A/N: I'm writing this as future material/setup for a big crossover I'm planning, but if I get the right kind of response, I'll continue it. And probably even if I don't. I write for writing's sake. Mostly. It's still nice to get reviews, though.
Slight OOC, will be either corrected, explained away or forgotten in later chaps.
This starts at chapter seventeen of book two of Harry Potter and before the beginning of the Nerissa arc of W.I.T.C.H., between issues 15 and 16. Enjoy!!!
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Harry Potter: Keeper of the Dark Heart
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Chapter 1: Is That Really Harry?
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, which belongs to J.K. Rowling, or W.I.T.C.H., which belongs (I think) to Disney and an Italian lady. This is based on the comic book version of W.I.T.C.H., not the cartoon version, or the kiddy book version. Strangely, the only spot on the planet that doesn't get the comics seems to be the US. The graphic novel is a pathetic alternative. I am not doing this for money. I ask any relatives reading this to never bring it up in my presence or I will cut you off from my will.
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Deep within the Chamber of Secrets, near the end of second year….
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"She won't wake," a soft voice said.
Harry didn't react as he lay Ginny gently down on the ground, before rising. He knew who, what was behind him, knew since he entered the Chamber that he and Ginny weren't alone. Slowly, he turned around, looking at the tall, black-haired boy leaning against the nearest pillar. Or at least, what looked like a boy. Even to normal eyes, he would have looked slightly blurred around the edges. But to Harry, it was obvious what he was. And, more importantly, who he was.
"Tom Riddle," Harry said. "Or do you prefer I call you Lord Voldemort?"
Riddle's eyes widened in surprise.
Harry allowed himself a crooked half-smile. "What? You didn't think I know? I knew what you were the moment I stepped within a few meters of you. But I'll indulge you. Let's pretend I have no idea who or what you are. How would you introduce yourself to me. What are you?"
"A memory," Riddle said quietly, not taking his eyes off Harry. His gaze pierced as he tried to see inside the Potter boy. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."
Harry glanced briefly at the little black diary near the giant statue's toes. "Just a memory? So modest. You're not going to admit you're a piece of soul?"
This time Riddle wasn't able to stop his jaw from dropping. "How-?"
Harry's half-smile grew a tad bigger. "That's for me to know and for you to find out."
Harry began to pace back and forth between Riddle and Ginny. "Let me see if I understand everything. Ginny somehow came into the possession of your diary at some point this year. Probably before me. She was the one who stole it from our dorm. She's been writing into it all year, and you were responding. You were sympathetic, you were kind."
Harry looked at Riddle, and the look in his eyes should have fried the memory on the spot. "You seduced her. You fed on her secrets, her soul, and started feeding yourself into her. You had her open the Chamber of Secrets, had her strangle the school roosters and write those threatening messages on the wall."
Harry turned away from the even more open-mouthed younger incarnation of Voldemort, and started pacing again. "She didn't know, of course. I suspect her memories of those times you possessed her are blanked out. Eventually, she stopped trusting her diary. Women's Intuition probably." A ghost of a smile twitched on Harry's lips. "But when she tried to dispose of it, I found it. And she became afraid that whatever she told you, you'd tell me. So she took it back. That must have made you mad, finding her the next person writing when so wanted to talk to me. So you used Ginny as bait. Made her write a little farewell and carted her off down here. You drained, are still draining, the life out of her. That's the only way you could get out of the book. All to meet me."
Harry stopped pacing and looked at Riddle again, an amused glint in his eyes. "I'm almost flattered you went to so much trouble. So tell me. What does the mighty Heir of Slytherin want with little 'ole me?"
Riddle's mouth flapped open and shut repeatedly before he managed to say anything. "H-how do you know all this?" he said, voice shaking.
Harry smiled, an enigmatic smile so close to the one Dumbledore wore it was frightening. "You're not the only one good at getting into other peoples minds. I take it you have questions for me? Ah, yes, there they are. How did a little baby like myself manage to defeat the- how are you phrasing it?- 'greatest wizard of all time'? My, you certainly think a lot of yourself."
Harry looked at Riddle directly and his smile became more reminiscent of one of the Weasley twins. "Wouldn't you and the rest of the world like to know? All I'll tell you is that the reason you couldn't kill me is because of a factor you didn't expect."
"What factor?" Riddle demanded.
Again the enigmatic smile. "Love. My mother sacrificed her life to protect me. That's the factor. Love… and the power of the Heart."
Riddle opened his mouth, but whatever he intended to say was lost as music began to drift down from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare at the empty chamber as Harry closed his eyes, swaying slightly to the music, which was growing louder. It was eerie, spine tingling, unearthly; Harry felt it filling his heart, 'til he thought it would burst.
When the music reached its peak, flames erupted on top of the nearest pillar, and a crimson bird the size of a swan appeared, with a glittering golden tail, gleaming talons, and a ragged bundle in its grip.
"Phoenix song is so wonderful, don't you think so?" Harry asked pleasantly as the bird flew straight at Harry, dropping the bundle at his feet before perching on his shoulder.
"That's a phoenix.." Riddle said, staring at it.
"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. I understand how you got such good grades in school," Harry said with just the faintest mocking tone as he stroked Fawkes' head.
"And that, that's the old school sorting hat," Riddle continued, missing the tone as he gazed at the bundle with no little disgust.
"Show some respect," Harry said. "That thing's older than you are."
Riddle smiled, a twisted smile, and he started to laugh. It echoed though the chamber, sounding as if ten of him were laughing at one.
"Nice acoustics," Harry said unconcernedly.
"That is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat!" Riddle laughed harder.
"He didn't send them," Harry said. "I called for them, right Fawkes?"
He looked at the bird on his shoulder, who bobbed his head as if nodding.
Riddle didn't seem to hear, however, and Harry waited patiently for him to stop laughing.
"Alright, on to business," Harry said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. "In case you don't know how this works, I'll explain it to you: you try to kill me-again!- and I beat the stuffing and humiliate you, just like last year and eleven years ago. Just to make things even, I'll let you use my wand. You already have there-" Harry pointed at his hand,"- so I don't have to give it to you. Now why don't you call your little pet Basilisk, just to liven things up?"
Riddle looked at him like he was insane.
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A little while later, Harry grimaced as he pulled the Basilisk fang from his arm, trying to ignore the pain emanating just above his elbow. He'd gotten overconfident, believed he'd be alright after Fawkes had blinded the Basilisk, that he'd played with it, until a lucky strike had allowed it to pierce him just above the elbow even as his flames incinerated it inside and out.
MAN, this hurt!!!!!
Ignoring what was left of the Basilisk as it sank into the pool at Slytherin's feet, Harry turned towards Riddle. Or, at least, tried to. His eyes weren't working so well, and the room was becoming a dull blur. Slowly, to be sure, but his version of the Gift- or should it be Curse?- of Xin Jing wasn't really meant to deal with this level of poisoning.
A patch of scarlet swam past and Harry heard a weight settle on his shoulder. Fawkes. Without hesitation, he moved his elbow closer to the Phoenix's head.
"You're dead, Harry Potter," Riddle said as he came closer. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows…"
Riddle trailed off as Fawkes' tears fell on the wound on Harry's arm.
Harry flexed said arm. "You were saying?" It was completely healed.
When Harry raised his hand and the wand flew straight to it, Riddle finally realized he was in trouble.
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Harry waited for the shard of soul in the diary-horcrux to be completely destroyed before he pulled the basilisk fang out of it. He knew Ginny would be alright: the drain on her life force had stopped when he had completely destroyed the soul. Drawing on the power of the Dark Heart, he encased her in a bubble, keeping her unconscious. He wasn't really sure how he did up it. Oh, on some level he knew; he just couldn't be bothered to think about it. He was grateful that the Dark Heart, like its counterpart, knew what to do when he asked it to do something.
Only when he was completely sure Ginny wouldn't wake up and that he was alone- except for Fawkes, of course- did he allow himself the luxury of collapsing. He curled up in a ball, knees drawn to his chest, and started to shake.
"What have I done Fawkes?" he said, eyes clenched shut.
It was a rhetorical question. He knew exactly what he had done. He had killed- again. The first time, it had been Quirell. Now, it was the basilisk and Tom Riddle. Granted, he had destroyed the soul in the horcrux, but it pretty much amounted to the same thing.
The phoenix rubbed his head on Harry's shoulder. What you had to do, young one. What you had to do.
Harry said nothing. Instead, he sat in the silence, seeing the history of the Chamber of Secrets...
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The Oracle's eyes opened from his meditations as he felt something at the extreme edge of detection. Finally, he had what he sought. He had been searching for it for nearly three Earth years, even before the Guardians were activated. Something that threatened the very existence of Kandrakar itself.
Granted, anything that needed the Guardians to fix tended to be like that, but what the hey.
The thing was very good at hiding itself, but in this instance, the Oracle had been lucky, very much so. He doubted he would be able to find the thing himself if needed, but he didn't need to. Now that he had proof it really did exist, action could be taken.
Rising from his seated position, he left the chamber he had been meditating in.
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"What's all this about, Grandma?" Hay Lin asked as she and the other Guardians followed the old woman through the halls of Kandrakar.
"The Oracle has called a meeting of the Hall regarding a threat to Kandrakar," Yan Lin explained, her lined face looking uncharacteristically serious.
"So what else is new?" Irma said, her arms crossed and looking bored.
And she had a point. This wasn't something unusual. Have a mess, call the Guardians. Downright predictable, actually.
"Quit it, Irma. Let's see what the deal is before we make up our minds," Taranee said.
"Why bother?" the Guardian of water said. "We know how it's going to happen. There's a problem, we fix it. That's the drill. Meridian taught us that."
Cornelia, for once, didn't answer back with a barb. She was too excited at the prospect of seeing Caleb again.
Entering the Council Chambers, they saw the Oracle already seated in his usual place. The Guardians were about to stand at their usual places in front of him, but a gesture from Yan Lin had them sitting next to her in the benches. They had barely settled when the Oracle spoke.
"Fellow beings, I stand before you to announce a great danger to Kandrakar," The Oracle said, promptly setting of a wave of murmuring.
"So what else is new," Irma mutters before the other Guardians shush her.
If the Oracle heard what she said, he gave no sign of it. "The ancient enemy of Kandrakar has returned. The Dark Heart walks abroad once more."
Yan Lin gasped, fear in her ancient eyes, fear and pain. Around her, the Council dissolves into frightened whispers.
With the Guardians, however, there was only a collective "Huh? Wha?".
The Oracle gestured. "Guardians, come forward."
The five girls looked at each other, shrugging, as they carefully made their way out of the benches and down to stand at their usual spot in front of the Oracle. His usually serene eyes were serious. "You five must know about this danger if you are to confront it, and all of Kandrakar's knowledge of the Dark Heart is at your disposal. Ask, and I shall answer."
The Guardian's eyebrows all threatened to pass their hairlines. That was new. Usually, he said something enigmatic that drove them nuts.
It was Will who spoke first. "No disrespect sir, but why the change? You're not usually this forthcoming about what you know."
"We do not have time for such things now, Keeper of the Heart," the Oracle said gravely. "Now, your only weapon against this enemy is knowledge of it."
"But what's so dangerous about this 'Dark Heart'?" Will persisted.
"It is Kandrakar's most ancient enemy," the Oracle answered. "Its power is opposed to the Heart of Kandrakar, and is as powerful as the Heart itself. The Keeper of the Dark Heart is as powerful as you Guardians, and is your nemesis."
"WHAT?!" Irma said, and the others were no less shocked. "You've got to be kidding!"
The Oracle shook his head sadly. "I kid you not, Guardian. The Keeper of the Dark Heart is as powerful as you five, and the Dark Heart itself possesses the power to destroy Kandrakar."
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Harry Potter looked up at the sky. Although it wasn't the least bit overcast, a feeling of gloom came over him. Instinctively, he raised his hand to the pendant that hung from around his neck from a simple leather-looking cord. It was a dark spherical crystal, seemingly filled with black mist, and framed by an asymmetrical assembly of dark metal. It seemed to pulse with a strange inner light, beating like a heart.
"So," Harry whispered to himself, "they've found me…"
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- To be continued...
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A/N: Damning title, no?
Yes, this is crossed over with W.I.T.C.H.. I'm surprised no one's done it yet. You'd think that, given the number of pinoys who read Harry and the number who read W.I.T.C.H., at least one besides me read both and is a fanfic writer to boot!
Yes, this is a super-Harry fic.
No, this is not a dark-Harry fic. Well, maybe. I can't be sure where the story takes me, as I don't have a specific end in mind. I just like the idea of Harry having a ton of power with no prophecies, weird training, destinies or reincarnations attached. Just a little historical baggage…
Please review, C&C welcome. Heck, even flames are welcome. That means at least it's being read, if not liked.
Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.