"Tsubaki!" The surly black fairy popped out of the hair pin at Orihime's left temple.
Shinigami were supposed to take care of the hollows that appeared in the living world. That was their job. But when no shinigami immediately appeared, it was obvious we had to stop the hollow before someone lost their soul.
"I know!" Tsubaki said, and launched himself at me. I hated this part.
With a jolt of painful electricity Tsubaki used his two-way rejection attack to reject my soul from my body. It hurt every damn time!
My body flopped uselessly to the earth- dead, its face still bearing a look of surprise… just like Cedric's had. I shook myself from those thoughts and unsheathed Thanatos. Orihime was running towards the hollow already.
I spared a thought for my dead body, lying in the middle of a hiking trail in a public and busy park- but another howl from the hollow pushed thoughts of what would happen if it were discovered out of my mind, and I tore after my familiar.
The hollow was uglier than most. It had an insectisoid body, with hair like tentacles waving around. I hated the tentacle-types, because you could never get too close to them for fear of it launching a spike at your back. You had to take them down from enough of a distance so you could still see its attacks coming at you.
I had no distance attacks in my arsenal before Thanatos revealed himself to me. It was time to find out what my soul cutter could do.
"Sever the chains of fate! Rain your vengeance upon those who would control you! Thanatos!" With a thunderclap Thanatos released, the comforting weight of his chain settled around me.
"What? A shinigami?" Said the hollow. "No… no… you smell different. The fetid scent of a soul gone rancid with decay…"
What the fuck! I do NOT smell like decay! I'm not a fucking dementor! It was probably smelling Tom Riddle's half-dead ass.
"Neither a shinigami, nor a hollow… It doesn't matter, either way you are my prey!" It attacked.
Orihime and I dodged, and with a thrill of joy I was flying again… flying without support nor constraint as I could only do in the living-world. I could feel Thanatos vibrating… my happiness fueling his bloodlust. My ability to fly in the living-world gave Thanatos new ways to kill, and that made him eager. We charged downward, and I raised Thanatos above my head, poised to strike.
Tentacles came at me from all directions, and suddenly I was using some of my best quidditch moves to dodge and duck out of the way, sometimes swinging Thanatos and severing the hollow's limbs. Motes of its blood sprang out like geysers. It persisted in its writhing, its appendages thrusting and whipping about so I couldn't get close enough to its main body to strike a decisive blow.
I backed off a little, and noticed Orihime with her Three Sacred Links Shield raised, some humans huddled behind her. I didn't have time to curse their involvement, as the hollow launched itself at me. Its teeth clicked as it snapped its double set of jaws, trying to take off one of my legs. I kicked it in the face for its trouble and cracked the bug-like white mask. It fell over, howling in anger, then scuttled back on it's too-many legs.
"Fetid smelling are we…" Hissed Thantaos. "I wonder how it would smell….roasted."
"Tell me what to do." I asked him.
"What do you want to do? You have to know it." Thanatos said back.
I had to know it? I knew I wanted to toast that thing, and get back to my body before something terrible happened. I unwrapped the weighted chain and took a moment to observe the shape of the weight at the end. It was in the form of a viper's head, its mouth open and fangs out stretched to bite. I thought it might be poisonous, which would be cool to try out on the next Arrancar I ran into. For a body that large, however, I would need more fire power than a snake bite to kill it.
The hollow appeared to be sizing me up as we floated on opposite sides of a football field some two hundred meters above the ground.
I kicked Thanatos into a swing and launched him at the hollow. It knocked him away with one of its tentacles, and I yanked him back by the chain. Well.. that was completely ineffective.
…know it… Know what? Even if I used the only attack I knew, the snake snare, it wouldn't be enough to pin down all those tentacles.
"roasted." I looked at Thanatos, whose blade was crooked like a silver bolt of lightning. I understood.
I switched hands, and spun the weighted chain in my right, before launching it by its snake-head weight.
"First Vengeance: Snake Snare!" The chain split into many parts and became animated, each body curling themselves around the hollow as it roared and tried to break free.
I pulled the chain taut towards me, and concentrated. Intentions were key… I wanted to roast this bastard.
"Second Vengeance: Silver Strike!" Thanatos' blade charged with electricity, which exploded down the shaft and into the chain, lighting the snake snare already wrapped around the hollow with the silver white glow of electricity.
The hollow screamed and writhed in agony as the flesh in contact with the chains blackened and crisped. The cry of thunder nearly drowned its wailing; the sound of thanatos' roar overpowering it. The hollow started to crumble to ashes, which flickered into blue sparks of reiatsu that rose towards the sky.
The snake snare faded away and the only thing that remained of the monster was a tiny black butterfly that flitted away.
The butterfly meant one thing: "I purified it." I said with disbelief. "My zanpakto purified a hollow… even though I'm not a shinigami."
I shook myself and dropped back down to earth. I could think about this later, I had to get back into my body before someone found it.
Another delay reared its head when I reached the ground. Orihime was looking frantic, tears streaming down her face as she looked on helplessly, her hands clasped and twisting. A group of children was huddled together, crying. One of them was bleeding from the head. Orihime obviously wanted to heal him, but couldn't approach without terrifying the children further.
"He must've been struck by debris. But he looks ok, he's not even unconscious." I said.
She shook her head. "I raised the Santen Kesshun (Three Sacred Links Shield) to protect them… but he tried to run out from behind it. I tried to hold him back so he wouldn't get hurt…" I could imagine the kid completely flipping out after watching the football field acquire deep gashes from an invisible monster, only to be held back from running away by an invisible person.
"He started praying… calling out for Jesus, like I was…" an evil spirit… a devil.
I came forward and held her. She gratefully accepted, and started shaking. "You aren't a demon, Orihime… you were just trying to help him." I heard sirens approaching, and saw some adults running our way. "Look, here come the cavalry. The kid will be fine now. What's important is that you protected them from being killed."
The longer we stood there, the worse the feeling in the pit of my stomach became. "We should go."
She nodded and backed away, rubbing her eyes. I took her hand to guide her and we ran back to where my body was.
Too late.
Oh- FUCK!
There was the ambulance, pulled up alongside an area that had been roped off with yellow crime scene tape. Why the fuck is it, that the bobbies are only efficient when you don't want them to be!? A small number of people had gathered around the edges of the tape to peer in morbid fascination at my dead body, which still bore the wide-eyed look of surprise on its scarred face.
"Harry Potter…" Someone near me was whispering. "… ministry is on their way.."
Even fucking better! Could this get any worse!?
The person whispering froze, as though ice had been dumped down her back and turned and looked Straight. At. Me.
Never. Fucking. Ask. If it can get WORSE!
"SHIT!"
A scream tore through the air as the spectator completely lost it. "Harry Potter! Harry Potter!!" She screamed and pointed.
"Ma'am… please calm down…" A random policeman advised, then turned back to his partner. "Cover the kid up, would you?" The partner approached my body with a white sheet. The first police man approached the witch. "Ma'am, Do you know this boy?"
The witch, or who I assumed was a witch, continued to gape at my soul, unable to speak.
CRACK!
Everyone jumped.
There, where no one had been standing before, were several men and women in wizard's robes. The policemen gaped in disbelief.
"What in God's name…" the one with the white sheet began, before…
"Obliviate!" Even Fucking Better!
"Orihime." I said, quickly turning to her as she surveyed the scene in horror. "Hide! Now!" She hesitated for a split second. Not like this, I don't want people to find out like this! She complied and dashed away.
I felt her enter Hueco Mundo, and despite the distance, I was relieved.
"Over 'ere! Over 'ere!" The witch near me was screaming, as she pointed at me. She was ignored.
Muggles were running everywhere. Ministry officials chased them down, hitting them in the backs with stunners and obliviating their prone bodies. Thinking quickly I ducked away to observe.
I winced as a muggle tripped over my body in her haste to get away, and took a stunner to the back.
"What a nightmare!" The Obliviator said. "Dawlish! Go set up some anti-muggle wards around this place while we clean up."
A squat wizard in an auror uniform nodded and left, taking two subordinates with him.
"Unbelievable!" A witch with a monocle was saying, shaking her head. She was squatting over my body with a sad look on her face. "Harry Potter!"
"You don't think.. Amelia, I mean to say… Dumbledore tried to tell all of us he was back…" The Obliviator said.
"Alright! Everyone!" A familiar nasal voice called. Green bowler hat. Check. Pin striped cloak. Check. Short and round with an obvious Napoleon complex. Check.
Cornelius Fudge, minister of magic, was here in person. He frowned down at my body, and a look of uncertainty flickered across his face.
"I know what this looks like…" Fudge began.
"It looks like Harry Potter's dead, Minister! Who else would want to do this!" A woman in an Auror uniform protested. I was shocked to see tears on her face. "Why didn't you listen…"
"That's enough, Auror Jones!" Amelia, the witch in the monocle, cut her off.
Fudge blew out a breath.
"This is a terrible tragedy, however, we cannot jump to conclusions from this."
"Minister!" The witch who had spotted me tried to interrupt.
"Be quiet Tonks." Amelia chastised. To my amazement, the witch's hair changed color- becoming a bright furious red, as if to demonstrate her anger. I wondered if that was intentional or not.
"First of all," The minister began. "Can someone please confirm that this is, in fact, Harry Potter."
"Who else could it be! Are you blind, don't you see the scar!" The crying witch shrieked. "Another child! Just a child!"
"Auror Jones, control yourself!" Amelia spat. She then walked forward and conducted her wand in a few sweeps over my body, making the corpse flash different colors. "No transfigurations, no charms, no illusions or glamours…" She paused. "..no life signs." A few more sweeps. "No signs of bleeding, contusions or internal wounds either… if he was killed it was either poison or the killing curse." Her voice was professionally detached, but her face told a different story. "He's in the same year as my niece, Susan." She shook her head.
Fudge was rubbing his temples furiously, as though trying to dispel a headache.
"Shaklebolt, go get Dawlish and the others… I want everyone to hear this." Fudge demanded.
A tall, bald, black man in auror's robes complied. Fudge started pacing while they waited, looking anywhere but at my body, like he couldn't stand it. When the others returned, he stopped and firmed his face.
"This cannot get into the papers." Was what he said.
The mouths of everyone around him dropped open. He held up a hand to forestall any protests. "It cannot get into the papers until we have officially determined cause of death. If it came out that Harry Potter was found dead of no apparent cause.. Think of the uproar, the speculation, the fear! Everyone will be jumping to conclusions… The Wrong Conclusions. For all we know the boy could've accidentally over dosed on those muggle drugs teenagers do…"
WHAT! I DO NOT DO DRUGS!
"He was unstable! Anyone would be troubled by the things that boy has gone through! It's no surprise, yes, very sad indeed… But enduring the tri-wizard tournament and watching a fellow competitor tragically loose his life; It's no wonder the boy was unseated. Children who've been through less than him have turned to extreme means to help ease their pain and confusion.
"Not only that, but I know personally how many problems Harry has with his muggle family. He blew up his AUNT! To be forced to return to an unsupportive, magic-phobic household after the trauma he endured… To be isolated from his friends and the comfort of his community when it is so desperately needed would make anyone despair. Who knows what lengths Harry would go to…" Fudge's voice was full of almost-genuine sounding remorse. If I didn't know what a complete fucktard he was, I might've bought it.
"Even make up lies, incredible lies, as a call for help; Lies that would keep Harry among his friends and community, under the guise of staying safe from a non-existent threat!" He… HE actually thought I was lying about Voldemort? THAT FUCKER! That complete BASTARD!
"If it came out that Harry Potter died, without a known cause of death, so soon after Dumbledore's inflammatory lies have been published, it would cause a panic! And for what? What if it turned out, in the end, that the boy couldn't handle the stress of his fame and personal tragedy? Would we incite riots and terror for a suicide?"
SUICIDE! More like HOMICIDE! As in, I'm gonna MURDER you, BITCH! I was so furious, I didn't even realize I had unsheathed Thanatos, who was vibrating in my hands with the desire to kill.
"Do you feel that?" Amelia said, her monocle fell from its perch as her brows knitted.
The color-change woman, Tonks, who'd spotted me shivered and rubbed her arms as her hair turned blue. Even Fudge seemed to notice the bitter cold that had engulfed the site of my body, as my bloodlust filled the area with icy fury.
"Unseasonable weather for july… that's all." Fudge dismissed, tightening his pinstriped cloak around him.
"No… it's rage. The rage of the dead." The crying Auror said. "The rage of one who is murdered, and been denied revenge."
Fudge blustered angrily. "Auror Jones, I will have you suspended if you cannot keep your speculation in check! The deatheaters are no more.. the dark lord has NOT returned. If this boy was murdered, it was by his own hand!"
I let my bloodlust fill the clearing again, making every last wizard shiver in fear. Fudge had one more chance to correct himself.
"And if it was murder? If it was the killing curse?" The tall black Auror, Shaklebolt, asked.
"If it truly was murder, than it is our failure to recapture Sirius Black that we must blame. If it was Black, however, I suppose they'll be speculation as to why he didn't fire the dark mark into the sky. Its absence makes me even more positive that this was suicide."
So that was it, huh? Either I killed myself, or Sirius killed me. It never even occurs to him that I might've been telling the truth. No. I am NOT going to fucking take this.
"Amelia, please remove the body to a private morgue… some glamors wouldn't be a bad…"
"Fudge." He stopped dead. He turned white. He might've pissed himself. Good.
I floated down from the sky with the sun to my back, casting the stupid little man in shadow. He gaped at me, and fell backwards in alarm.
"Merlin's balls!" Said another.
As I descended, Thanatos unsheathed and released, was resting on my shoulder, the hole in my head a void of darkness that drew the eye like it swallowed light confirmed my identity.
"Harry… Potter." Amelia breathed. "You've become a ghost!"
"Worse!" I sneered. I closed my eyes, and poured more bloodlust out of me. The soul landscape trembled as though I had screamed. The wizards all winced and backed away, terrified. "I've become a nightmare."
This wasn't the first time I've had to lie, convincingly, on the fly. But never before had it been this crucial to do it properly. As I was about to proceed with my tale, another CRACK of apparition interrupted the macabre.
Dumbledore had appeared, Remus and Snape were with him. He took in the appearance of my soul, and then my prone body lying on the ground, then closed his eyes in rejection. Remus fell to his knees, choking on sobs.
My heart twisted, but I could only go forward for now, while I had Fudge's attention. I swore to myself I'd apologize to Remus for doing this to him until he forgave me. But Later.. only later.
"Oh Harry… No… not Harry.." Dumdledore said, his own tears falling. Even Snape's eyes were flashing with something that looked like despair.
"Shut up." I said. If they kept on like that, I'd lose my resolve and tell the truth. "Shut up!"
Remus hushed, but didn't come out of his despairing kneel.
"Shut up and listen to me, and I'll explain so that you fuckers can stop dicking around and do something right for once in your useless careers!" I yelled and the ministry personnel. They gaped back at me.
"First of all! I didn't kill myself, you dumb fuck!" Lie number one. Technically, I had killed myself, but they didn't know it wasn't permanent. "I wouldn't commit suicide, and I don't do drugs. How dare you presume I'm so weak! I've faced horrors that would drive other people insane, and I've never cracked once!" Lie number two.
Fudge shrank back, and I realized that my bloodlust, which was like a physical weight on them, was repelling him. Good.
"Second of all! Sirius black is innocent! No, shut up!" Fudge, who had been shaking his head, stopped moving. "A soul cannot tell lies!" Lie number three, now to pile on the bullshit. "I've been to the other-side, and I know the secrets of death! My parent's secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew! But I didn't need them to tell me that to know it. I saw him once in second year and again in the grave yard. He admitted to me that he was a deatheater who sold my parents out, and he helped Voldemort regain his body by cutting off his own hand!" They all winced at the name. Pathetic!
I leaned over Fudge. "You WILL recall your warrants for Sirius's arrest, and give him a fair trial, do you understand!?" He whimpered, but didn't answer.
"Who… who killed you?" Had to hand to Amelia, who ever she was. She dared to speak when no one else could even move.
"Deatheaters in masks apparated around me. One of them fired a killing curse at me. It hit me in the forehead." I pointed to the chasm that was my skull. "They didn't set off the dark mark because Voldemort doesn't want the general public to know he's back." Everyone winced at the name again. Losers.
"Why should he announce his arrival, when he needs time to rebuild his network of spies and murderers unopposed. Then he can launch a coup at full strength while the people are completely unaware. The Ministry is doing such a fine job of covering everything up for him; he doesn't even have to try to keep it secret. Tell me Fudge…" I turned my furious gaze on the pitiful little meat sack that was running the government. "Even if my body had shown residue of the killing curse, wouldn't you have had it published that my murder was a suicide anyway?"
Fudge gulped and shook his head. "N… No… No, of cc.."
"LIAR!" I yelled and pointed Thanatos at him. "You've been discrediting me as some crazy attention seeking tale-teller… you were probably relieved to find me dead!"
The ministry employees shook their heads in shock and disgust.
"How could this happen… the prophecy?" Dumbledore asked.
"The prophecy is still valid." I told him, which was true. "In fact, the prophecy is the reason I'm like this." I said, in sudden inspiration.
"W..what? Are you saying.. y-your still alive?" Remus asked, hope lighting up his face.
"I'm…" what should I say? It might be more convenient for me to stay a spirit. I could train with Orihime until I was ready to kill Voldemort… No one could take her away and I wouldn't have to share her with anyone, and no one could tell me what to do ever again. And best of all, I would be able to be "just harry" and not have to be Harry Potter anymore.
But this 'avenue of retreat' was always open to me if I wanted to use it later; Coupled with the fact that I didn't know for sure Thanatos was the power I needed to kill Voldemort. Wizarding magic might still be the key… in which case I would need my education… But the thing that really did it was looking at Remus' hopeful face, and imagining the pain Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and others would be put through…
"I'm able to return to my body, because to do otherwise would defy the prophecy." There were gasps and excited exultations all around.
"What prophecy?" Asked Fudge.
"I am the chosen one." I told Fudge. He didn't need to know the whole thing. He needed to be brought to heel. I couldn't allow his ignorant defiance and countermeasures to continue.
"Chosen for what! What the hell are you!?" Fudge was starting to get blustery again. Next he was going to accuse me of going dark. I turned up the bloodlust and he quailed once more.
"I will answer you, human! But not because you deserve to know or have the capability of understanding."
I took a breath. "I am a one who has been given power over death. My human shell may die, but it will accept me and live again as I will." Ok, I was laying it on kinda thick, but if Fudge couldn't be made to understand and accept, than I'd take his fear instead. So long as he obeyed me, I didn't really care. "Until my task is complete, the chains of fate will bind me to this world and prevent me from moving on." And that was true as well.
"Chains of fate? Is that those things attached to your face?" Remus asked.
"Remus." I breathed out. "Humans are protected from knowledge that is harmful to them, because they cannot control it. Please don't ask about the hole and chains in my face. Its better you don't know."
Dumbledore eyed me beadily, like he understood but wasn't going to let me give him that answer when he asked that question. Then, like a flower opening to the sun, he smiled and nodded, the brightness returning to his face.
"Then I am thankful, Harry. Could you please return to your body and we can continue the discussion at your Aunt's home?"
I nodded and flicked Thanatos. He was reluctant to revert to his sword-form, having been denied his prey. He went back into his sheath while still howling for Fudge's blood. His keening wail could be heard by the wizards, and they shivered in fear.
I saw the tension leave their bodies, and they breathed easier, as the bloodlust Thanatos exuded was dulled by the sheath. I walked over to my body and stepped in.
I hope I wouldn't come to regret my lies.
--
A/N: C2's: 59, Favs: 98, Alerts: 185, Total hits: 24489, Total Reviews: 108, hits on last chapter: 1080, reviews on last chapter: 17. Today is Saturday, August 30, 2008
17/1080? WTF!
A/N2: Today is the day before Ramadan starts. I probably won't post during the next month cause I'm going to try to stay away from fanfiction and focus on worship. Today is also the day I'm leaving my husband of 5 some years… I'm moving the last of my things today that I'll take with me for now. It's a pretty depressing time to be me- so I thought I'd post a chapter and beg for some reviews to cheer me up.
In other news, would anyone like to purchase a 1ct. three stone diamond wedding ring? No? Well, at least wish me luck- I'm going to need it.