Potter's Grail War

Chapter 1: Harry in Japan

Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter or Fate

Hope y'all enjoy R&R pls if hate con-crit only

"Those who aim further for others sake. Those who think of others before themselves. …And those who hate themselves more than anyone. These are the qualities of a Magus." -Rin Tohsaka; Fate

(note that Liam Neeson and Rachel Weisz are my flamels, not the oldies from F.B.)

-CHAPTER START-

Harry stared impassively at the Flamels, who stared back at him, Nicolas thoughtfully, but Perenelle incredulously. "You cannot seriously be considering this, Mister Potter! What you intend to enter isn't like anything you've ever done before, short of facing Voldemort himself anyway." she stated in disbelief.

"I'm not only considering it, I'm dead set on it. It's the only method I've found that could bring him back, and I intend to pursue it." Harry responded firmly.

"There is nothing we can do to talk you out of this?" Nicolas double-checked, though he already thought he knew the answer.

"Unless you have another way to bring someone back from the dead, no." Harry shook his head. "My course is set on this, it's something I have to do."

"You do realize even if you manage to pull off the ritual, you would have to kill the other mages and servants to gain your wish, right?" Perenelle asked, deflating slightly, though still trying to talk him out of his plan.

"I've done my research. In the last Holy Grail War, over half the participants were malicious or downright evil. The murderous caster/ master duo. The master, El-Melloi, who felt he was above others simply because his family was ancient. The archer, who claimed the world itself and all its riches belonged to him, and all its people belonged under his heel. The way I see it, if I play defensively and let them kill each other, it will come down to just me and one other servant and master to deal with." Harry elaborated, standing up from the loveseat he was in to stretch his legs.

Nicolas leaned forward on the couch he and Perenelle were sat on and spoke. "That still leaves one team you would have to kill."

"I'm willing to take the risk, it's fifty/ fifty whether or not they'll be good or evil, I'm hoping for evil, hinging everything on the other master and servant being evil, the servant at the very least." he placed his hands on the back of the loveseat and bent over slightly. "But if it's not, I'm willing to bear that sin to bring him back."

"Why? You only knew the man for a few years, how did he become so important that you would commit murder for him." Perenelle asked.

"... Imagine, that for the first eleven years of your life you live in a closet and are verbally and emotionally abused at every opportunity, and physically, albeit rarely. You get a letter to a magical school that gets you away from your horrible family for nine months of the year, but you still aren't safe at the school- no there people want to kill you every year. The only people you can truly count on are your best friends, but they have families they love, and it hurts seeing that, no matter how much the families try to accept you into their niche, that you're lacking that." Harry took a breath.

"Sirius was my family, he was my godfather, the first family member I had that cared for me, that I can remember at any rate. The man loved me like his own son, loved me so much he died coming to my aid because I fucked up and got myself in a situation I couldn't get myself out of. Worse, i'd gotten my friends stuck with me. I could use the wish to bring back my parents, but I don't remember them besides the memory of my mother sacrificing herself for me. As much as I want to see them, Sirius is my family," he made a fist and placed it against his heart. "In here, he filled the void left when my parents died and my aunt and uncle refused to accept me."

"I would have loved my parents had I been able to know them, and I do love them for their sacrifice, but I love Sirius more simply because I got to know the man. But he was taken far too soon. I'm going to do everything within my power to bring him back, and this is within my power, winning this grail war." Harry finished. "But in order to do that, I need to know how to perform the servant summoning ritual. You're a known master of ritual magics, Madam Flamel, so I've sought you out to learn how to do so. I am willing to offer payment for your aid, though I don't know how much money actually means to you considering your husband can make gold, but perhaps we can come to an alternate arrangement."

"Mister Potter, I must admit I am impressed with you," Nicolas stated. "Not only do you seem very clever, after all you were able to deduce that we'd lied to Albus so as to sever ties with him since he felt the need to use what gives us life as bait for a dark lord. Of course, he didn't know that we could make another one, yet you figured it out, even if only as a hunch that could've been proven incorrect."

"You've shown honor, in offering payment for information on what some would simply ask for in goodwill. And you've laid your intentions for walking this path and the reasons for doing so bare before us." Perenelle sighed, realizing the truth in Nick's words and seeing where he was going, trying to remind her that Potter wasn't the usual rabble that bothered them for selfish reasons.

"If my wife does agree to this, would you be willing to trade knowledge for knowledge? Allow us to browse through the Potter library and make copies of books we are lacking? This all hinges on 'Nelle agreeing to this of course." he glanced at his wife.

She seemed to ponder over the topic for a moment before acquiescing. "I find that agreeable, though I still wish I could dissuade you from this course of action. The last grail war ended in a way that destroyed a section of Fuyuki. It's incredibly dangerous, and you seem like a good sort, which is why I'm trying to steer you away from participating. But you seem determined to be foolish, so I'll help you in the hopes that you survive due to my assistance and I can lord it over you upon your return."

"Here's hoping, Madam Flamel." Harry gave her a slight grin. She got up from the couch and left the room, heading to their library to get relevant books that could help him.

The two men sat in silence for a moment, before Nicolas spoke. "You know Mister Potter, I can understand where you're coming from wanting to bring back your father-figure. You stand alone in the world, only your friends even enter into the periphery of your life. You have little you can love, and much love to give. I understand this, as I am similar to you. Perenelle is the one person who I would uproot Heaven, Hell, and the earth between them for. If something happened to her, nothing would stop me from reuniting us. As you have yet to find the love that we share, I can understand you wanting something to latch onto in your life so you aren't as adrift."

"It's not for a lack of trying on the love front, you know," Harry defended himself. "I've dated, just nothing that lasted long. I was even able to make a few friends dating, but it was mutually agreed we were better as just that, friends." he sighed. "You are right, though. It is a lonely world out there, and finding people to share it with is my end goal. Sirius was one of those people until he died."

Perenelle chose that moment to walk back into the room, carrying three books with her. "Right, I have all the information you should need to aid you. One book contains different rituals for summoning servants, one contains the history of previous grail wars and the origin of the wars, and one is an atlas of Japan, so you can familiarize yourself with the territory before going there. I'm assuming the Potter library has enough books on magic that you don't need our help on that front." she glanced at him questioningly as she handed him the books.

"If I need something that isn't in the Potter library, Dumbledore locked down his cottage that he stayed at occasionally and had his brother put it under the fidelius before he died. Aberforth gave me the key and told me Dumbledore gave it to me but didn't want the ministry to know; called it 'a hideaway from the masses' in the letter that came with the key and secret. I only glanced over the library, but there were a lot of old grimoires in there I'm sure have plenty of magic in them." he said, looking over the book about the history of the wars.

"Do you want to go look through the potter library now or after we get back from Japan?" he asked suddenly struck with the thought.

Nicolas thought for a few seconds. "When do you leave?"

"One month from sunday." Harry replied.

"Then we'll come over in a week or so, we'll make sure to write beforehand." Nicolas waved his hand dismissively.

"Alright, thank you both for this, you don't know how much it means to me." Harry gratefully thanked them.

"It was nothing Mister Potter, especially since you're paying us for it."

"Either way, it means a lot to me." he quieted for a moment. "I guess I should be going now, I'll await your letter. Thank you." he awkwardly bid his farewell and thanked them once again before going to the floo and heading back to Potter Manor.

-LINE BREAK-

2 weeks later

"Tell me Harry, where are you planning on staying in Japan?" Perenelle asked from where she was sat at a large rectangular table on the ground floor of the Potter library.

"I bought a house in Fuyuki before I even came to visit you both." Harry admitted, sat across from her and Nicolas. "The Potters already had one in Kyoto but I wanted one closer to where the action would be, figured right in the middle of the action would work. It's nice, much less extravagant than the manor, just a two bed/ two bath with a kitchen and dining room. But… it is on one of the leylines for the area, if only just. I can use it to power any wards I might need to set up."

"Smart of you. I was going to offer you our home for you if you needed it. We purchased a dilapidated shrine just under a century ago and turned it into a home. It's heavily warded as well, but powered by a philosopher's stone because of a lack of a leyline." Perenelle said.

"You can do that? Power them with the stone?"

"Fairly easily in fact, we simply attach it to the ward stone and align the runes to draw from the stone instead of the ambient magic. They don't grow more powerful over time like leyline powered wards, we need to replace the stone about every fifty years but it's a nice way to protect our homes." she explained to Harry.

"Damn… I might want your husband to apprentice me like dumbledore," Harry joked. "Those stones are too useful to not try to learn how to make."

"I wish you luck, Albus was an expert alchemist by the time Nick was done with him, and he still had no clue how to even begin creating one." she gave Harry a challenging grin.

Nick looked up from the book he was focused reading when his name was mentioned, "if you think you've got the brains for it Potter, you've definitely got the magic. But be warned, I'll run you into the ground and then some training you. I'm fairly sure Albus hated me ever so slightly by the time his apprenticeship was over. Though I think the hate was overshadowed by overwhelming relief." he trailed off in mock-thought, making all three of them chuckle slightly.

"An option for when we return, I suppose." Harry said.

"Awfully confident in your skills, aren't you lad?" Nicolas frowned slightly.

"Confident, brave, stupid, arrogant, call it what you will. I just refuse to accept the possibility I might fail. I will come back with Sirius if it is at all possible, I will accept nothing else. Plus there's the fact that I beat Voldemort in a battle of magic and will, there can't be many powerful bastards out there, and I doubt many are interested in the grail war." Harry said.

"You never know…" Nick trailed off meaningfully.

"Whatever opposition I face, I'll win, either through physical power or cunning. I'll outsmart them if I can't win head on." Harry stated confidently, assuaging some of the Flamel's worries about their new friend.

"Have you figured out what relic you're going to use to call a spirit?" Perenelle asked.

"I've gone through the Potter and Black vaults, and Dumbledore's cottage for any artifacts that look old, I'm going to see if the goblins can identify most of them, but a few had something nearby saying what they were, apparently I'm not the first to attempt to learn what exactly the Potters own. I found this…" he reached into the mokeskin pouch around his neck, and began pulling out what after a few seconds became clear to the Flamels was a staff.

He held a long staff made of a dark wood, with a circular metal ornament adoring the tip of it. "This is supposedly the staff of Medea, according to the identifier plate that was attached to the showcase it was in."

"Is it really," Nicolas breathed, impressed. "The Witch of Colchis…"

"Also known as the Witch of Betrayal. Are you sure you should trust someone with a name like that?" Perenelle cut in concernedly.

"I think… that no one really knows exactly what happened back then except for the people there. So far, she's what I'm planning to summon, and I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I can always use a command seal to force her loyalty if she doesn't wish to be allied with me."

Perenelle still looked doubtful about his choice, but instead relented and said. "So long as you think you can handle it."

Harry whipped out his pocket watch and took a look at it, before asking. "It's almost lunch, what do you both want? I can have kreacher whip it up quickly."

They both looked surprised. "Is it really? It only feels like 10-10:30-ish." Perenelle voiced.

"How time flies when you're enjoying yourself." Harry smiled. "Now, food. What sustenance do you require?"

"We'll have whatever you have." Nicolas said after a silent look at his wife.

"I'm down for pizza. I had to teach kreacher how to make it, but the cheeky bugger's better at it than I am now."

"Pizza sounds very nice." Perenelle agreed, standing up and stretching with a slight groan. "Okay, maybe I was in that chair longer than I thought."

"Kreacher." a pop sounded and the house elf appeared next to the now standing Harry.

"Yes Master Harry?" the elf asked.

"Make us some pizza, please and thank you." Kreacher nodded and popped away.

"If I gave you both permanent floo access, could you come here to check on Kreacher every now and then while I'm gone? I don't want to tell Hermione or Ron what I'm doing, because they'd insist on coming along. I don't want to endanger them like that, but I do want to make sure Kreacher's alright while I'm gone, he's getting on in years, not quite as spry as he once was." he requested of the Flamels.

"We'll make sure he gets on alright while you're gone," Nicolas nodded his head affably. "If this pizza is as good as you say it is we might steal him for a few lunches so he doesn't get too terribly bored."

"Kreacher would probably like that. He never likes sitting idle for very long nowadays, reminds him of the time after old warhorse Walburga kicked the bucket and he was left alone in Grimmauld place for years." They arrived at the dining room and sat at one end of the large table meant for family gatherings, not three people eating lunch.

"Have you heard any news from Fuyuki of late? Anything war related, anyway?" Nicolas asked, resting his chin on his hands that were steepled on the table.

"I've heard that berserker was summoned, along with lancer, but the masters are unknown to me. That leaves assassin, archer, saber, rider, and caster, who I'm hoping to get. The overseer from the church was very helpful in that matter."

"Do you have a backup for if caster gets summoned by someone else?" Perenelle broached.

"A few backups, as a matter of fact. I've borrowed the sword of gryffindor in the hopes that Godric actually is a heroic spirit, if not then a sword that can poison people and servants with basilisk venom is still fairly useful. If that fails then I have a few trinkets from the ancient Greeks that might wind up summoning someone, though I'm much less hopeful than the first two." Harry said just as a plate of pizza appeared in front of him, a glass of water appearing beside it a second later. He looked up and saw the Flamels also had their food.

"Well, enough talk about war for now, let's dig in." Harry said as he raised a bite of the dish to his mouth. Nicolas and Perenelle followed his example and dug in.

-LINE BREAK-

-one day before departure-

"Harry James Potter, I know you're up to something! You've been acting shifty lately, and acting like nothing is wrong is only making you more suspicious. Spill!" Hermione had finally found out he was up to something, and cornered him on his last free day, a day he'd taken to rest and relax before he left for Fuyuki. She was mother-henning, hands on her hips in a way that almost reminded Harry of Mrs. Weasley, and it warmed His heart to know she cared. But it also annoyed him that she was prying into his business.

"It's nothing Hermione. I'm just planning a short vacation for myself, I was going to inform everyone before I took my portkey tomorrow, honest!" Harry defended, hoping she wouldn't see through the partial lie.

"Harry, how barmy do you think I am?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice. "If you were just planning a vacation you would have told us long ago with no problems. Instead you've tried to hide it from us, which tells me it's something you know we would disapprove of." Harry flinched slightly, a telling sign for Hermione. "I'm not stupid Harry, now tell me what you're really doing."

The floo chose that moment to flare, and the Flamels stepped through toting bags, Nicolas first followed by Perenelle. "Harry, we come bearing gifts! We brought a- oh, hello. Miss Granger I presume?"

"Yes, who are you?" she asked crossly, annoyed by Harry's aversion to letting her in.

They set the bags down, and Kreacher popped them to the coffee table in front of Harry. They both bowed slightly in a joking manner, and said in unison. "We're the Flamels."

"I'm Perenelle, and this is my husband Nick." Perenelle expanded.

"I thought the Flamels were dead?" she didn't doubt they were who they said they were if the two were visiting Harry, as he would have already identity checked them, but she still thought they died shortly after the stone was destroyed.

"The rumors of our death were greatly exaggerated I'm afraid." Nicolas grinned. "We just didn't want Albus 'borrowing' another stone for 'testing', so we told him we were dying instead of letting on that we had backup stones. Also I will require a vow from you about keeping this secret, we did the same for Harry after we first met him, but released him when he proved trustworthy." he said as he sat next to Harry on one of the two couches, across from Hermione and Perenelle, who was in the process of sitting herself.

"And just how did you meet Harry if you value your privacy so much?" Hermione asked, temporarily distracted from Harry's secret by the visitors.

"He sought us out, actually." Perenelle added her voice to the conversation.

"For?" she looked at Harry, a look that conveyed an intense desire for answers, making Harry cringe at the grilling he knew he would get when she got half a chance.

"I believe that is a private matter between us and Mister Potter unless he wishes to share it, Wouldn't you agree?" Perenelle gently but firmly reprimanded.

Hermione reddened but reluctantly nodded, squirming slightly in her seat.

"Now where were we, oh yes we brought you some gifts for your trip, a few starter books on alchemy to see if the subject is for you, some books on advanced wards and bounded fields, and a few trinkets we've gathered from our vault for you should everything you have fail."

"Thank you, Nicolas, you didn't have to do that." Harry was touched by the gesture from his newfound friends.

"You're right, we didn't have to. We wanted to, so we did." Nicolas simply smiled at Harry.

"Harry, would you please explain to me what in Merlin's name you're planning?" Hermione couldn't contain herself anymore.

"Truthfully Hermione, you don't want to know. It's better that you just think I'm vacationing somewhere nice." Harry seriously stated, bright viridescent eyes turning on her. "If you really want to know, I'll tell you, but you won't like it, and you won't be able to talk me out of it or go with me. This is something I'm doing alone."

"...Tell me Harry. I want to know what my best friend is doing. I'm going to worry either way, but I'd like to know what you are doing, even if I can't help or tell anyone else." she said with only a second's hesitation, staring right back at him.

"Alright, I warned you. I'm going to compete in a dangerous event called a holy grail war to win the prize, a wish from the lesser grail. I'm going to use the wish to bring back Sirius. I'm doing it alone because I don't want to endanger you or Ron or drag you from your lives."

"Have you thought it through, I mean- do you need any help planning?" Hermione asked defeatedly, hating that Harry was risking his life but knowing how important winning the wish was to him now that she knew what his wish was.

"Nicolas and Perenelle have been a great help. They've sorted me out, don't worry. I don't know how long it will take, but I'll be back, with Sirius if it's at all possible." He comforted his best female friend.

"Harry of course I'll worry. I'll worry until you're back here, because you're going to do something dangerous again and this time you won't have me or Ron around to back you up."

"I'm well prepared Hermione. I've got the sword of gryffindor, my invisibility cloak… and this." he reached into his mokeskin and pulled out the elder wand.

"I thought you put that back into the headmaster's tomb?" she asked, shocked.

"I did, but I asked Mcgonagall if I could get it for a personal project. The Flamels backing me up is what convinced her, I personally think." he tacked on at the end.

"Hah, she was going to give it to you the moment you asked her, Harry. That woman was looking at you like you were her long lost grandson, I don't think she'd deny you the world if you decided to take it over and become a dark lord." Nicolas teased.

Harry just gave a long suffering sigh. "No, she'd probably help me, become my right hand woman and take care of any opposition for me." he chuckled. "Anyways, now that you know my dirty secret Hermione, you should probably get home. I'm sure you have other things you could be doing and I was just planning to relax today before I left tomorrow. I'll be by tonight to tell Ron that I'm going on vacation, but I can't stay for long because I have to tell the rest of the Weasleys,Neville and Luna, Daphne and Tracey, and I suppose I should floo Andy and tell her I'll be gone for a while so she doesn't try a surprise international portkey with Teddy." he stood up and offered her his hand.

She took it and raised herself up. "I'll be right back you two, no funny business on my furniture." he teased the Flamels as he left the room with Hermione.

"Just for that, we really should do something…" Harry heard Nicolas mutter, and snickered at Perenelle's response of, "if you want to do anything 'funny' in the next month, you won't suggest that again."

As they strolled to his fireplace, he saw Hermione nibbling at her lip and sighed. "I'll be fine, Hermione. I promise, I'll come back."

"I know Harry. I just can't help worrying." she smiled sadly at him, and gave him a hug as they stopped in front of the fireplace, before stepping in and saying "The Burrow!" green flames flashing as they carried her to the Weasley's home.

-LINE BREAK-

Day of arrival at Fuyuki

He landed from the international portkey with a stagger, nauseous from the long distance he'd travelled in such a short time. He bent over, hands on his knees taking deep breaths in an attempt to not puke. When he finally centered his stomach, Harry stood up and looked around before drawing his wand. "Point me Marauder's Headquarters." he cast the spell while referring to the name he'd chosen for the floo address of his home for the duration of the grail war.

He also cast a notice-me-not over his person so non-magicals wouldn't see him using his wand as a compass, before strolling off, taking in his surroundings as he went so as to acclimate himself to the area before it became dangerous. Harry quickly found his modest home, plain white exterior with a stone wall marking the boundary line between his property and the homes to either side. He chose this home for the reason that it was both close to the area he would need to be, and that it had a basement he could safely perform magic in once it was warded in protection spells.

He'd also paid to have it fully furnished before he got here, so he wouldn't have to worry about that. Harry had even hired a few technomancers to fix up some technology that could work around magic, as he'd grown rather attached to the television he'd gotten installed at Potter Manor through a similar shop.

Deciding to go around and get to work, Harry went to the basement, where a blank wardstone was situated in the center of the room, a slab of obsidian that cost Harry a fair bit to have brought here. He'd make sure to take it with him when he moved out so it wouldn't go to waste. He primed a cutting curse on the tip of his wand but didn't fire it, and began carving runes out of the igneous rock, placing a hand over each finished rune and pumping some of his magic into it to charge it.

This continued for the better part of two hours, only ending when Harry, now drenched in sweat, placed a hand on top of the very last rune near the tip of the obelisk, putting a small amount of magic into it, and sighing when every rune on the stone lit up in a neon green light for a moment before magic pulsed outwards, forming the wards. He kept his hand on the stone but moved it near the bottom to check the runes that were supposed to absorb magic from the leylines, and nodded to himself once he felt they were functioning properly.

Standing up with a groan, Harry dragged himself to the shower upstairs, cleaning himself, before putting on a fresh pair of clothes and collapsing into his bed, asleep almost instantly.

The next morning, Harry still felt tired, as he'd expended a large amount of magic getting the wards up and going. Most wards were meant to be put up either over a period of time or by multiple people, Harry exhausted himself last night doing it alone, but he knew it was necessary to get it done in a speedy manner.

Harry felt that he could perform the summoning ritual tonight, but he would prefer to be at full power beforehand, so he knew it would be pushed back until tomorrow. He cooked himself a full english breakfast, treating himself for the hard work he did last night. Next he dressed himself for the day, deciding to go out and explore the area and further familiarize himself.

Walking out the gate of the outer wall, Harry was immediately almost run down by a crazy lady speeding past him on a moped, who shouted out something in japanese, reminding him that he needed to cast a translation charm so he wouldn't be hopelessly lost every time someone spoke to him.

He wandered the city for hours, staying at the local park alone for over half an hour as a break from all the walking. He finally returned home as the sun began to bleed red, much more confident in his ability to navigate and sure of the location of a few possible mages that might participate or are already participating in the grail war. The reason he was aware of these mages was the well established wards that had clearly been there for a long while and had become powerful due to the magic absorbed from the leyline. Harry's own wards were better, but would take time to become as powerful.

He marked them on the map that was in the atlas Perenelle had gifted him, and tore the page out, using a sticking charm to put it on the wall in clear view. Harry finally decided to take an early night, and go to bed now so as to be more well rested for tomorrow's summoning ritual.

-CHAPTER END-

AN: next chapter will be summoning and first contact. Muse isn't on other stories atm though I am working on them, sorry for anyone that's enjoying them.