Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga), same username as here and link in bio.
Nepal falls, the newspapers read the day after the task. I'd used the time turner immediately after leaving the venue and apparated back to Greece to spend time with Sirius and work off some of my anger. Instead, he'd humiliated me with an 11-1 defeat and then had us spend the rest of the night tryin to drink each other under the table. None of my personalities were particularly heavy drinkers but Sirius had a talent for getting you to do things that you never foresaw yourself doing. And if I'd thought he had any qualms with underage drinking then those thoughts would have been buried very early on in the night.
Along with my skepticism regarding divination— or rather his skill with it. Because we'd played cards a dozen times and he'd managed to guess the card I'd picked up before I'd even done it nine out of twelve of those times. Somehow, the crazy bastard had managed to unlock an alert for divination. If he were to be believed, the Black family bloodline was well suited to the art, and he'd been getting better and better at it since he'd escaped Azkaban.
He couldn't tell the future with any true amount of certainty— not with things that mattered, at least. But he could tell which one of a feed amount of outcomes was most likely to occur. That was why he could tell which platform I'd be apparating to before I did. I could see the utility when it came to dueling but I did wish he'd just told me about it directly rather than serving me with a basically impossible task and watching me struggle and bang my head against it until I succeeded or rather until he got so tired that he had no chance of winning.
"Nepal?" He asked as he walked into the Dining room snatching an apple from the table and reading the headline over my shoulder.
"Was only a matter of time, I guess" I said in reply. And that was the truth. Japan in this world had some of the strongest and most dedicated wizards in the world. They'd more or less fought the entire world when they launched their first attempted conquest of Asia and held the world to a stalemate. Now that it had been decades since then and much of the magical world had spent that time demilitarizing in various ways, I gave them good odds of managing to win this time.
"Britain will not be able to stay silent and watch this" He said.
"We won't? Not like we did much when the ICW output that had several British citizens in it was burned to the ground" I was skeptical. Fudge was content to bury his head in the sand most of the time, and in this case that happened to be the popular decision where the electorate were concerned. It was divided but more people peached standing aside than there were proper calling for intervention. The rebels had won themselves no friends in their attack and people saw it as their rightful comeuppance.
"With Nepal gone, what do you think Japan will strike at next?" He asked.
"India" It was the obvious choice. It was also where they had been stopped last time.
"And India matters in ways that only the old families truly understand" He said.
"What?"
"We did not join the war against Japan until India was threatened last time and that will be the case now as well"
"But why?"
"Let's just say that India had some of the first wizards in the world and they left the kind of shit behind that no one wants in Japanese hands"' He said.
"That's not every specific"
"Then I'll tell you the same thing old man Arcturus told me when I asked when I was just a few years younger than you are now— some things are better left buried, Harry. Don't go digging them up"
"Well, that was singularly unhelpful"
"What in the hells could have convinced you that I was even trying to be helpful in the first place?" He scoffed, swapping the apple for a slice of toast.
"How's it going with Lucius?" I asked when it was clear that he was not going to keep talking about India. Even though he'd been the one that brought up the topic. Sirius could be uniquely annoying sometimes.
"Well. We've agreed as to a number. Now we just need to agree about what comes with the house he's purchasing."
"He wants the library, doesn't he?" Sirius had the gall to break into laughter at that.
"Who do you think he is? Even Lucius Malfoy is not so stupid or greedy. The Black Library is cursed to the teeth— quite literally for some of those books— he even required that I pack up the library before the sale. What we're debating is the collection of dark objects within the manor itself" he said.
"You're trying to keep them?"
"For heavens sakes, no. We're playing a game of hot potato with them. The truth is that with no one around to maintain the curses for over a decade, there's a chance that quite a few of them would have grown interesting traits and personalities. Neither of us just wants to invite the ministry in to do a check and take them, but neither of us wants to go through the trouble of checking through them to find something actually useful. He wants to agree some sort of joint venture regarding their custody— paying for the curse breakers and the like and getting equal ownership of anything we decide to keep. I just want to leave the whole thing in his hands." He said.
"That doesn't make sense" I said instantly.
"You think so? Why?"
"Cursed objects are valuable aren't they? And isn't Lucius Malfoy a dark wizard? I would have expected him to be champing at the bit." I posed.
"Well, both your premises are wrong" He said with a smile.
I stared at him while he kept his smile in place. He wanted me to ask. He really wanted me to ask. So I put down the newspaper, picked up a banana and began to unpeel it.
"Really?" He scoffed.
I looked up to meet his eyes before I placed the banana on the table and began to chop it into smaller pieces.
"Fine, I'll tell you" I didn't ask, I wanted to say, but I let him keep some of his aura.
"Cursed objects have little inherent value in this day and age simply by virtue of being cursed. They need to have been cursed to do something useful. And we're Blacks, not Notts. I can guarantee you that half the cursed objects in that house were aimed at other Blacks and not likely to be of use to anyone else. For example, there's an umbrella stand cursed to trip up any Black that happens to be a metamorphmagus. That's not even the most insane bit. And even if we were Notts who designed useful curses, then that still wouldn't matter because he'd have to find someone looking for that exact curse in object form. There's a reason Borgin's store is always full to the brim with shit. Cursed objects are hard to sell because most people would rather just place the curse with a spell rather than spending thousands of galleons on an object that could then be traced back to you. So you can see that cursed objects can hold little value even if they should ordinarily be priceless?" I nodded, and he smiled.
"Now, the second premise. Well, Lucius isn't really a dark wizard. He's not a light one by any means but the man probably knows less truly dark magic than I do"
"What?"
"It's a question of capability more than interest. The Malfoy family have a natural talent for the mind arts more than anything else, so he's probably a phenomenal occlumens, but when it comes to the dark arts. He's nothing more than middling."
"How do you know this?"
"He was ahead of me in school so we never dueled here, but we did cross wands more than a few times when he started playing dress up and hanging around with that crowd" Sirius said with a scoff.
"Why do you sound so chill about him?" I asked. I would have expected more hatred on Sirius' end. Especially when it came to someone that he had fought on opposite sides of the war with.
"Oh, don't get me wrong if Lucius and I run into each other in a dark alley, I'll be the only one walking out of that alley. I am in no way friends with him, but I do have enough maturity to talk about someone I dislike without foaming at the mouth" he said.
"Besides, Lucius might have run with that crowd but he was far from the worst of them. Think my cousin and her husband, Crouch, the likes. He never actually tortured any wizards or killed any magicals to the best of my knowledge. The things he did to muggles were terrible, don't get me wrong. But.. you know" he said. I did not, in fact, know. But I did have a fair idea what he was saying. Sirius might have thought that he escaped unscathed from the Black ideals and teachings, but times like this made it clear that he did not. He couldn't even see just how racist he'd been just now.
"Alright then." I said, tossing the paper in his direction as he kept trying to steal glances at it over my shoulder. He caught it and began reading, flipping the page and letting out a hum.
"Well that wasn't very nice of you" He said, even as I could tell he was trying to swallow down a chuckle. The second page had a wide spread moving picture of me turning an unconscious Ronald Weasley into a rat and pocketing him. It was funny— I certainly thought it was. The reporter made sure to highlight the risks I'd taken by attempting the transfiguration but it was clear that they'd decided to step back on the smear campaign aimed my way and actually made some effort to sell just how much of a feat it was that I'd completed the task alone even while others needed help to do it.
And I'd done it by actually managing to destroy an elemental. Dumbledore had said nothing about the killing curse I'd used and thanks to the mist, the cameras were none the wiser as to how I'd done it. Anyone with enough of the right kind of magical knowledge could probably figure it out with the information in the article itself, but thankfully 'Magical knowledge' was not something the average Brit could pride themself of.
"He had it coming" I said, and he hummed. Sirius never really saw the conflict with Ron as something serious.
"So I guess that's proof there's no reconciliation coming" he said.
"He's a right tosser and I have no idea what I was thinking ever even bothering to be friends with him"
"Shame. Arthur Weasley is such a nice man" He said.
"Arthur Weasley? When did you start caring about Arthur Weasley?"
"Well, he is a nice man is he not? He reached out once my innocence was proven with his apologies and the likes. He's one of the few people that had the balls to write, and he's even the only one to actually not include an apology when explaining how he had so easily assumed my guilt" He said.
"What about Remus?" I asked.
"He's somewhere or the other. You know we tried traveling together when we left. We really did. But things weren't the same. 12 years apart, Harry. We've spent more time apart than we've spent together and that is a problem. We just didn't click in the right way and we ended up going our separate ways." He said.
"You know if you are going to go through the trouble of lying through your teeth you should at least try to be good at it" I scoffed.
"Saw through that one straight away, didn't you?" He chuckled but the mirth did not reach his eyes.
"I won't ask further because it's not really your business. You guys can fight over whatever it is you want" I said.
"You don't care that he was your Dad's friend as well?"
"You spent twelve years in Azkaban and the first thing you did when you got out was try to find me. He had no excuse for his absence" I said, even as I recognised that it was probably mean and unfair to say. If he'd come even within feet of me, he'd probably have been sent to the dementors faster than I could say expecto patronum.
"Exactly what I thought" He said, but said no further. I wondered if their fight had anything to do with me. It probably did.
—
Sirius was good company for the morning but that was only half my morning. I apparated to the Chamber of Secrets in a chain of jumps before I used the time turner around my neck to begin my morning anew. The task had taken place on a Sunday and that meant today we had classes to run through. With my OWLS through, the professors did not even bother trying to pretend I was on the same level as the rest of their class. At least that was the case with Flitwick, Mcgonagall, Slughorn (who had returned after Snape had been incarcerated), and Babbling.
The first class of the day was Charms. And I made it to the classroom a few minutes before the class began and he turned to me with a look on his face that I wasn't quite sure I was going to like the consequences of.
"So how are you feeling Mr. Potter?" He asked.
"Good so far, Professor. And you?"
"Disappointed after watching the worst display of teamwork from a Hogwarts student since the day I began here as a student" He said. I sighed, sure I was about to receive another lecture.
"I won't lecture you. Minerva and Albus have done their share of that. No, instead I'll do you one better. I'll help you" He said with a sharp smile showing off his goblin teeth.
"Why do I not like the way this is going?" I could feel apprehension begin to rise in my stomach.
"Because you're going to learn team work whether you like it or not and you will be grateful for it"
"But why do you even care?"
"I thought you knew better, Mr. Potter. You're looking at a five time doubles duelling champion" he said, and impossibly, his smile somehow got even sharper.
"Can I opt out of this? Just turn around and walk back whence I came?"
The door slammed shut behind me.
XXXXX- THE FALL OF NEPAL
The ministry of magic was a large building. The largest in Kathmandu, Nepal's magical community. It was built into a mountain that stood at the centre of the village and took up much of the mountain's interior. For such a small community, they needed a lot of administration. So when Japan's attack began, it was no wonder that it took the Minister at the top— known as the Grand Abbott close to an hour to find out that some of the lower levels of his building were no longer under his control.
When the prisons had been coopted, an alarm bell began ringing in his office. That was the time that the man, known in this life as Rudra Sangpo stood from his desk and removed his wand from within his robes. He had foreseen this day coming since the day the Japanese orchestrated that false flag attack in the middle of England's magical school and ensured that Europe would be placed out of the war to come.
"Have the students evacuated. Use plan Beta 79." He instructed Divya as he walked from the office and began to make his way to his private warded elevator.
"What about the Defenders?" He asked Jeevan, his second assistant.
"No reports from them so far, Sir," He said, speaking into his radio.
"Take me there," He said, walking into the elevator and closing his eyes. He reached into his mental palace. This was a day that had been coming for a while and one that he had prepared for. He felt spells come to mind, spells, wards, matrixes, and formulas come to mind from five different lifetimes. He was not the first to hold this position, and by the grace of the Vishanti, he would not be the last.
There was a ding as the elevator stopped moving and then swung open. He stepped out, waving his wand to lock it.
"Sir?" He heard Jeevan ask.
"You are no fighter, Jeevan, my boy. Go back. Join Divya in organizing the evacuation. Live to fight another day," He said, before turning around.
He walked straight through the false wall and came face to face to devastation. He could see his people, his strongest soldiers, his defenders, being slaughtered in their dozens. A beast of some sort roared and began running in his direction.
A wave of his wand forced it to a stop. He took a step closer, peering into its eyes. He could see the man behind it. A werewolf forced into this state by the wickedness of the Japanese. He sighed as he reaped his soul from his body. "Rest in peace, good one," he whispered as he took a step to the next attacker.
This one was a Japanese wizard. He wielded his magic like a club, and Rudra wielded his like a scalpel. In an exchange of spells, he cleaved the man's skin from his flesh and then his head from his body. He looked across the room. His people were presenting a defence but it was being overrun slowly and surely. If he wanted to put this to an end, then he had to cut the snake's head off.
"Matsuhito" He screamed at the man who had the head of his Defenders under his spell.
"If it isn't Rudra Sangpo the sixth. Come closer let me put an end to your unnatural existence."
A/N: Yes, we jumped to a new character POV here. Did you enjoy it? Next two up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.