ATLA Universe, Fire Nation Capital
Avatar Timeline: 98 AG (After Genocide), 11 months before Aang's awakening
Universal Time: November 13th, 1988
Time until Elder Blood Teleportation is available: November 26th, 1988
Time until Hun and Po souls are deemed suitable by the laws of the Harry Potter Universe to learn structured HP magic: July 31st, 1991
Harry's Physical/Mental/Emotional Maturity: 13 years old
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"... and there you go." Harry extinguished the golden flames around the last villager, an elderly man who immediately touched his non-scarred hands in wonder. "Everyone's healed."
"I can take you to the prison rig!" Haru stepped forward, eyes blazing with an inner fire. "It's not far offshore."
"Wait." Sela grabbed her son's arm. "The waters are patrolled. You'll be caught before you get close."
Harry glanced at the gathered villagers. Most still couldn't stop touching their healed skin, but fear lingered in their eyes. Fear of the Fire Nation's retribution when they discovered their soldiers were dead.
"How many patrol ships?" Harry asked.
"Three." The elderly man spoke up, his voice stronger now that his burned throat had healed. "They circle the rig day and night."
Haru clenched his fists. "We can't just leave them there! My father-"
"We won't." Harry shook his head. "But we need a plan."
"The ships are made of metal too." A woman near the back of the crowd spoke up. "That's why our earthbenders can't escape even if they reach the water."
Harry nodded slowly. The patrol ships would need to be dealt with first. Then the rig itself. But the earthbenders would be weak from long-term imprisonment, wouldn't they?
"How many earthbenders are imprisoned there?"
"Thirty-seven." Sela's voice cracked. "Including my husband."
Harry reached into his enchanted pouch and withdrew several vials of nutritional potions. "These can help restore their strength once they've been freed. But first..." He turned to Haru. "Can you show me where exactly the rig is located?"
"Yes!" Haru pointed eagerly toward the direction of the coast. "There's a cliff overlooking the ocean. You can see it from there."
Harry tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I can fly us there using jet propulsion."
"You can... what?" Haru stared down at Harry, who barely reached his shoulders.
"Like this." Harry crouched slightly, bending azure flames from his soles and hands. He rose several feet into the air. "I'll need to carry you, if that's alright?"
Haru blinked rapidly, mouth slightly open as he watched Harry hover. The sixteen-year-old earthbender glanced at his mother, who gave him an encouraging nod.
"I... sure?" Haru scratched the back of his head. "But how will you lift someone bigger than you?"
Harry landed softly, the flames dissipating without a trace of smoke. "The same way I killed those soldiers. My strength isn't what it appears to be."
"Be careful." Sela hugged her son tightly. "Both of you."
"We will." Harry turned to the crowd. "Everyone should stay inside until we return. If more soldiers come..." He created a small sphere of azure flames in his palm. "Well, you've seen what I can do to them."
He crouched and held out his arm. "Hold on tight."
Haru gripped Harry's shoulder hesitantly. "Are you sure about-" His words cut off in a yelp as azure flames erupted from Harry's soles, launching them into the sky.
"There!" Haru pointed west. "Past those cliffs!"
The wind whipped past them as Harry accelerated, keeping his flames steady. Haru's initial terror faded into excitement as they soared over barren mountains.
"This is amazing!" The earthbender laughed. "I can see the whole village from here!"
Harry smiled at the teen's joy. Minutes later, they landed on a sandy beach, the flames dissipating as their feet touched down.
"The rig is just past the horizon." Haru clenched his fists, eager to act. "We can fly straight there and free everyone!"
"Wait." Harry raised his hand. "Running in without a plan might work, but..." He stared at the calm ocean. "We need to think about this carefully."
Simply killing the soldiers would be easy. Harry knew he could do it without breaking a sweat. But what then? The Fire Nation would just send more troops, perhaps even cruisers instead of simple patrol ships. The cycle of violence would continue, possibly becoming worse for the villagers.
No, this required a different approach. The soldiers needed to flee not just from fear of death, but from something greater. Something that would make them question the very foundation of their beliefs about power and authority.
Harry felt his suppressed halo pulse as the thoughts aligned with true wisdom. It wasn't about restraining power or finding moderation, it was about understanding consequences, about seeing the deeper currents that moved beneath surface actions. Justice demanded death for their crimes, but Prudence demanded deeper solutions.
Something began to crack within his Dantian.
The nearly empty second layer of Temperance virtue energy - barely a whisper so far - shattered like glass. His Temperance progress was lost, but in its place, something new crystallized. The wisdom of his current thoughts, the careful consideration of consequences, the deep understanding of cause and effect... it all condensed into Prudence virtue energy.
He had gone from Second Layer – Temperance to Second Layer – Prudence.
If he appeared as an unstoppable force of nature, a being so far beyond their comprehension that resistance became unthinkable... The story would spread. Each soldier who fled would carry tales of Harry Potter, and their fear-turned-reverence would protect the village far better than any number of dead bodies.
"If we want to make sure they never try this again," Harry spoke slowly as fresh Prudence virtue energy surged through his dantian, "we need something more dramatic. Something they'll never forget."
"What do you mean?" Haru asked.
Harry smiled and raised his head to stare at the cloudless sky. "I mean we're going to give those soldiers a religious experience."
The ocean contained vast amounts of water vapor, and with enough heat…
During his studies at the Hogwarts library, he'd learned that storm clouds formed when warm air rose rapidly into the colder upper atmosphere. The water vapor would condense into clouds, and there were spells that could replicate this on a very small scale for pranks. But he didn't need magic. Not when he had firebending powered by expanded meridians that connected to every cell in his body. If he superheated the ocean water...
"I can control natural lightning." Harry spoke slowly, still working through the idea. "The raw power is incredible - far beyond what even the most skilled firebenders can generate. But for that, I need storm clouds."
"But there aren't any clouds." Haru glanced up at the clear blue sky.
"Not yet." Harry stepped forward until the waves lapped at his feet. "But I learned something interesting in the Fire Nation. Extreme Heat Control isn't just about calming volcanic eruptions-"
Harry paused mid-sentence, a new thought striking him. He raised his hands, letting small arcs of lightning crackle between his fingers. The electricity made tiny popping sounds as it jumped from finger to finger.
"What are you doing?" Haru asked, taking a step back from the miniature lightning show.
Harry didn't answer immediately. He focused on the sound of each electrical discharge, feeling how the super-heated air created pressure waves. Thunder was just sound, after all. Sound created by lightning heating the air so quickly it exploded outward.
But if lightning could create sound waves through controlled heating of air...
Harry's eyes shifted to blood-red as the Sharingan activated. The world sharpened, time seeming to slow as his perception increased. Each arc of electricity became crystal clear, and he could track exactly how the Yin and Yang aspects of his Chi flowed through his meridians and ultimately collided to spark lightning into the world.
The Inner Eye opened next, giving him precious seconds of precognition. He began running through possibilities, watching thousands of potential attempts play out in his mind before actually expending any chi. Most failed - the timing was wrong, or the paths weren't precise enough, or the intensity wasn't properly modulated.
A golden halo wanted to blaze into existence behind his head as Harry channeled virtue energy, but he kept it suppressed. The lightning between his fingers intensified as the 25% boost amplified everything: his precognition, his perception, his chi control.
"Thunder is just vibrations in the air." Harry spoke softly. "And lightning can control those vibrations by heating specific points in specific ways - like painting sound directly into the air. When I speak, my vocal cords create specific frequencies. If I can make the lightning heat the air to vibrate at those same frequencies..."
He watched through the Inner Eye as another thousand attempts failed in his mind. But each failure taught him something - how to bend the chi, how to time the discharges, how to modulate the intensity. The Sharingan let him perfectly replicate the successful movements he saw in his precognitive visions, while his new capillaries that transported chi to his meridians gave him the extra fine control needed.
"What are you talking about?" Haru looked confused.
"Watch this." Harry concentrated on creating precise paths for the electricity to follow. Each microscopic bolt had to heat the air in exactly the right way, creating pressure waves that would combine into recognizable frequencies.
"H-hello." The sound came from the air itself, crackling and distorted like an old radio, but recognizable as speech.
Haru jumped backward. "How did you do that?!"
Harry kept working at it, each word coming easier as he understood more about the fundamental relationship between lightning, heat, and sound.
"This... is... Thunder... Speech." The words thundered from empty air, still distorted but clearer now. Static crackled between each word, giving the voice an otherworldly quality.
Like someone speaking through lightning itself.
"That's incredible!" Haru circled around Harry, staring at the lightning arcing between his hands. "You're making lightning talk!"
Harry let the technique fade, lowering his hands. If he could create speech with lightning, what other sounds could he make? Could he replicate any sound by carefully controlling how the lightning heated the air?
"It needs work," Harry smiled, "but I think this will be useful for what comes next."
"The storm?" Haru glanced at the clear sky.
"Yes." Harry turned back toward the ocean. "I can do something very useful with this Thunder Speech. Something that might help convince those guards to abandon their posts without a fight. But I need something more… spectacular than that."
Harry raised both hands toward the ocean. Numbers flashed through his mind as he calculated the exact temperatures needed. The ocean surface temperature was currently 22°C, and he needed to raise a specific section to 35°C to start the convection process.
"Stand back." Harry took a deep breath. "This will take very precise control."
Haru retreated several steps up the beach. "What are you going to do now?"
"Create a storm." Harry extended his fingers, and focused on a circular area of ocean about one hundred meters wide. "But not just any storm. A controlled one."
Chi flowed rapidly through his meridians as Harry began bending heat from his fingers into the water. The calculations came instantly thanks to that recent offer, he needed to maintain a temperature differential of exactly 20°C between the targeted area and surrounding ocean. Too much difference would create an unstable system, too little wouldn't generate enough uplift.
The water began steaming as Harry raised the temperature degree by degree. 25°C... 28°C... 30°C...
"Look!" Haru pointed at the wisps of vapor rising from the heated section of ocean.
Harry nodded, still focused on his calculations. As the water reached 35°C, he heated up a column of 40°C air directly above it. The numbers kept flowing - air temperature decreased by 6.5°C per kilometer of elevation, so he needed to compensate accordingly.
"The air is moving differently." Haru shielded his eyes from the sun as he stared upward.
He was right. The heated air column was drawing more moisture upward, creating a visible disturbance in the previously still air. Harry expanded the heated ocean area gradually, maintaining the temperature differentials needed to feed the growing convection cycle.
Five minutes passed. Then ten. His Sharingan eyes narrowed tightly as he bent the heat with microscopic precision. The first hints of cloud formation appeared at fifteen minutes - exactly when his calculations predicted.
"That's incredible." Haru watched the clouds grow larger with each passing minute. "You're creating a storm out of nothing!"
"Not nothing." Harry adjusted the heat output slightly. "Just water vapor and temperature differences. The trick is maintaining the exact numbers needed."
The cloud continued expanding as Harry fed more energy into the system. He could feel the air pressure changing as the convection cycle strengthened. Soon the cloud would be large enough to generate significant electrical potential.
"H-how big will it get?" Haru swallowed down a lump in his throat.
Harry smiled. "Big enough to make those Fire Nation soldiers question everything they believe in."
The cloud had grown into a large cumulonimbus, dark and menacing against the previously clear sky. Lightning began crackling within it naturally as ice crystals in the upper portions created charge separations.
"Now comes the fun part." Harry lowered his fingers. "Want to see something really spectacular?"
Azure flames erupted from Harry's feet as he shot upward into the sky. The cumulonimbus cloud above him crackled with lightning. Far below, Haru became a tiny speck on the beach.
The metal prison rig stood on the horizon, three Fire Nation ships circling around it like vultures. Harry's eyes narrowed as he calculated the distance of approximately two kilometers.
The ships would see him coming, but that was exactly what he wanted.
Harry raised two fingers toward the storm cloud. A thin strand of Chi Lightning shot upward, precisely calibrated to attract the natural electricity building up in the cloud. The response was immediate - multiple lightning bolts struck down, following his chi-created path straight into his body.
His virtue energy, Inner Eye and Sharingan were crucial for the next steps…
The raw power was smoothly distributed throughout his system, and then out into the air from all of his limbs. Seventy percent went into creating the main structure - massive branches of lightning that formed a colossal humanoid shape around him. The remaining thirty percent he reserved for Thunder Speech and movement.
Numbers flashed through his mind as he finished shaping the Lightning Avatar. Each lightning branch required specific voltages and amperages to maintain stability. The form grew larger and larger until it stood thirty meters high, with Harry floating at its center.
He drew more lightning from the clouds into creating specific details – messy hair made of crackling electricity, clothing outlined in white-hot branches, and after a moment of thought… a giant plume of red fire poured from his mouth to form enormous blood-red Sharingan eyes that blazed like crimson suns in the lightning-forged face.
"Can you see me clearly?" Harry's voice boomed across the water through Thunder Speech, the sound carrying easily to where Haru stood below.
"Y-yes!" Haru's voice was barely audible from so far down. "You look like a lightning spirit!"
Harry smiled. The calculations showed he had between two and three minutes before the storm cloud's electrical potential depleted too much to maintain this Lightning Avatar.
More than enough time.
He accelerated toward the prison rig, keeping the avatar moving with him. Each movement required redistribution of power - shifting weight from one leg to another used 0.8% more energy, raising an arm needed 1.2% extra.
Thunder rolled continuously as the avatar crossed the ocean. Harry could see people on the deck of the nearest patrol ship pointing up at him in terror.
Good. Fear would make this easier.
The Lightning Avatar stopped directly above the central patrol ship. Harry's voice crashed through the air like a physical force, making the metal deck plates vibrate.
"MORTALS OF THE FIRE NATION."
Several soldiers collapsed, clutching their ears as the thunder-speech resonated through their bodies. The rest stared upward, faces pale with terror at the thirty-meter electrical giant floating above them.
"YOUR CRIMES AGAINST THE VALLEY VILLAGE HAVE BEEN WITNESSED."
Lightning crackled between the Avatar's teeth as it spoke. The words themselves seemed to ignite the air, each syllable causing smaller thunderclaps.
"RAPE. TORTURE. MURDER."
The crimson Sharingan eyes blazed brighter with each accusation. Soldiers scrambled backward, some diving overboard in panic.
"I AM HARRY POTTER."
The name exploded across the ocean like an Exploding Charm. Windows shattered on all three ships. The prison rig's metal walls groaned under the sonic assault.
"AND I HAVE COME TO PASS JUDGMENT!"
Harry's voice shifted, becoming multiple overlapping tones that spoke in perfect harmony. "WITNESS THE POWER OF HEAVEN'S WRATH!"
Nine streams of lightning burst from all over the Thunder Avatar's body to form points of dense light in the water around the prison rig, forming the shape of the Big Dipper with Polaris. Each point erupted upward into a massive column of lightning that stretched from sea to storm cloud.
The columns began to rotate around Harry's Lightning Avatar. Faster and faster they spun, leaving trails of electricity that formed specific shapes in the air. The Eight Trigrams appeared in burning light, each symbol perfectly calculated and positioned.
"THE NINE CELESTIAL PILLARS WILL CLEANSE THIS PLACE!" The multi-layered voice grew louder, joined by more and more harmonics until it sounded like a chorus of thousands.
Soldiers abandoned their posts, rushing toward the patrol ships. Even the guards on the prison rig fled in terror, leaving their stations unmanned.
"Run!" Someone screamed. "The Lightning Spirit will destroy us all!"
The nine pillars spun faster, the trigrams glowing brighter. Harry drew more power from the storm cloud, pushing it to its absolute limit.
"HEAVEN'S GATE... OPENS!"
The pillars collapsed inward with a deafening BOOM. They struck a single point directly above the prison rig, creating what looked like a blinding tear in reality itself. Pure white lightning poured from what looked like a hole in the sky, and the voices of ten thousand spirits cried out in unified judgment.
The display lasted only seconds, but the image burned itself into the minds of everyone watching. When the light faded, the patrol ships were already turning away from the rig, packed with terrified soldiers.
"REMEMBER MY NAME!" Harry's voice followed them as they fled. "REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO ABUSE THE INNOCENT!"
The ships soon vanished over the horizon, leaving only the prison rig behind. Harry let the Lightning Avatar fade away as he flew toward the metal structure. The storm cloud above had been completely drained, already beginning to dissipate.
Harry landed softly on the metal deck. The prison rig creaked beneath his feet, still vibrating from the massive display of power moments ago.
Thirty-seven men knelt before him in tattered clothes, heads bowed so low they nearly touched the ground. None dared look up at the being who had commanded lightning itself.
"Please..." One man spoke, voice trembling. "Great Lightning Spirit..."
"Rise." Harry said gently. "I am no spirit. Just someone who fights against cruelty."
The men hesitated, then slowly raised their heads. Many gasped when they saw Harry's true size, not even reaching the shoulders of most adults.
"But the lightning..." Another prisoner spoke up. "We saw..."
"What you saw was simply advanced lightningbending." Harry smiled warmly. "The Lightning Avatar was meant to scare those soldiers away and make a… very deep impression."
"Anyway… your son Haru told me where to find you." Harry turned to a broad-shouldered man with a grey-streaked beard. "You must be Tyro, right?"
"I am." Tyro stepped forward, eyes studying Harry intently. "Haru... he's alive? Safe?"
"He's waiting at the beach." Harry reached into his enchanted pouch and withdrew several vials of nutritional potion. "These will help restore your strength. You've all been imprisoned here for far too long."
"The village..." Another prisoner spoke up. "Our families..."
"Are safe." Harry passed out the vials. "The soldiers who hurt them are dead. I healed everyone's injuries before coming here."
Tyro uncorked his vial, sniffing the contents cautiously. "You killed the soldiers?"
"Yes." Harry met his gaze. "They deserved death for what they did to your people."
The prisoners drank their potions, eyes widening as strength flowed back into their bodies. Harry watched as months of malnutrition reversed itself within minutes. The potions seemed to work wonders on people without any magic…
"Much better." Harry nodded in satisfaction. "Now, we should go back to the village. I can fly us back to shore in groups."
"Wait." Tyro flexed his restored muscles. "What's your stake in this? Why help us?"
"Because it was right." Harry shrugged. "No one should suffer like your people have suffered."
Tyro stared at Harry for a long moment, then dropped to one knee. "We owe you a debt that can never be repaid."
"Stand up." Harry shook his head. "I don't want debts or worship. Just help rebuild your village and protect your people."
The other prisoners rose shakily to their feet. Many bowed deeply to Harry despite his protests, and he sighed when he felt deep faith begin to accumulate.
"Now then." Harry shook his head and cracked his knuckles. "Who wants to fly first?"