Chain 025: Harry Potter

Chain 025: Harry Potter
Location: Hogwarts, 1991
Age: 11
Identity: [+50] Drop-In, Gryffindor
Drawbacks: [+600] A History of Magic, Prophecy, Oblivious, Prisoner of Azkaban
(Abilities: Savant, Alchemist, Achron, Sorcery Savant, The Stars Shine Upon Me, The Arcane Craft, Legilimens, Duelist Champion)

[Free]      Brave At Heart
[50/1650]   Memory Spell Specialist
[150/1650]  Occlumency
[350/1650]  Metamorphmagus
[550/1650]  Fiendfyre Master
[1050/1650] Wandless Magic
[Free]      Wand: Blackthorn and Phoenix
[1650/1650] Horcrux

Having the knowledge of a setting removed while you have already been there is, it would seem, a tenuous thing. If I had my knowledge of automobiles removed, I couldn't tell you what a car is or what it could do. But I could tell you a tire is round, that an alternator could be used to generate electrical current for other systems. It's like having all the pieces to a paint-by-number jigsaw puzzle. Even when you put the pieces together, you cannot know what it is until you learn to see the bigger picture.

And yet, I knew that I had known some of these people in a past life. The familiar feel of the blackthorn wand against my fingers. The school, and the Great Hall - a feeling of fond nostalgia for seemingly no reason. Albus Dumbledore, certainly, though I hadn't known he was headmaster, and he looked much older than I would have expected. It seemed he likewise recognized me - my name being called out during Sorting got a sharp look from him, along with an inexplicable feeling I later learned to identify as someone probing with legilimency. Being sorted into Gryffindor felt... at once right, and not. It helped nothing that my feet initially took me toward the Slytherin dorm in the dungeon rather than up to the tower with the rest.

Things settled into a reasonable routine afterward. Though it seemed unusually difficult, I befriended a couple of others, which was good; Hermione seemed a little suspicious at first, but others weren't really opening up to her and she seemed to need a friend. Neville Longbottom was a pretty good kid too, and seemed to just need a little positive reinforcement; by mid-October, we seemed like a regular little group, the three of us. A particularly harsh comment on Halloween caused her to disappear on us and I had no idea what was going on until a couple of hours later, when I found my motions being redirected at the end of class, asking Neville to come with me because Hermione was hiding in the girls' bathroom. We couldn't convince her to come out, though she felt better - Neville got a laugh out of her when he commented on us being a merry trio of outcasts.

Later of course, along came a troll - we intercepted Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley and the four of us tried to talk to her, only to be stopped from going out by a troll. None of us knew any magic that would really help yet, but one of the cubicles being smashed to splinters caused some inspiration, which I turned into a plan. Harry jumped on the troll to distract it and get past, Hermione transfigured the splinters to needles, Neville sent them flying into the troll where they exploded against its skin from the levitation being botched - when the troll swatted at Neville and broke his wand (and hand), Ron took control of the club via his own wand to send it clonking into the troll's head. I seemed kind of useless, until the professors came up and the time for spinning a story happened. Hermione tried to take responsibility, and I spun the ridiculous lie into something rather more believable.

"The five of you are excused from classes tomorrow, but will instead attend detention in my office after breakfast, I think," Dumbledore replied. And then awarded us a handful of points in the same breath. Our very confused group were escorted back to our dorms by Professor McGonagall after that, sans Neville who went to Madam Pomphrey. It turned out his hand was only rather bruised rather than anything being broken, and after some salve, he was right as rain.

When we arrived in the morning, the gargoyle at the base of the steps had stood aside for us and Dumbledore greeted us as we walked in the open door, "Ah, excellent! You're right on time." Reflexively, I replied, "A wizard is never late, Albus, nor is he early-" before I slapped a hand over my mouth, realizing what had escaped my lips. Dumbledore fixed his gaze on me, while the others looked at me in a panic and Hermione mouthed, "Lord of the Rings?"

At which point Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose. "Suddenly things start to become clearer. We can talk later about it if you might prefer, young man."

Meekly, I nodded. "Perhaps, sir."

(Continued: http://pastebin.com/D5tcfAk6 )

Dumbledore clapped his hands. "Well! The five of you certainly are on the track to becoming fast friends, and few can claim to have faced such things by your age. The worst I'd seen before was a matter of murtlap poisoning." I didn't miss his glance. "Young Neville, I took the liberty of speaking with the Lady Longbottom, and the six of us shall be travelling by floo to Diagon Alley in short order. Among other things, you'll be acquiring a new wand for yourself."

Really, things after that weren't a huge issue. After a warning to be on our absolute best behavior, we went firstly to the bank, where Dumbledore made a small withdrawal from the school funds; I was introduced to the fact that I had an account already established that hadn't been touched since 1945, which perplexed me at the time but made complete sense later. Hermione also found that, despite being muggle born, she was in fact from a squib line that descended from the Dagworth-Grangers - not that this brought her any money. Of course, having gold in the bank, I chose to make a withdrawal as well.

Neville obtained his wand firstly, but Ollivander refused to let Ron leave without a wand of his own - after all, the wand chose the wizard, and the both of them were overdue to be chosen. (Dumbledore may have left after the rest of us in order to pay Ollivander, but I was the only one that noticed. Then again, I was the only one who was having a second chance to have a childhood here, with the foresight and rationality of an adult.) After, Dumbledore made some very polite inquiries and found the five of us really had no up-to-date casual wear for outside of classes beside the small amount some of us had brought - so we were taken to Gladrags and the five of us all got several sets of reasonably fashionable clothing. In the cases of myself, Harry, and Hermione, we also obtained reasonable facsimiles of generic muggle clothing.

After that, our last stop was the bookstore, where a few things were obtained. Each of us were allowed to get a book of our choice, before also being given two books from Dumbledore; it seemed the trip was not all fun and games, as each of us was provided one book of more advanced material and expected to study throughout the year, and the other to write a report for him directly, due no later than the end of the weekend. So much for getting out of detention scot-free. The book reports were all the same, an abbreviated history of the Twentieth Century. The others proved to be pretty heavy on the foreshadowing though - Harry got a recently-published book on Quidditch tactics; Ron, an introduction to enchantment; myself, a divination book; Neville, herbology for the initiated; and Hermione, a novice's guide to alchemy. (Which peaked ALL of our interests, admittedly.)

Other than everyone assuming we had a dead-boring detention, especially when we told them we got homework out of it ("Homework? From a DETENTION?"), little else was said of the whole thing. Though the five of us collaborated over the homework, and indeed did become closer afterward. The rest of the year wasn't huge, went largely how it might have been expected... a little investigation into Snape went a long way, though when there are five instead of three, the tactical use of an invisibility cloak is rather more limited. Still, all was well until the end of the year when Quirrel made his move. Abruptly, I realized what was going to happen if everything went south; Quirrel wouldn't just stand in front of a mirror forever.

Ron and I helped coordinate everything. When it began and Neville was on the fence, I told him that I'd explain everything later, but I was a seer - and Dumbledore knew, but didn't say anything else about it. I wasn't going to make prophecies, but I could get us all through the next little while, but that if we didn't act, terrible things would happen. I told them this before Hermione and Neville prevailed and went to McGonagall first - and when they returned, I told them word for word what she told them. And I knew exactly what she said, because they were going to tell us. After that... well, Ron was dumbstruck, Hermione was not convinced, but Neville and Harry were ready. And the five of us went for it.

Fluffy is the most adorable cerberus ever, and we stopped by the kitchens on the way so that I could leave him three juicy steaks for when he woke up, but of course he was asleep thanks to the harp - I told them to be ready to cast light spells, but not until we landed. They were confused, but utterly convinced when we landed on the Devil's Snare. From there we continued without problems, and Hermione pointed out the flying key in the next room - we all lined up by the door, ran through, and I slammed the door closed as Harry dove in. I warned them not to fly the broom over the chess set, lest they strike down the flyer, and we played a quick game of chess; Ron asked for advice every few moves. I told Ron that I didn't see any way for him to win without losing pieces, and that it could take fifteen minutes if we sacrificed one or five moves if we sacrificed two. After he and Neville talked me into it, after making sure they wouldn't actually die, we followed his plan - they were struck unconscious but not actually killed, fortunately.

And then there were three of us in the potions room. When Hermione looked at me, I shrugged and looked at the potions - she figured them out in short order, though, and Harry went through alone. The two of us backtracked after that, though, and got out with Neville and Ron in tow - despite her trepidations, Hermione and I used brooms to get ourselves and the boys out, and ran for the infirmary wing. We ran into Dumbledore on the way just outside the door - "Harry's still down there, sir, we had no way to go with him" - and he dashed like mad down the third floor corridor. While the four of us were in the infirmary, Dumbledore brought in Harry. It seemed he'd be okay, even if he would be out for a bit.

(There were no last-minute additions of points - but then, Gryffindor had the most points anyway, since a certain Mr. Malfoy is incompetent and shouldn't plot against his betters.)

When we left the castle at the end of the term... well, the five of us shared a train cabin and I felt it was time to get real about things. Ron, especially, wanted to know about me being a seer - I told him that I knew everything that would happen in the next hour. Well, from my point of view anyways. Yes, Ron, I knew you were going to ask that. Yes, it makes classes SUPER boring, and it's why I never raise my hand in class, Hermione, it feels like cheating. I mean... there are other secrets I have, but this is pretty close to the most important one. I don't know what's going to happen more than an hour out, though. And seeing a vision means I can change things, which is why I made sure to go with everyone, because if Harry hadn't stopped Quirrel he would've taken hostages. And yes, I literally was recruited from an orphanage, which... quite frankly, I won't be going back to, even if I can't use magic outside of school.

The rest of them were a little uncomfortable, but we started talking amongst ourselves. With my admission, they opened up a little more. Ron talked about how hard it was, getting picked on by almost a half dozen older brothers, getting nothing but their hand-me-downs. Neville talked about how lonely it was to live without his parents, and while he knew his Gran loved him, she was always hard on him. Hermione had parents, but... well, they had her because they were expected to, and there's a reason why she wasn't well-adapted, socially. And Harry... well, everyone knew his situation, but he did let on a bit about how his uncle and aunt treated him. We all promised to keep in touch over the summer - both via mundane and magical methods. Addresses were exchanged.

I visited Harry over the summer when the others mentioned that he never wrote us, which seemed more than a bit off. I visited Hermione, who thought I was living on the streets - it took time to convince her that I'd been living elsewhere, what with having money and all. (I mean, technically true - she doesn't need to know it's a dimensional pocket that I'm living in.) After that, the two of us took the afternoon and visited Harry - she was slightly confused how I had a motorcycle, being twelve and all, not to mention it not looking like anything she knew and lacking brand names. And... well, I didn't have any good explanation for it other than it being mine, and that it was manufactured in Johto. Japanese motorcycle. Yeah. Harry was perplexed because he'd not received any of our letters, but we both verified we'd sent them.

The impromptu arrival of a house elf set the all three of us on edge, but the conversation was carefully navigated to have no consequences thanks to a couple of timely interrupted statements. It was explained to Dobby that Harry HAD to go to Hogwarts, otherwise what sort of wizard would he be? But knowing there is a plot means we know it's there, so it can be stopped! ("Truly, Dobby is in awe of the wisdom of the Great Harry Potter! Praise unto him!" "Why is this my life, Hermoine? Is this actually normal for wizards?" "I've been wondering that for a year now. I don't think so.") At least Vernon's business dinner wasn't disrupted, and when we left, it was with the grudging acceptance that occasional visits would be permitted, barring any future freakishness. He was less than amused when I mentioned that if he wanted to see freakishness, he ought to see what Clinton's getting into across the pond these days in Washington.

So, second year wasn't all that bad. Aside from the whole Heir of Slytherin nonsense that Harry got stuck dealing with. And the near-sabotage of Hermione's academic career by Lockheart when she called him out on his books not adding up. And Neville being in the infirmary for a week after one of his potions exploded. (He wasn't the only one - Snape was absolutely livid when he realized that someone threw something into what would have been a good potion, and all of the second year Slytherins weren't seen anywhere outside their dorm for a week, excepting meals and classes.) And Ron's shiny new wand getting broken, and eventually stolen by Lockheart when the idiot decided to abscond with the Sword of Gryffindor and that was a whole weird thing that involved Neville, the Hat, a phoenix, a greenhouse full of shrieking mandrakes and a first-year class that went to the wrong place.

(In what would become a common pattern, Ron was taken to recieve another wand after that incident.)

Oh, also Harry Potter got T. M. Riddle's diary, I went 'wait a second, that's familiar, I wonder if that's the same kid that I helped out back in the forties', the other four went 'what.' at me, and... well, it was a very long conversation and everyone kind of treated me as a pariah for the rest of the year after I came clean with them about technically being almost seven thousand years old. Also, I was disappointed that the diary was blank. Harry wrote in it... well, we saw the effect it had. No one else was brave enough to write in it except for me, and it didn't affect me at all. And then something became clear to me, I looked at the book, I looked at the gold ring on my finger, and I said, "I need to take this to Professor Dumbledore right away. Yes, I know it's eleven at night."

Dumbledore was less than pleased to be roused from his slumber, but when I set the book on his desk and asked him not to touch it... I asked him what he knew about me from the years before. He told me everything, of course, but that only filled in some of the blanks. And on further inquiry... I told him that I remembered Tom asking me about horcruxes, and had explained how terrible of a method they were for immortality. And when Dumbledore's eyes narrowed, I told him, "I have almost no memories leading up to 1945 with a handful of exceptions, I have absolutely no memories between 1945 and 1990, and quite honestly I don't know if it's because I jumped eras or because I screwed up after drinking a youth elixir and lost all my adult memories. All I know is that I have a horcrux now, and I didn't then. I have no idea why." And I set the ring on the table, next to the book. Before Dumbledore could say anything, I added, "I know when my time in this world is going to be over, as well. One way or the other, I've got about eight years. So at this point... I'm thinking my NEWT project is going to be how to heal the breach in a wounded soul, before I move on to the next great adventure."

(Not that he needed to know what I meant by next great adventure.)

That was when Dumbledore told me that I suited the parameters for a certain Dark Lord who was prophecized to ascend to power, and that I'd best keep it under my hat. At which point I laughed and said that if I were that Dark Lord, it must've been in the intervening years and I must have been the quietest idiot who ever hoped to gain one of the least desirable titles available. Still, if that was the ongoing rumor, it would explain why I was such a pariah among students who weren't muggleborn.

With the diary secured, nothing else happened, though; from what I later gathered, after the boys' dorms were ransacked, Ginny Weasley came forward and said she'd had the diary. She was quietly referred to healers and spent the summer at St. Mungo's. Word was put out that the entire Heir of Slytherin plot was a hoax, the students paralyzed by dark magic, and the perpetrator allgedly caught and punished (but never named); Dumbledore used the diary as leverage to kick Lucius Malfoy from the board of governors, before he turned to a compatriot he knew in the Unspeakables to try and use the diary to trace Voldemort's specter. Which also meant it pointed toward the other horcruxes. Unfortunately, the more there were, the more vague it was - if it was accurate, there was another in the very school.

Naturally, the gossip rags published various rumors, including one that another dark lord was behind it. So nice of them to publish my name in that article. And when we returned to school, there were dementors on the train, a miserable experience even with occlumency to block it out. I was drawn back into the fold with the other four because of the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban, implying I would be able to give them advance warning. Nice to feel needed, but honestly... they were misguided. And I understood it isn't something easy to understand.

More troubling were the headlines that stole attention from that crisis: Gellert Grindelwald escaped from the prison at Nurmenberg, where he was the sole prisoner.

Really, for a while, things were normal. Harry worked on learning the patronus charm, and this led to more than just him being tutored after hours by professor Lupin; once things clicked, I mastered the spell quickly, and it turned out that having an active patronus being manifest meant that it was easier for the others to do the same, with more positive emotions. Gryffindor got points for that - apparently that was something that would come in handy for NEWT-level classes. By winter holidays, all five of us could cast the mist at least, though Harry remained the first to master a corporeal patronus.

Of course, things went a bit off the rails just before dinner on one particular Friday, when I grabbed Harry and dragged him to the side. Sirius Black was coming, I told him - and the whole situation was completely wrong from what we were told. He claimed it was his fault, but he didn't do it, someone else was able to because of actions he took. Harry of course insisted on coming with me, and we met a black dog in the corridor. Harry was confused but followed my lead when I greeted it as Padfoot and told it that we had sandwiches in a disused classroom, and all would be explained.

Sirius Black turned back once we reached the room and was told I was a seer of sorts, while he utterly demolished a stack of sandwiches and meats. Harry held him at wandpoint, but as Sirius explained everything, it all became clearer - and I told Harry that this is why I couldn't have involved anyone else beside him, because how would Ron react to Scabbers being discovered as someone he isn't? I told Sirius that his best bet was to go to Dumbledore - he could help in the short term and get him out of the school safely, could help sniff out a rat.

While we were on the way to Dumbledore's office, I stiffened. And told the other two, "We need to run. Right now. The situation has changed."

Sirius looked at me suspiciously; Harry was merely a bit lost, but still was following my lead, and the three of us picked up the pace. "Why? What's going on?"

Dumbledore intercepted us in the hall outside his office, and on seeing Sirius drew his wand, but we waved him off. "No, he's innocent," Harry started to explain. I interrupted him; "Gellert is coming, Albus." I'd never expected, until that moment, to see Dumbledore's face turn that shade of ashen gray, that look of absolute panic.

The Sirius problem was completely forgotten about by almost everyone with the lockdown and evacuation of the school, and Grindelwald's subsequent assault. He was perhaps not as strong as he once might have been, but should it be a surprise that he could escape from a prison he built when properly motivated? Hearing my name from a newspaper was all it took, it seems; all the students were gone, except for me, and two thirds of the teachers. Dumbledore greeted him at the gate, with Snape and McGonagall flanking him. He blew through them like papers caught in a breeze, though without permanent injury, and continued on his way in. He found me waiting in front of the door.

I bowed. He bowed. We dueled. Even knowing every move he would make, I lost. However, the strangest thing happened when he'd lacerated me and I was near death - the kid gloves came off and I had access to ALL of my power for what was quite possibly the first time since it had been restricted.

If this were later in the game, it might have made a bigger difference, but as it stands it was just barely enough for me to repel him, just barely long enough a distraction for the whole of the staff to bombard him with curses and jinxes. He was neutralized, eventually, and hauled off by the aurors.

Naturally he escaped a day later and we repeated the entire process, though I'd like to think I made a better showing that time. The staff, too, were more prepared. And Hogwarts' siege mode was activated to help repel him. A needed change, as this time he somehow managed to seize control of the dementors around the school - he used them to attack as well. This time, when he was stopped, he was chucked through the Veil in the ministry quite immediately; it was the first useful thing that Fudge had done in ages. The second useful thing was removing the dementors from the school grounds.

The students were back in classes on Monday. Everyone forgot about Sirius Black, he was barely a byline to the headline 'DARK LORD LAYS SIEGE TO HOGWARTS - REPELLED BY HEADMASTER, PROFESSORS'. Most secure place in Britain, indeed. Though the rumors that followed that about him wanting to strike down a nascent dark lord... well, someone did some digging, found that prophecy that I apparently fit, and now EVERYONE knew. So aside from our little group, I was rendered a pariah.

"And I thought it was bad when I just sweated all the time," I quietly complained to Dumbledore later.

A lot of what came after all of that mess was easier, though. Pettigrew was in fact captured before the weekend was through, and oh we're so sorry Mr. Weasley but it seems your pet rat must have died, this is definitely not an inert body transfigured so you could get closure while the Ministry interrogates the heck out of that animagus. Turns out that with the right prompting, Amelia Bones can be remarkable vicious and effective. The trial was kept very quiet, but Pettigrew was sentenced to the Veil, Black was exonorated, Harry was left in his custody, and he only had to spend the first and last two weeks of the summer with the Dursleys thenceforth to keep everything going.

By the time the next year rolled around... well, Dumbledore was warned in advance that the cup was charmed, but it was too close to the selection for it to be fixed and Harry was forced to compete. Still, it was clarified as it happened, so at least he wasn't a complete pariah - and despite what Ron told him, he didn't rely on me to tell him how to do what he did. It went pretty much according to canon, right up until it came to the third task. Yes, when that came, Dumbledore was warned what would happen about five hours in advance... and he started preparing contingency plans. After all, he had quite a bit of clout, considering the apprehension of Pettigrew.

Harry was still abducted from the maze. Cedric somehow made it back with the portkey, without Harry. And while the ceremony was in progress... Dumbledore's contingency was called into action. Unspeakables and Aurors portkeyed to the location that a tracking charm showed on Harry. Voldemort was resurrected, yes, and he duelled Harry. But while he was doing this, with Harry making a surprisingly good showing, the entirety of the Ministry's aurors threw off their invisibility spells, the Hitwizards set up anti-apparation charms, and the battle was... well, it was over pretty quickly. Voldemort tried to leave but failed, tried to ignore Harry to engage all of the aurors and hitwizards, but it was Harry's disarming charm that took away his wand, Harry's stunner that knocked him out.

After that insanity had concluded and Voldemort was as secure as anyone could make him, Dumbledore debriefed Harry and Sirius and told them the whole of the prophecy, as we heard about later. Meanwhile, the headlines in the newspaper the next morning read 'BOY-WHO-LIVED BECOMES BOY-WHO-WON', outlining the subterfuge that went into his becoming a part of the tournament and the key action he took in bringing down Voldemort. The power of love, that was Dumbledore's theory - Harry fought him for the sake of others, when he could have cut and run.

And as it turns out, the Unspeakables were indeed able to locate all of Voldemort's horcruxes, and move the bits of soul out of the objects themselves. It wouldn't have worked if there had been only one, but since there were so many, there was less soul to fill them. A more tenuous connection. This, too, applied to the one in Harry's head. Rituals moved them to harmless objects... and then to the same body that Voldemort now occupied. It was curious, too, when his body looked more and more like an aged man rather than a monster as pieces of the soul were returned to him.

It was only because of Dumbledore's clout that I was present (along with Hermione, and Ron, and Neville - all in order to support Harry), and I was permitted opportunity to talk to Tom Riddle once he was whole. He was surprisingly repentant. I apologized for failing him, all those years ago, but he acknowledged that it was at least as much his own fault - he split his soul out of fear, because he didn't want to die, even if Myrtle's death was not actually intentional. It was simply a matter of coincidence and abruptly having her on hand to use, dead by his hand. And after that... well, he realized he became unstable and irrational, and after each split even moreso. He'd committed terrible crimes, whether in his right mind or not.

He walked through the veil of death of his own volition very shortly after, with his head held high.

The convictions and subsequent sentencing of the Death Eaters headlined the news and overshadowed the Triwizard, but that was all right. Our years at Hogwarts after that were a lot more calm and sane - there were still adventures, per se, but nothing like we'd had up to that point.

Dumbledore passed away the year after we'd graduated, and the elder wand had not found another master in that time - it was rendered inert. He was buried with the resurrection stone on his finger, not that anyone knew what it was, but it'd been found by the Unspeakables - one of whom in particular managed to avoid losing an arm to the curse when he picked it up, if quite narrowly.

Harry and Ginny Weasley hit it off as strongly as Neville had with Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw from a year below us. Hermione and Ron had an on-again-off-again thing for a couple of years after graduation until she told him that he needed to ask him to marry her, already.

And I?

I became aware that my time in this world was at an end, bid them all fond farewells, and moved on to the next great adventure, in Tokyo-3.

Wait. Tokyo-3? That sounds an awful lot like-