Jump 075: Harry Potter

Jump 75: Harry Potter
>Ten of Cups (Fulfillment and joy in life and love. Feeling peace, tranquility, and contentment in friends and family. Taking delight in one's good fortune.)
>Age: 11
>Location: Hogwarts, Gryffindor house
"Better be--!" "No." "No?" "No. Gryffindor, please. Slytherin would go badly." "I was about to say 'Hufflepuff', actually." "Surprising, but I doubt that. No, I'll not be in such a holier-than-thou house. Someone needs to have the cajones to stand up for what is right, no matter who disagrees." "...Very well. Good luck in GRYFFINDOR! You'll need it."
>Identity: Half-Blood (-100), Middle-Class
>Drawbacks: Prophecy (+100), Oblivious (+200), Prisoner of Azkaban (+300)
Harry who? Oh, I think I read about him in the Prophet...
>Brave at Heart (Free, Gryffindor)
As I said, someone needs to have the stones to do what must be done.
>Occlumency (Free, Half-Blood)
Why yes, I DO think that protecting my mind is important. And if memory serves, there are apocryphal statements that it lets you sort your thoughts easier as well.
>Legilimency (1300)
"Whom did you expect to see looking back, Professor, when you decided to gaze into my mind? Shall we forget that this happened and go our separate ways?"
>Natural Potioneer (1000)
The thing about potions... it's not about ingredients from a scientific perspective. It's mystical. It depends on what the ingredients ARE, what their purpose is. It depends on numerology, on astrology, on mythology. It all makes sense in the appropriate context.
>Potion Reagents (850)
Fortunately, I don't have to go hunting for any but the rarest ingredients, as long as I don't go crazy on making them.
>Wand of Elder (600, Half-Blood)
And this gets incorporated into the gauntlet. Of course, for most of my stay, I expect it to
>Horcrux (0)
Into the Ring of Elru YOU go, little soul-shard. Don't worry, I still have my nose. The beauty of taking Soul Source ... I can regrow that bit of soul.

Forgot the complimentary mail owl. This is actually being assigned to my raven familiar, who will be the outcast of the mail room and annoy the owls in turn by screeching "NEVERMORE!" at them when they get mouthy.

I feel kind of bad writing a pair of adults into the story who aren't well off, but such are the realities of life. Fortunately we aren't as badly off as I initially expected, but my father is a squib, and my mother a witch. A potioneer and part-time mediwitch, in fact, and so it is little surprise I inherited talents from her. My father ... well. A squib, disowned by a darker family, who took my mother's name when they married. She was herself a half-blood - between the two of them, the family did well. She supported the family in the magical world, while he worked in the mundane... and did you know that there is a much greater variety of foods that one can obtain there? Purebloods wouldn't know what to do if they tasted the vaunted eleven herbs and spices of the Colonel.

And yes, I'm going to find the chance to deliver that line to Arthur Weasley with a straight face.

Regardless, the letter was no surprise. McGonagall turned her nose up a bit at my father, again no surprise given his family history, as old prejudices die hard. At least, I would like to think it was because of his family rather than his inability to wave a wand. After she left... that's when I woke up. Knew everything with the chain. My parents were amused, and then even my mother was frightened when I calmly stated that I had more magic in my finger than most wizards would attain in their lifetime. But still, it may have been hyperbole. I told them both who I was. That I was on a journey, but it would be a long time until I moved on - that I intended to leave the world a much better place than it was when I entered it. I warded our home to ensure it would remain safe, and then... Hogwarts.

Turns out that some kid in glasses with a huge trunk and a white owl ended up in the same compartment as me. I introduced himself, remarked that it was nice to hopefully get a friend so quick on the way to Hogwarts, compared birds (told him that mine was a familiar, it was complicated and I'd explain later) and hilariously the two birds started talking to each other and THEY bonded. So at least Hedwig made a friend too.

Of course, I had no idea what was going to happen or how much befriending that kid (and the redhead, and the bossy girl that came to the compartment and helping her find that toad) would change things. Poor Malfoy couldn't decide which of us he hated more, myself or Harry - the quarter-blood or the scarhead. Harry, Ron and I bonded over Malfoy's apparent idiocy. (And later, Harry and I over the fact that the hat was going to put us BOTH in Slytherin. We agreed that we'd both have been expelled in a week thanks to that idiot.)

So! First year. I tried to turn a blind eye to Voldemort, I really did, but... my nature is such that it's hard for me to do so. I chose to have mercy on him, though. He went after the unicorns. My method of moving doesn't involve apparition, so I could get out to the forest, wear a non-human face and a cloak to speak with him, save the unicorn and warn him that yes there is an afterlife, yes his mother loved him, and if he changed his ways he could meet her again one day. (This did not have the intended effect, but unicorn casualties: zero.)

I wanted to give him a chance to make amends, so I used magic to heal the two of them. I did not undo their binding, but I made sure they'd survive the year so that Riddle could find another host or choose to pass peacefully if he chose to fix his fractured soul. The problem with making Voldemort believe in the afterlife is that he already believed there was nothing worse than death. Implying that punishment awaits if he does not change... it was perhaps not the wise thing.

And so at the end of the year there was a reckoning. I had no part in it, I barely even spoke with Dumbledore during the denouement before we went home. Though I did ensure that Harry was safe and sound and woke up the next morning rather than days later. Also from what I hear there was something about a dragon but I barely saw it as I was busy running interference so Malfoy would keep his nose out of that silliness. On a related note: rock cakes are meant to be dipped in the tea, you idiots, of COURSE biting into them as they are will be hard, they're ROCK CAKES.

Which reminds me. There was a thing about Halloween, where Ron opened his mouth and said something stupid. I glared at him, asked him how he'd have felt if Malfoy said that about his sister, and then tracked down Hermione. And went in to talk to her in the girl's room.

>Yes, Hermione, I know this is the girl's room (that no one ever goes into). Yes, Hermione, I know I'm not a girl. I'm willing to risk being taken to the headmaster's office by a prefect if it means you're not in here alone, because Ron is a stupid kid, but we're eleven and we're all stupid kids. He'll learn to not be stupid, in time, like the rest of us. Or at least how I hope the rest of us will learn. If you want to stay in here all night... I'll just have to stay in here with you and keep you company. But you know what? It's a beautiful day, just a little chilly, but I know a warming charm. If we're going to skip classes, and yes I did say we because I'm not leaving you alone, why don't we head outside?

I think sitting her down and just talking to her, giving her a chance to vent, did WONDERS for that poor kid. Of course we got waylaid by the troll on the way back in and chased back into the stupid bathroom, Harry and Ron played hero, and everyone left a bit wiser for the experience.

I visited her over the summer a few times. It was nice. Her parents are really dentists, but they're divorced. We talked about that too.

So. Second year! Ended up joining the others shopping, no shock there. Now, the problem is, I have evil-radar. I can detect dark artifacts within a certain radius of myself. And if I were with them, I'd detect that diary, my head would snap around so fast it would give me whiplash, and abuse some sleight of hand to get it back out of the bucket. Heir of Slytherin, derailed. I'm not crazy enough to write in it, though. No, I'd shunt it into a safe box in the warehouse, then sit down with Dumbledore on the first day and have a very long talk.

>Sir, someone tried to slip this into Ginevra Weasley's books. I took it because... well... look, sir. I'm older than you'd think, at least in some ways. There is something very, very wrong with the diary of T. M. Riddle, and I don't need to open it to know- yes, Riddle, that was the name I said. ... Tom Marv-- oh for the love of god his name is an anagram isn't it. The Dark Lord is a schoolboy's tantrum. I wish I were immature enough to laugh at that rather than despair. ...There are more, aren't there? ... My ring? No, no, this was not his. Because it's mine, sir. No, I can't give it to you. Calm down, please, I mean I literally cannot. It is soulbound and cannot be removed.

I gave him my word that I would be looking out for the well-being of the school, its students and staff, and... well. I had to tell him about my ability to utilize clairvoyance, though I was deliberately vague; I told him that was how I knew that Hermione and I would be all right, and told him word for word what he said when he vacated the hall. We spoke several times later throughout the year.

Lockhart was a joke, but dueling club was awesome. I got to fight Malfoy, I promised him I wouldn't use anything above first-week spells and still defeat him. He sent a snake at me. But I am a friend to all creatures, large and small! And I have the perks to prove it. I just looked at the snake (with a touch of clairvoyance to ensure it wouldn't flip out), reached down, and pet it. It coiled around my shin. Malfoy got laughed at, and while he was busy being embarrassed, I spoke.

>Checkmate in three, Mr. Malfoy.

I reached into my robes, pulled out a box of matches, emptied them onto the floor. Wingardium Leviosa'd them all up. Transfigured them into needles.

>Did you know that there is a banishing spell in the first-year charms book? Couldn't help but read ahead. Do you yield?

I lost SO MANY POINTS and Draco hated me for life after that. Oh my god it was so worth it.

So, Harry never found out he was a parseltongue, which is just as well because other than during that book it LITERALLY NEVER MATTERED.

Also, found out at the end of the year that there was a breakout from Azkaban. My uncle, amusingly. He wasn't a Death Eater or anything... just an asshole who got caught in '81 causing a ruckus and caught up in the trials. Normally he'd have gotten a decade for profiting off the back of the war, looting in the wake of a Death Eater attack, but with what happened later, they made an example out of him. Life sentence.

So yeah, after the school year ended I visited Harry and that went over ... well, it didn't go over very well at all, actually. A household like that is not one that you want to use postcognition in. I feigned friendliness to get in the door because it would be rude to leave a guest standing outside in view of the neighbors, and then had a talk with Vernon and Petunia. No threats, nothing like that. Just...

>Look. You can't just force someone to be something they aren't. You don't like wizards? Fine. But Hitler was trying to get zombies, so good British wizards helped fight him. You don't like homosexuals? Fine. But Alan Turing cracked Enigma and helped win the war. You don't like foreigners? Fine. Live for a month without anything created or manufactured by a foreigner. Including your car. Can I interest you in a Reliant Robin? No, I thought not.

>All I'm saying is, live and let live. He's a part of your life for two or three months a year, and there are only so many years to go. Just... treat him with the bare respect you'd treat any human being with! Just be a normal, decent person! And treat him like any decent person would treat someone else!

>I'm not going to threaten you or any of that. You're decent people, then? Fine. Prove it. Not to me. To yourselves. Be the people you say you are, and you'll find the world rewards you for it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go talk to my friend.

So yeah, Harry and I went out and split a pizza for lunch, when we came back Vernon was in the middle of removing the locks from his door.

I did not expect that. It was a nice thing.

Mention was made of Vernon's sister visiting in a few days; I saw what he was doing and mentioned that Harry could always visit with me for a few days if he chose. This meant that my father picked us both up in a bog-standard car, and aside from briefly seeing a large black dog watching us on the side of the road.

Harry returned after Marge left, and the Dursleys were... oddly tolerant. They treated him as though he were simply just there, and other than cooking and (decreased) chores, they treated him remarkably humanely.

Of course once school started there was the mess of a second breakout from Azkaban, of Sirius Black. That was a giant mess - with two escaped convicts, presumably after two students (considered an aborted attack on my home), even the most soft-hearted couldn't say no to dementors at Hogwarts.

Upon the train ride to Hogwarts, well. The dementors entered. Lupin used the patronus, and they backed away and left. I found myself perplexed by their existence. Holes in the world, they felt like. With that thought, I knew it was going to be a long bloody year.

Now, the year was a hell of a lot more hectic. Sirius Black? He's an animagus, though none of us knew it. The uncle, on the other hand, didn't have any such talent. He was just a smirking sneak-thief. But for whatever reason, he was bound and determined to kill me. He and Sirius crossed paths a couple of times, and actually met each other in the flesh once. I'm not sure what was said, but whatever it was, it got my uncle to back off while the rest of the school lost its damn mind. When things came to a head at the end of the year, when Sirius dragged Ron off... my uncle was close enough to see it happen. To see me and the other kids chasing after Sirius through the tree, and how to get past. And he had a stolen wand.

When the Pettigrew situation was coming to a head... it wasn't Snape that entered, it was my uncle. Snape was chasing behind, and by the time that happened... well. Sirius had Ron's wand. Harry had Sirius at wandpoint. Hermione had my uncle at wandpoint. My uncle had his wand to my head. Snape charged in, everyone pointed at him, before returning their aim to whoever was the most convenient; Lupin kept altering his aim between my uncle and Pettigrew, Snape kept his aim on Sirius, and my uncle started shouting demands, ranting about free passage away. The situation was a disaster and we were all likely to die.

So I used my abilities to find a safe path for everyone to leave - stomped down on my uncle's foot as hard as I could. And I do mean as hard as I could. He shrieked and I heard bones snap. And then he did it, the absolute madman. He pointed his wand upward and shouted a blasting curse. The structure of the Shrieking Shack lived up to its name, but it was strong enough to withstand it, mostly. Pettigrew reverted to his animagus form, skittered away. Sirius shifted form and chased him. Lupin was struck by falling debris.

Snape... ended up actually doing the right thing. He dragged Lupin to the doorway before remembering that he had not have taken his wolfsbane, and so stunned him for good measure before getting the other students out of there and hustling them down the tunnel, shouting for them to leave Lupin, he'd get him to safety. Surprisingly, they did, but I think it was because they were fixated on Pettigrew and Sirius.

My uncle, by that point, had cursed me with some yellowish thing, which didn't do much more than cause intense nausea and vertigo. (Turns out that it had been an entrails-expelling curse, fortunately not cast properly.) Snape kept him at wandpoint. I vomited, before being hauled back to my feet by the man who tried to shuffle us out the door; Snape cast a spell to seal the entrance and my uncle looked increasingly desperate, wand hand trembling.

I smiled sadly at him. I knew it wouldn't end well.

>You know, I was hoping that I'd be able to get my potions NEWT. I've not seen Wiggenweld potion brewed before. It's important to do the needful.

Snape regarded my uncle and himself, while my uncle was staring at me in disbelief for casually discussion potions, before Snape nodded. He understood my point - for you see, that potion is both the cure to the draught of living death, and is a very specific shade of green. One that very few spells match, but once you've seen it, you won't ever forget it.

He spoke two words as I stomped on my uncle's other foot and twisted to the side. The curse missed me by millimeters. It did not miss my uncle, who promptly dropped like a stone. My foot impacted the side of his head once it had hit the ground, before I nodded to Snape.

>Thank you. Banishing that rubble into him was quick thinking on your part, professor.

He nodded to me. I could have sworn he was actually smiling.

In the aftermath, he received an Order of Merlin, First Class.

I think killing a criminal who truly deserved it helped settle Snape down. After the dust cleared, things were a lot less hectic. And it would have been a shame for him to lose a student whose potions were, as he said, almost passable.

The Triwizard tournament came. Harry's name came out, of course; while he was banging his head on the table, I commented, "Hey, at least now we know who's trying to kill you this year." He grumbled something about how this was supposed to be his year off. Ron was a bit more mature than he might've been otherwise, and the four of us - Harry, Ron, Hermione and myself - basically decided to double down on our studies. Ron was not a fan, but I had told them about the diary and whose it was, and they realized that this would just keep happening and happening.

Things essentially went as they otherwise might have. Up to and including the resurrection of Voldemort. The Moody impostor dragged Harry away by the arm, and I made a point of getting Ron and Hermione to back me up while we followed. We made our way to where Moody was demanding to know what was what with Voldemort's return. He was cut off midsentence by a trio of simultaneously-cast spells - disarming, leg-locker and binding. The best part is, two of them actually hit him - we'd caught Crouch as close to flat-footed as we could.

Of course Fudge had Crouch kissed anyway, but those are the breaks. I resolved to hold him responsible for that later.

The next year... ohhhh, the next year. Well, it is fortunate that I have the ability to teach things I know to others - Ron benefited from occlumency far more than I expected, and not wearing his heart on his sleeve as much helped him mature. Hermione mastered it disturbingly quickly. Harry... well. Harry got his initial lessons from Snape, who had calmed down about his dislike of him. Somewhat. Snape got him started, and I gave Harry advice as well but didn't directly train him.

Turns out that occlumency is utterly useless when one has a direct connection from soul to soul, but hey, at least Harry's grades went up.

The first time Harry came in after writing lines and was as defensive as he was, I grabbed him to try and get a better explanation out of him... and then the postcognition kicked in, and he saw the look on my face and knew that I knew. That. Utter. BITCH.

I sent my familiar to Dumbledore advising him that in the interests of plausible deniability he would be well-advised to sleep early. And then I went to Snape and pulled in the favor from him that he (arguably) owed me for what went down in the shack. And then we visited Umbridge. I asked that he remain as an impartial observer and bring veritaserum, but that he was never there. And then I knocked on her door with my gauntlet, because I was NOT fucking around anymore.

Postcognition upon her showed me more than I cared to know. I wrote out a list and questions for Snape to ask her. She admitted to it all under truth serum and kept babbling justifications when the serum started wearing off. I went to work on her with magic from outside that universe, to compel her not to abuse her power, and she was obliviated of the whole experience.

The rest of the year was... dreary, but tolerable.

There were no further detentions. The DA was never raided, because there was never an inquisitorial squad - hell, we still had a dueling club, and even we had a few Slytherins sign up for the DA to brush up on their skills. Before the year ended, Umbridge had left Hogwarts with instructions to the students to simply read the chapter, and the sense that there was something missing. No plots by Dumbledore to overthrow the Ministry that she could report. Only rumors around the school - rumors that Voldemort returned, rumors that Grindelwald was Fudge's secret lover, rumors that heliopaths were the ministry's secret weapon against the next dark lord.

And then the attack on the Ministry. Harry went, the core DA refused to leave him behind, and I tagged along, of course. Death Eaters attacked, as we expected they would. We put them down with non-lethal curses, and they would rennervate each other to break off the stun. Rather than keep doing what wasn't working, though, we got creative. It's hard for someone to cast with a jelly-legs curse. It's hard to revive them when they're glued to the ceiling.

It's hard for Bellatrix to send her cousin through the Veil when I'd been watching the whole event with clairvoyance to find the best path through, because any losses on either side were unacceptable to me. She tried, though. He stumbled backward, Harry cast accio and it pulled Sirius toward him for just an instant... and then I abused telekinesis to shove him away from the fluttering veil before it could touch him, and he practically FLEW to Harry. This was fine by me. Instead of Harry chasing Bellatrix down, I did.

Instead of Harry casting the cruciatus at her, I stuck her feet to the ground and disarmed her. And gave her a kiss on the nose. Because she's adorable and makes the cutest enraged screams when you do that.

Instead of Voldemort trying to possess Harry, he expressed his displeasure at the situation and tried to strike me down like an insect.

The response to Voldemort trying to do this is probably predictable to anyone who has had to deal with such a thing before; Dumbledore was entering the atrium, and he got a firsthand look at what happens when I decide to stop holding back.

Cruciatus? Flick a chunk of the floor into its path while I cast a disapparation jinx that I shouldn't know. Killing curse? That ugly gold statue takes the hit instead, and I block portkey use. Another killing curse? I look at Voldemort, deliberately yawn, and do not so much as move my wand while a chunk of wall is moved in the way to block it.

Put my wand away, lift a now-gauntleted hand and turn up the sweet evil reverb as my form melts away to skeletal:

>I gave you once chance to repent, Thomas Riddle. You have squandered that chance. Your life is forefeit and your judgement awaits in the hereafter. I beg you: repent, and your soul may yet be saved.

He took exception to that, and he launched a truly impressive barrage of spells at me, most of which I didn't even know what they were.

It did not matter. He had one type of magic to draw from. I have dozens.

Afterward, when I put my face back on, it turned out that the Minister and his undersecretary had been watching the latter half of the conflict, heard what I said, and saw me befriend Voldemort into little more than a permanent shadow etched into the wall.

(Did you know that overpowered magical girl purification blasts render horcruxes useless? Now you do!)

...and so I was elected Minister at eighteen, over Fudge's insistence that I was a demon, Scrimgeour's insistence that I had no idea what I was doing, and Dumbledore's confusion over breaking the prophecy. It was pretty hilarious, actually.

>"So... all of this, you never needed a wand, did you?"
"No, Hermione, but you could cast without a wand too, just not very well without a lot of practice, it's like... look, you have a car with an engine, you can rev it up and down, but unless there's a gear shift of some kind you can only go so fast."
>"But you're so much stronger even without-!"
"A wizard has a two-stroke engine. I'm a fusion-powered locomotive with a dozen engine cars."
>"And everything else. The election, the reforms, the statute, the, the technology! You've been planning it all your life, you've been grooming me to take over. What kind of person does that?!"
"The kind that comes into a society that has so much wasted potential. That wants to see it achieve that potential, but can't do it alone. Wizards live two hundred years or so, and a normal human lifetime is fifty to seventy years, you've seen how much a longer lifetime can lead to stagnation, and so much more can be done. They need someone to lead them. I'm the first rock to fall. You and the others, you are the avalanche."
>"I would have thought you'd want to do like Riddle and live forever. Be the one in charge."
"That's ridiculous. Why on earth would I want that?"
>"Your... Michael, I know about your ring, the, the horcrux..."
"Oh, that failsafe? Don't be ridiculous. Just because my soul has a splinter separate doesn't make me a megalomaniac. Beside, I needed insurance."
>"It's not just that! The gauntlet! I saw you use it against Riddle, Harry and I never told anyone, but we know...! Magic that doesn't work like any known magic! The research you've funded, here and in the mundane world!"
"Oh, Hermione... sweet Hermione. You would be the one to figure it out."
>"You're not even human!"
"Wait, what makes you say that?"
>"...I don't know, the fact that YOU CAN TURN INTO A MERLIN-DAMNED SKELETON!"
"And here I thought I had kept that under wraps. I suppose that means I'm not a very good mummy."
>"...oh my god you are IMPOSSIBLE."
"I love you too, Hermoine."