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Harry made his way to the Headmaster's office. On the way, he had taken a piece of paper out of his trunk and a self-writing quill, and penned a quick message to Dumbledore. He quickly described that Hannah was possessed and now in the infirmary, how he had handled it, and that he needed to speak with Dumbledore in his office.
Then he sent it flying as a paper airplane with the same charm they used to send messages in the ministry.
Though the feast should be ending any second now, Dumbledore prefers to stay for the entire mealtime when he could, so he was likely still in the great hall. Sending a quicker patronus would have been too eye-catching.
As Harry waited at the base of the gargoyle statue for Dumbledore to show up, he pulled up his system screen.
Status Page
[Name: Harry James Potter-Black
Level: 37 92%
Stats: [+15]
Power: 145, [11]
Control: 114
Focus: 127
Classes: Mind Arts 15, Magizoology 12, Dueling 11, Divination 5, Curses 1, Alchemy 2, Charms 1, Transfiguration 1, Potions 1, Herbology 1, Astronomy 1, [+3]
Skills: Occlumency 5, Legilimency 4, Serpensortia 5, [+4]
Perks: Potter Family Magic, A Mother's Love, Horcrux, Parselmouth, Black Family Magic, Animagus, Natural Occlumens, Magical Growth, Emotional Empowerment, Harvester, Empathetic Sensing, Insight, Seer, Wide Wormhole, Teamwork Makes the Dream Work, Spellchainer, Memory Infusion, Duelist, Purify, Third Eye Opened, Natural Legilimens]
Quest Page
[Year 2 Quests:
Fate Quests: Polyjuice Potion, Hagrid's Arrest, Hagrid's Friend Aragog, Chamber of Secrets, Slytherin's Monster, Gilderoy Lockhart
Magic Quests: Acromantula Nest, Centaurs, Save the Basilisk,
Death Quests: Slay the Basilisk
Overall Quests:
Fate: Fulfill the Prophecy, The Snake Nagini, Draco's Dilemma
Magic: Ravenclaw's Diadem, Slytherin's Locket, Hufflepuff's Cup, Find Excalibur!, Room of Requirement (repeatable), Magical Tutor (Repeatable)
Death: Horcruxes, Ghosts of Hogwarts
Completed Quests:
Fate: Tom's Diary[!], Dueling Club [!], Death Day[!],
Magic: Dueling Club[!]
Death: N/A]
First things first was that over the past few months, Harry had gained three more levels. For the stat points, he just spread them evenly across the three stats. No need to overcomplicate that. For the skill points, he just needed one more to get the fifth level of legilimency, so might as well save them. There wasn't really a different skill he wanted to spend them on. His magic was powerful enough as it was now anyway. He wasn't hurting for anything.
For the class points, they were harder to decide on. He could place all three into Magizoology or Alchemy to get their next Perks. Magizoology wasn't really all that interesting to him, so he was content to simply wait until he got the points from the year-end bonus from Fate. Alchemy was tempting, as well as Ancient Runes, or Arithmancy. Though he wouldn't get a perk from reaching level 5 in them, he had a feeling they would lead to something good. After all, they were involved in rituals.
Alchemy won out in the end. The perk was right there to claim.
[Perk Gained: Nature Natural: Identifying and manipulating the inherent natures of things comes naturally to you. +10% efficiency when dealing with natures. +10% yield when extracting essence.]
As per usual, the levels and perk also came with knowledge as if he had been studying alchemy for three years. The perk itself would come in handy when he started to create his own artifacts again. He still used the mug he had made for himself after the one he had made for Remus turned out so well. He had given it to the house elves in the kitchen, and now he had a perfect mug of coffee waiting for him every morning.
'I really should start crafting things again.' There were a lot of things he wanted to do, and so little time, it felt like. There was still the basilisk to take care of, so this boost in alchemy would be helpful in extracting every ounce of use from it.
Harry moved on to the completed quests. He had been too busy to really care about his system page, so they had piled up on him.
First was Tom's Diary, which he had just collected.
[Fate Quest: Tom's Diary
This was somehow the worst way to have handled it. The only thing you managed to do was change where Lucius planted the diary. It would have been better if you just allowed it to play out and get the diary at the end of the year. Or, instead of waiting for Tom to graffiti the wall, you should have waited for him to show up in the girl's bathroom. That way you could have prevented him from opening the chamber.
By the way, I didn't need to nudge Lucius into giving the diary to someone else. He did that all on his own, thanks to your growing reputation. Many times the best twists of Fate happen naturally.
Reward: +1 Skill Point]
Looking at the message from Fate, Harry felt a surge of regret. He really had handled it poorly. He was so caught up in the normalcy of school life, he had let things go too far. Whatever. What's done is done. He tried not to let it get to him and claimed the reward. Now with five skill points, he unlocked the final level for legilimency.
[Legilimency: Level 5/5: Once in someone's mind you can remain there for as long as you wish no matter the distance. Maintaining this connection requires no focus on your part.]
With it came a new understanding of what it meant to connect his mind to another. It wasn't just an active probe he sent out, nor a passive receiving of thoughts. It was a method of building a subconscious bridge to another. The best example he could give would be like the piece of Voldemort inside his mindscape. It was a link between their two minds. Only, now it was without the soul piece, and with anyone he wanted.
Though he didn't really have much use of it for now. Perhaps in the future he could use it to connect a team together for dangerous situations.
Next were the two Dueling Club quests, one from Fate, one from Magic. From those, he gained two levels in Dueling and 1 Focus point in total.
Finally, the Death Day quest. It did have the option to just skip it and go to the feast instead. Technically, he did do that, even if he didn't stay for the whole feast. As a reward, he got just a control stat point. Nothing worth writing home about.
Dumbledore arrived a few minutes later. He looked nothing like his usual jovial self; the lines around his eyes were deeper, his mouth set in a thin line. He didn't say anything at first and merely opened the way past the gargoyle. Silently, they made their way into the privacy of the headmaster's office. Once they were seated, Dumbledore steepled his fingers and leveled a stern gaze at him. "Harry, tell me what happened. How was Miss Abbot possessed? Was this one of your visions for the year?"
"In a way, yes. The event largely played out as I had seen, but the diary had changed hands before I could grab it," Harry explained. He went on to walk Dumbledore through what he had seen, and how he had tried to grab it from Ginny's cauldron before anyone could be possessed. He then explained how he had been searching for it since school had started, with the first known appearance being what had just happened.
"It is quite unusual for a dark artifact to be able to wholly possess someone. Is this diary one of Voldemort's horcruxes?" Dumbledore asked, stroking his beard.
Harry nodded. "Yes, it was the first one I learned about."
Dumbledore sighed tiredly. "Harry, you should have told me about this. I believe I should have had that right, as the headmaster of this school, yes?"
"Well, I—"
"I believe during the last school year, you assured me you would tell me if any of your visions endangered the school, did you not?" Dumbledore gave him a pressing look. "I could have had the dorms searched and this could have been resolved on the first day of school. So why am I only learning of this now?"
It was Harry's turn to sigh tiredly. How did he explain this? "Fate didn't want me to."
"Fate? Harry, this is not the time to be speaking like Professor Trelawney," Dumbledore chastised.
"I'm speaking literally, Professor." Harry scrubbed his face to clear the exhaustion from it. It wasn't even 9 yet, and it already felt like this night was dragging out forever. "Fate isn't just an abstract concept. She is a goddess, the literal personification of karma, fate, time, whatever. One of the three gods that… spoke to me. She told me that I'm not allowed to involve the staff, you included, to find the diary. That it would be too easy that way."
Dumbledore looked at him, searching for any lies. Harry didn't look away. They sat there in silence until he finally asked quietly, "Three gods spoke to you?"
"Yeah. Fate, Magic, and Death themselves. I had a dream about them the night before I went school shopping my first year. Since then, they've been giving me tasks if there's something they want me to do for them. Last year, Magic asked me to protect the unicorns in the forbidden forest from Voldemort. He would have hunted them for their blood to sustain himself in Quirrell's body. That's why I was there that night to confront him, it wasn't by accident. This year, well… it was to try and find the diary without you. One of the tasks Death gave me was to help the ghosts of Hogwarts pass on where I can," Harry explained.
'Well, there's also the matter of the basilisk and acromantula, but there's no need to explain everything to Dumbledore.' Harry thought to himself.
Dumbledore's eyes widened. "Death!" He muttered.
"However, now that I actually have the diary—"
"Wait! Wait a moment." Dumbledore held up a hand to stop him and he squeezed his eyes closed as if he was fighting off a headache. "You've met gods? I'm sure you're not lying, my boy, but this is rather hard to believe. Can I view your memory?"
"I'm sorry, Professor, but I don't know if I'm allowed to show you. They don't seem eager to reveal themselves, after all." 'I'm sorry, Dumbledore, but that conversation contains some sensitive information. There's no way I'm showing you that." Some things shouldn't be shared. Like his reincarnation and the system. The "quests" themselves could be easily rationalized as what they were, tasks given to him from the gods in dreams or something. However, the system itself was for him alone…. Okay, maybe he would tell Hermione in the future if they got married. Maybe.
Dumbledore looked regretful, but nodded his understanding nonetheless. "I… Yes, you are right, Harry. I don't think it would be wise to reveal them. Perhaps you should not have told me about them, either. But I understand, now, why you kept this whole situation a secret. It may not be wise to go against what they tell you."
"Well, now that I got the diary, I can tell you about it. Though this wasn't the first horcrux I've gathered. I've already obtained two more horcruxes. All that remains are two," Harry said.
"Only two remaining? You've been busy, then. May I see them? Even if they're destroyed, there may be some things we may yet learn about them." With the topic having gone back to the horcruxes, Dumbledore was now back into somewhat familiar territory. "Dark magic has a way of leaving traces."
"I haven't destroyed them yet," Harry said. "I'm trying to learn what I can from them."
"You haven't destroyed them? Why not?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well, it's been a while since I told you about the horcruxes. Since then, I'm sure you've come to a realization about me, haven't you?" Harry gave him a knowing look.
Dumbledore's face fell, giving him a sorrowful look. "Harry, I—"
"It's alright, Dumbledore. I've already seen the plan you've made for me in the…well, let's just call it the original timeline since it's not going to happen anymore. You had arranged everything for a more ignorant me to give me the best possible chance of survival. Even if it did mean laying down my life, I still survived in the end, thanks to you. For this timeline, I hope to study the horcruxes to not just purify myself, but also save the artifacts themselves. Which is why I will be holding onto them," Harry said.
Dumbledore slowly nodded, "That sounds like a good plan. I would like to help. Perhaps we can look into this matter together."
Harry agreed immediately. There was no wizard better than Dumbledore to help him in this. Except maybe Voldemort himself. "I'd appreciate the help. Maybe every Sunday, we can study the horcruxes together."
"Sundays it is then," Dumbledore said with a smile. "Now, what about the remaining two?"
"I did say last year that you've already done enough and to rest, right? Besides, you die in getting one of these, so I don't want to bring you, just in case Fate wants to force it to happen anyway," Harry said.
"Hmmm," Dumbledore stroked his beard again as he thought. "Do you know how I was cursed? You said it was the Egyptian withering curse."
"This horcrux is the ring of the Gaunt family. The gemstone on the ring is the resurrection stone," Dumbledore's eyes widened in shock. "This distracted you, allowing you to be influenced by the compulsion curse to put the ring on, which cursed you."
"I see. That would explain it," he said softly, a wistful look in his eyes.
"I plan on going to get it together with Sirius and Remus, perhaps even bring Arcturus with us. Together, we should be able to handle any of the curses there. Especially considering that I'm a parselmouth. Though I've been studying what I can from the restricted section to prepare," Harry said. "We have this one handled, though the last one is somewhat difficult. It's the cup of Hufflepuff, and it's locked up in the Lestrange's vault in Gringotts. I have no idea how to get it besides breaking in, which would make an enemy of the goblins."
"I would have to look something up, but I believe I can do something to help," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "Give me some time, and I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you," Harry said. "You know… the resurrection stone… the horcrux is in the ring itself, the stone is just fine. I don't mind lending it to you."
This time Dumbledore was conflicted. "Harry… I don't know if that is a good idea. I would be too tempted to use it. An old man like me has many regrets."
"Souls do not belong in the land of the living, that is true. However, as long as you understand that and don't try to keep the souls here, then there's no reason not to use it. Death himself has told me to collect the hallows, and he seemed perfectly fine with me using them," Harry said with another knowing look.
Dumbledore pulled out his wand, the Elder Wand. He held it caringly, running a light touch over its knotted surface. "I don't mind passing it along to you, Harry. However, I don't think you are ready to win its loyalty. Perhaps in a few years."
"No, I'm still a ways off from reaching your level. Though I'm not as far off as you think," Harry said with a confident smile. "I think I've already surpassed you in the Mind Arts after all!"
Dumbledore chuckled, "Perhaps."
They sat in silence for a moment. Dumbledore looked at the young man before him in admiration and grandfatherly care. "You are a good young man, Harry. You have much on your shoulders. Just… don't let it crush you. You have good friends, and many that love you. Lean on them when you need to. The world is a dark place when you're left on your own."
Harry smiled at the elderly man. "Thank you, Professor. I will."
Slowly, Dumbledore stood. "Why don't we go visit Miss Abbot?"
Harry stood up to follow. This conversation had left him feeling much lighter than before. He had revealed a lot to Dumbledore and it was a weight off of his shoulders. He had a plan for the ring, and now it seemed that Dumbledore could get a hold of the cup for him. Now, he had help in studying the horcruxes, and together they had a better chance at developing some sort of purification ritual to cleanse them.
However, with the mention of Hannah, that heavy sense of guilt returned. None of this planning removed the fact that he failed to notice the signs with Hannah.
He had to do better, BE better.