[Harry Potter/Dresden Files] The Master of Death, Part IIII

[Harry Potter/Dresden Files] The Master of Death, Part IV

The Master of Death, Part I
The Master of Death, Part II
The Master of Death, Part III

Chapter One:

http://forums.spacebattles.com/showpost.php?p=7064339&postcount=1
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Chapter Two:

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Chapter Three:

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Chapter Four:

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Chapter Five:

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Interlude One:

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Chapter Six:

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Chapter Seven:

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Chapter Eight:

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Almost immediately, the men around him began to cheer, but Harry didn’t join them. Narrowing his eyes, he confirmed what he suspected.

The grey-eyed giant had decided to cut his losses and run.

Narrowing his eyes, Harry thought quickly. It didn’t take him much thought to realize where the giant was going and he Apparated a moment later, reappearing with his back to the magical curtain that kept out the sea.

Right in front of him stood the Giant, face startled as he quickly tried to turn his run into a backpedal away from the enemy that had suddenly appeared in his path.

“Going somewhere?” Harry asked flatly as slashed his wand horizontally, releasing a wave of ghostly purple flames. The Giant, moving with more agility then he would have given something so large credit for, leapt completely out of the way of the flames, turning the leap into a cartwheel to return to his feet.

Frowning after him, Harry lifted his wand again. Slashing his wand vertically, gouges appeared on the ceiling, but the giant had already realized how dangerous it was to be anywhere his wand was pointing and quickly slid out of the way before he was erased.

Harry saw the Giant’s eyes dart around quickly, as if searching for a way out, before his eyes landed on something behind him and narrowed dangerously.

Harry swung his wand toward the giant’s face, intending to relieve him of his head, but the Giant spat something in a hissing, guttural language and a tremendous force hit Harry in the back and knocked him to the floor.

Pressed to the floor by a rushing torrent of water, it took him a moment to organize his thoughts and realize what had happened. Somehow, with either a password or a spell, the Giant had turned off the curtain that was holding the water at bay and with nothing holding it back, the sea was quickly rushing in.

The giant ran towards him, either trying to get out of the building or attack him, and he Apparated out from under the rushing water. Reappearing several meters down the hallway in a vertical position, he couldn’t help but stumbled as the rush of water hit his knees, throwing off the cast spell he cast.

Swallowing his annoyance, he tried to readjust his aim before the giant fled from sight, but in the water, the giant had the advantage of both three-dimensional movement and room to make use of it. The giant grabbed the upper edge of the doorway and pulled him up out of sight before he could hit him.

Unable to repress a snarl, Harry Apparated—

Back into the kitchen.

As much as the mere thought of letting the giant get away pained him, killing him wasn’t Harry’s first priority, no matter how much he wanted to.

He was here to save the captives. Including the warriors who would drown if he left them alone while the water came rushing in.

Appearing amongst them as the water flooded in, he whipped his wand in a wide circle above his head—and a moment before the knee-deep water could reach them, it arced up, curving in mid-air to connect above their heads, and then hardened into a massive crystal orb that shielded the entire group.

“There’s been a change of plans,” Harry said. “We’re getting out of here right now.”

The tip off his wand lit up with a bright green light, sending a silent signal to the transporters down below.

“I’ll go on ahead to get our ride prepared.” He continued. “The others will be coming up momentarily and then we’re going to leave as quickly as possible. I’m going to break this thing into smaller crystals, so break up into groups.”

Apparating out of the sphere, Harry gave them a moment to separate into smaller groups while he gave himself gills again.

“I’ve set your pods to follow me in just a minute. I have to make sure our ride is ready for us, first.” Harry told them as the sphere broke into smaller sets of octopi. “I’ll only be a minute.”

Appearing outside, he quickly looked around, in hopes of finding the giant who’d escaped. He was nowhere to be seen, however, even after Harry Apparated a hundred meters straight up to look around. On the Brightside, no of the other giants flitting about the city seemed to be responding in alarm.

That almost surely wouldn’t last. The giant that had escaped would probably be back soon, likely with a few dozen other giants at his back.

For a moment, Harry gave serious thought to waiting around for them. He could wait invisibly for them to come back and set up an ambush. If he had time to prepare, he could transfigure a number of helpers and then he could introduce those giants to some of the most horrific creatures of the sea.

He wanted too—he couldn’t deny that. He wanted them to pay for the lives they’d stolen and ruined.

But that wasn’t why he was here, was it?

He had people to save. Maybe he could return later, to keep them from hurting anyone else, but here and now he had to concentrate on saving lives.

Entering the giant’s ship, he immediately focused on his first concern and began to make it bigger on the inside. It would need to be large enough to hold everyone and he made sure it was. Then he checked the ships controls, wincing as he didn’t recognize them in the slightest. But then, he’d expected that—and even if he’d known how to steer it, it wouldn’t have changed anything. He couldn’t well steer it himself, when problems were almost guaranteed to arise around the ship. So he began weaving Charms, animating the ship’s controls, readying it to steer itself.

With that done, he opened the ships doors, and saw the first of the transports and the towers doors. He gestured at them to come as he stepped through the ‘curtain’ around the ships entrance, re-entering the water once more.

“Hurry up,” He said in Mermish. “We haven’t got much time.”

At once, the transports responded to their Master’s will and flooded out of the tower. The enter the ship once by one, not getting in each other’s way. For a moment, everything seemed to be going well.

And then, he heard it. A sound like something rushing through the water.

Or a lot of something’s.

Half-knowing what he would find, Harry gave the still boarding transports a glance before Apparating high above, expecting the worse.

He was not disappointed.

A dozen ships, larger and better armed than the one he’d stolen, swam towards them. Around them, one hundred giants, clad in armor, spears and swords of coral in their hands. As they swam, more forces joined their ranks—and leagues behind them far off in the distance, more ships were gathering.

‘How?’ Harry wanted to ask. ‘How did they get ready so quickly?’

It should have taken longer than this to get them all ready. Maybe even an hour or two, since they’d been caught by surprise. Harry had expected them to respond in force, but not like this! With his surprise attack, it shouldn’t have been possible, from a logical point of view!

Yet, here it was. And who was he to speak of logic in the first place? He knew full well how illogical the world could get.

And in the end, how it had happened didn’t matter.

One way or another, their army had come for him.

Hoooo boy.

Now how are you going to deal with this one...

Its Harry Fucking Potter.

It will be dealt with.

Any wizard worth their salt will have at least 3 army killers on twitch cast, 15 army killers ready to cast, and 147 army killers in reserve.

I doubt HarryP is any different.

Shouldn't it be thread IV not IIII?

Tidal waves, giant squids, lightning, entire eldritch souls being wretched from bodies. Stuff of legend.

"He couldn’t well steer it himself, when problems were almost guaranteed to arise around the ship. So he began weaving Charms, animating the ship’s controls, readying it to steer itself."


Now that's a very clever bypass.



Also, maybe they're not reacting to what Harry did? Maybe Harry just had the bad luck of doing his stuff at a time close to when they were all going to assemble, or something?



Also, a thought I had: maybe the favor Harry will ask from the Sidhe he rescued, was a sort of non-interference with humanity? You know, that whole "can't affect mortals unless they make a deal or align with a Court" stuff. Maybe he's the one responsible for setting that up.

That is, assuming that the Sidhe he rescued were really important, or are going to become really important. Since the rescue was thrown into the story for us to read, it probably is significant in some way, but we can't be too sure in just what way.

I think the Fliing Dutchman has just been born...

I don't really know or care whats going on in the story anymore.

You know, he could just do to their ships what he did to his, and cause them all to ram into each other.

Or, failing that, transfigure water into sarin, vaporize it, and send it like a fog of death onto the advancing fleet.

Really, it's fucking easy to kill armies with a little knowledge of transfiguration.

EDIT:

What are your precise problems with the story, exactly?

Its not that the writing has gotten any worse or anything I just have no idea who any of these people are anymore and don't really care because there has been very little dialogue.

I'm really hoping he gets back into a situation where people besides Harry actually have names and personalities instead of just "the giants" or "the prisoners" soon.

That brings up a point, actually. Boudicca, banshee, etc... are they just one time characters? You're introducing a lot of characters...

Weaslys are not exactly the picture of an average pureblood family and we have three separate examples of magitech cars in the canon, so maybe wizards have finally made some regulations for them. Wizarding travel might be easier, but car, larger on the inside than outside, allows you to carry more children to young to apparate and more stuff.

As for the Christmas card, I always thought that there was some post station that collected letters and packs sent in a muggle way to Wizarding World addresses and resend them with owls. Because how the hell else would the Dursley's Christmas "presents" reach Harry in Hogwarts? Do you think Dumbledore sent Moody or someone to pick them up ?

The point is that in my opinion, it would have been out of character for the canon Harry to maintain more than a token presence in the mundane world. Ryuugi's own fanon for this story might say otherwise of course.

Have you forgotten the previous chapters with lot of character from Harry Dresden, his old master, his mother and even from the Gatekeeper? Right now we are in a stranger in strange land narrative situation, where other characters and the whole environment is supposed to look mysterious and alien.

If there is one thing to complain a little about, it's Harry. He has had a century or so off screen character development, that has left him almost completely unrecognizable from his canon self, aside from his "saving people thing", but that is a trait shared by many, many heroes. Most of the time when I'm reading this, it's hard for me to imagine that the protagonist is Harry and not a more ruthless Dumbledore.

I understand that it's necessary for the theme of the story, but how did he became so competent? With his auror experiences, I can understand him maybe becoming as good as Moody, but for him to show such originality and raw power? In Dresdenverse wizards gain power with age, but in Rowlinverse it seems to be entirely inherent. Both Dumbledore and Voldemort showed their genius and power potential when just being students at Hogwarts, but canon Harry is an academic underachiever with admittedly above average magic potential, but nowhere near Dumby or Voldy and who has showed no particular leaning to use spells in new previously unthought ways.

I also never understood why ordinary canon Harry (not fanon super!Harry), is treated as a potential new Dark Lord by some people. Going dark yes, but becoming a Lord takes skill and power. The only one from the original Trio who could pull it off in my opinion would be Hermione, by uniting the muggleborn second class citizens and revolting against the ancien regime. Robespierre Hermione, anyone ?

Now Harry Dresden is your classical super powerful heroic protagonist, but wasn't Harry Potter, if to be completely frank, more like a symbolic figurehead martyr prophesied to destroy evil with the power of love }p.

Yes, it should be. I messed up and can't change it, though.

They're mainly nameless because Harry hasn't really been in a position to sit down and talk to them, yet. A number also have personalities, but running for your lives from a bunch of giants under the sea is not conductive to developing personalities and background stories.

After this chapter, they have a bit more time to breath and they get developed more.

No, they aren't one time. Nor are a number of the other, as of yet unnamed, characters.

I'm to lazy to have done this without it being important.

Moody didn't live as long as Harry. And was, to an immense degree, crippled. And kind of crazy.

And was still considered the greatest Auror of all time until Harry came along, to the point that Voldemort himself considered him very dangerous.

Not...really. HP magic has nothing to do with inherent power; as far as we know, it's all knowledge and skill. Harry has shown that he can be skilled and learn quickly, if motivated enough to do so, and saving people is one of the few things that really motivates him.

Harry's 'ineptness' gets exaggerated by fanon. Like, a lot.

Everyone goes on about his skill with DADA, so I'll largely spar you that. He's really go at it, even as a kid, moving on.

Personally, I think his most impressive skill was in dueling. During the second war, he defeated a number of much more experience Death Eaters. During the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, he was the only one of the six D.A. members to be neither injured nor incapacitated and, along with Dumbledore and Remus, was the only fighter on their side to emerge from the battle physically unscathed. In the same event, he defeated Lucius once and Dolohov twice (the later of which defeated Moody), and held his own with Bellatrix. He defeated Yaxley, Fenrir Greyback, and one of the two Carrows, fought off several Death Eaters in the Battle of the Seven Potters, defeated Thorfinn Rowle with a single spell during the Skirmish at Luchino Café, knocked out Yaxley and Dolores Umbridge during the Infiltration of the Ministry of Magic, overpowered Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy and Fenrir Greyback during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, and avoided direct conflict damage all throughout the Battle of Hogwarts (ensuring that mastery of the Elder Wand did not waver from him). He became an Auror at 17 and was the Head by 2007.

Besides that, he was one of the few wizards we saw who was proficient at the Dark Arts and not a dark wizard, and he used curses, jinxes, and hexes to various degrees, only showing trouble with Crucio (which needed a desire to inflict pain that he just didn't have).

He got an EE in Potions in Fifth Year, which improved greatly in his Sixth, noting that he had no trouble with it while Snape wasn't around. He got an EE in Transfiguration and in Sixth Year McGonagall complemented his skill with transfiguration. He got an EE in Charms and while I won't comment of the Patronus, I will say that he successfully mimiced the Hermione's cast in DH after seeing them a few times. Without getting a license, Harry had mastered Apparition by Sixth Year, even when forced to apparate with only a seconds notice or while guiding others. He even used to to successfully transport both himself and Dumbledore an enormous distances after Dumbledore was weakened, even though he pretty much had no experience in it and Side-along Apparition is supposed to be very, very hard.

He used, on a number of occasions, both wandless and silent magic (and wandless, silent magic), which only Voldemort and Dumbledore were ever shown to do.

In addition to all of that, it was stated by J.K. that Harry could have beaten Hermione in a magical duel any time after about halfway through PoA,.

Now, is Harry at the age of seventeen a match for the seventy-something Voldemort or the hundred-something Dumbledore. No, of course not.

But it's not like he was weak, either. It's just that his arch-nemesis was a badass who had him by a number of decades. That's why DD didn't train him and send him out to fight the guy--he would have gotten his ass hexed into a teacup. This is not Harry's fault; you wouldn't expect someone who was just starting to learn martial arts to take down Bruce Lee, would you?

You can however PM a moderator and politely ask if they can correct the thread title.

Also, as an aside, this story has been an immense pleasure for me to read, and I anticipate what you have in store.

All knowledge and skill? Dumbledore and Voldemort were magical geniuses, but so were Flamel, McGonagall, Flitwick and probably many other, yet it's those two who are called the most powerful wizards "like ever". Clearly, all tough knowledge and skill may help greatly, there has to be some part that's just raw power potential, or most of the wizarding world will seem like lazy underachievers who just "did not try hard enough".

And Voldemort was able to make his accidental magic that happened so often, not so "accidental" anymore and was somewhat guessing about it all being magic, before he knew about Hogwarts, how is it all skill and not raw power bleeding through and forcing itself to be noticed?

Now, because of the actions you reminded me Harry has shown to be capable of, I concede that he might indeed have about the same potential of raw power.

Really? I usually find Mary Sue super!Harry type of fics. The only one with the "ineptness" like you probably mean, that I know about, was Methods of Rationality Author's comment, that Harry's success in the ministry against the Death Ethers was "unrealistic"; and even that story has it's own type of childgenius!Harry.

That he was even capable of crucio without having the proper required mind sate, is proof that he can brute force spells. Same with resisting imperio without having any skill in occlumency.

And most of the time he treated schoolwork as a chore, a price to be paid for being allowed to stay in Hogwarts with his friends and play quidditch, rather than an unique opportunity. Even DADA was more something that just came easy, than a great academic interest.

About both wandless and accidental magic, are you perhaps mixing it with accidental magic, born of uncontrollable emotions? Silent magic is just an advanced skill and wandless one is raw power (which I already conceded Harry has), because wands are the focus needed for magic based on skill.

Yes, raw power beating skill and knowledge.

Alright, I admit that Harry has the potential power to accomplish the feats he has shown in this story and could think up the trick with apparation, (or did someone else invent it first? That is a realistic possibility.) but where did he get the Dumbledore-level skill with charms and transfiguration? Because as I showed I don't buy the skill=power explanation for Rowlingverse.

And about saving people motivating him, wouldn't he probably just swear to "give his best, never give up, fight on" etc and brute force the problems away with overpowering the dueling spells he already knows, rather than think with his head. Harry has shown to have the thought process of your average shonen hero, for most of the time.

Oh, and make no mistake, I like your story very much, I'm just tempted to make the part about your version of Harry Potter's personality and abilities an AU of Rowlingverse in my own mind.

He had to think fast; he started, as he always did, with a check of the current situation.

He was greatly outnumbered and none of the warriors he had with them would be of any use to him in the sea. Everyone he wanted to protect was on a small ship that was almost certainly slower than theirs and just as certainly much less armed. The sea was his enemies domain and if he wanted the men and women he’d rescued to be truly safe, he’d need to take into account that he would have to, at the very least, get them completely out of the water.

He could do that, once he got to the surface and had a chance to work his magic.

But the surface was very, very far away, and getting there meant he’d probably have to go through most of an armada to do it.

Which meant he better not hold back.

With a wave of his wand, the clear water changed slightly in color. At this depth, it was hard to see them, even for him, but he’d conjured a swarm of Box Jellyfish as he retreated and ordered them quickly towards the oncoming swarm. He wasn’t sure of the exact details of giant physiology, but he was pretty sure a bunch of Jellyfish would ruin their day.

Of course, if he ended up to close to them and accidentally brushed against one, it wouldn’t do wonders for his day, either, so he magically ordered them to stay far away from him and put a respectable distance between himself and his creations before starting to enlarge them.

As he continued to retreat towards the boat, he began to conjure more and more creatures. He was careful not to send them to attack, knowing that it would be pointless if he got them to close to the Chironex he’d conjured.

Instead, he conjured them in waves and allowed them to spread throughout certain areas. A wall of tiny Blue-Ringed Octopi that he left the same size, before creating swaths of much larger and more dangerous looking creatures as the next line of defense. Sharks, Stingrays, and Sea Snakes may not generally attack unless provoked, but his control had them ready to kill.

Harry took a deep ‘breath’ through his gills as he lowered his wand for a moment to hitch a ride on a Great White Shark he’d made. He kept his eyes on the approaching giants as they ran into the first line of creations.

Almost immediately, horrible looking red markings spread quickly across the flesh of the foremost giants, as they tried to push roughly past the Boxes of Death and were promptly put in their place for their folly by thousands of microscopic poisonous darts. If they had been normal Jellyfish, pencil thick red lines would have appeared wherever their tentacles had touched.

His creations, naturally, inflicted wounds that were significantly larger than that, leaving agonizing, ropelike marks on the giants flesh.

With them close enough, Harry urged his creations to attack, rather than simply wait, and large tentacles began to brush against the giants in deceptively gentle strokes as the Boxes of Death floated forward. Panic was immediate as mere contact with the creatures caused horrific pain, and for a moment it seemed like they would break rank and scatter—

But a firm, but almost musical voice slid through the army, carrying smoothly through the water.

No…it was like it coming from the water, speaking from the liquid all around them. The sea called out and demanded to be obeyed.

As one, the giants on the frontline moved back away from the Jellyfish and a series of other giants, wearing strange cloaks over shell-like armor, and strange light began to gather around them, before the water started to blur.

Harry looked away, knowing before they even cast their spell what would happen. As he reached the ship, he was pleased to see the last of the transports entering the ship. He had his shark pull up by the doorway.

“Are you the last one?” He asked.

A young boy with slightly tanned skin nodded back and said something that the water distorted. Harry nodded and gestured the doors of the ship shut, before sending a spell whizzing down into the tower to double check, just to be safe. If there was anyone else, he could quickly Apparate them up, but he didn’t receive a reply.

Harry patted his shark’s head and gave it a nod before Apparating up to stand atop the ship. As the shark rejoined its fellows, Harry looked around from his new vantage point, working his jaw.

The giants had annihilated all of his Jellyfish and were making quick work of the larger predators he’d created. He imagined they were still having trouble with the tiny octopi, but they seemed to be bearing the poisons that were running through their systems fairly well—at least in that no one had collapsed yet. It would take at least several minutes for major symptoms to appear, though, if they did at all.

That was fine. He hadn’t really expected the aquatic giants to be unable to deal with the dangers of the sea. It sort of went with the territory, he figured.

They were just there to buy time for everyone to board the ship and they had.

The ship lurched into motion beneath him, slowly beginning to rise, but Harry ignored it. With everyone safely aboard the ship, it was his turn.

Taking one last breath, he prepared himself for what he was about to do, lifting his wand like he was a maestro before an orchestra. He held it there, at rest as the first of the giants broke through, before he dropped it low and then brought it sharply up high, a gesture that demanded response.

The only warning was a roaring, bellowing noise, perfectly audible, even beneath the sea.

And then the Fiendfyre leapt eagerly to its master’s call and he set the sea aflame.

Burn baby burn...

You'r really, really good with the one-liners, you know that?

Yes. Hell yeah baby, Fiendfyre has made its debut and it will not be pretty!

The water is burning!

Also? The image of Harry literally conducting is awesome.

Would he be conducting something more like this or this?

Among the many signs you know you're up against an Epic Caster: They just set water on fire.

Alternatively, someone with large quantities of lithium. Or fluorine .