Stormseeker: Unwanted Destiny

Gerard is shrewd enough to wait until we get home to mention what he saw in the Pensieve. "I'll believe you now."

"What did he show you?" Cassie asks.

It's getting late, and Sirius and Remus are out for an emergency meeting at Hogwarts. I can't believe that just this morning, Tom was cheerfully having breakfast with us. A sight that might not be seen again in this life. The three of us are holed up in the library now.

"He showed me the world he's from, a conversation with his family, a few other worlds," Gerard says. "It's quite remarkable." He grins broadly. "I never dreamed of something like the Nexus. I feel like some poor peasant, living in a little village my entire life, and only now suddenly realizing that there's a whole world out there."

"I'm looking forward to it," Cassie says neutrally, looking at Gerard with a carefully blank expression.

"What I want to know is, was Moody after the Elder Wand, or after me, or after Tom?" I wonder.

"He probably only took it because it had belonged to Dumbledore," Cassie says.

"I'm betting he was after Tom," Gerard says.

"He didn't stick around to fight the rest of us," I say. "And I imagine that he only Stunned me because he knew it would disrupt my Time Magic."

Gerard yawns wearily, and heads out of the library to go to bed, leaving me alone with Cassie.

"Why did you bring Grindelwald in on this?" Cassie asks. "I probably could have figured out the Soul Bonding thing myself, given the time to research it."

"I want to make sure we get this right this time," I say. "I don't want anymore potentially fatal delays."

"I suppose I understand that," Cassie says. "Even if I'm not sure I like the idea of spending eternity with him. I suppose he's not exactly utterly abhorrent or anything. Listen, seriously, if something happens to me before you get the chance to bond me, I want you to come and find me again. I don't care if I don't remember you. I'll still be me, and I'll still want to come along. And I'm sure that whatever happens, I will still come to love you again. Alright?"

"Cassie..." I say.

"Please promise me that," Cassie says.

I let out a heavy sigh, and nod. "Alright, Cassie. I promise."

Cassie leans over and kisses me softly. "Thank you."

We head for bed. I toss and turn and find that I can't sleep for shit at the moment. Every time I close my eyes, fears and worries about those I care about fill my mind. Sighing heavily, I order Dobby to bring me some firewhiskey.

"Have you been drinking again?" Cassie says, folding her arms across the chest and standing in the doorway.

"I had a long day, okay?" I mutter, groaning softly.

"And now you have a hangover," Cassie says, sighing and rolling her eyes. She comes over and grabs my arm. "Come on. Let's get you some breakfast."

"Alright, alright," I grumble. "You don't have to drag me downstairs."

When we get down to the dining area, I realize that it must be later than I thought. Sirius and Remus are eating breakfast at the moment.

"Why does my godson smell like a brewery?" Sirius asks.

"Yesterday was a long day," I say, flopping down in a chair and waiting for Dobby to bring me food.

"No shit," Sirius says.

"Headmaster Riddle's death has caused quite the stir," Remus says. "I believe Professor McGonagall is going to be taking over as Headmistress now."

"And she was talking to me about taking up the slack for her Transfiguration classes," Sirius says. "Merlin, I wanted to get a position at Hogwarts, but this wasn't the way I'd expected to get one."

"What happened, Harry?" Remus says. "I was told that you reported a member of the Order of the Phoenix killed Riddle."

"Moody and Tonks ambushed us," I explain, forcing myself to eat.

"Damn, Moody wouldn't accept that Voldemort was really dead, but I didn't think he'd go that far," Sirius says.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Remus says. "I know you were fond of him." I almost choke on my hash browns. "Anapneo," Remus says absently, clearing my throat with the spell.

"If you were trying to hide it, you were doing a pretty poor job of it," Sirius says.

"You knew?" I say, looking at them incredulously.

Sirius rolls his eyes. "I saw the way you looked at each other and interacted when you were home. Besides, it's not like you're actually a fifteen year old, even if he was the Headmaster."

"He made you happy," Remus says. "I couldn't see any reason to complain about that. And for that, I'm sorry that he's gone."

"Yeah..." I say quietly, looking down at my plate.

"At least you're taking it better than me," Sirius says. "You just got drunk, and didn't run off and get yourself thrown in Azkaban like a blind fool."

"Will you be alright, Harry?" Remus asks.

"I'm fine," I insist. "It's not-- It's not like I'll never be able to see him again. Maybe in the next loop, I won't screw things up quite so badly..."

"That's some consolation, I suppose," Sirius says. "One that the rest of us don't get. Lucky you."

After breakfast, I head over to Tom's room to poke around, perhaps in some hope that he left notes or something about the Soul Bonding ritual. I doubt that, but maybe there's something there that might help nonetheless.

Stashed away in a trunk under the bed, I find several objects. I recognize the locket, but there's also a cup, a tiara, and a ring. Were these his former Horcruxes?

"What are you looking at?" says Gerard from the doorway.

"Tom left some stuff in here," I say. "Do you happen to recognize any of this?" I gesture toward the objects in the trunk.

Gerard comes over and crouches down next to me to examine them more closely. "Hmm. This cup has a badger on it. Might be connected to Hufflepuff. The locket is Slytherin for sure. A diadem with a sapphire... Ravenclaw, maybe? Wonder if it could be Ravenclaw's lost diadem. And this ring... Wait, that's the symbol of the Deathly Hallows on the stone!"

"Deathly Hallows?" I say, raising an eyebrow. "I thought there was a wand, a cloak, and a stone. You didn't mention a ring."

"No, no," Gerard says. "I think it's the Resurrection Stone that's been set into this ring."

"You mean to say that Tom had the Resurrection Stone all this time?" I say.

"He probably didn't even realize what he had," Gerard says.

"Do you suppose we could use this to bring him back?" I say.

"Maybe," Gerard says. "Look, you promised to take me with you. You're not going to go back on that even if you don't actually need me, will you?"

"Of course not," I say. "I keep my promises."

"You better," Gerard says.

"First and foremost, I believe in freedom for all beings," I say. "That includes you. I don't like the idea of locking somebody up for decades like that. Better to simply kill them."

"I agree," Gerard says. "Although I might be a bit biased now." He smirks.

"Alright, let's see how this thing works," I say, putting on the ring.

I can certainly feel the magic in it. I rub it and will it to activate, thinking of Tom Riddle. After a moment, a shimmering image appears in front of me, of Tom just as I remember him. He is unfortunately translucent, however. He's not fully here. Still, I have to grin broadly at seeing him again, even in this form.

"Ah, what's this?" Tom says, peering about. "Harry, what did you do?"

"I used this ring you had in your room," I say. "Grindelwald says it's the Resurrection Stone."

"It doesn't appear to have actually resurrected me, however," Tom says. "All it did was allow my wraith form to manifest more easily."

"Disappointing," Gerard says. "Once, I had hoped to make an army of undead with that stone..."

"Maybe if we actually had your body on hand..." I say. "But you were able to manifest physically before without a body."

"I had a lot of energy available then," Tom says. "I spent an entire year siphoning it off and culminating in a living sacrifice on the Summer Solstice for the final push."

"There has to be something we can do," I say.

"Do they already know I'm dead?" Tom asks.

"Yeah," I say.

"It would be awfully complicated to explain my coming back to life," Tom says, shaking his head. "I would need to stay in hiding. Better than being a wraith, though."

"Having a body would make it easier, though," Gerard says.

"Maybe it's still at St. Mungo's," I say.

"Couldn't hurt to find out," Tom says.

The image of Tom vanishes, and I head out for the main hall.

Cassie intercepts me on the way to the door and says, "Going somewhere?"

"St. Mungo's," I say. "We might have a way to resurrect Tom."

Cassie's eyes widen. "I've got your back."

The three of us Apparate over outside of St. Mungo's and head inside. Hopefully nobody's going to notice that we Apparated here, but I'm in entirely too much of a hurry to bother hiding it better.

"Can I help you?" says a witch in the lobby. "Is one of you hurt?"

I shake my head. "No. We brought our friend here yesterday. He-- He didn't make it. We were hoping to see his body."

"Ah, let me see," the witch says. "I'm sorry for your loss. What was his name? And could you give me your names as well?"

"His name was Tom Riddle," I say. "I'm Harry Potter, and this is Cassiopeia Black and Gerard Boltwood."

"Harry Potter?" the witch says, looking more alarmed than anything else. "Hmm, yes, matches the description given," she says barely audibly, then speaks up. "I will show you to the morgue. If you'll follow me, please."

The three of us follow as she leads us down a corridor and through a couple of doorways. She brings us straight to the morgue, and leaves us there.

"Excellent," I murmur once she's gone. "Now to just find Tom's body."

We find it after some searching, and I uncover the body with a frown. He's badly wounded. Even if I could shove his soul back into his body, it would still take some doing to heal all the damage, I would think. Regardless, it's worth a shot.

Then I notice that we're no longer alone in the room. While we were busy staring at Tom's mangled body, a squad of Aurors has shown up, pointing wands at us.

"Freeze!" says the lead auror. "Step away from the body, and keep your hands away from your wands."

There's half a dozen of them, to three of us. I have no idea whether we could take them or not. I try to stay calm. We haven't done anything wrong. That they can pin on us, anyway.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"I'm Kingsley Shacklebolt. You, Harry Potter, are hereby under arrest for use of the Cruciatus Curse against one Gilderoy Lockhart."

Oh. That they can pin on me.

"So, that's how it's going to be, then," I say. "Let my friends go free. They had nothing to do with it."

"No," Gerard says. "I stand with you, Stormseeker."

"My life for the Stormseeker," Cassie says.

Both of them have wands in their hands in an instant, pointed at the Aurors, and I pull out mine as well.

"Protego!" I say. "Death before Azkaban." I narrow my eyes at them through the shield that shimmers into view.

"So be it," Shacklebolt says.

A fierce battle of curses breaks out in the morgue. We bring down a couple of the Aurors, but they're too much for us. A curse pierces straight through my chest like a lance, and I drop.

"You've been drinking again, haven't you," says Cassie.

I groan softly. "Shit."

"And you have a hangover, too," Cassie adds. She takes hold of my arm and hauls me to my feet. "Let's get you something in your stomach."

"Cassie, I just died," I say.

Cassie stops and looks at me in alarm. "What happened?"

"Aurors," I say. "Lockhart reported me. Fuck."

Cassie almost drops me. "That's bad."

"No shit," I say.

I head over into Tom's room and pull out the trunk from under the bed. I scoop the items inside into my bag of holding, except for the ring, which I slide onto my finger.

"What are these?" Cassie asks.

"Stuff," I reply. "No idea what most of them are. But the ring? It's the Resurrection Stone. We were trying to test it on Tom's body, but we didn't get the chance to."

I rub the stone and think of Tom, activating it and bringing his image into existence before me again. "Did we jump back?" Tom asks. "What happened?"

"Um..." I say. "I fucked up."

"What happened?" Tom presses.

"Aurors are after me," I say. "And I'm sure they had a report on me before I woke up this morning."

"What did you do?" Tom asks.

"Used the Cruciatus Curse on Gilderoy Lockhart," I reply.

"Three times," Cassie adds helpfully.

Tom sighs exasperatedly. "Reckless. No matter. Time for a new plan. Everything's a mess. Forget trying to resurrect me. I can handle a few months as a wraith. Avoid capture until Halloween. Get the ritual done. And then we can get out of this world."

"Tom, we're bringing Grindelwald along with us as well," I say.

"If that's what you want, then I won't argue," Tom says. "Are you certain it's wise, however?"

"He just stood by my side and refused to retreat even though it meant certain death or Azkaban," I say.

"Very well," Tom says. "I think we can manage to bind both of them on Halloween, but if not, we can try to hold out for the Winter Solstice."

"Let's just focus on making it to Halloween," I say. "What should we do?"

"The wards on this place should be able to hold out the Aurors for a while, but they'll know you're here," Tom says. "Don't count on remaining safe here for long. They'll bring in someone that can crack the wards. Find someplace else to hide, but always have an alternate escape route. Leave the country if you can."

"What's going on?" Gerard asks from the doorway.

"I'm going on the run to avoid getting chucked into Azkaban," I say. "And while I might not strictly need your expertise to get the Soul Bond up, there's no way in the Abyss I'm leaving you behind if I can possibly help it."

"Tom?" Gerard says, staring at the image. "A ghost?"

I hold up my hand and show him the ring. "Apparently, Tom had the Resurrection Stone and didn't realize it."

Tom looks over Gerard, and says, "I'll explain the ritual in more detail when we have time and a more secure location."

Gerard gives a nod. "Very well. I'm the one most experienced with this sort of magic here, so I'll be having to perform it, then."

"Let's pack up what we can that we might need," I say. I pull out my bag of holding and hand it to Cassie. "I'm going to go have a talk with Sirius and Remus."

Even though the Aurors aren't after them, after that display at St. Mungo's, there's no way in hell that I'm going to try to convince them to stay behind and just to meet up with me for the ritual later. There's no way that they would agree to that. These people would kill for me, die for me, follow me straight into the Abyss. We may not always agree on everything, but it's comforting to see that when surrounded by fire, I have friends that I can count on.

Sirius and Remus are downstairs in the dining area, finishing up breakfast. "Have you been drinking, Harry?" Sirius asks.

"Never mind that," I say. "I thought you should know that I'm going on the run to avoid being sent to Azkaban."

Sirius looks at me in shock. "What in the world happened?"

"Well, I'm actually guilty of the crime they've accused me of, is the trouble," I say. "I won't bother arguing whether the victim deserved it or not, but I got sloppy. I think I'll murder him for good measure if I get the opportunity, bastard."

"What did you do, Harry?" Remus asks.

"I used the Cruciatus Curse on someone," I say. "I'll make no excuse about it. I was off-balance and easily angered after Tom's death, but I should have had more control than that."

"You're the Boy-Who-Lived, and the one who defeated Voldemort, twice even," Remus says. "Surely we can find some way to get you off."

"Maybe," I say. "I'm counting on you two to try to find one. Meanwhile, however, I need to disappear."

"You can count on us, Harry," Sirius says. "You got me out of Azkaban. I'm not going to let my godson get sent to that hellhole, either."

"Thanks," I say. "I appreciate it." I smile at him.

I head back out to the main hall and meet up with Cassie and Gerard. I suppose there isn't much point in calling him by a false name anymore, but he's still our secret weapon. They won't know who he is or what he's capable of.

"We've got another problem," Cassie says. "It's Hermione."

I groan. "What now?"

"Lockhart lied," Cassie says. "She was curled up in her room, terrified. When I asked her what was wrong, she babbled out a tearful confession. Apparently, you tortured and raped her yesterday."

"I what?" I exclaim.

"Should've just used the Imperius Curse on him," Gerard says.

"I'm going to kill that Mudblood bastard," I say. "How could he traumatize Hermione like that just to frame me for another crime?"

"No argument there," Cassie says grimly.

I sigh, and turn to head back into the dining area. "I've got another complication, guys."

"What now?" Sirius asks.

"Hermione's memories have been modified," I say. "But I swear on my life and my magic that I have never raped anyone." I growl softly.

"She... what?" Remus says. "Who did this?"

"Gilderoy Lockhart," I say. "I'm going to fucking murder him. I don't care what happens next. I'm going back soon. I'm going to be with Tom again. All I need to do is hold out until after Halloween."

"Harry, I'm sure we can find a way to clear your name," Remus says.

"Do what you can, but don't risk yourselves in the process," I say. "I won't place any bets, however. I just wanted you to know what's up, so you aren't finding out things and getting the wrong idea."

"Thanks, Harry," Sirius says. "Good luck."

I chuckle softly. "Every time someone wishes me luck, something horrible happens. But thanks anyway."

I head back into the main hall, where Cassie and Gerard are waiting. Cassie hands me back my bag of holding.

"So where are we going?" Gerard asks.

"Let's hole up at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place for the moment," I say. "I'm sure Kreacher won't mind the company."

We head out and Apparate over to the old Black residence, Gerard doing Side-Along with Cassie since he hasn't been there before. We enter the house and come up to the painting of Walburga Black.

"Hmm?" Walburga says, stirring and look at us. "Oh, you two are back. And who have you brought here?"

"Gerard Boltwood," Gerard says.

"He's a friend of ours," I say. "Don't worry, he's totally a pureblood."

"Oh, good," Walburga says.

"Walburga, what are the defenses on this house like?" Cassie asks.

I nod. "We've got trouble, and we may not want to stay here for long. They'll probably guess we've come here sooner or later."

"This is the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black," Walburga says. "Our wards could hold off a siege!"

Gerard, peering about, says, "That may have been true once, but they've been left to deteriorate and haven't been maintained very well lately."

I sigh. "We can't stay here. What about Riddle Manor?"

"Does it have decent wards?" Cassie asks.

"I don't know," I say. "I think it was actually a Muggle house."

"They might think to look for us there, too," Cassie says. "We're known to have been associated with Tom Riddle."

"We can hide in the Muggle world," Gerard says.

"Damn it, Gerard, we're purebloods, the only reason we might have any hope of functioning in the Muggle world is Tom having made Muggle Studies a required course for us," I say.

"All the better," Gerard says. "They won't even consider that we might try to hide among the Muggles."

"Filthy Muggles," Walburga mutters. "What are you on the run from, anyway?"

"Aurors," I say. "After all the crimes I've committed, I finally got pinned with something. I don't care to go to Azkaban, so I don't intend to let them find me."

"What did you do?" Walburga wonders.

"That I got caught with?" I say, smirking. "I used the Cruciatus Curse upon a Mudblood."

"Three times," Cassie adds.

"Yes, thank you," I say, smirking. "I've also kill some people, but didn't get caught. I glance aside at Gerard. "I'm not sure if I actually wound up telling you in a timeline that ended up sticking, but I'm actually the one who murdered Dumbledore."

"What?" Gerard says. "You?" He barks a laugh. "Good on you, I say. Thanks for that."

"Alright, let's stay here for the night," I say. "We're going to need to acquire some Muggle clothing."

"It's in the bag," Cassie says. "I brought some along just in case."

"Ah, good thinking, Cassie," I say.