Harry Potter and the Reworked Universe [HP Rewrite] [Narrative Quest]

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Harry took a moment to organize his thoughts, methodically sorting his questions in his mind and trying to choose the most vital and important one to start with.

Then his eyes caught on the elegant glass bowl of complimentary peppermint candies. As he watched, one grew extremely human-like eyes and a mouth, the latter of which it then used to say, "Eat me! I'm good for you!"

The other candies grew similar features and started chattering about how good they would make Harry's breath smell.

Very calmly, Harry grabbed the bowl, tossed it over the side of the balcony and asked, "First of all, what's with all the whimsy?"

Hagrid blinked. "I don't understand the question."

"The whimsy. Everything's so... goofy," Harry explained. He licked his Dragonfire Cinnamon Cookie ice cream, and gestured at how the sprinkles tried to run away from the licked area while black smoke blew out of his mouth, saying, "See?"

Hagrid blinked again, watching the smoke rise up above their heads, then shrugged as he turned back to Harry, "I don't get it. That's just stuff."

"Just stuff?"

"Yeah, like... why is the sky blue, right? It's just how stuff is."

"But the sky is like that because of like, physics and stuff. Magicians are making things whimsical."

"Yes."

"So why?"

"Why what?"

"Why make things whimsical?"

"... Harry, I'm going to be honest, you're not making any sense here."

Yeah, okay, this was a lost cause.

Harry sighed and took another lick of his ice cream.

The taste was somewhat spicy, yet sweet, and he tried to blow smoke rings. Since he'd never tried anything of the like before, he failed miserably, though the smoke did curl into the shape of birds by itself.

So, what did he want to know above all?

"What..." he started. He swallowed nervously, then forced himself to ask, "What did my parents do? Like, for a living? My aunt and uncle said they were artists, but that was probably a lie, so..."

Hagrid bit a chunk out of his ice cream, which made worrying sounds inside his mouth, before he swallowed and said, "They... didn't have much of a chance to have careers, with the war. Your dad, James, he was the heir to a few apothecaries and minor potions businesses, and he ran them on the side, but he always talked about writings stories. He'd gotten really hooked on muggle comics, especially those 'Marvel' ones."

Harry nodded, noting the information, then asking, "And my mom?"

"Well..." Hagrid cleared his throat, a little awkwardly, "Lily was a wonderful woman. I want that to be understood, alright?"

Harry nodded.

"A wonderful woman," the giant of a man repeated. "She was always willing to help, she always stood up for people when they needed someone to stand for them, and she was easily one of the smartest people in her year. We call the Conjurative magics 'arts', but she was truly an artist in how she handled the elements. She made it look easy.

"With all this in mind... you need to understand that she didn't really... make any friends. I don't think there's anyone alive that could tell what she wanted to do for a job, and whatever she did for a living, no one knew."

Harry blinked. "... no one? No one at all? She didn't have any friends?"

Hagrid scratched the back of his neck, a little awkward, "Well, there were people she liked - and I count myself in that number - and obviously there was your dad, but Lily... stood apart from the group, most of the time. She had something to prove."

"What did she want to prove?"

"The Unspoken World is... not unkind to strangers and muggleborn children, but it can be unwelcoming. Lily sometimes spoke of wanting to be recognized for her skills."

Harry frowned. Was that why she'd given away parts of herself? She threw away her connection to her sister to be recognized as part of an 'unwelcoming' world?

"She wasn't unloved," Hagrid hurried to explain. "She was... appreciated, and many people mourned her death. But... I don't think I know of anyone that truly... knew her secrets, or was held in her confidence."

"That's a little sad," Harry said.

Hagrid nodded his head to the side, as if granting the point.

"If it's any consolation," he said, "Towards the end, she was... opening up. It'd be irresponsible to speculate how she could have been if she'd had more time, but... She associated with the rest of us, in the years since marrying James and getting pregnant with you, and even before that she always contributed to the cause."

"What cause? Who was 'us'?" Harry blinked, then leaned forward as he said, "You mentioned a war."

Hagrid nodded, scraping the spoon against his ice cream once more as he carefully planned his words. "Before... Before your birth, there was a war. A secret war, fought as much in the streets and hidden societies of Unspoken England as in the hearts of its people. Your parents, myself and a number of associates fought against a side that was... frankly, far more powerful than what we had on hand. But that was mostly because of the power of one man."

"Who?"

"... names have power, Harry," Hagrid whispered. "This mage... knowing this, he performed some strange ritual to sacrifice his name and instead take one that worked as a sort of... invocation. Or perhaps, worship. With every utterance, he became mightier, and even to this day no one dares speak his name. So... we called him by a few titles. The Unmentionable Mage, the Shadowman, the Unforgiven. His followers called him the Dark Lord, his enemies called him the Walking Plague."

Harry swallowed. With every title, the air around them seemed to cool and stab into his flesh. With every sillable, shadows grew deeper and darker around them, and the summer sunlight failed to reach the little balcony just a little bit more.

Goosebumps raised along Harry's arms.

"This... thing in the guise of a man," Hagrid spat. "He sought to conquer Unspoken England, and through it, campaign against the wider Unspoken World. Ownership itself has power, and it's not unimaginable for a man that single-handedly rules a single nation to take over another, and then another, and so on. And yet, other nations did not seek to help until the danger actually left our borders."

"What... what happened to him?"

"... if we're lucky, he's dead," Hagrid said, taking another bite of his ice cream. "And in fact... that's what is believed your parents did."

Harry blinked, "What?"

"Eleven years ago... the Potter family home was found. Burnt to cinders with magical fire that has yet to fully go out, stained with dark magicks that corrupted and salted the earth around it, and with three corpses and one babe found in the ruins. No one knows exactly how things went down, but... conclusions are easy to make."

Harry's eyes started to sting, tears coming to his eyes as he looked down. "O-Oh..."

Hagrid looked away, giving the boy some privacy while he sniffed.

It was... bittersweet knowledge, though mostly bitter.

There was some relief in finally knowing how they'd gone out, and there was a lot of pride in knowing that they'd taken some sort evil monster down with them, but... if he had to choose between having parents and having dead heroes, Harry would have easily chosen parents a hundred times over.

After a while, once Harry mostly got himself under control and nodded for him to continue, Hagrid continued explaining.

"Your parents' sacrifice was not ignored," he assured Harry. "Their valiant stand against evil was rewarded with a posthumous title as Princes of England, since there was a vacant spot once the Malfoys got kicked out."

Harry blinked and said, "Wait, does that mean...?"

"Yup. Yer a Prince, Harry."

Wow, okay. Just... huh.

"So I'm, like, in charge of a bunch of people?"

"Well, not directly, and you're not supposed to take charge just yet," Hagrid reassured him. "Magicians don't reach majority of age until they're seventeen, and they're not expected to take control of their political obligations until then. Plenty of time for you to learn what you've gotta."

"I... see," Harry said.

It was like something out of a storybook. An orphan boy that suddenly discovered he was the heir to a kingdom?

Except... not really a kingdom. A princedom?

He was royalty, was the point.

"Is that why I've had to keep my surname a secret?"

Hagrid nodded, "There's... well, there'll be no point hiding it once you're on your way to Hogwarts, but for now I thought you might appreciate a bit of breathing room. Lots of people want what House Potter can offer now, and even the ones not interested might want to thank you for what James and Lily did, so it could be... overwhelming."

'What House Potter can offer now', he'd said.

"Am.. am I rich?" Harry questioned.

"Well..." Hagrid tilted his head to the side as he awkwardly stretched the word. "House Potter has been collecting its due taxes from its vassals over the last eleven years, plus the reward money granted to your parents for defeating the Unmentionable, but... there are wealthier Houses out there. You're about the bottom of the top, I'd say."

Huh. So much for upper middle class, then. Harry had to wonder how his aunt and uncle would take this.

"Is that how you've been paying for all this?"

"Oh, no! Not at all," Hagrid said, shocked by the implication. "The headmaster's been the one footing the bill. Well, him and the orphan fund, but you understand."

"The headmaster? That Dumbledore guy?"

"Yes, yes," Hagrid said, nodding eagerly. "Great man, that Dumbledore. A bonafide archmage, you know."

"Um..."

"Oh, um, an archmage is a magician that has gained mastery of at least one of the arts and one of the crafts. Very difficult thing to do, you see."

"Right..." Harry said.

He licked his halfway melted ice cream and blew a few smoke bubbles to give himself time to clear his thoughts.

It was... a bit uncomfortable knowing that money meant for penniless orphans went to him, considering he was some sort of royalty now. Or, rather, he'd always been?

Ugh, all these revelations were making his head hurt. For the moment...

[][MONEY] ... he decided to pay back the orphan fund... : It's only right. You can, so you should. It takes a bit to convince Hagrid, but he smiles at you and mutters about you being just like James when you do.

[][MONEY] ... he decided to ignore the issue... : They chose to pay it for you, and after what your parents did, it's really the least they can do. Hagrid sees no issue with this, and neither does anyone else you meet.

... and then he moved on to simpler questions, maybe catch a break from all these heavy topics.

Harry took a deep breath, and let it exit his lungs slowly. Over the conversation, the oppressive air that had come with discussing the Unmentionable had slowly drained away, and as he licked his ice cream again, he felt himself warm back up and the sun shine on him once more.

"So..." he started, drumming his fingers on the table as he thought it over. "Could... could I turn myself into a dragon?"

"Not usually, I've looked into it," Hagrid said automatically, before blinking, "Wait, that's the kind of question I would ask. Why are you asking that?"

"Well... it's just, Ollivander... he turned himself into a sort of spider thing, so..." Harry shrugged. "It'd be cool to turn into a dragon."

"Ah," Hagrid said, nodding. "Yes, it'd be bloody tight, but no. What Garrick did, or rather, what he became... that was the cost. It's not impossible to negotiate pacts in such a way that you end up becoming a dragon, though when it does happen it's usually an unwanted consequence of greed or somesuch. And it's unusual for pacts to have such physical costs. Mostly, what you give away lives in your soul."

Harry thought of his aunt, talking about his mother.

Not worth it, he decided. Nothing's worth hurting her like that.

And yet, a doubt niggled in the back of his mind. One that he did his best to ignore.

"Alright, so... what do you do for fun?" asked Harry, taking Hagrid by surprise. "I talked with this Draco boy over at Madame Malkin's, and he told me that magicians all make their own fun. That can't be true, can it?"

"Well... it's not the whole truth," Hagrid said. "There's books, and paintings, and a lot of muggleborns, muggle-raised and half-muggleborn kids have been bringing in comics and such into the Unspoken World. A lot of young folks like those."

"Right," Harry nodded. "So what do you do?"

"Er... I go on walks?"

Harry's face flattened.

"Well, they're very exciting walks!" Hagrid defended. At your continued disbelief, he huffed and went at his ice cream, muttering, "Don't gotta justify myself... walks are exciting... loads of fun, walks..."

"Right," Harry drawled.

He kept it up for a while, before he snorted. Hagrid looked up, confused, and that broke the damn and made Harry start fully laughing.

Hagrid huffed, but unbeknownst to Harry, he felt a great plume of relief flooding his chest at seeing the boy smiling after the heavy talk a few minutes ago.

Besides, he laughed just like James.


After their ice cream was finished and Hagrid crushed the sprinkle rebellion that the ones that escaped the cone formed, Hagrid accompanied Harry out Diagon Alley.

On the way they saw Draco and two adults who must've been his parents, and Harry waved goodbye. Draco had been a tad insulted and mystified by Harry keeping his surname a secret, but apparently he'd gotten over it as he waved Harry goodbye with a small smile on his face.

Hours later, Hagrid and his bike dropped Harry off at #4, again garnering looks from the neighbors before he drove off.

Things were a tad tense when Harry got home, but another hug to his aunt seemed to dispell things.

Harry spent his last few months before school...

Choose up to three:
[][PRELUDE-END] With His Aunt: She turned a tad stone-faced when Harry explained the circumstances of her sister's death, and when he mentioned that she had few friends, she'd scoffed about magicians not knowing how to appreciate the best of them. Maybe she could use some company?

[][PRELUDE-END] With His Uncle: Vernon asked Harry for some one-on-one time together. Apparently he had some life lessons he wanted to instill in Harry before he left.

[][PRELUDE-END] With His Cousin: Dudley had a million questions to ask after Harry came back, and together they had a million plans to bake after discovering that Harry was a Prince.

[][PRELUDE-END] Gathering Entertainment: Magician kids had to make their own entertainment, huh? Well, what if they got introduced to a little something called video games? It took a bit of convincing, but Vernon had agreed to buy a game boy and some games for Harry. If you rented it out, you might have enough gold to send back that he could buy more, and those Harry could sell for higher prices!
-[][Entertainment] Actually...: Why limit himself to games? Write-in up to three other muggle products (e.g.: comics, soda, etc).

[][PRELUDE-END] Studying His Books: C'mon, magic books? Like you're not gonna read through them.

And soon enough, it was time for the family to drive to King's Cross.