the world in her palm to find where she needs to go, it had already been hours since Kore had left England. Her descent took time to complete and when rushed it could go badly for everyone, but even with the throbbing headache she quickly finds where she needs to go, Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry and will but thought she opens her eyes to find the castle standing before her. She turns her head south, and she could feel Melinoë close by on the islands, Persephone could feel her daughters panic when Melinoë figured out who had just stepped on this godless land, and Persephone smiles, she would deal with the little rebel later, for now…
For now, she had a few mortals to put in check. With that thought in mind, she marches up the sloping grass hill toward the front door of the castle, Persephone could feel the wards trying to keep her out but she quickly, and quietly, shuts down the wards. If the castle was left standing after she was done she would turn them back on before she left. As she walks towards the front door, wherever the trail of her dress went, plant life died, and frost and ice took their life as the temperature around the castle plummets as the Queen of the dead comes calling. It takes little time to get to the front door, and with but a small motion of her hand, they fly open.
"To me, shades of the dead," Persephone whispers her commands to the ancient castle, and in moments the entrance hall is flooded with ghosts, she could feel one stubbornly ignoring her orders sticking to his classroom full of students, but he didn't matter and let the binding order on him go as she turns to one of the bowing dead before her; Blood stains caked onto his outfit from a thousand years ago.
"You," Persephone calls to him, and he lifts his head, eyes wide with fear, "The Headmaster's office, now," she orders and he raises from his kneeling position as she dismisses the rest.
"At once my Queen," the ghost of the man says before leading her up the grand staircase, the steps freezing over as she climbs it. The shade leads her deeper into the castle, past classrooms both in use and empty, she could feel divinity at the very roots of the castle that felt similar to her power, but altogether different, it, whatever it was, seemed content to let her walk through the castle unmolested but she could feel the whispers of the ancient castle asking and begging to spare the students from her wrath; It could not watch them all die again. Persephone ignored it, she would uproot this whole island and sink it into the ocean if it meant her son would float to the top of it.
The ghost soon stops and points down a hallway, "Just at the end of the corridor, my Queen," he says, "Just pass the gargoyle you'll find the stairs that lead to the Headmasters tower," he informs her with a bow of his head and Persephone flicks her fingers sending the specter sailing throw the castle and away from her. She continues up to the Guardian stone statue and swipes her hand before it, reducing it to ash and dust before climbing the stairs she finds behind it upwards.
As she climbs she hears the voices of three men talking in panicked voices.
"I told you I could handle it, I invited you because I thought you might want to help smooth things over, not cock it up, Albus!" One man roars angrily, "look what happened, Fudge is dead, three Aurors are severely injured, and let's not forget Kore is now gone! What the hell am I going to tell Harry!?" He roars, as another man tries to calm him down.
"Sirius, yelling at the Headmaster isn't going to fix this, while I understand your anger and agree with it, calmer minds must prevail," the voice says as Kore's Memories of the two men drifted through Persephone's mind, Kore had like these two, and Sirius was Harry's Godfather.
"Good," Persephone thought, she wanted to express her Disappointment with him personally.
"Thank you, Remus," the elderly voice of the Headmaster drifts down the stairs, "While I agree with you, Sirius is well within his right to be angry with me, but my boy, you must understand I was just trying to help," Dumbledore says.
"Meddle more like it," Persephone hears Sirius say, and understood why Kore had liked the man, he indeed wore his heart on his sleeve.
"Be that as it may," Persephone hears the old man say as she makes it to the landing just before the office door, "I am far more worried about what Agent Doe said, if this Kore is indeed as dangerous as he implied, we need to be prepared when she shows back up again," and Persephone snorts, there was not a thing that walked this world that could be a threat to her, the only thing that could stop her we're the three highest orders, and they didn't take a tangible form.
"What makes you think she'll show back up so soon?" The voice of Remus Lupin says just before the door to the office crumbles before her into dust and she steps through.
"Oh, I would say it's a pretty good bet," Persephone says as the three men whip around with wands drawn, "Now, where is my son?" The Queen of the Dead whispers dangerously.
Harry Potter
Harry was having a bad day, he had hardly gotten sleep the night before thanks to Draco's whining about how he was hanging out with Hermione, and woke up nervous. Today was the day that Kore and Sirius were to meet, and he knew something had gone horribly, horribly wrong in the middle of defense when he had felt faint and almost blacked out as a deep chill settled over him. Kore had made her descent early, far, far too early, he could feel it through the Domain of the Dead as it sang out in joy as one of its oldest and most powerful Goddesses came back to her full terrifying power.
But as Harry stood in Herbology, tending to a screaming bell in between Hermione and a boy named Neville, he felt a bone-deep chill settle over him as dread begin to build up in him, he grasps the side of the planter and prays and hopes it's just his nerves and powers acting up, he couldn't shake off the feeling of how wrong he was.
"Harry, are you feeling okay?" Hermione asks him, and he nods.
"Yeah, just nerves is all, just give me a moment," Harry tells her.
"Okay," Hermione says, "but if you're not feeling well you should really go to hos-" and whatever she was about to say is cut off by a gasp, and she wasn't the only one who gasp, the greenhouse begins to fill with them, and Harry opens his eyes and looks around. The Screaming Bells were all withering and dying along with every other plant life in the greenhouse as frost began to creep up and cover the windows. Harry curses under his breath, Persephone was here and she was pissed, before turning to Professor Sprout that seemed just as shocked as her students, and deciding the detention was worth saving the whole bloody school from his mother's wrath, Harry bolts from the greenhouse. Running at full speed to the castle and pulling on the domain of the dead, he calls to any ghost near him, and to Harry's relief one shows up, the fat monk from his first night here.
He looks at Harry confused as he follows alongside him, "My mother, Persephone, she's here! Where!?" Harry asks/Orders the ghost to tell him.
"T-the Headmaster's office, young prince," the monk says, "She did not seem happy when she got here," he tells Harry as the boy takes a corner and bolts up a flight of stairs.
"Yeah, no shit!" Harry tells him, "Lead me there, Now!" He tells the monk who nods and flies just ahead of him to lead him to Harry's mother.
Thankfully it doesn't take long to get to the corridor that leads to the Headmaster's tower, the pile of dust and trail of ice was hard to miss as well, and that wasn't good, that meant Persephone was mad mad, so with that in mind Harry takes the stairs two at a time, trying to avoid the ice but failing as the top step and falling down.
"I will not ask again, you old goat!" Screams the voice of Persephone, "WHERE. IS. MY SON!? WHERE ARE YOU HIDING HIM!?" She screams louder, and Harry feels the whole castle shake with her rage as he looks up and past the door leading to the headmaster's office. It was a hurricane of crumbling books and silver instruments as Persephone was holding Dumbledore off the ground by his throat, she had Sirius and Remus suspended in the air by her power alone as they choked and gasped for air that would not come. He catches Sirius' eyes, wide with panic, the man shakes his head mimicking the words "Stay back" with his lips because he was unable to speak.
Harry feels the tower about to buckle, honestly impressed that it had lasted this long under his mother's wrath. Harry picks himself off the floor and charges into the room, heedless of Sirius' shaking head telling him not to. But Harry knew there were only three things that could calm his mother's wrath when she got like this, the first thing was Hades, he would drag her off to their room for hours doing the gods know what to stop her rampage. Melionë was the second, she would sing and make the dead dance to calm Persephone down and entertain her. Then there was Himself, his way was far easier than his older sisters singing or whatever would exhaust Hades and Persephone, so Harry charges and jumps into the whirlwind of death and destruction that surrounded Persephone yelling at the top of his lungs.
"MOM!" Harry yells as he sails through the air, arms wide open as Persephone turns her head and her black eyes fall on Harry, "HUG ATTACK!" The boy who lives screams before he is scooped out of the air by his mother and gets crushed to her chest as she drops the old Headmaster and the storm of destruction dies and Remus and Sirius fall to the floor, finally able to breathe.
After snatching Harry from the Air, Persephone spins in place before falling to her knees and hugging Harry to her as if he was the only true thing she valued in the living world, and Harry clings to her like a baby koala bear as she speaks softly to him, "Harry, oh my baby boy, I was so worried, they tried to take you from me, but here you are, back with me," she says as she rocks side to side to comfort herself more than Harry.
"It's okay Mom, I'm not going anywhere, I'm right here, no one is going to take me from you," Harry says softly despite his rapidly beating heart, he could have easily died there, if Persephone hadn't recognized his voice she would have turned him to dust.
"But they tried, Harry, they tried and Kore panicked and descended early to have me handle them," Persephone whispers.
"No one's gonna take me away, Mom," Harry says to her before speaking louder, "Isn't that right guys?!" As he hears the three men in the room begin to crawl back from the epicenter of the storm that was Persephone's rage.
Sirius coffs before answering in a hoarse voice, "Wasn't in my original plan, no," the man says with a groan as he begins to pick himself off the floor pulling his old friend up with him and turning to face the pale woman glaring at him with hellfire in her eyes.
"Lair," Persephone hisses out at him, "You were going along with them, you were going to take my son away from me, I'm going to flay-" but she stops her threat as Harry squeezes her again and she squeezes back.
"What the hell else was I supposed to do Kore, when Albus, and the fucking Minister walk in with a squad of Aurors and tell me they have proof you faked all the documentation, that you lied to Harry" Sirius spits back at her, "I still don't know if you fake everything or not because you left spectacularly, killing the Minister on your way out," Sirius says, really not knowing why he was back talking a being that his curses literally died against as they hit her, but here he was.
Albus is finally able to get to his feet with the help of Remus, breathing heavily, and holding a hand to his sore and abused throat, and leaning against his half-destroyed desk looking at Persephone with no small amount of fear in his eyes.
Persephone begins to stand, peeling Harry off of herself easily, making him stand behind her as she begins to approach Sirius. His back was against the wall, but even if it wasn't, Sirius would not back down from this, he would get his Godson back in his life or die trying.
"I faked nothing, he is my child, by birth and by right," The Queen of the Dead says through a snarl, "When we felt Lily's passing we were beyond grief, Kore couldn't deal with the emotions and choose to descend early to process them," she says, towering over Sirius, "it took me hours to find my son, I had to follow the stench of death that had clung to him after finding her body, and where did I find him?" Persephone rounds on Dumbledore next, "Abandon! On a doorstep! At the end of Autumn! With nothing but a letter and a coat wrapped around him to keep him warm!" She yells at Dumbledore, who stands his ground as well, but with a slight flinch of guilt.
"Oh, mom, mom!" Harry says tugging on her black dress, "The coat, I found out where the coat came from, I completely forgot to tell Kore!" Harry says excitedly and Persephone turns to him.
"You did honey?" Persephone says with the brightest smiles and softest voice, and Harry nods vigorously, "Where did it come from?" She asks like she was generally curious like any mother would with their child who wanted to show them something, and Harry points to Sirius, hoping to at least protect him from Persephone's wrath.
Persephone turns back to Sirius with narrowed suspicious eyes, "You gave him the jacket?" She asks in a whisper.
Sirius nods once, "I-I was the first person there, after it all happened, I found, I found them and Harry, crying in the crib, it was getting cold that night, and I, I don't want him to get sick," he says, and as Persephone looks him in the eye she could see them haunted by age-old regrets and ghosts, "So, I, I wrap him in my jacket before handing him off to Hagrid when I met him outside," Sirius admits before Persephone looms over him once again.
"And why didn't you keep him with you?" The Goddess asks through clenched teeth, "You are Harry's Godfather are you not? Lily had to have picked you for a reason? Why did you not stay with the boy?" Persephone asked, her tone demanding answers from him.
"Because the man who betrayed them and was responsible for their death was still alive," Sirius says back, his voice edging on anger at the woman for questioning him, "Was it my smartest move? No, but Harry was going behind a ward that would have protected him from any danger to him from the outside, and I wasn't about to suffer the rat to live a moment longer than I would let him," Sirius says, looking at the woman right in the eyes, unflinching.
Persephone's eyes widen, she didn't know that Lily was betrayed, her face twists into a rage as the barely contains the Domain of Destruction that wanted to run rampant in the room once again, "Name," she hisses out, "Give me the name of the one who betrayed them," Persephone demands as she slams her hand into the wall beside Sirius' head and leans into his face, and Sirius answers.
"Peter Pettigrew," Sirius growls out the hated name.
Persephone's eyes flick left to right looking for something before they widen and she smiles a dark smile, "Good," she says under her breath before turning back to Sirius, "Harry is leaving with me," she says, but Sirius quickly cuts her off.
"Like hell he is," he says in a growl just before he feels the cold wind of the Scotland highlands hit his back as Persephone disintegrates the wall behind him.
"Excuse me?" The Queen of the Dead asks, "I wasn't asking Sirius, I was telling you," she hisses in his face.
"And I don't follow orders really well, you can ask Albus," Sirius says, "I just found Harry again, like hell I'm letting him go so soon," the man says with steel in his voice, he'd fight her if he had too, one-sided or not, he wasn't going to let Harry go without a fight. Persephone searches his eyes, looking for something, her eyes stop moving as she finds it and she smiles.
She leans back from Sirius, standing back at full height as she looks down at him with her black eyes dancing in amusement, "You're a brave one Sirius Black," she says and Harry lets out the breath he was holding, "James Potter was a brave one too, he did not cower or flinch in the face of death, in the face of me, when he had first asked to adopt Harry, you're lucky I like that," she says as she turns away from him before summoning, with a wave of her hand, a throne of black iron and bones before sitting down on it facing the three men like the Queen she was, "You wished to Parley with Kore before, well Kore is very much asleep right now, so you'll be dealing with me, so Sirius Orion Black, what is your offer?" The Queen of the Dead says with a smirk.
A Walking Corpse.
Olivia Twist was walking down a corridor that led to the headmaster's office, she was still on the ground floor but that's where she was going at a lazy pace, she had felt an odd rumble in the castle while nursing her hangover when her seventh-year class was quietly studying inferi and how to destroy them. Honestly, they didn't need a whole chapter on it, just slap the world fire on the page right after them and it would get the message across well enough, unless the people reading the books were complete idiots; though they probably were. But the rumble wasn't big enough to feel unless you were paying attention to something like it, or using Occlumency to close one's mind to the pain that was existing with a hangover. Which means Snape probably noticed it, the cunt.
Olivia makes it up the stairs to the third-floor landing, walking swiftly toward the corridor that leads to the old goat's office, but before she could make it around the corner, another person comes from around it, while normally not unusual if it was a student, or a Professor, or a Giant bat or goat, this person was dressed as a Queen. A dress so black it looked as if it was woven out of shadow and smoke, pale skin and eyes as black as pitch, she even had a fucking crown on. She walked with confidence down the hall like she had nothing to fear as she spun a pale white wand between her fingers on one hand and the other folded behind her back. Olivia had stopped to look at the woman with narrowed eyes, wondering who she was, but the woman paid her no mind as she walked right past her.
Olivia had thought she would continue on her way, that that was that, but as the woman passed her she slowed down, even the spinning of the wand slowed down, until she stopped completely, before slowly turning her head to look at Olivia with her unnerving black eyes.
"May I help you?" Olivia asks with a raised brow, before the woman turns and faces her, tilting her head like she was studying Olivia, it oddly enough reminded her of the Brat. The woman tucks the hand that had the wand in it behind her back as she advances on Olivia, and Olivia's wand slips into her hand out of line of sight of the woman.
The woman stops inches from Olivia, looking at her in the eyes, like they were piercing her soul, before she speaks, "Tamsyn Riddle," she says, and it takes all of Olivia's years of perfecting her Pokerface to look unbothered by the name.
"I'm sorry, who?" Olivia asks, raising a brow, playing dumb, just before pain like fire crawls up her body as the woman sinks her claw-like nails into the rotting flesh of the body she was wearing like a suit, Olivia chokes back a scream as she swings her wand hand up, only for her wrist to be grabbed and forced above her head as she is slammed bodily into the wall behind her, the nails digging deeper into her flesh.
"Do not play coy with me, Mortal," the woman hissed an inch from her face, "You know exactly who I speak of, I'm speaking of you, the shade of a wraith riding in an ill-suited body breaking down to feed your magic," the woman spits in her face and pushes her fingers deeper into the rotting flesh of Olivia's body. Olivia's free hand goes for the hand digging into her to pull it out, but it was like iron, and would not budge; Olivia did scream then.
"Listen to me closely, Mortal," the woman says, "If you hurt him, if he has one accident, if one hair is out of place when he returns to me, fates dictation or not, I will hunt you down," she tells Olivia moving her head to keep their eyes locked as Olivia squirms in her grip, " I already have one of your parasitic soul shards, I can and will hunt down the rest, and there is not a hole you can crawl into or a rock your slimy soul can slither under that I won't find you," she says, "Do you understand me?" And Olivia has no choice but to grit her teeth and nod her head.
The woman pulls her claws from Olivia's side, and as pus and coagulated blood leak from Olivia's wounds, the woman in the black dress turns and leaves with a snarl. Olivia almost blacked out from the pain as she made her way back to her living quarters, she had to pull her coat over her wound to hide it, as she pushed through a sea of students that were in her way on their way to dinner. When she finally made it back to her bedroom, she had to down the rest of the unicorn blood potion before passing out in her chair that sat by the hearth in her bedroom.
She would be awakened hours later by Snape pounding on her door before he pressed his wand to her throat, demanding where she had been for the last few hours, when she had informed him that her curse had acted up and she was sleeping off, he had snarled at her before summoning her house elf to confirm it, which it did. Olivia got her final surprise of the day when she had asked the overgrown bat what his problem was.
"My problem, Twist," Snape said with sneering at her, "is that the Headmaster is dead," before with a sweep of his cloak, he had left the shocked Olivia behind.
Surprised bitches, random update on this story!
And holy shit what an update, Persephone finally showed up and went all Queen of the Dead on the poor fools who thought they could cross her.
And well, …Albus is dead. That's a thing that happened, the poor man had good intentions, but bad execution in them. I also may had lied about getting to the Harry dying part of the story, and that's my bad, but I swear it will happen next chapter, we also meet Melinoë, she's gonna be fun.
Kingsaxcul, Out!