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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 49: Home Invasion Part 1
"Could use some maintenance… at least hire someone to cut the grass and remove the weeds from the walls," Harry said.
"I'm sure the 'other me' had other priorities," V responded. "But don't get overconfident. The place is not completely abandoned."
"I can tell. That's why I haven't made a move yet. There is an invisible ward in front of me," Harry explained. "Not sure which kind."
"Anti-muggle, movement detection, spell triggers… to name a few. There should be several layers. That's how I used to make them, at least," V explained.
"Wonderful." Harry moved his hand slightly, activating the runes on his arm.
A semi-translucent filament became visible for a moment.
"Can you eat this?" he asked.
"Of course I can, you know that. But it will take me a while to go through all the layers, and there is a good chance I will trigger the detection ward. Meaning…"
"The Dark Lord will know someone is here." Harry thought about it for a moment.
"You have broken through tougher wards than this one," V pointed out.
"Many times," Harry huffed in response. "But I never had to worry about triggering any alarms. My methods were usually more…"
"Brute, yes," V finished the sentence. "Well, what do you want to do?"
"Hiring a ward breaker would take too long. Right?" Harry asked.
"Since this is not your property and you are still a minor, that is not even a possibility I would consider," V told him.
"Okay then, I have decided." Harry took several steps back and began to focus. "Tell me exactly where the ring is hidden. I want to make this quick."
"You are going to brute-force your way in? He will definitely come here if you do that," V said.
"I am aware…"
"That would be very dangerous. If he learns that we are after his horcruxes…"
"Yes, he will become more desperate and harder to predict. And if we just leave this thing here, we may lose the chance to get it at a later date. Besides, the Dark Lord was bound to find out about the loss of his soul fragments, sooner or later. This will just make it sooner."
"That is true, but… I hope you are not being reckless about this matter because you are concerned about your friends."
"I'm not being reckless. I just see no point in dragging this on. We have been preparing for this fight for a very long time. We are much more prepared than he is. It is time to get started…" Harry's eyes flared up with an eerie green light as he focused more magic onto his arms.
"First level. Take the corridor to the right and enter the first room. It's a small dining hall. The fireplace has a loose tile. If it hasn't been moved during all this time, of course," V said. "If it has, then you just alerted him for not—"
"Fulguras." Harry interrupted the talking hat and fired a lightning beam towards the house, breaking all the protections in one fell swoop.
"Celeritas." Harry then enhanced his legs to move faster and shot out like a bullet, destroying the front door and rushing into the manor.
"Don't touch the stairs!" V shouted, warning him of another trap, and Harry jumped directly to the first floor.
He then turned to the corridor on the right and found the first door on his left.
"Break the handle," V advised him as he moved.
"Bombarda." Harry pointed at the door with his finger and fired the exploding charm, turning the door, as well as part of the wall, into smithereens.
With his other hand, he conjured an orb of light that quickly illuminated the room.
"There! The fireplace. Check the tile at the top, but use your magic to move it. Under no circumstances must you touch that stone. A powerful curse is attached to it," V advised, and Harry jumped into action.
He used his magic to rip several tiles from the upper part of the fireplace and found a hole.
Inside the hole was a small box.
Harry conjured a pair of metallic tongues and pulled the box out.
"That's the one. The ring should be inside," V said.
"It's definitely in there. I can already feel the nasty magic invading my senses," Harry muttered.
"Don't bother opening it here. There are more defenses to deactivate. Just conjure a larger container and place it inside. Then we can get out of h—" Before V could finish his sentence, they both heard a loud noise outside, as well as a sudden surge of magic.
"He is here already… that was quick," Harry said as his hands moved.
An iron box was conjured out of thin air, and he placed the smaller ring container inside before sealing it closed and securing it inside his bag.
"Quick, open a Gate and let's get out of here!" V shouted at him.
They both knew that until all the horcruxes were destroyed, a confrontation was mostly pointless and would only serve to show Voldemort what this new version of Harry was capable of.
Knowing that V was right in his assessment, Harry went to open a gate to somewhere far away from here.
Right as he was making a circular motion to form the portal, a burst of flames came through the window right next to him.
"Protego!" Harry had to raise a magical shield in front of him to fend off the flames.
"We were too slow. Now we have to fight…" V's tone was one of annoyance mixed with concern. He had wanted to delay this moment as much as possible.
During their first encounter, Voldemort was not paying close attention to Harry and had only become surprised by the failure of his mental attack due to the loss of their magical connection.
Now things were going to be very different.
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