Of Mind and Magic

Chapter 1

Ten-year-old Hadrian Grey stood on the marble steps of Gringotts Bank, a bank run by goblins, short greedy creatures with leather like skin, dark eyes, long nimble fingers, and an insatiable love for gold.

His icy blue eyes flicked to the cobblestone street of Diagon Alley, as another building disappeared in a puff of displaced air, leaving a square of upturned earth where it once stood.

A cool wind weaved through his dark red hair, pulling at his black T-shirt. He shoved his hands into his jeans, the tips of his fingers like ice.

Stepping down a step, he swept his head from left to right. Most of the buildings were gone, only leaving the owl emporium, the leaky cauldron, and a few of the shops in Knockturn Alley, a place where the unsavory did business. Even with most of the inhabitants gone, liquid shadows clung to the alley, hiding its interior.

Backing up to the top of the stairs, he glanced at the golden double doors. His mother, Lily Joan Evans née Grey was inside with the magical world moving to the dimension of otherworld, his mother had taken a new job with MI thirteen to protect London. She had come here to get their finances straightened out as well as take care of some family business. He had no idea what that last bit meant.

His mother said hiding wasn't the answer, they needed to rise up and embrace the changes in the world, but with aliens, gods, and mutants becoming more prevalent, he could understand the wizarding world's fear, especially since a lot of it hadn't changed since the Middle-Ages.

Rain began to fall. With a force of will, a translucent blue dome appeared above his head. Murmurs echoed from inside the bank. The people closest to the doors shuffled further inside.

Keeping his gaze locked forward, he released a breath. This would be one of the things he didn't miss about the magical world. He was what they feared, a mutant with magical abilities, his magic was woven so tight with his mutant gene, it created something never before seen, a new type of magic, Psionic magic.

He could manipulate magical energies at will allowing him to do things a normal witch or wizard could only dream of. Granted it didn't help him with stuff like runes, or potions, but with his mother having a masters in those as well as several other branches of magic, it wasn't like he was hurting for a teacher.

He glanced in the doorway as the sounds of clicking heels grew louder. Lily Grey strode towards him, her braided black hair draped over the left shoulder of her crimson robes. Her blue eyes locked onto him, her red lips curling, "You actually stayed here the entire time?"

"With people's fear of me, I would hate for you to have to arrest me for disturbing the peace, Miss Head of magical law enforcement."

Lily's tan narrow face twisted, she glanced down at the silver badge pinned to her left breast. Slender fingers rose and unpinned the badge before tucking it into a pocket, "Won't need this anymore?"

They began walking down the stairs, Harry's dome extending to cover his mother, even though she was a good nine inches taller than him. "Are you going to miss it?"

"What?"

"The magical world."

Lily shook her head, "No, I always felt my job as head of magical law enforcement limited me on what I can do for the world. Besides," her lips curled, a twinkle appearing in her eyes, "There are other magical worlds besides the one in Britain, maybe when you get older I'll show you some of them."

Harry nodded, keeping his eyes locked forward.

Lily exhaled, the magical world's fear of her son's abilities, and the rest of the world's general distrust of mutants left him closed off, his scary intuition when it comes to magical things didn't help them make friends, especially since that intuition seemed to carry over to the mundane sphere of things.

Reaching out an arm, she wrapped it around his shoulders, pulling him closer to her. Maybe in a few more years, after mastering his abilities, she would show him some of the other magical worlds, hopefully meeting other unique individuals would bring him out of his shell.

However, he had to master his abilities first; she needed to know that he was able to protect himself. He was well on his way to gaining a mastery in potions and runes. He even started combining it to do rudimentary alchemy, but it wouldn't be enough for some of the things out there.

Her lips quirked, he thought she didn't know, but she could sense the magical energies being used late at night when he was supposed to be in bed.

She opened her mouth to ask him how his project was going, but a chirping sound in her ear cut her off. Unwrapping her arm from her son, she pressed the small silver disc set into her ear, "This is Grey."

"Grey," the silky voice of Peter Wilson said in her ear, causing a cold shiver to run down her spine, the man unnerved her, she could never quite figure out what his end game was. "There's some kind of tentacle monster attacking Saint Mungo's. We need you to go there and investigate, we would send the others, but their teamed up with Captain Britain right now."

"So, I have no backup, and you want me to go investigate an unknown threat?"

"Welcome to MI thirteen."

Lily cursed as the line went dead.

"I could help you know."

Light blue eyes turned to chips of ice, "Absolutely not! You are to go straight home."

Harry shrugged and Lily bent down placing a kiss on his forehead, "I love you. I'll be home later."

With a crack of displaced air, she was gone.

Harry stared at the spot his mother disappeared for a solid minute. He then drew a circle in the air with his pointer finger. Where his finger traced, light blue energy was left behind. When the circle was complete a portal to the stark white halls of Saint Mungo's hovered in the air before him.

Harry stared at the portal before him, his mother was a magical law enforcement officer, according to his mother his father was a mundane cop. A man who hid his powerful psychic abilities in order to work with his fellow officers to solve some of the toughest crimes.

He barely had memories of the man, but both of them had had a desire to make the world a better place. He was not sure if he wanted to follow in their footsteps or not, but he was not letting his mother face some unknown creature alone.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the portal, the moment he crossed the threshold, it sizzled shut behind him.

–XX –

Stepping out of the portal, the scent of disinfectant hit his nose. Light blue energy covered his body like a second skin. His own unique mix of magic and psychic energy burned through his body, enhancing his physical abilities.

The building shook, sending cracks crawling down the pale white walls.

Reaching out with his mind, he tried to sense his mother. He staggered backwards, her magic burning in his mind like a small sun. He took a step to the right, ready to follow the hallway to his mother's battle.

A spike of fear stabbed into his mind, making him pause. For a moment he stood there, what would his parents do? Would they go directly to him, or would they help someone in need? He didn't know the answer, but with his mother's power, he knew she could handle herself.

Turning, his grey tennis shoes skated along the smooth white floor as he made his way towards the fear burrowing into his mind. The building shook again, the cracks in the walls becoming wider. Bits of tile fell from the ceiling to shatter on the floor.

He glanced into each room as he passed. The rooms were simple. Iron bed frames supported thick mattresses.

A table beside each bed with another underneath the room's window. Every room he passed the beds were empty, the sheets disheveled like the occupant had left in a hurry, so he had to wonder who on earth was still here and why didn't they leave?

Approaching a set of white double doors, he tried to peer through the rectangular windows, but the fractured glass showed him nothing but his own multiplied visage.

With a flick of his finger, a jet of power raced towards the doors, slamming them open with a resounding bang. Striding into the room, he peered around him.

More iron frame beds lined the walls, tables sat in between each bed. Small wilted plants sat on some of the tables, slowly decorating the tops with their wilting leaves.

Following the spike of fear, Harry found a tall pretty blonde woman with delicate pale features, and vacant blue eyes huddled in a corner. Her pale blue eyes stared at nothing, chapped pink lips muttered words he couldn't quite make out as he drew closer.

"Miss, are you all right?"

The woman's eyes snapped to him, her gaze seeming to pierce his soul even through the strands of hair shielding her face.

He staggered back as the psychic probe slammed into his barriers. His eyes widened, this woman is a telepath. Her natural magic must be enhancing her mutant ability.

With her probe failed, life seemed to come into the woman's eyes. Now that he knew what to look for, he sensed her psychic presence withdraw back into herself.

He shook his head, how long had she been here, listening to the thoughts of everyone around her. No wonder she looks frayed, anyone would be at the edge of sanity with so many voices in their head.

"Miss, could you tell me who you are? Why haven't you left?"

The building shook, jagged cracks splitting the floor apart.

The woman screamed. The wall she was leaning against giving way.

Harry took a deep breath. This was not what he had in mind when he followed his mother. He was just expecting to see her kick some bad guy arse. Letting the breath out through his nose, he stretched forth his hand, wrapping his power around the woman, while simultaneously probing her mind.

Normally this would be difficult to do to another telepath, especially one of her level, but the fear coursing through her mind, and the lack of mental shields made it easy.

She was Selena Lovegood a very talented enchantress. She was working on a new way of instantaneous travel when she accidentally tore a hole in reality. Something from another dimension reached out and touched her, awakening her latent mutant genes but also making her its anchor on our plane of existence.

"Shuma-Gorath," he muttered, causing Selena's eyes to snap down to him as he murmured the name. Securing an arm around her waist, he locked eyes with her lamenting his lack of height.

"You said his name," she rasped in a voice that sounded like it hadn't been used in any volume for quite some time, "Shuma-Gorath," she shuddered, "the dark god." She leaned down madness creeping back into her eyes, "he plans to use our world, but Annataz will save us," she nodded, "she is strong, she will make him go away."

"Who is…?"

He stopped in his mind's eye, he saw his mother, her body made of multicolored energy, but something was wrong, a tentacle made of shadow had punch through her body, it flailed lifting her off the ground.

"No," he screamed, his eyes burning a luminescent blue. His power flared out from him, warping the world around him. When it faded, he and Selena stood beneath his mother, the dark green tentacle buried through her stomach still holding her in the air.

Not willing to accept his mother was so gravely injured, he followed the tentacle down to the main body. The creature looked like a giant squid, multiple green tentacles fanning out from his body, a single pink eye in the center of its mass locked onto him.

"Harry!" His mother screamed, but he ignored her. His attention solely focused on the creature that was trying to take the only parent he had left away from him.

Releasing Selena, he barely noticed her scamper away to crouch in the far corner, her light blue eyes locked on the creature that had driven her mad.

His gaze traced the creature, his psychic power showing him the dark aura wafting off the creature. A faint echo of the power trailed off linking to Selena.

That's right. Selena was his anchor in this world. The only way to truly beat him would be to sever that anchor. A spell diagram flashed in his mind, it was based on a demon banishing ritual found in one of his mother's books. He'd been converting it into runic script. He just hoped it was powerful enough to work.

The creature roared, shaking the building. The air from its mouth smelled like old meet. Bile rose in Harry's mouth as the wind tugged at his clothes. His gaze flicked to his mother, taking in her paling form. Pushing down his discussed, he began the ritual.

Putting his hands together, Harry drew them apart. Strings of blue energy connected his fingers weaving into three circles of rectangular runes, each growing smaller towards the center. In the center was an upside down triangle made of curving circular runes.

A tendril of power snaked out from the triangle, plucking a pale blonde hair from Selena's head.

The tendril withdrew, settling the hair in the center of the triangle.

Shuma-Gorath launched three of its tentacles at him, each one stiff the points acting like spears.

For a moment, Harry froze, he couldn't move, if he moved the ritual he was holding together would collapse and he wouldn't be able to send Shuma-Gorath back, but if he didn't move he would die. He swallowed, his legs shaking.

A shout of intelligible words snapped him back to reality. The tentacles froze, an aura of purple energy holding them in place. Harry glanced up at his mother, sweat poured down her face, her right arm outstretched, the fingers of her right hands splayed.

Despite having a tentacle rammed through her stomach, she was still mentally strong enough to cast the spell to save his life.

"Finish it Harry!"

With a force of will, he sent the runic circles forward. The ritual slammed into Shuma-Gorath just below his eye.

He screamed at the impact, his body lurching backwards. The runes rotated a black oily tendril of power shimmered into existence, revealing the connection he had with Selena. Reaching out a hand laced with light blue energy; Harry squeezed the tendril his face scrunching up at the undying hunger he felt in it.

Applying more pressure the stream of dark power shattered. Shuma-Gorath screamed as his connection to this world was severed, the runes now burned into his body rotated in the opposite direction, pulling him out of their reality is if he was sucked through a tube.

As Shuma-Gorath vanished, Lily plummeted to the floor. Reaching out with his power, Harry caught his mother, nearly falling as her weight settled onto his mind, the exhaustion of the whole ordeal hitting him like a meteor.

Dropping to his knees beside his mother, he stretched forth his hands over her stomach, trying to convert his unique mixture of psychic and magical energy into healing energy, his hands shook a faint aura of green energy flickered around his hands then died.

He shook his hands, "Come on," he shouted, "work!" His voice cracked at the end.

"It's no use baby," Lily whispered, a steady pool of blood growing beneath her body, "you've exhausted your energy it will take a while for it to return, but by then it will be too late."

Dread settled in the pit of his stomach and tears burned in the corners of his eyes. His mother had always been honest with him, even when it hurt, but for once, for the first time in his ten years of life, he wished she would lie to him.

"No," he croaked tears streaming down his face, "I can't lose you too. I can't be alone, please."

A sad smile settled on Lilly's face, she raised her hand cupping his cheek. "I've already cheated death once baby, but eventually everyone has to pay their due. Now, it's time for me to pay mine."

"What are you talking about?"

Lily coughed spraying blood down her chin. Taking a moment to regain her breath, she stretched out a tendril of power connecting it with her son's chest. The world lurched sideways, and Harry found himself somewhere else.

–XX –

When he regained his footing, he was standing in his family living room. A glass coffee table, its top held in place by a twisted metal frame sat at his knee. Just behind him was a large black leather couch. On the other side of the table was a large mantle decorated with baby pictures, their silver frames glinting in the pale white light coming through the window.

The sensation of a thousand spiders running across his skin traced up his body, he twitched clenching and unclenching his hands trying to get rid of the feeling, but persisted. A cold shiver ran down his spine, causing goose flesh to rise on his skin.

His mother shimmered into existence on the couch one leg crossed over the other an apologetic smile gracing her features, "Sorry about the discomfort, being connected to the dying is never pleasant."

Harry moved over to sit beside his mother, "Mom, where are we?"

Lily looked at him with watery eyes, offering him a sad smile. She slipped a hand into his, "I merged our minds so we can have a little more time together."

Desperation filled Harry's gaze, "There must be something we can do? You're the only family I have left."

Lily shook her head, "That's not exactly true?"

"What do you mean?"

Lily shook her head. "We'll get to that in a moment. Right now, I want you to know the history of my side of the family; I want you to know the legacy you'll be responsible for."

Nerves roiled in Harry's stomach. A feeling of anticipation settled on his shoulders. His parents never talked about their family, he knew his father was a mutant.

He assumed his mother was too, considering the strong connection she had to magic, other than that he didn't know much about his family. He knew his father came to England to escape American persecution of mutants, but other than that nothing.

Seeing her son waiting Lily took a deep breath, squeezing his hand, "My name isn't Lily Joan Grey. My true name is Annataz Arataz, daughter of John Arataz, and I am a Homo Magi, a race born in an entirely different multi-verse."

Harry sat there stunned, his eyes wide. He had heard of the multi-verse theory, a theory in which small or large choices created a parallel universe. He didn't know whether he believed it, but hear was his mother telling him she came from another multi-verse, he doubted she would spend her last moments lying to him. "How?" he breathed

"I come from a world of criminals," she looked away, "I'm ashamed to say back in my old life I carved out a place for myself among that criminal empire. I was the most powerful magic user on my world, but there were others with even greater power."

"Lois Lane, Superwoman, an Amazon blessed with the powers of a god, Ultraman, an alien who drew enough power from the radioactive remnants of his home world to move planets, then there was John Jones, a Martian, and finally Alexander Luther, the most powerful of all these forces, he was blessed by a mystic lightning. Anyone he killed, he absorbed their powers completely. That along with his genius level intellect made him the most dangerous."

"Together we did horrible things," her gaze hardened, "and eventually we paid the price."

"A being known as the Anti-Monitor attacked our world. The people I previously mentioned," she sneered, "the crime syndicate tried to fight him. They were swatted away like flies."

"After their defeat, they came to me proposing that we use science and sorcery to create a bridge between worlds and escape our fate. I didn't really want to die, especially not by the hands of the anti-monitor, so I agreed."

"For months Alexander Luther, Ultraman, and I combined our expertise, creating a golden skull with Ruby eyes to be our Noah's Ark," she flicked her hand, causing a translucent image of the skull to float over the coffee table, "The skull would use a combination of advanced science and magic to bend the fabric of reality, creating a portal to a world we would escape to. However, shortly after its creation we realize that it would require more power than we could produce in the world's current state."

She shook her head, "It was then I was reminded of something very important."

"What was that?"

Dropping her hand, the image winked out, "never trust the Crime Syndicate. With the job done, Ultraman and the rest of his cohorts imprisoned Alexander. They then activated a failsafe, absorbing me into the skull, planning to use my very soul to power the portal that would place our Ark on another world."

Harry choked, soul magic was one of the most unpredictable branches of magic there was. "How is it possible they could place a spell like that in the Ark?" he asked ending the question with uncertainty at the last word.

His mother leaned back into the couch, pulling him with her, "I was foolish. My second-in-command John Constantine made a deal with the syndicate. If he imprisoned me to help power the arks journey into a new world, they would bring him with them," she shook her head. "The fool, the Crime Syndicate was never going to keep their word."

Leaning into his mother's shoulder, Harry inhaled her scent, realizing this may be the last time he gets to do so. She smelled of roses and ozone. Raising his head slightly, he looked into her eyes, "If you were imprisoned in the skull, how are you here?"

A grin split his mother's face, "I had a failsafe, the moment I entered the skull, I was supposed to be injected into the other reality, with the skull exploding behind me, but instead I was injected into something called Hyper time," she shook her head, "don't ask, because I still don't know what it is. I only know the name because I saw speedsters from within Hyper time refer to it."

"For what seemed like years, I floated in hyper time, watching my other dimensional counterpart, Zatanna Zatara, live a more fulfilling life. Despite the tragedy of losing her father, just as I had, she was able to find happiness."

"After seeing the consequences of my choices, I resolved if I ever got out of hyper time, I would make better choices and make up for the sins of my past," she squeezed his hand, "I think I've done that, you are my redemption Harry, the greatest thing I've done in both my lifetimes."

"Thanks mom," Harry muttered staring down at his lap. She was the most powerful magic user in her world. He had just been coasting by on his talent. He needed to live up to her legacy.

Despite knowing time was short and wanting to talk about something else, he had to know, he cleared his throat, "How did you get out of hyper time?"

Lily raised her shoulders, "I honestly don't know. A wave of dimensional energies rocked hyper time, and then a great source of magic tore open a hole in reality. I fell through, along with some others. The trip into this reality, caused my body to regress, I was found at the age of two by Martha and Saul Evans. You know the gist of the rest."

"So, basically I'm an alien."

Lily snorted, "If you want to get technical, yes."

"What do you want me to do with this information mom?"

"I don't care what you do with it, but you had a right to know your history, and considering the circumstances."

Despair slammed into Harry like a runaway train, "Is there nothing we can do?"

"I won't lie to you, there is some magic that can save my life, but I won't have you stain your soul for me, I won't have you walk down my old path."

Harry opened his mouth to tell his mother he would walk down any path if it meant saving her life and not being alone in the world, but was cut off by a powerful wave of magic,

His mother jerked up her body tense, "Our times up, someone's here."

Before Harry could say anything, the world lurched sideways again.

–XX –

Harry gasped the scent of antiseptic filling his nose as he took in a lungful of air. For a split second his body seized as he felt his mother's pain through their connection, her entire midsection was nothing but fire.

Then the cold grasp of death slithered through his body. The magical tendril attaching him to his mother vanished leaving behind slight tremors that shook his body.

After a moment, the tremors faded. He looked to his mother, but her light blue eyes were locked on something behind him. Slowly, he turned.

Standing behind him was a man. The lips of his heavily tan shriveled face pressed in a thin line as he surveyed the battle scene. His long pointed white beard twitched as one corner of his mouth curled, he opened his squinting eyes, revealing a dark brown.

"You have both done well to take out Shuma-Gorath," he said in an aged but strong voice that conveyed power and wisdom.

"Who are you?" Lily asked her voice surprisingly strong.

The man's gaze fell on her, his body shrunk beneath the gold embroidered crimson cloak draped across his shoulders. "My dear child, I am so sorry we arrived too late."

Lily glared at him, her face becoming paler with each second, "That… Doesn't… Answer my question," she panted.

"My name is Yao, I am the current sorcerer supreme of earth."

"Well Yao, you've been doing a sucky job. I thought the sorcerer supreme was supposed to stop stuff like this from happening."

Yao's thin wrinkled hands curled into fists. "Someone with extraordinary power is tearing holes in reality, weakening the membrane between worlds as a whole," he glanced over at Selena, "Making it possible for Miss Lovegood to accidentally tear a hole to another dimension."

Harry's lips pressed together, once he was strong enough. He would make the person doing this pay.

"So," Lily asked her voice just a breeze, "what happens now?"

Harry glanced at his mother, he may not have had medical training, but he could see death encroaching, her skin was paper white, her carotid artery barely moved, and her eyes were becoming glassy.

"That depends on you. I owe you a boon for defeating Shuma-Gorath."

Harry glanced at the ancient one, a spark of hope leaping in his heart.

"I don't suppose you could fix me up?"

The ancient one shook his head, "I'm afraid not, Shuma-Gorath's dark power interferes with my own abilities, by the time his energy disperses, you will be dead."

Lily inclined her head, "I figured as much, then to repay my boon, I want you to train my son," Harry's gaze snapped to his mother, "Help him harness his unique abilities."

The ancient one inclined his head. "It will be done."

Harry moved closer to his mother, cutting a path through the pool of blood. Trying to ignore the life-giving liquid soaking through his jeans, he stared into her eyes, "mom, I don't want to leave you," he shook his head, "not like this."

"Baby, I've got seconds, a minute at most left. You need to become strong to survive in this world. The ancient one can help you with that. Because of the magic of my boon, he will not be able to hurt you, and with the magical world moving to otherworld, this is the only option."

She reached her trembling hand into the pocket of her robes, pulling out an envelope sealed with the Gringotts insignia. "When you've finished your training, opened this, it will reveal to you the family you have left."

Gripping the envelope, Harry opened his mouth to ask why he couldn't just go to family, but his time was up, his mother's eyes drifted closed, the vein in her neck stuttered to a stop.

"Mom," he asked in a quavering voice, "mom," he repeated a little louder. He shook his head, repeating know over and over again, tendrils of blue power rising from his body.

With a scream, the building shook, the tile floor exploded, the pieces reduced the powder.

The ancient one raised his hand, conjuring a golden oval-shaped shield in front of himself and Selena. When Harry's body fell forward, shaking with sobs, he dropped the barrier.

With a gesture, he sent Selena back to her family, the damages done by her accident repaired. Another gesture and a circular portal opened behind them, its edge is dancing with golden fire.

Moving forward, he placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, "Hadrian, I am sorry for your loss, but we must go."

Slowly, Harry rose to his feet, moving on autopilot into the unknown.