As Harry slept, his dreams were haunted by a rat-faced man that taunted him as he shifted through mountains of rubbish, desperately searching for Voldemort's Horcruxes. Only, he didn't even know what exactly he was looking FOR.
Even worse was when the man stole Voldemort's Soul Gem from him, leading Harry on a chase through the mountains of rubbish as he desperately tried to get it back.
However his feet moved like lead, and Harry was unable to even use his magic to catch the man, all while he taunted him with a sing-song voice that reminded Harry of Peeves. And then, the man climbed one of the mountains of rubbish while sending several pieces of it falling down, triggering an avalanche of refuse that cascaded down at Harry to bury him alive.
...
"!!!"
Harry awoke suddenly to find himself in his trunk, tucked under the covers of his bed while a low fire crackled in the fireplace to illuminate the room.
The first thing Harry noted was that his head was pounding, and his mouth felt like sandpaper. Courtesy of Tsun's divine mead. Ten out of ten, would drink again.
The second thing Harry noted was that he was no longer wearing his robes or armor, and was instead dressed in a fresh pair of trousers while Dawnbreaker was carefully leaning against the wall beside the bed.
The final thing Harry noticed was a large glass of water sitting on the stand beside his bed, along with a note and his wand.
~~~
Went to classes, will be back during lunch/dinner.
Hermione.
~~~
Harry couldn't help but to smile warmly as he realized she must have come to check on him while he was out, before wondering if she was also the one who changed his clothes and tucked him into bed.
After reading the note, Harry downed the entire glass of water, along with a potion of cure poison, before crawling out of bed and making his way to the bathroom in order to freshen up. Even he could smell the scent of alcohol that persistently clung to his body.
An hour later Harry left the bathroom feeling like a new man, having spent the majority of that time soaking in a tub full of water hot enough to scald even him. And when he finished dressing, he looked up to see Hermione entering the trunk with a plate of food.
"You're awake!" She exclaimed when she saw him.
"And starving." Harry replied while eyeing the food in her hands.
"Fresh from the Great Hall." Hermione replied as she offered him the plate, which Harry gratefully accepted and started eating with gusto. Though she frowned when he washed it down with a fresh bottle of mead.
"Haven't you drunk enough?" Hermione asked him with undisguised exasperation.
"I only drink with my meals, and this is nowhere near enough to actually get me drunk." Harry replied before going back to his food.
"Then what was the state I found you in this morning?" She pointed out.
"Divine mead. Far more potent than the usual stuff, and I wanted to get hammered to begin with." Harry stated, making Hermione narrow her eyes.
"Divine mead? Really?"
"Honest to gods truth." Harry answered with a smirk before tearing into a chicken leg.
"And where exactly would one get this 'divine' mead?" She asked pointedly.
"From a god." Harry answered after swallowing, before giving Hermione a quick rundown of what happened the night before.
"THAT WAS YOU?!" Hermione exclaimed when he got to the part about summoning Durnehviir.
"Yeah. He taught me how to call him years ago so that I can summon him from the plane of Oblivion that he's bound to. He gets to fly around Tamriel, and I get someone to help me in a fight." Harry told her, though Hermione was still flabbergasted from the fact that he could call a dragon whenever he wanted.
Harry took advantage of Hermione's stunned silence to quickly recount the rest of the story, him summoning Tsun, going into the forbidden corridor, and then facing Quirrel/Voldemort at the end of it. By the time Harry ended the story with him feasting with the heads of Houses, Hermione's jaw was practically on the floor.
"You were DRINKING with the heads of Houses?!" Hermione exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yeah. Aside from a few of the things we discussed, it was actually kinda fun. Even though I'm not usually a wine guy, professor Sprout's homemade wine is pretty good. Though I do have to say that McGonagall's whiskey was even better for a Nordic pallet, and Flitwick's goblin vodka was quite strong."
The more Harry talked the more dumbfounded Hermione became, until he was starting to genuinely worry that he broke her. Thankfully she did eventually recover, though she also appeared to be in denial regarding everything Harry told her.
Apparently in Hermione-land, good and proper professors didn't drink at all to set a good standard for their students. Harry meanwhile was tempted to tell her how the teachers at the College of Winterhold regularly drank enough to compete with the Companions, thanks to the daily stress they got from their students.
With classes over for the day Hermione stayed with Harry as he unwound from the previous night's excitement, mostly with her informing him of what he missed in classes that day. Thankfully none of the professors questioned his absence for the day, which told Harry that they more than likely expected it due to how much he had drank through the night.
Eventually though, Harry was forced to get up due to needing to perform maintenance on his armor, as well as returning Dawnbreaker to its case and resealing it.
"What did you do with my robes and armor?" Harry asked Hermione curiously.
"I didn't know what else to do with them, so I tossed them into the training room because they stunk like booze and blood." She answered while wrinkling her nose, though she also avoided meeting Harry's eyes.
"Thanks." Harry said as he automatically started towards the aforementioned room, where he found said discarded armor and clothing draped over one of his weapon racks.
The armor was first of course since it needed actual maintenance, or at least the gloves did. They had gotten the worst of the abuse of the precious night thanks to Harry's beat down on Quirrel, which got them covered in his blood thanks to the spiked studs that adorned them.
Harry started by meticulously cleaning the gloves of all the blood on them, specifically around the studs, before rubbing them down with a special homemade oil that would protect and toughen the leather.
That was what took him the longest, while the rest of his leather armor was handled pretty quickly since he hadn't received too many attacks. And even then he had been wearing his robes over the armor anyways.
It was only when Harry finished with the last of his armor that he turned towards his robes, not that he intended to actually work on them.
The Hogwarts house elves were responsible for cleaning their dorm rooms, as well as the laundry of all of the students in the castle. So Harry just planned to leave his bloodstained robes for them to deal with along with the rest of his dirty laundry. But there was something he needed from one of the pockets.
"..."
Harry furrowed his brows as he checked the pockets of his robes, and didn't find what he was looking for.
"Hermione!" He called out, his tone still even despite the thing he needed being missing.
"Yes Harry?" She asked while poking her head through the doorway.
"There was a large black crystal in my robe pocket. Have you seen it?" Harry asked with a slight edge to his tone.
"A large black crystal? No I haven't." Hermione answered, and Harry's sense of urgency began to rise.
"What is it, Harry?" She asked as it became apparent that the crystal was important.
"It's a Soul Gem, the same one I used to seal Voldemort's Soul." Harry answered as he rushed past her, and started checking around the bed he had been sleeping in.
Realizing how important it was, though she thought Soul Gems were unethical, Hermione quickly went to help Harry as he started tearing the bed apart.
First he checked under it. Nothing.
Then he pulled the blankets off. Nothing.
Soon the entire bed was torn apart as Harry and Hermione searched for the Soul Gem. Nothing.
"Damn..." Harry swore as he flicked his wrist and used his magic. No response.
"What about Clairvoyance?" Hermione asked him worriedly.
"I just tried it..." Harry answered, and her eyes went wide.
If even Clairvoyance couldn't help Harry find the Soul Gem, then it definitely wasn't in the trunk. Possibly, not even in the castle altogether.
As much as Harry wanted to tear the castle apart looking for the Soul Gem, he had to check something else even more as he hurried towards his armory. If someone had been in his trunk, then that was the place that worried him most. And then he saw it.
"FUCK!" Harry swore when he saw the case, the same case he had retrieved Dawnbreaker from the day before, and hadn't relocked, wide open. And there was something missing.
"Someone took the Ebony Blade!" Harry told Hermione in agitation, his mind racing with the worst possible scenarios.
But amongst them was one indisputable fact. If the Ebony Blade was gone, and ONLY the Ebony Blade, then it meant the worst possible scenario. The Daedric Princes themselves were in play.
***
Fire rained down from above, the earth churned violently, magma boiled, and the souls of the damned screamed above all else.
In the center of this hell-scape was a figure that towered over all others like a mountain, his skin a deep red, an extra set of arms protruding from his shoulders, and horns curling upwards from his head like a demonic crown.
He was Mehrunes Dagon, Daedric Prince of Ambition, Change, Destruction and Revolution. And this was his realm of Oblivion, the Badlands.
As he lounged on his throne carved from the side of a mountain, Dagon regarded the realm with indifference while his attention was split on Nirn.
All over the world he projected his voice to the weak and gullible, prodding them towards what they perceived to be greatness, but only destruction awaited. Not just for those who heard his voice, but also any unfortunate enough to be caught up in their path.
The real prize however, was Skyrim.
Once the land of strife due to the return of the dragons and the rebellion, the nation was now a bastion of strength and stability thanks to a certain someone. This made it ripe for sowing discord and change, if only he could find a proper puppet to enact said change.
Unfortunately, ALL of Dagon's followers had been exterminated years prior due to their foolishness and weakness.
But even if his followers were exterminated, there will always be more to take their place. There will always be mortals seeking Change, Revolution, Destruction, or with great Ambition.
"..."
A sudden intrusion in his realm caught Dagon's attention as a certain individual approached him. A feminine figure that oozed sensuality as she strutted towards his throne without a care, her mere presence triggering wave after wave of arousal in the Dremora she passed, despite the eight spider-like legs protruding from her back.
"Mephala. To what does Mehrunes Dagon owe this....pleasure?" The Daedric Prince asked her, his own loincloth rising in response to her presence.
"Tempting Dagon." The woman purred, her figure growing to match his own imposing size as she stood before him.
"My current champion is very eager, but enthusiasm does not translate into skill." She said with a regrettable tone, making her fellow Prince sneer.
"Pathetic." He drawled in contempt. But even as arousal filled his body, and interest filled her eyes, Mehrunes Dagon didn't allow himself to be distracted.
"First, tell me why you are here." He commanded, knowing that not even the seductress would visit him due to mere dissatisfaction from her own champion.
Rather than immediately answer, Mephala slowly crawled into Dagon's lap as her garments vanished, leaving her body bare while her hands grasped his towering member.
And Dagon, despite her advances, never even flinched until she leaned in close and whispered to him. "Five. Billion. Souls."
"!!!"
The Daedric Prince looked at her sharply even as her hands began to move up and down, ignoring her machinations altogether.
"You lie." He growled at her.
"I do not." She hissed back at him.
"Where would you find five billion souls?" Dagon snarled.
"In a new realm, completely separate from Mundus, Aetherius, and Oblivion. A realm called, Earth."
"Earth... Foolish name for a realm. Might as well call it dirt." Dagon sneered in contempt But then he fixed Mephala with a sharp look.
"Why come to me then? Why not keep the souls to yourself?" He asked her with a tone of suspicion.
"Because, the realm in question belongs to Harry Potter." Mephala stated, confusing Dagon even more.
"And who in Oblivion is that?" He snarled irritably.
"Harold Wyrm-Tongue."
"!!!"
THAT had Dagon's attention, as that was the name of the most powerful mortal in all of Nirn for the last several decades. It was also the name of the mortal who exterminated all of his followers, stole his Razor, and closed one of his last Oblivion Gates while also briefly invading his realm.
"I see... You want the cooperation of the others to destroy Wyrm-Tongue." Dagon said in realization.
"And we can split the souls between all of us afterwards. Plus the realm is filled with the most interesting things, things I learned about through my new champion."
Dagon had to admit, he was interested. A new realm to play in. New plots and machinations to put into motion. He was so interested that he almost forgot about Mephala on his lap. Almost.
"I suppose you're here for something, regarding this grand plan of yours." He asked her in a condescending tone.
"Of course. I came to ask for a Sigil Stone." She purred, and the key components of the plan formed in Dagon's mind.
"I could be....persuaded to give you a stone, Mephala. But what do you have for me?"
Mephala smiled as if she had been waiting for him to ask, before she held out one of her hands to materialize something in it.
"Do you know what this is?" She asked him.
"A Soul Gem." Dagon sneered back.
"Filled with the soul of one Tom Marvolo Riddle. Also known as, Voldemort."
"And who is that?"
"The man prophesized to be equal to Harry Potter. Possibly the ONLY one capable of killing him.
"!!!"
"Is that so?" Dagon asked with obvious interest as he took the gem from her outstretched hand. "Then you have a deal, Mephala."