Harry swallowed hard, looking out at the woman who sat on a bed of air.
Busted.
They were in trouble, he knew. What good was a mission to embed a message into the woman's mind if she already knew they were here?
There wasn't a point even lying.
"Lady Chang." He said evenly.
Her smirk grew. She wore a black cheongsam that was tied around her neck, creating a window for her pale breasts to peek from. The cloth split into two at her hip, making it obvious she wore no panties, acres of flesh visible from her hip to her ankle.
She was every bit as beautiful as Harry had seen her in the past, and barely any older either.
"Now you've come so far, you can call me Mei. You've been busy rampaging through my dear husband's mind, haven't you?" Lady Chang said, as if she'd caught him trampling over her garden flowers. "At our Lunar New Year party, no less. How improper."
Harry said nothing. He had no defense to give.
"No doubt," She said lightly, toying with the golden hairpin threaded through her coiled black locks. "You've found lots of interesting little secrets."
Harry shifted uncomfortable from foot to foot.
He thought the words he couldn't say. The secret that you puppet your husband like he's a fucking Inferi.
Mei laughed as she floated closer. It was surreal to be here so suddenly, transported from the Chang estate to Hogwarts to Gringotts and now to these magical mountains in China, the landscape carved into pillars that defied logic. And to be faced with a seductive woman who lounged on a bed of nothing, because here, she was the master of her own mind.
"Don't worry, Lord Potter." She absently adjusted her dress, pulling it up her leg. Lying as she was on the bed of nothing, elevated above him, Harry swore he saw a flash of her pussy as she uncrossed and recrossed her legs. "What's a little mental espionage between friends?"
Harry licked his lips nervously. For a naive moment, he wondered if he could fuck his way out of trouble. "Is that what we are?"
"It could be." The beautiful Chinese woman tittered. She was slender but ethereally beautiful, even more so as she floated above them, her black hair flowing over her shoulders. As pencil thin as she was, Harry knew from seeing her in the past that she had a wonderfully rounded bottom. A fine set of full tits, a set she'd given to her daughter.
"China likes to have powerful friends." She continued. "And there are so many benefits to being friends with my motherland."
Harry rose an eyebrow, all too conscious of Apolline, Daphne and Hermione standing alongside him. He wasn't going to be able to charm this woman, not a Chinese spy, and certainly not with his girls looking on. "Maybe you've got nothing I want."
The twinkle in her eyes grew. "If that was true, you wouldn't be here."
Harry heard Hermione's loud exhale beside him — they both knew Lady Chang was right.
"Such beautiful companions you have." The woman hummed. "You enjoy your women, I see." She tugged her cheongsam up her hips, baring her thighs. "Do you like me?"
She snapped her fingers. One of the clouds behind her changed forms, hanging above the rock pillar, and from the wisps of white appeared a visage of Cho in her school uniform. "Or my daughter, maybe?"
Mei descended, sliding from her bed of clouds onto the rock surface of the mountain they stood on, encircled by dense forest trees. She was barefoot but stepped with the grace of a ballerina. "She's been trained to serve a husband. She would bring you great joy." She said simply.
Harry crossed his arms. "Like you were trained, you mean?"
The dangerous woman smiled thinly, her lips darkened in a blood red shade. "Such bite, Lord Potter. I had a different upbringing. Pressures, responsibilities, demands from the party. By comparison, my daughter is merely a gift box."
"A gift box with strings." He said calmly, stalling the conversation to search for an out. Somewhere in this national park, there was a safe. A room, a hiding place, where Mei hid her deepest self, her most impressionable core.
Every one had a safe, whether they knew it or not — it was that safe that Occlumency tried to hide and obscure.
It could take many forms. When Voldemort had planted a thought deep in Grindelwald's mind, a thought to make the Dark Lord want to pass on his legacy, it had been in the form of a book about family in the man's safe; a library at the heart of a mountain complex.
Grindelwald's safe was a library of his most important memories and books. But by adding a book about a man's love for his son, it had changed his very core.
But that had been easier; Grindelwald was sick and atrophying and importantly unaware of the intrusion in his head.
Harry had no such luxuries. They had to find Mei's safe in a mindscape she'd made, while she was staring them in the eyes.
Mei sniffed dismissively. "What woman doesn't come with pressures from her family? It doesn't need to be a bad thing."
Harry smiled sourly. Pressures from her family would be one thing. Pressures from the ruling party of China would be another. Soon, he'd be looking the other way on their schemes, helping them with trafficking and blackmail, receiving suggestions on what and who to vote for.
He'd be a highly compromised patsy at best, and at worst, dosed with mind-controlling potions and charms from his new wife.
"I think I'm not going to make any decisions on marriage for a long time, thank you." Harry said firmly.
The matriarch of House Chang sighed in disappointment. "The problem with invading minds, Lord Potter, is that your own mind becomes equally vulnerable. The door opens both ways. The vial is uncorked from both ends, yes?"
The wind picked up suddenly, whipping at their faces, sweeping her dress up. Mei didn't seem to notice or care, as her black cheongsam fluttered around her, like a bat's wings.
She glared at them, her face turning from soft to severe. "I have a lot of experience with the mental arts." She snapped her fingers and the clouds darkened. Sizzling lightning cracked across the sky.
"We don't need to do this." Harry warned. "I can leave and we can talk about this when we're less heated. I've got just as many secrets to keep as you do."
She pouted, combing her fingers through her long hair. Booming thunder punctuated her footsteps as she advanced. "I can't let you leave with my secrets, handsome man."
He held his wand tightly. "You don't want this."
She smiled slyly. "You are a formidable wizard, Lord Potter. But this isn't a test of magic, is it? We fight with our minds. And I have been battling mind and will for decades, working for my country, keeping my husband in line." Mei brought both arms up, and in the sky, two sparking clouds shifted above her. "I have killed a thousand men, and never woken from my sleep." She tapped her temple, flashing a white smile. "I have conquered armies while I brush my teeth. I have sieged cities while I apply my lipstick."
She smiled at him in pity. "You have thrown yourself upon my blade, Harry Potter. But don't worry, I won't hurt you." Her smile turned malicious. "I just want to change your mind."
Her laughter rang loud, but it didn't sound from her lips, but from every mountain, every cloud. She rose into the air like she was being pulled by invisible wires — climbing by cocking a leg and extending a graceful arm.
The lightning struck around her like a halo seared by God himself, rending trees to ash, scarring the mountain top, illuminating her golden-tinged skin.
Like a mythological goddess, her dress falling from bared flesh, she unfurled her finger and pointed at him, a painting become reality. The lightning struck her; a flash of bone-white, a flash where she truly looked godly, before the lightning sparked from her finger.
A bolt toward Harry, but he threw up his strongest shield.
Nothing could get through it.
Until it did.
His shield was torn through — his body lit up in sparking agony, every nerve burning.
"Fuck!" He trembled, his knees buckling.
"This isn't a duel of magic, Harry Potter." Mei sneered.
Harry swore, snapping off spells to buy him time. "Fumus, Massatus." A cloud of smoke billowed out with extra volume, hiding them for a few valuable seconds.
He turned to the girls. "She's right, this isn't a duel. This is a shared mindscape — her mind, my mind, your mind. She's searching for the hidden safe in my mind so she can leave something inside to make me more friendly." He pointed out at the mountain range. "But she's got a safe somewhere here, too."
"But what does it look like?" Hermione fretted.
Daphne grimaced. "It could be a vault or a safe or anything."
"This is her mindscape, so she'll have determined what it looks like. She'll have hidden it."
Hermione turned in a slow circle. "We're high up on a mountain, so it stands to reason that her safe will be low down."
"A cave, perhaps." Apolline suggested.
Harry nodded, rolling his neck. "I'll deal with the wicked witch, you get hunting."
Daphne peered over the edge of the pillar. They were over a mile high, the drop precipitous, a canopy of lush green trees far below, poking their heads through the misty fog.
"Incarcerous." Harry muttered, but instead of ropes sprouting from his wand, three broomsticks dropped to the ground. Shiny, polished, like Firebolts.
"Wha?" Hermione stuttered.
"This isn't magic, Mione." He reminded her. "We're limited by what we can imagine and how much of a push we can make against her mindscape."
She bit her lip. "You know I don't do brooms." She said, picking it up.
"Go!" Harry ordered firmly, as the smoke began to dissipate. All around, Mei's laughter echoed to the beat of the lightning drum. Rain was falling heavily, his hair sticking to his skin.
Behind him, he heard the girls push off.
The timer had begun.
This wasn't a matter of beating her. He just had to survive until they could leave a message in her mind, and hope she didn't find his safe in the meantime.
"Aww," Mei murmured. "Is the blood rushing to your heart, Harry Potter?"
He aimed his wand and cast three spells horizontally. The spell chain was called the Three Cup Scam - a Stunning Spell, a Cruciatus, and a Conjunctivitis, taking advantage of the fact that all three spells glowed red.
The target would have to pick their poison, not knowing which spell was which - a Stunning spell would end the fight, a Cruciatus would hurt like hell, and a Conjunctivitis had a small chance of penetrating shields, since it only irritated eyes, some shields wouldn't pick it up as dangerous.
Mei let the middle one hit her — the Cruciatus. Only, she wasn't torn apart in agony, but simply trembled in delight, her hair sticking up like she was electrified.
"This is my domain, Harry Potter." Her voice came as if amplified through a dragon's throat. "And I decide how much pain and pleasure I receive."
"How the fuck?"
She smiled at him like he was a child. "In the mind, everything is possible."
Harry swore under his breath. If he wanted to damage her, he'd have to surprise her — before she had time to think the pain away, or change the effects of the spell.
"My turn." Mei rubbed her thumb and finger, and the pillar began to shake. Not their pillar, but every pillar.
Rocks began to fall.
Harry blinked.
The rocks weren't falling, they were…rising, scales of a snake reverse-molting.
"I wish to give you a tour of my motherland." Mei said, through the whipping rain, her dress drenched through. "We have had many Emperors, men both Muggle and magic. But the first was called Qin Shi Huang." She shivered. "He was a man stronger in death than in life, because of his army."
Another bolt of lightning illuminated the mountain range and Harry finally saw that the rising rocks were soldiers. Not soldiers of sandstone, but of terracotta.
Thousands of them, rising up the mountains in sharp, robotic movements, faces of clay, features unmoving. The mountain pillar shook.
Mei Chang rose into the sky. But beneath her, her army marched. Most rose up the pillars, like ants up a mound, cutting off any escape route. But some descended down to the trees below, and Harry knew they'd be searching for his 'safe'.
Need to get off this mountain.
He conjured a broom, but it melted into molten slag in his hand.
"Nowhere to run." Mei taunted.
"I don't need a broom to fly." He growled, kicking off into the air. But that was a mistake too, because he was nowhere near as graceful as her in the air. He couldn't dodge the spells that came at him — he batted away a bolt of lightning but got a purple curse to his stomach, one that made his heart throb.
Harry crashed back to the pillar. When he dusted himself off, he found himself surrounded by blank-faced terracotta soldiers.
Mei had disappeared into the black clouds.
The soldiers were intricately detailed, men with armor, moustaches, even helmets. They stopped in unison around him, and it was like the world stopped. Across the mountain pillars, each soldier paused.
Harry turned in a slow circle, facing a two thousand year old enemy. He tried to Apparate, but of course there were wards.
Three…The standing archers pulled back their strings.
Two…The crossbowmen kneeled.
One…The charioteers reared back their spears.
The fire came with fury.
Harry cast spells fast. Shields sparked in a dome around them, and between their gaps flew flocks of yellow canaries, mindless bodies to block arrows.
A Ventus to create a cyclone of wind.
A shield inscribed with a Reversal rune to send the spears screeching back.
A flood of Aguamenti-variants, to create a wave of water, creating mud for the clay soldiers to wade through.
It was not enough. A spear sliced through his shoulder. An arrow clipped his ankle.
But arrow or no arrow, Harry knew he had to move. He took off at a sprint, using an Ascendio to fling himself into the air.
Off the cliff's edge.
He heard the crackle in the air and turned in mid-dive to redirect the lightning bolt that struck from Mei's hand, smashing it into the terracotta soldiers.
The wind whistled through his ears, his clothes wet, his skin cold. The rain was obscuring his sight, but it couldn't obscure the tree canopy below, or how quickly it rushed to him, as he fell by the mountain rocks.
He didn't want to be on the ground — the girls were on the ground, searching for Mei's safe, and he had to give them space.
This is going to hurt.
He muttered a Sticking Charm on himself.
"Gah!" His body shrieked in protest as he was suddenly caught by the mountain rocks. His fingers dug into the mossy crevices, his body held by his stomach's Sticking Charm.
He felt like a baby kangaroo in his mother's pouch, except the kangaroo was half a mile in the air.
Harry chanced a glance above, and saw the soldiers descending fearlessly. Across the terrain, the sandstone pillars were teeming with more terracotta soldiers. Clay men that held on with one hand and threw spears with the other.
"This seems unfair." He muttered.
"China is home to many rare and powerful magical creatures." Mei's voice came from the clouds.
"Don't say dragon, don't say dragon." Harry chanted. He was so sick of fucking dragons. Was Mei going to produce a Chinese Fireball?
"The Zouwu."
He groaned. "That's worse." He peered up at the pillar's top. A giant cat peered down, a cat as a big as an elephant, striped in five colors. It had mad amber eyes, pupils like vertical slits, and a scraggly mane of bright ginger.
Harry thought of Scrimgeour randomly.
The Zouwu opened his mouth and revealed four large fangs.
Not so much like Scrimgeour now.
"The Zouwu," Mei commented, as if she was in a nature documentary. "It is incredibly powerful and fast, capable of travelling over a thousand miles in a day. It can do this due to its ability to Apparate."
"Appa-wait, what?" Harry spat. The creature's mane lit up gold, like it had ingested a firework. And then it appeared right above him, its claws scratching down the mountain, its long tail whipping down at him.
"Fuck me." He Unstuck himself from the cliff and fell away from the angry cat.
His brain was hot and hurting, but he had to think quickly. It was the sight of Mei floating high above that gave him the idea, her black dress fluttering like a bat's wing.
As he fell, Harry Transfigured his robes into a harder shell, creating a rib-like structure, like an umbrella, like a bat's wing.
His arms and legs outstretched, he soared through the sky. And, if he shifted his limbs, he could sort of direct himself—
"Oh, shit—" Harry threw out a Cushioning Charm just before he headbutted a mountain pillar that appeared from the fog. A Sticking Charm allowed him to breath for a heavy moment.
"You're alive, you're okay." He told himself.
He looked out at the storm, the monsoon rain hiding everything. Through the black void, he saw a gold light grow.
It was all the warning he got, before the Zouwu appeared again.
The Zouwu shrieked, its amber eyes beady, its claws outstretched in an attack, breath hot on his face.
Harry Unstuck himself just in time to duck from a white claw that dug into the mountain-face, a foot deep. He rolled himself as he fell, taking a smack from the elephant-cat's tail.
How can that thing Apparate and I can 't?!
There was no time for worry. He had to get higher — to attack Mei, to put her on the defensive.
It was time to try new things, to dream a little bigger. "Incarcerous." He spat again, but instead of a coil of ropes, only one emerged. But it spat out like a spear, a metal hook at its tip, and dug into the cliff-face firmly, allowing Harry to swing from it like a man born in the jungle, tree vines swapped for his wand-rope.
"Awoo!" He whooped as he swung, his heart pounding.
The wind was so harsh, it dried his skin and chapped his lips.
"Finite!" The rope fell away deliberately. "Incarcerous!" The next rope swung him even higher. With the same two spells, he swung from pillar to pillar, high in the air.
He couldn't see, soaked to the skin, his limbs frozen. But the light came from above, flashes of lightning illuminating terracotta soldiers throwing spears, sweeping through his hair, grazing his cheek.
And the light came from behind, the Zouwu's mane glowing before every Apparition, warning Harry of the snapping fangs behind. It chomped through his rope, or its tail smacked him into rocks, but it couldn't bite him cleanly.
Slowly, he climbed, swinging up the mountains until finally he landed with a thud on one of the pillars. This one was free of terracotta soldiers, thankfully.
From the clouds, Mei laughed. "Having fun yet, Lord Potter?"
The shadows were lit in an orange glow, but this time Harry was ready for the Zouwu.
The rocks sank into leg-trapping mud. The trees warped to entwine the creature, trunks snaking around. Harry charged an Anti-Disapparition Jinx and let it loose on the trapped feline.
"Bad kitty." He muttered.
The Zouwu howled.
It wouldn't hold for long, but it didn't need to.
From the clouds, Mei descended. "Here's your chance." She said, amused. "What spell will you choose, poor little Harry?"
Harry studied her. Any spell she could recognize, she could warp the efforts, minimize the pain. He had to surprise her.
But how?
Her ring glinted in the lightning strike, big and bold, a ring to signify a rich wife. It lit up a shocking blue.
A thought sparked in his mind.
Her husband wore a cock-ring, just another way for his wife to dominate him, to keep him under lock and key. A chastity ring with Shock Spell runes, to stop the man from cumming without his wife's permissions.
If Lord Chang had a cockring, then Lady Chang had a discrete way to control it.
Like a ring on her finger, with matching runes.
"Little Harry? That's poor pureblood etiquette." He said slowly. "You should learn how to conduct yourself."
Harry's wand flicked up. A dozen spells in a dozen different colors, all to hide his true spell.
The colorless spell that splashed against the woman's hand. A Prior Incantanto variant that forced a magical item to perform its last effect on its owner.
The ring was meant to deliver a powerful Shock Spell to the cockring, but instead, Mei seized up in electric blue, her limbs locking, her eyes bulging. She trembled, smoke pouring from her ears.
She dropped to the mountain pillar. Around them, the mindscape was glitching. Clouds became blurry. The rain hitched, paused, and then restarted. She was losing control of all the minds within.
But she batted away his spells as she rose from the dirt, her eyebrows drawn in fury. "Find his safe!" She barked. Half of the soldiers climbed down the mountain. And behind Harry, the Zouwu wrenched free of the treetrunk vines and screeched in rage, before bounding down the cliff, its claws digging down the rockface.
"It won't be long. You never should have brought your mind into mine, Potter." Mei sneered.
Harry dropped into a dueling stance. But something behind her caught his eye. An odd cloud, a cloud with serpentine red eyes, a cloud that laughed in a familiar chilling tone.
He couldn't help but giggle.
"What are you laughing at?" She snarled. "You've won nothing. I will break you like my husband. I will be rewarded for holding the strings of Britain's golden boy. Your mind isn't strong enough. You've made a big mistake coming here."
Harry wiped the rain from his eyes. "It's not my mind you should be worried about. It's his."
Mei's eyes widened, before she was hit in the back by a Cruciatus, a red light then enveloped her. Without warning, she couldn't adjust the pain, so she quivered and shuddered, forced to her knees.
From the clouds, he dropped.
Tom Riddle, sneering, eyes glowing red. "You really seek to possess Lord Voldemort, the greatest wizard of our age?"
Mei rolled off the cliff and dipped out of sight, before rising up in the sky. "W-who are you? How is this possible?"
Tom only glared, his wand flicking a barrage of spells up at her.
Harry wiped tears from his eyes, hysterical. "When you stare into the abyss…" He chuckled.
Mei looked between them, bewildered. "Y-you're possessed by the Dark Lord? You're-you're a slave!"
Harry closed his eyes. "Don't come into the minds of mad men." He looked askance at Tom. "Are we fighting together now?"
Tom growled. "I cannot allow this worthless whore to control us."
Harry opened his eyes — glamored to a glowing, snake-like red. That was good enough for him — the enemy of his enemy was his friend. It was time to instill some fear into her mind.
He spoke. "I'm not his slave, Lady Chang. I am not his and he is not mine, for we are the same man."
Harry stalked forward, joining Tom's step in sync.
"Such dramatics." Tom murmured. "I do approve."
Harry let his wand glow green. "We are Lord Voldemort." He smirked. "Now who's made the mistake?"
Together, they attacked in unison, wands flicking, swishing, jabbing. Spells of every color, power so thick that the mountain pillars shook, that the trees bent, that the sky trembled.
Two minds, two wands.
Harry caught her in ice. Tom split the ice into splinters that became red with blood.
Tom cracked a whip that funneled the lightning from the sky. Harry focused the raindrops into a gout of water to hit her with.
Mei fell with searing flesh.
Together, they followed. Localized Sticking Charms on the bottom of their soles, so they could walk down the cliff side, following the fleeing woman.
The woman corralled her forces, shifting them from search to defense. The terracotta army rose up every pillar…
And fell.
Harry peeled them from the cliffside by taking half the cliff, gouging out the rock with pure explosions. He didn't even use an incantation.
Tom melded the falling soldiers together, clay soldiers into a clay pot that became a clay spear. The spear smacked so hard into the side of one soldier-teeming pillar that the mountain splintered in two, a tree trunk axed.
"It feels good to be strong, doesn't it?" Harry murmured.
"I'm not joining you," Tom drawled. "You are a shadow of a greater man."
"And you are a caged shadow, just a whisper in the back of my brain, a representation of however this came to be, an artifact of memories." Harry replied, burning the forest below as they walked down the cliff.
"I will watch you die and feel gleeful." Tom warned him.
"Or you can watch me grow to rule, working with me, organizing our memories, feeding me the duels I need to watch, the spells I need to re-learn." He returned. "Also, it'd be really nice if you stopped making me dream of rape and murder." Harry added.
Tom gave him a sly smile. "That's funny, those memories always helped me sleep."
Harry looked at him flatly. "I was about to say that you said it yourself — we're not so different."
Tom's mouth twisted. "I am not anyone's equal."
"A pragmatist would make their cage comfortable."
"You're a Muggle lover." Tom spat.
Harry shrugged. "Muggles, Purebloods, Veela — won't they all spread their legs for me? Our methods are different, but the results…"
Tom was silent. "I am not your friend."
"There is only power." Harry reminded. "Even as an echo, you should seek it."
Lady Chang rose from the burning tree canopy, sitting atop the Zouwu, her fingers holding its fur tightly as the feline creature Apparated around their curses, 'popping' up the cliff, its fangs bared.
"We should split up." Tom said quietly. "This is not a duel which is won or lost, until we can find her safe."
"I have my girls looking."
Tom gave him a scornful look. "They are simply walking holes. I'll find her safe, since your decorative whores are so useless."
Harry shrugged. "Send me a signal when you've found it. I'll keep her busy."
Tom just grunted and bounded down the cliff.
Just you now. The Zouwu took a less-than-playful snap at Tom, but continued up at Harry. Mei knew who the real threat was.
Harry used his wand to wrench out both of the mountain faces, from the pillar he walked and the nearest one, creating a stone platform in mid-air.
The rain had stopped falling. The lightning didn't fall. Mei was too busy concentrating to play tricks.
The mindscape was too fractured for her to control it so deeply. But he still wanted to battle her in wits, not magic, because she could still conjure creatures and allies with more ease than him.
With the sky returned to a clear blue, half of her clay soldiers decimated, she had the mental capacity to create more.
"I'm not done giving you a tour of China, Harry." She yelled.
A dragon's roar came from the horizon. In the distance, Harry could see the flaming breath in the famous shade. The Chinese Fireball.
"Fucking dragons." He muttered. Suddenly, he wished Tom had stayed.
Harry stared around at the destruction, the scars on the mountains.
It had been an experience, dueling with Tom, though not as meaningful as fighting alongside Dumbledore.
He wished the old man were next to him. The Headmaster would have made short work of Mei and then promptly headed back to meet with the International Confederation of Wizards, to draw up a law or do whatever Supreme Mugwump's did.
The thought made him pause, even as the Zouwu Apparated onto his stone platform, with Mei riding him. Harry absently transfigured the creature's fangs into Fangtastic Blood Pops, the Weasley twin's invention ("Even vampires need sweets!" Fred had said.)
The Supreme Mugwump was selected, not that many years ago, by the walk of the Qilin. The little scrawny deer-like creature that was half-dragon and half-horse, the purest of magical creatures with precognitive abilities. The Qilin could look into a man's soul and, if they were pure of heart, bow to them.
It was how the Supreme Mugwumps were chosen for centuries. Gellert Grindelwald had famously killed one to gain its precognitive powers, before using necromancy to revive it and mind-control it into publicly choosing him as Supreme Mugwump, before Dumbledore and company had exposed his devious plan.
The Qilin was famously, uniquely, native to China. The Chinese were proud of it, claiming that the creature only showed up in China because the Chinese were so pure of heart.
Harry sidestepped a black heart-stopping curse and pointed at Mei Chang. "This tour of China, all these creatures." He cocked his head. "Yet you didn't conjure up the most famous of them all."
She paused in confusion. "What?"
"The Qilin." He closed his eyes in concentration, focusing his mental strength. This was her architecture, but they were sharing minds. While she was faltering, in pain…if she could conjure the impossible, so could he.
He heard a soft bleat.
His eyes opened.
And there it was, before him, a little creature of light brown, with both scales and fur, two long fishlike whiskers extending from its snout.
For a moment, Mei and he were both frozen in place as the Qilin sniffed around. Even the Zouwu examined it curiously. The Qilin looked up at Harry, judging him, before barking in distress and jumping away.
"It judged you!" Mei laughed in glee. "You're not pure of heart!"
The Qilin sniffed her tentatively.
"I have done what I must for my family!" Mei told it.
Harry had seen enough. He didn't care about judgment — he'd crossed that line.
He snapped off a curse.
"No!" Mei cried.
The Qilin's head flopped to the stone and rolled, spurting blood. The head fell to the abyss below as its decapitated body collapsed.
Harry took a breath, blinked and saw.
Saw everything.
Killing a Qilin was blasphemy, but it gave him what it had given Grindelwald — powers of precognition.
Mei rose her wand to cast a spell that would rot his organs…but Harry had already ducked under it before the words left her mouth.
Too slow.
The Zouwu leapt forward to bite him in two, but Harry had already wrapped himself in armor of stone. The big cat broke its tooth. It squealed in agony.
Too slow again.
The Chinese Fireball arrived from the horizon and breathed down a ball of pure fire, but Harry had frozen the flame before it even left its mouth.
He saw everything before it happened.
Mei's spells were useless. Counter-curses removed her hexes the second they hit his skin. Her Transfigurations undone, her charms negated.
"This isn't—"
"Possible?" Harry finished. "In the mind, everything is possible. You said it yourself."
"It's not a real Qilin—"
"And yet, because our minds know what it should do, the consequence is the same. The Cruciatus tortures, the Zouwu apparates, the Qilin gifts its powers." Harry lectured. "You're a fool if you think the mind is separate from magic. Merlin fought Morgana just like this."
She was silent, thinking up plans of action. But he saw it all.
A Killing Curse to push him closer to the Zouwu. A Confundus to buy time for her dragon to near. In one possible timeline, she stripped herself naked and tried to fuck him to defeat. In another, she dropped down to protect her mind-safe, a cave hidden inside one of the mountain pillars.
That was what he'd been looking for.
"Thank you." He murmured. He had what he needed — the location of her safe. Now he just needed to buy himself time to get inside.
Of all the futures, Harry chose one. He pirouetted around one of her curses and cracked off a hasty reply — a Bombarda curse too high and wide, smashing into the mountain rock behind her.
A boulder fell, clipping her wrist, causing her wand to sway left as she unleashed a Chinese flesh-gouger. The nasty yellow sparkling projectile ripped into Zouwu's eye as the creature reared its head back.
The five-striped feline roared in rage and betrayal, spinning round to attack Mei.
Harry Transfigured the end of the beast's ruffled tail into a dragon egg, as the Chinese Fireball flew closer. The dragon saw the granite-gray egg and screamed in rage. It swept down and dug its claws into the egg, trying to take its egg to safety. Only the Zouwu was still very much attached to its tail, and bucked like an angered Hippogriff, fangs biting, claws scratching.
Harry paused to take in the glorious chaos as the three fought each other.
That should keep you busy. It was an unlikely turn of events, but who cared about probability when you could see all the futures?
He whistled as he walked casually off the stone platform. He fell like a stone, but he didn't bother to cast a charm.
The ground rushed toward him. Certain death from a mile high.
It didn't matter.
Gravity was no concern when he'd seen the future.
Apolline would look up in worry and spot him falling to his death. She'd cast a charm to slow his descent.
The reel in his mind played out in real life. Harry stepped onto the forest bed and held out a hand as she shrieked in fear. "What were you doing?!" She cried.
"Trusting you." He kissed her forehead.
"B-but, I mean, how?" She said, bewildered. She shook her head. "I think I saw—"
"Voldemort, yes."
"The others—"
"You split up, I know."
"Zis is what 'ermione calls your Dumbledore thing, oui? She is right, uh, how do you say in English? It is very aggravant?" She shook her long silver-blonde hair.
"You're adorable." He pinched her bottom. "Come, I know where her safe is. We'll meet up with the girls."
"What? How?" She frowned.
"I see where it will be if she tries to defend it." Harry paused.
Their feet crunched over sodden grass, splintering wet twigs. From underneath the canopy, the light poured through in dazzling sun rays.
The sun is shining on me now.
The terracotta soldiers broke down through the canopy, their clay legs smashing down on the forest bed. But each one fell into a trap that Harry cast before they dropped. Counter-weight snares that lifted them up to the treeline, or boggy quicksand that dragged them down beneath the surface.
Apolline boggled as she was tugged along. Finally, they made it to the right pillar. Just another stone face, craggy and rugged, until he ran his wand across it, and the rock slid open.
Inside the cave, it was a red cabinet, centuries old.
"A Chinese wedding cabinet." Harry murmured, trailing his hand over it. It was painted in red lacquer, decorated with golden leaves and figures of a man and woman, meeting and falling in love. "This would have been his gift for her, when they married."
"What are you going to do?" Apolline asked.
Harry paused, thinking it through. What could he leave? A message? An object?
They were in the core of her being. Any change they made could twist her entire self, make her obsess over it. Tom had successfully made Grindelwald want to pass on his legacy, to wish he had a son. But even that simple message went further than expected; the former Dark Lord cried into his pillow every night, gone mad from loneliness and regret. When Tom had left him, the man had invented a son in his mind, singing his pillow to sleep each night.
She had to let her husband go. Only by making Lord Chang a new ally could Harry salvage this mess and achieve his original objective; the Patel twins, with Cho as a bonus.
Harry looked at the wedding cabinet again. It was a reminder that, whatever had happened over the years, Lady Chang succumbing to pressure from the party or leverage on her family, they had once been a couple in love.
And Harry had seen them like that, people-watching and mother-hunting in the past, bored and friendless, a man out of time. He'd sat outside St Mungo's.
First, Peter and Cynthia had left with little Daphne. And then, Lord and Lady Chang left the hospital with baby Cho. Her mother cradling her, arguing with her husband. But, as he'd continued to watch, he'd seen them be a family.
Lord Chang worrying that Cho was going to choke on her pacifier. Mei telling him he was worrying for nothing, scowling. And then he'd leaned toward her, muttered something, and she rolled her eyes and smiled. A new family. A loving family.
An indelible image. But would it change her mind?
An image passed from past to present. With a flick of his wand, the image became a photo. A moving picture that Harry laid gently inside the wedding cabinet.
He entwined his fingers with Apolline and walked outside of the cave.
Tom stalked back and forth, his feet kicking up leaves, his skin flushed. Daphne and Hermione watched him nervously, their wands out.
Harry grinned at his seething nemesis. "Let me guess, you tried to find my safe, to corrupt my deepest self."
Tom glared at him. "You let me loose behind all of your Occlumency walls, you fool. What did you expect?"
"Exactly this." Harry beckoned his girls over.
"Harry, what happened?" Hermione blurted. "Did you find it? Where is she? Why is he—"
"It's over." Harry murmured, kissing her cheek.
The rain fell through the canopy, but it was a light drizzle now, a trail of teardrops. Instead of Mei's laughter, they could hear her sobbing.
Tom crossed his arms. "I am the most experienced Legilimencer in the world. I have broken more minds than bones, spilled more brains than blood." He snapped. "You could not have hid your safe from me."
Harry tugged Hermione closer to him, burying his head in her bushy hair. "Wands up, ladies. We need to send Narcissa a message."
"Tell me where you hid it!" Tom insisted.
They pointed their wands at the sky, beacons of red light stretching through the canopy.
"Everyone hides away their deepest secrets, their deepest self. It's survival or shame." Harry explained, his lips twitching. "But when you're loved, Tom, truly loved, you'll know you don't need to hide anything."
The man growled, his eyes glowing red. "Don't give me that Dumbledore nonsense—"
"My safe isn't a place, Tom." He kissed Hermione's temple. "It's a person."
Harry enjoyed the stunned anger in the man's eyes as much as he did the joy in Hermione's, the soft exhale of her breath. The world disintegrated slowly, the pillars retracting into the ground. The clay soldiers crumbled to dust, like they were washed away by the tears that fell from the sky, the sobs of Lady Chang.
###
Harry awoke. It felt like it had been a month, but he sat in a comfortable chair in the cigar lounge of the Chang estate. Narcissa caressed his cheek.
"Welcome back, love." Her wand was tipped red and she was shaking. The Cruciatus was a difficult thing to perform on the person you loved.
"You did well." He kissed her gently.
They woke the others quickly. Apolline, Hermione and Daphne fluttered their eyes open, slowly blinking away their confusion.
Cissy nodded at the door, which was blocked by a bookcase. "I had to barricade the door. Lady Chang was trying to get in, but she went quiet after a while."
Harry smiled. "Don't worry, we've dealt with her."
Daphne bit her lip. "What happened in there? Did…did we win?"
He gave her a comforting smile. "Let's find out. Rennervate."
Lord Chang woke blearily. He held a hand to his head and swore. Had his wife freed him of his imprisonment?
Harry handed him a glass of water. "Feel like you've been hit by a Hippogriff?"
The man downed it gratefully. "More like a Nundu. Wha-what happened?" He flinched suddenly. "I see things. I remember. I remember!"
Harry squatted to look him straight in the eyes. "Your wife had a change of heart. She's been using you, Lord Chang. A noose around your neck."
And around your dick.
"Merlin." He groaned, holding his forehead. "My Mei, how could she? I remember, fuck. I remember, moments of waking up, of knowing, of trying to escape."
"You'll need to keep a firm leash on her." Harry suggested. "But I don't think she'll try it again."
Lord Chang stared at him as if seeing him for the first time. "But, how? How did you?"
Harry took his hand and squeezed it. "The how isn't as important as the why."
"The why?"
"House Potter needs allies." He gave the man a sheepish smile. "And friends, too."
Lord Chang squeezed his forehead, blinking bloodshot eyes. "I've got a feeling I'm going to need a friend too Mei…she wouldn't have done this alone."
Harry nodded grimly. "You'll need to have your mind checked by someone trustworthy, someone talented with the mental arts. I'd recommend speaking to Lord Patel. You do business with him already, right?"
The Chinese man sneezed, blood spattering onto his hand. "Y-yeah, we do. Fuck, I feel like if I've been seeing my whole life through a pair of Omnioculars."
"Lean on the Patels." Harry advised. "They'll get your head screwed on straight and you won't find better allies."
"A-alright, I will." The man said shakily. "My wife, my own damned wife. I can't believe it."
"She wrapped you up in barbed wire." Harry said calmly. "But remember, she also freed you. Find out who she owes and what she owes."
Lord Chang palmed his face tiredly. "I-I don't know what you did, Lord Potter, but I'm grateful, truly. I owe you a debt."
"You do." Harry agreed, his lips twitching. His mind was on Cho Chang, the makeout session they'd had in the broom closet, his hand squeezing her perky ass.
He'd have to play that carefully — China's ruling party might soon realize they'd lost control of their agent and their patsy. And they wouldn't be happy if their schoolgirl honeypot got her cherry taken without a marriage.
But with Lord Chang owing him a favor, a man in desperate need of allies…who knew what was possible?
"First things first." Harry instructed. "Clean this up, get these heads of Houses out of here. Blame it all on the booze. Then, go have a very serious talk with the Patels — you need to make sure your mind can never be possessed again. I'm certain that Lord Patel will be happy to help."
Lord Chang nodded repeatedly, even if he still looked dazed. "Yes, right, good." He blustered. "I…Merlin's staff, is this real?"
Harry hoisted the older man up to his feet. "This is very real. But that's the right question to ask. That's what you can ask Lord Patel for — an artifact, a token, something only you know about, so next time you're getting mind-attacked, you can reach for it. If it's not there or it feels different, you'll know it's not real."
Chang's eyes brightened. "That's a good idea! What do you use?"
Harry coughed, glancing at Hermione and then at Daphne. Both their eyes widened as they realized his meaning. Hermione went red. Daphne squeaked, her hands subconsciously going to her bottom.
"That would defeat the purpose if I told you." He said sheepishly. "Good luck, Lord Chang."
The man straightened up, brushing down his clothes. "I won't forget this debt, Lord Potter." They shook hands formally.
Outside the room, the estate looked very different in the daylight. He could hear a woman crying, in one of the rooms. It wasn't his problem, not anymore.
The estate was quiet, the morning sun warming the gardens gently, like it was afraid to wake up the birds who sang too loud.
It felt like a different world entirely.
Daphne hip-bumped him as they walked towards the Apparition point. "I can't believe you used that as your token."
"I needed something kept in a safe place." Harry quipped. "That nobody knew about." He patted her bottom. "I need to check it's still there, you know? This could all be a mindscape."
"Believe me, it's there." Daphne gritted her teeth.
"I could always give it to Hermione again…" Harry said teasingly.
Daphne said nothing, staring at the ground. Hermione said nothing, her face flushed.
"I see." Harry said over the sound of Apolline's giggles.
"Was this all worth it?" Hermione said abruptly, desperate to change the subject. "We left ourselves so vulnerable."
"It didn't go how I expected." Harry admitted. Lady Chang had been a formidable opponent — she might have beaten him, if she had taken into account the madman in his mind. "But it was worth it. Or it will be."
"It will?" Daphne said skeptically.
"An ally who owes us a favor. The Patels who owe us our reward." He said lasciviously, thinking of the two beautiful Indian twins.
And the unexpected gift, the one he hadn't been able to take with him into reality, but one he couldn't stop thinking about.
An understanding of the tremendous power of the slain Qilin. Precognition — it was power beyond measure. A power that Voldemort knew not, Harry thought.
He wished he could have taken those powers with him into reality.
In the past, he was slowly making moves to build a harem. In the current, he was amassing powerful women with connections across the globe.
Harry clenched his fist as he stared back at the Chang estate, his magic boiling within him. If he could find and kill a Qilin, then he could master the third division of time.
The future.