Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 01: Harry Potter
A.N: The upload rate for this fic is going to be of 3 chapters a week. The reason for this is that the chapter as so much longer than my usual ones. Sometimes over twice as long. So in reality, you would be getting more content.
"The Universe is infinite. This means that everything that could possibly occur can and will occur.
Every possibility, no matter how remote, unlikely, or even ridiculous, is happening somewhere in the vast cosmos." The girl said in a calm tone as the words were written on the paper.
A grimace touched the lips of the man upon the throne. It was not a chair for a gentle king. It was hewn of black basalt and obsidian, its arms ending in the snarling maws of stone griffins.
He turned his head to look at the girl who just spoken. "Luna, what the heck are you talking about?!"
The blonde girl glanced back at him with an innocent expression. Her blue eyes held a mystical aura. "Oh… did you hear that? I was just writing in my diary." A faint smile played on her lips.
Harry frowned. He was sure she was doing it on purpose. "Of course I heard you! You were talking out loud. "You are disturbing my drinking time," he grumbled as he lifted his cup, not made of gold nor silver, but bone. A human skull, polished smooth and dark with age, its cranial cavity filled with amber liquor. He drank deeply, the brandy's fire a familiar comfort in his throat.
"When is it not your drinking time?" another voice cut through the dimness. A tall woman with a fierce mane of brown hair slid a heavy tome back into its place on a shelf that reached into the shadows of the vaulted ceiling.
She turned, and her gaze was sharp as steel. "Firewhisky? No. You only use that… thing… for the Frostfire. The vintage from the Ice Halls of Norfang."
Harry Potter, whose name had been whispered as saviour, hero, and conqueror for five hundred years, snorted. "Must you always be my conscience, Hermione? The drink does not rule me. And what Dark Lords are left to oppose me? What wars are left to fight?" He raised the skull slightly, peering into its empty sockets. "Is that not so, my old friend? We put all the pretenders in the ground, did we not?"
He pitched his voice high and brittle, a mockery of a dead man's hiss. "Oh, yes, glorious Harry! So awesome and handsome!"
"The skull speaks the truth. You are very handsome," Luna said, her tone matter-of-fact.
"And that is why you remain my favourite wife," Harry said, a ghost of his old, younger smile touching his mouth.
"You told Ginny the same thing yesterday," Hermione said, walking closer. The torchlight caught the lines of worry etched beside her eyes, the only true map of their long years.
"Well, of course. I mean… the things that girl can do with her mouth are just… incredible." Harry said, the smile turning wolfish as he recalled the great time he had last night with his three wives.
Despite their already advanced age, they were all as energetic as always. "Witches are truly something else…" Harry muttered under his breath.
"Now, on a more serious topic." Hermione approached the throne-like looking chair where Harry had been sitting while sipping brandy from a skull like a cartoon villain. "This experiment of yours… I have been running the numbers, and I don't like it."
"What don't you like about it?" Harry questioned her. "If it works, we won't have to worry about getting older anymore. We would achieve true eternal life!"
"Haven't we already lived enough?" Hermione asked, her words were soft, but they carried through the silent hal "The Elixir of Life that we created has allowed us to enjoy over five hundred years while still retaining a body that could pass as forty. And according to my calculations, we could easily have another one hundred good years before the elixir starts to lose its effect on us."
"And then?" His voice was flat.
"And then we age. We weaken. We die. As all things must. As is right." She responded with determination.
"No." The word was not shouted, but it fell like a hammer on an anvil. The very stones of the chamber seemed to tremble, and the flames in the hearth dipped and danced as if in a sudden wind.
A power stirred around him, old and deep and restless. "I am not done." He looked not at her, but through her, at some distant horizon only he could see. "I can feel it in my soul. I am meant for something more, something… I don't know, but it's something important."
Hermione's brow arched. "More? You are Harry Potter. You broke the Dark Lord Voldemort. You have spent centuries hunting his successors like hounds hunt hares. You have reshaped magic, bridged it with the muggle arts, your name echoes in every corner of this world…and yet, it is not enough?"
"Don't forget that he has enjoyed the warmth of three wives for almost five centuries," Luna added, still scribbling. "That is a great deal of warmth."
"Aye, all of it," Harry said, his gaze flicking to Luna, who met it with a look that was both innocent and knowing. "All of it has been great. But it is not enough."
"It is not enough for you..." Hermione said, and the sadness in her voice was a cold draft in the warm room. She hugged her arms about herself.
"Hermione, dont say it like that, you know I love you. I love Luna. I love my fierce Ginny. You are the pillars of my long life. But something in me is telling me to keep pushing myself, to reach the limits of what magic can do. To become… something more."
"Harry," Hermione's voice was a plea. "Extending life is one matter. What you are looking for… to break the wheel of life itself… that is the path of the very Dark Lords you have spent lifetimes eradicating."
"I am no Dark Lord," he said dismissively as he drained the skull in his hand. "I only enjoy killing them." He peered into the empty cranium. "Mmm...I need to get more."
"I'm serious about this, Harry. Don't do this ritual. I… I think something bad is going to happen." Hermione said, her eyes were bright with unshed tears.
"Nonsense. I worked on this for centuries, Hermione. I have thought about every tiny detail of this ritual, and I know it will work." He turned to Luna. "Come on, you are the best at divination and never saw anything about something bad happening to me because of the ritual. Right?"
At that moment, a sharp crack split the air, like ice breaking on a winter lake. A fissure appeared in the polished bone of the skull, then another. It split cleanly in two in his hands, the remaining drops of Frostfire brandy falling to the flagstones like tears.
"Well, no," Luna said, her wide eyes fixed on the ruined cup. "But that is undoubtedly a bad omen."
"Harry," Hermione breathed, the colour leaving her face.
"It was old!" Harry snapped, throwing the pieces aside. They clattered on the stone, a hollow, final sound.
He gestured sharply to the far wall, where shelves stood lined with rows of gleaming skulls, each displayed behind glass like trophies of a forgotten war. The lords he had slain. "It means nothing. I have a hundred more. My mind is set. The ritual begins at the moon's zenith."
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
The highest tower of Potter's Keep held his sanctum. It was a place of cold beauty, where the art of modern science met the song of spellcraft. Strange glass panels glowed with runic script, and devices of brass and magicite hummed with silent power.
Harry stood before a shimmering pane of light, numbers and symbols flowing across its surface like water. "Everything looks good," he said to the empty air as a cold sensation ran across his back.
He had lied to Hermione. He was not sure. But to wait was to surrender. This was a very special night. All the planets of the Solar System would become aligned and, according to his calculations, the cosmic energies resulting from this phenomenon would be necessary for the ritual to succeed.
'It must be now' he thought, his jaw tightening. 'It must.' This phenomenon was not going to repeat itself for millions of years.
Even with all the current advances and the magic at his disposal, Harry estimated that he only had two hundred years of lifespan at most.
Harry turned his attention to the device placed at the center of his laboratory.
It was a circular artifact made of a special alloy he invented himself, called magicite, and it should be able to channel all the energy accumulated from the entire System into his own body, allowing him to break the shackles of mortality...in theory.
The oak door burst inward and a woman stood framed in the torchlight of the doorframe, her hair a cascade of autumn fire, her face once soft and lively now hardened by time into a handsomeness that was bold and unapologetic.
"Ginny. Did you come to witness my little project? It's almost time." Harry said.
"Hermione told me about what happened. Are you still going through with this?" Ginny asked, looking clearly displeased with the situation.
"What did she tell you exactly?" Harry asked.
"She has been checking all of your calculations, arithmancy, and physics. She has clear doubts about how well this thing is going to work." Ginny pointed at the device. "She says there is a good chance that it will just kill you, or manifest some unknown phenomenon. There is still much we don't know, Harry."
"And you think I am not aware of that?" Harry asked. "But today is the only day to do this," he said, turning fully to her.
"Because of the alignment," she stated.
He gave a single nod.
She released a breath, long and heavy, as if shedding a weight. "Very well. What would you have me do?"
He studied her, surprised. "You are not going to try and stop me from doing something reckless?"
"When have I stopped you from doing something reckless?" Ginny asked, as a wry grin touched her lips
"That is Hermione's job. And if her logical arguments didn't stop you, then there isn't much I could say to change your mind. I know how stubborn my husband is," the redhead said with a confident grin.
"Thank you," he said, and meant it. "I know you had other obligations this night."
She shrugged, "Being a supportive wife is also my job. Hermione is always distracted with some research of her own, and Luna… well, she is usually chasing some weird creature across the globe."
"By the way…" Ginny started. "I heard about your 'cup' breaking. I'm sorry about that. The Voldemort one was your favorite one, right?"
"He was my first," Harry said, a strange solemnity in his tone.
"Merlin!, Harry, don't say it like that. It's kinda gross," she said, a shiver running through her.
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
The hour came. The laboratory was wrapped in a tense silence. Harry stood within the circle of the magicite wheel, his hands gripping cold metal handles.
His three wives stood at the points of a triangle around him: Hermione at a pulsing console of crystal, her face pale; Luna gazing upward through the glass dome at the heavens, her expression rapt and strange as usual; Ginny nearer to him, a hand on the hilt of her wand, her stance that of a honed warrior ready for anything.
"The readings appear to be normal. The alignment of the planets has started." Hermione shifted her attention to the large metallic containers near the ceiling of the room. There were thick cables connecting these containers to the circular device at the center. "We have already started collecting the cosmic energies."
Harry poured his magic into the device, making the engraved runes flare up. A high-pitched sound filled the air, setting them on edge.
"It is beautiful," Luna whispered, entranced. "The worlds are in a line, like pearls on a silver chain. I wish you could see it, my love."
"I'm sure it is," Harry said, but he had little interest in merely watching right now. He was going to use this cosmic phenomenon for his own benefit.
"It's at fifty percent capacity. Completion time is estimated at one minute and thirty seconds!" Hermione called, not taking her eyes from the screen before her.
"Got it. The runic array is fully active. We just have to wait." Harry said.
Ginny stood next to Hermione but didn't say a word. Her knowledge about the device was limited, and she didn't want to distract the two science geniuses right now. This was the most crucial moment.
"Twenty seconds. Be ready." Hermione continued to call the time as the metallic containers became filled with the cosmic energy that they were collecting from the phenomenon.
By now, even those without Luna's special eyes were able to see the overflowing power filling the entire room.
"Ten seconds!" Hermione said.
Harry positioned himself inside the circular device and grabbed hold of the handles that were on each side.
"Ready."
"Harry…" Ginny whispered his name.
"Now!" Hermione shouted.
Harry used his magic to activate the device, now that it was fully charged. Sparks flew everywhere, and the dozens of displays inside the room started to glitch out.
"What is happening?" Ginny asked.
Luna tore her gaze from the sky, her eyes wide with a terrible Sight. "Oh… no…"
"There is something wrong," Hermione said. "The cosmic energy is not stopping, but the containers are already full. We cannot store any more. At this rate…" She looked towards her husband and gasped. "Harry, you have to let go!"
But Harry could not hear them anymore. The moment the machine became active, his consciousness started to shift. His vision was first blinded by pure light, and then, everything went dark.
"Harry!" Luna, Hermione, and Ginny shouted his name one more time, just before the machine exploded.
The three witches were able to protect themselves with their magic, but by the time the dust settled, there was no trace left of the device that Harry had used for his ritual, and there was also no trace of Harry himself.