If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
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5 May 1995, Hogwarts
He walked forward, meeting the red eyes of the man who had almost killed him when he was younger, the now mortal lord Voldemort – not that the monster knew – and spoke up, "I've been looking for you for some time, Voldemort. We need to talk."
With that said Harry took the time to look at his surroundings. He was in a hall that was about as large as Hogwarts' Great Hall, if a bit spartan, if not for the countless suits of armour lining the walls. There were candles floating gracefully above, their flickering flames casting long, dancing shadows in a room where darkness seemed rampant. The air was thick with an eerie stillness, broken only by the soft echoes of their footsteps. Near one of the armour stands, a single, ornate goblet lay on a polished wooden table, catching the candlelight and reflecting a subtle crimson hue. For a fleeting moment, Harry thought he saw a faint silhouette slip silently into the shadows behind a suit, but when he turned to look, nothing remained.
No, there was something there. Harry used his Arcane Hearing to pinpoint what it was, but it was extremely hard. Whatever it was, it was fast and had learned to merge itself with the magic of the room, weirdly like the Tom Riddle Diary had done years ago. Perhaps this was Voldemort's mentor. He would have to be vigilant, just in case.
Voldemort answered him with a very well-hidden panicked expression on his face, "How did you find this place, Potter."
Before answering, Harry looked at Voldemort and had to say that he was surprised by his appearance. Gone was the monstrous serpentine face that didn't even have a proper nose, and instead, there was the familiar aristocratic visage of Tom Riddle, albeit very pale and with red eyes. Hell, he even had his hair back.
Harry could tell that he still held the same rituals that enhanced him and that this change was barely cosmetic, something that Voldemort infamously didn't care about. Feeling curious, he answered, "Oh, magic is a very wonderful thing for people who truly understand it. Everything has a trace, even you, Lord Voldemort. But what's with the new face, or should I say the old face? I always thought you liked to be intimidating, to strike fear in the hearts of men, what changed your mind, or is it better to ask, who changed your mind."
The heir of Slytherin stiffened before asking, "Why are you here, Potter? Did you come to kill me too? Because I assure you, if you are, all you'll find here is Death."
"Death is an old friend, but don't worry, I'm not here to kill you. Believe me, if I wanted you dead, all I'd have to do is get Dumbledore here. Believe me, he's been hunting down any signs of you for a while."
"Dumbledore is back in Britain?"
Harry snorted, "Oh, you've been here a while, haven't you? The final task of the tournament is approaching, and you know what that means."
"Don't insult my intelligence, Potter. Dumbledore has been orchestrating enormous magical releases after every task, I'm guessing for some vague purpose. But what does this have to do with him hunting me?"
"You would know if you knew that every single magical release is the result of a broken prophecy."
Just like that, Voldemort's face became even paler. His eyes widened, as he quickly understood the danger he was in. Of course, this was overshadowed by the sheer rage he was feeling, "He wishes to kill me, use me, Lord Voldemort, the last heir of Slytherin, as a sacrifice. How dare he?"
Harry shrugged, "You're prophesized to either kill Longbottom or die by his hands. Killing either one of you is enough to break it, and it seems that Dumbledore decided to kill you instead of the boy."
"He cannot kill me, I'm immortal."
"Not anymore, you're not. Do you seriously think that the Horcruxes will save you and that even if they existed Dumbledore wouldn't come up with an attack that kills you despite them?"
That made the Dark Lord freeze, his eyes widened in shock and fear, "My Horcruxes are gone."
Harry shrugged, "Yes. Every single one. Apparently, one of them gained sentience and started to absorb them somehow. He tried to get one of them that I happened to be looking for. We fought and I won. Hard to believe that a Diary could be that troublesome, to be honest. Anyway, you're now completely mortal, and very easily killable. I wouldn't recommend that you try to make another one. I'm relatively sure you'll risk shattering whatever remains of your soul if you do."
Well, he was bullshitting a bit with that last statement. Then again, he wanted Voldemort's help. Making him think that the Diary Horcrux absorbed the other Horcruxes was better than him knowing that Harry hunted them down one by one. He wasn't lying about Voldemort's soul being close to shattering. It technically had when the killing curse rebounded the first time.
Harry could hear it with his Arcane Hearing mixed in with the resurrection stone. His soul was akin to cracked glass and a single attack based on soul magic would not only kill him but literally destroy his soul, his very being, robbing him of any form of afterlife. Non-existence really was a terrifying thing, when one thought about it.
Voldemort had to be a genius to manage something like this, as disgusting as this was. He literally stretched the limits of what was possible.
The Dark Lord obviously restrained his emotion and spoke up, "I thank you for your information, but you didn't answer why you came here."
"Well, that's easy. I need information."
"You seem informed enough," the heir of Slytherin stated.
"Not about this. Do you remember a few years back, when you tried to kill me? You tried to get me to join you first as your apprentice. Don't worry, I moved on from that little encounter, but there was something you said that stuck with me, something that you probably didn't mean to. You said that someone managed to bind the Light and Dark. Solomon, right? You seemed sure that you had something that would work, an ace up your sleeve. You found Solomon's grimoire, didn't you?"
Voldemort seemed almost surprised that Harry remembered that small bit of conversation they had almost four years prior. He was about to respond, only for the room to darken. Harry felt something try to come at him and he warped the space around him to stop any attack from reaching him. It was pretty draining to keep up for long, but he didn't have to since it obviously caught something. He repelled whatever was coming at him, which disappeared from his Arcane Hearing immediately.
Then out of nowhere, a beam of pure darkness came at Harry. He could feel it coming with his Arcane Hearing, and the young wizard transformed it alchemically into light, that shimmered and illuminated the entire room.
Harry expected another attack, but suddenly, the candles were lit once more and dozens of bats flew around him, before merging into a person. The newcomer was a man cloaked in midnight-black garments that shimmered subtly under the candlelight. His skin was unnaturally pale, almost luminescent against the dark backdrop, and his high cheekbones gave his face a sharp, aristocratic appearance. Piercing crimson eyes glinted, contrasting starkly with his long, flowing hair that cascaded down his shoulders. His lips curled into a smug smile, revealing just the hint of elongated fangs, "Ah, a Peverell. I haven't seen one of you in a while."
This vampire was old, probably even older than any of the Elders he had fought so many times before. He was also far stronger than any of them. His song seemed extremely complex like most of it was hidden. There was only one contender for who this vampire might be, "Vlad Drakul, I assume."
"Oh, you've heard of me."
"Nicholas Flamel told me of your circumstances. But I never thought you'd have been here."
The man's smile widened, "Ah, Nicholas, an old friend and rival. I did notice a bit of Alchemy being used when you stopped my attack. Quite the impressive feat for a boy your age. Still, it saddened me when I heard of his passing. Out of curiosity, what do you think of this place?"
"If you didn't want to be found, then you certainly did a good job at that."
The vampire burst into laughter, "It wasn't always like this, you know. I lived here, proudly, even after being bound to the Dark. Then Gellert, the fool, came up with a plan that I certainly didn't approve of. He bound me to this place and turned it into my prison. It took me decades to slowly get the resources to hide it the way I did. I can sometimes project my conscience into the material realm, but it's quite draining."
Harry hummed, "You turned your prison into a shield, and yet it remains a prison."
"I knew that Gellert would come for me again, and this seemed like the perfect solution. But you didn't come here to talk about this old man. You're here for Solomon's grimoire. I want to know why."
He was tempted to lie, really, but he really didn't see the point. He needed allies for what was coming and these two could be helpful, "I have fought both Dumbledore and Grindelwald. I was able to come up with tactics, and spells, that could affect them, and they worked. But it still wasn't enough. My mother and I atomized Grindelwald's body and shredded his connection to the Dark, and yet he still lives. He was injured, of course, but he's still alive. I cut off Dumbledore's hand, hit him with an attack that I used to kill the fucking World Serpent, and yet, he's still alive. Ragnarök is coming and they have plans for it. I want to stop them, to end the influence of the Light and Dark, and I realize now that whatever I come up with will probably not be enough, but if I build on the work of someone who managed to do it, if I can understand what's in Solomon's Grimoire, then I can finally do something to stop them."
That seemed to strike the two of them silent. Vlad was the first one to speak up, "You fought them, on equal ground?"
Harry nodded, "I fought Grindelwald with my mother. We wounded him, severely so, but she still died. I fought Dumbledore alone, but I was able to make it so that his connection to the Light was as bad as it could be. I literally fought them at their lowest, and while I might have won, it doesn't mean anything in the long run."
Voldemort's answer was a sneer, "Do you seriously expect us to believe this nonsense?"
However, he froze when the vampire raised his hand. It took Harry a fraction of a second to see that the creature was staring at his wand, "I could recognize this anywhere. You really won it off him. You're not lying, are you?"
"No. I'm not."
The vampire shook his head, "Solomon's Grimoire is the single most powerful artefact in history, despite it not even being a weapon. The knowledge inside has driven many mad. Wars have been fought for just a few pages. I ended up discreetly acquiring it and replaced it with a fake. There are a few pages scattered all over the world, not that many even realize what they are."
Voldemort turned towards the vampire, looking angry, "You've had it, all this time."
"No, I don't have it. It's hidden in the material world. I was bound to this place before we even met, Tom."
"But you could have told me where it was," the heir of Slytherin snarled.
"Perhaps, but I made that mistake before. Like you, I've wanted nothing more than to be free of these loathsome chains. I hid the Grimoire, offering it to promising Archmages in history that I thought had the potential to destroy the Light and Dark. It never worked but one time I made a mistake. I trusted a man with the Grimoire, a researcher, who used the knowledge, not to fight the Light and Dark, but to make a connection to another entity, one that wished to consume everything it had access to. I did my best to seal the connection, but small remnants of this power remain. This wizard, as you probably guessed, was the Ekrizdis. So, you can understand my hesitance in just giving anyone access to a Grimoire, especially one who had no compunction in cutting pieces of his own soul in fear of Death."
Harry grimaced at that, remembering the entity behind the dementors. Yes, letting that thing lose would have been disastrous. Still, as interesting as this is, Harry did come with a purpose in mind, "So, where is it?"
"Very few people have done what you have, Peverell. And if you are correct, if Ragnarök is truly coming, then we have very little to lose. I will tell you where the Grimoire is, on the condition that when you seek it out, you'll do so with Tom."
The last Potter gave the vampire an incredulous look, "Seriously?"
"In my old life, I have found that fate tends to run in full circle. After all, wasn't my apprentice the one who revealed the Grimoire's existence in the first place? Perhaps you were always joining one another, and I have a feeling that it will take the both of you to find it."
Harry released a deep sigh, "So, where is it?"
"In the tomb of its last wielder. Solomon's grimoire is hidden in Azkaban."
Well, that complicated things, especially since Azkaban was barely more than rubble after Grindelwald blew it up. Then again, he'd been through worse.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.