(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 386: Sporadic Strolls

Chapter 386: Sporadic Strolls

2 May 1995, Diagon Alley

Harry walked hand in hand with Daphne as he witnessed the shadow of what used to be Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley had really changed. The once vibrant and colourful window displays of spellbooks, potion ingredients, and cauldrons were now hidden behind big Ministry of Magic posters plastered all over them. Most of these dull purple posters featured snippets from Ministry pamphlets with safety tips and some even showed old black-and-white photos of particularly violent Lycans. More than a few shops were boarded up, and in their place, a bunch of shabby stalls had popped up along the street. The closest one, set up outside Flourish and Blotts under a stained, striped awning, had a cardboard sign that promoted some fake amulets and charms.

The wizard was about to jump at them trying to make a sale, only for Harry to glare at the man, who stiffened and returned with slumped shoulders.

He muttered, “I can’t believe the ministry is letting this happen. The delegations will be coming in a month, and he’s letting people like this in Diagon Alley of all places. I’m dreading to see what Knockturn Alley is like, to be honest.”

“Believe it or not, this is better than it used to be. With the dementors back in Tartarus, and the Lycans letting off, things have gotten a lot calmer. Still, people are worried since Voldemort hasn’t shown himself for a while and he’s bound to come back anyway.”

“He won’t be alive for long if Dumbledore decides to kill him to break his prophecy with Longbottom. I have been trying to find him, but wherever he’s holed up is somewhere very well hidden.”

And wasn’t that an understatement? Harry had tried almost all forms of divinations he could find in the other universe’s Grindelwald’s diary, and he wasn’t able to find even a single clue to where the man might be. That alone was worrying. He didn’t think Voldemort had ever researched divination enough to reliably stop some very obscure methods of doing so.

To be honest, his reasoning for trying to find Voldemort was two-fold. First, he had no doubt that Dumbledore was also looking for the man. Even if Grindelwald had come to confront Harry in Greece, the young wizard was reasonably sure that he would have been able to feel the magical release of whatever ritual the two Champions set up, going wrong. There should have been a sign, so they were, somehow, able to salvage it, but all this did was put even more uncertainty on what they would do next. Anyway, Dumbledore would look for Voldemort, and Harry couldn’t afford to let him succeed.

In his zealousness to just kill Voldemort, Harry might have set the scene to let Dumbledore destroy Voldemort without too much effort. All of the Horcruxes were destroyed bar the one in Neville’s scar. This was probably the most vulnerable the fake Dark Lord had ever been, and he didn’t even know it. Harry had to make sure that the monster survived somehow, or he needed to kill him before the task.

Second of all, Voldemort had once hinted at something that never quite left Harry’s mind. Solomon’s Grimoire. The monarch had been able to absorb both the power of the Light and Dark and created a magical utopia for him to rule over.

Harry had no plans on doing that, but there were bound to be spells, or even any form of magic, that could prove to be effective against them. From his own experience against Grindelwald, a tremendous amount of energy, concentrated into dimensional magic could theoretically rupture a champion’s connection to the entities, but other than that, he really had no other way of harming them permanently. He needed to look at it, and get more insight from the ‘wisest man in history’, and Voldemort was the key to that.

His train of thought was interrupted by Daphne poking him in the shoulder, “Come on, this isn’t the time to get lost in your own head.”

The last Potter rolled his eyes, “Sorry. I guess I do that a lot, huh.”

“You do. You can also be very thick when it comes to interacting with other people. But you sometimes can make up for all of that with kindness. Like what you did to Carmichael.”

“I didn’t do anything to Carmichael. He kept his side of the deal, so I did mine. I gave him the gold I promised him, made sure he wouldn’t compete in the next task and made sure that he and his sisters were safe.”

The blonde rolled her eyes, “You also made sure that he had a place in Ilvermorny, paid his and his sisters’ tuition there in advance, bought him a house fitted with wards, ensured that he was emancipated without any issues and that he got custody over his sister. You also paid off all his father’s debt outside of the gold you gave him. Believe me, you went above and beyond for him.”

Harry simply shrugged, “He took on a lot of risk by having me pretend to be him. Dumbledore or Grindelwald might think that we’re allies or something and might even try to get to me through him. Making sure he was taken care of, is the least I could do, considering the alternative. Even then, most of the things were handled by Arcturus.”

“But you didn’t have to do any of that. You’re a good person, Harry, even if you don’t like to admit it sometimes. I have to admit though that I’m relieved that I’m finally going out with you while you’re wearing your real face. It was really weird before.”

Ah, that. Harry had to admit that it was nice just walking in his own skin and that he didn’t really have to hide anymore. It was far less stressful that way, and he could cast magic without having to think twice if it would break his cover. It was exhausting back in Greece.

He gave her a snort at her last remark, “Believe me, I very much prefer wearing my face too.”

“So, are you excited to finally return to Hogwarts? It’s been a while for the both of us. I haven’t seen Tracy or Blaise for so long. I can’t believe it’s been a year since we’ve been there.”

Ah, that. The entire Hogwarts delegation returned home until McGonagall made the necessary preparations to open up the strict wards she had set up. Harry and Daphne took this opportunity to spend more time together without the inevitable craziness that Hogwarts would bring. However, it was obvious that the blonde missed the castle by the longing in her voice.

“Speak for yourself. Technically, I have been in a version of Hogwarts a few months ago,” Harry retorted cheekily.

The blonde hit him in the shoulder again, “Shut up, smartass. You’re missing the point though. We have barely spoken to our best friends in months. Hell, they probably just found out that you were alive with Arcturus’ announcement. Sure, there was a lot we had to deal with, but that doesn’t change the fact that we should have kept in contact, at least.”

Harry had to admit that the blonde had a point there. For some reason, with the madness of the tournament, Blaise and Tracy did tend to slip his mind. He was more concerned with Lily betraying him, getting stuck in another universe, Grindelwald hunting him down, the life and death stuff. Blaise and Tracy had said that they didn’t want to be involved in his ‘adventures’, and Harry respected their decision, but since his life had been overwhelmed with one mess after another, it was hard to find a time that wasn’t really ‘crisis specific’ for the lack of a better word.

He did miss them, and the days when they just hung around the castle, with far fewer worries to deal with. It was a simpler time, before the swarm of endless life-threatening attacks, one after another. In a way, Harry was grateful that a part of his life wasn’t really stained by all of this, but he did miss Blaise and Tracy far more than he liked to admit, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he missed what they represented.

He didn’t really voice any of it. He had the impression that Daphne sort of understood without him having to say a word. Instead, he simply sighed and nodded, “I am looking forward to meeting them again.”

And so, they continued their small walk. It was nice to spend a normal day for a change, with his girlfriend. She was just so unburdened, for the lack of a better word, and being around her made him relax as well. With her sister and herself free of the curse that plagued her family, there was some unseen tension that disappeared from Daphne. There was less pressure to learn as much as possible, and when she wasn’t spending time with Harry, she was running around her home with her sister. Apparently, it was to make up for years of missed opportunities. He didn’t begrudge her, not in any way. He thought that Daphne had been dying for a total time of five minutes, and the despair he felt was indescribable.

At first, he was afraid that Daphne getting what she wanted would break her. It was a weird paradox that was strangely common. It was the way the world stopped when you achieved your greatest desire, and you had to ask yourself what went next. He was afraid that Daphne would lose her passion, that she would feel empty, with her greatest wish realized, but that didn’t happen. She seemed passionate to continue her studies in blood magic, to build on what she had learned from Lily, only this time, the time pressure of getting a cure for her sister was finally gone.

Finally, the sun had set, and it was obviously getting late. Harry and Daphne had made their way back to Gringotts where they planned on meeting Arcturus. The Black Patriarch was there on behalf of Harry to sign a few documents to reactivate his accounts. He was declared dead by the ministry, after all. He spent a good chunk of his time since returning from Greece in the ministry signing papers reinstating him as a citizen of magical Britain. Arcturus had to come with him since as much as Harry was a competent mage, he was still a minor in the eye of the law with the Black Patriarch as his guardian.

They were around halfway back when they heard the yelling and the spellfire. This was weird since no one wanted to aggravate the goblins for no reason, especially since they could very easily just deny mages access to their own bank, and in Britain’s already shaky economy, the results would be disastrous, to say the least.

Before they even realized what they were doing, Harry and Daphne ran towards the spell fire, completely the opposite of what the rest of the crowd was doing. The last Potter could feel his blood freeze as he slowly realized that this was the path to the bank. He hoped that Arcturus would have remained inside.

A loud scream made Harry run even faster until everything went completely silent suddenly. Slowly, the young wizard walked up to the scene with his wand raised, ready to attack anything. The sight that met him made him stiffen in sheer shock.

Dozens of bodies, probably even more than fifty, were all over the entrance to Gringotts. Harry noticed the wolf medallions that they were wearing. They had become a popular thing for young Lycans to wear ever since they started to attack. It was hard to count really how many dead people there were considering that they were in pieces.

In the middle, drenched in blood, which Harry didn’t know was his or not, was Arcturus Black. He had his eyes raised and a manic look in his eyes. He almost sent a spell at his ward, only to relax slightly and mutter, “Harry...”

The adrenaline must have faded from his system as the Black Patriarch fell down, unconscious, with his ward barely able to catch his body before it hit the ground.

AN: I’ll be honest, I was very tempted to not upload this chapter. I wrote it in a hurry, and I didn’t plan it for very long. The work I missed due to procrastinating and being sick last week caught up to me, so I’m super overwhelmed. I barely slept a couple of hours last night, to be honest, so I personally think that the last few chapters, including this one, aren’t really up to par. I should be finished with everything by Saturday, so thankfully, everything should get back to normal by then. I’ll try to rewrite the chapters a bit depending on your feedback, so, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.