"Are you ready?" Harry asked softly.
Daphne nodded immediately, her eyes wide and far too excited to maintain her usual "Ice Queen" facade. She wouldn't lie and say she hadn't thought about this before, stepping into another reality, seeing the "other" worlds Harry described during their quiet nights together.
It was intoxicating. Still, she had never pushed him to take her with him whenever he was going. The way he had described his first experiences between worlds hadn't exactly made it sound… appealing, like she didn't think it would have been fun if she had been with him when he landed in that acid world.
Just imagining the pain had the hairs in her body stand, Harry had a way of describing things and making them sound very real.
But now? Now he had told her he had perfected the rift travel, or well, he said he had gotten better at moving through the void to locations he'd been to before, so it was safe to take her to worlds he'd already been to.
And the moment he had offered, she had jumped at the chance. What surprised her most was that she was the only one who did. She had expected Tonks to leap at the idea with her usual chaotic energy, or Anya to insist on accompanying Harry as his knight-protector, but both had surprisingly declined.
Tonks had waved it off with a grin, saying she wanted to "keep her feet on the ground for a bit" after the whirlwind of the wedding, preferring the comforts of their own manor and their world to the uncertainty of a new reality.
Anya had simply bowed out and stated she would remain behind to guard their home and that harry still needed someone to stay behind just in case something happened or he was needed for something important, so she chose to stay and said she'll go another time so she was giving daphne and harry alone time and that next time will be just the two of them.
Daphne didn't quite understand their choices all that much, regardless of the reasons, this was a whole other world for Merlin's sake, but perhaps they were more content with the world they had around them, but she didn't care, it was their choices, so she would not argue with them. This was her moment, a private adventure into the unknown.
Harry looked at her barely contained excitement and chuckled. It had been three weeks since the wedding, and life had mostly returned to a version of normal, though "normal" for a Campione was far from the mundane life of ordinary folks.
The only real difference was the name for his girls. They were now officially Potter-Black, and seeing that hyphenated name on the official mail still brought a persistent, boyish smile to Harry's face that no amount of kingly dignity could suppress.
"Let's go already," Daphne urged, squeezing his arm. Her heart was hammering against her ribs.
He nodded and hooked her arm securely through his right, pulling her close against his side. Lifting his left hand, Harry focused. Daphne watched as his nails lengthened into sharp, predatory points, glowing with an intense, divine white light that seemed to eat the shadows around. With a slow, smooth, deliberate motion, Harry slashed downward.
He cut through the very fabric of reality.
The world split open with the sound of a tapestry being torn apart, revealing an endless, swirling black void beyond. Daphne inhaled sharply. It was terrifying, it looked like an endless void of nothingness, and it scared her.
"Come on," Harry said gently, as he noticed her stiff state, pulling her forward into the abyss.
The moment his foot touched the void, a solid white platform bloomed beneath it. Another appeared with his next step, then another, forming an entire walkway as he walked forward. He pulled Daphne in after him, and she felt the strange, impossible sensation of standing on nothingness that felt firmer than mountain granite. It really was an odd sensation, like being able to walk on air, it felt like nothing yet something both at the same time.
Harry had developed this trick to make it easier for him to travel through the void and even bring other people with him. He had been inspired when they were having a normal conversation, and somehow, somewhere along the conversation with Anya, his mind had drifted to the anime Bleach and the Garganta in the series.
The void that had been shown during ichigo's break in of hueco mundo, he used this techinque that allowed him to create a platform to walk on as then travel through the void, and he had just though that if could work for someone like even ichigo who barely had control over his power then harry should be able to recreate something like that and voila it worked. By layering his magic and using his authority over dreams to recreate it, he had eventually done it and learnt how to create a bridge through the non-space between worlds.
He even went further to create a whole transparent tunnel to be able to see the void around them.
"Beautiful…" Daphne whispered, her voice echoing in the vastness.
From inside the translucent tunnel Harry was projecting, the void still looked the same, but it was a little different, not as black as it was when gazing directly at it, with the tunnel somehow acting as a filler, they could see light in the darkness.
The void was alive with specks of light, looking like stars. millions of stars, distant worlds in the void, and all glowing brightly, showing the endless possibilities of creation.
"It really is," Harry agreed quietly.
They walked in silence for a while, the only sound being the rhythmic tap of their shoes on the magical platforms. Daphne found herself leaning into him, mesmerized by the way the starlights seemed to dance just beyond the reach of the tunnel's walls. Eventually, a brilliant, piercing light appeared ahead, growing from a pinprick to a roaring sun.
"Ah. We're here," Harry said.
"Already?" Daphne asked, surprised. "You always made it sound like it takes ages. I expected at least an hour walk, not a few minutes."
"It usually does," he admitted. "But the tunnel seems to have helped, and I've already anchored this world to ours, so that's another thing. It's like using a Portkey but different, like flying through a road that has a set destination but not a straight path, so it usually takes longer."
They were finally approaching the world.
This was the world Daphne had chosen when he'd asked where she wanted to go. Out of all the worlds Harry had visited, this was the safest. It was familiar, yet also different. So it made it the perfect place for her to visit as a first try at world jumping.
Harry had wanted to bring her here, too. Partly because he too thought it was the perfect first time visit, and partly because he really wanted to see the look on a certain someone's face when he arrived with Daphne on his arm. The shock on their faces would be a memory worth its weight in gold.
"Well," he said lightly, adjusting himself as he smiled at her, waiting for her to calm herself down as she seemed to be vibrating, "are you ready. Then here we go."
They stepped through the light.
Canon Harry Potter World.
Hogwarts, Great Hall.
The Great Hall of Hogwarts was filled with noise as usual, kids talking with their friends and teachers at their table talking with one another.
The younger Harry Potter sat at the Gryffindor table, feeling tired and deeply, bone-wearily annoyed. He shifted his gaze toward the High Table and glared at the toad-like woman dressed in nauseating, fluffy pink.
He truly did not understand the logic of adults, how they could see the truth and choose to bury it under layers of denial.
After his older counterpart from another world had killed Voldemort months ago, Harry had genuinely believed life would finally settle. He thought he would finally get a year of just being a student.
He had cut Dumbledore out of his life, after finding out the future the man had planned for him, Harry knew that he'd never forgive the man. The man had come to him not long after older Harry left to try to justify his action, but all Harry was hearing was that the man didn't even have the gall to tell him what he'd been planning, he had been planning to just lie to Harry until it was time for him to die.
What kind of sick bastard was the man. And to make it worse, Harry knew that the man's plans would have worked because it would have meant his friends' lives would be saved just for his own, and he'd gladly give that up, the man knew and was planning to use that against him.
So safe to say, but He didn't trust the man, and he didn't respect him anymore. He had hoped for a quiet fifth year to focus on his OWLs.
Instead, the Ministry had suffered a collective mental breakdown, seeming to lose all their brain cells, and decided to share a single brain cell.
Cornelius Fudge was insisting that the dark lord's return and subsequent death was a hoax designed to discredit the Ministry. And that it was both his and Dumbledore's plan.
To "monitor" the school and ensure "quality education," he had sent Dolores Umbridge to find out what they were planning.
From day one, the woman had been hell-bent on making life miserable for everyone who didn't fit her narrow definition of "proper." Harry had never seen Professor McGonagall look so close to committing a felony before. Until he saw her with Umbridge, the way her lips thinned whenever Umbridge spoke was a testament to her restraint, not gutting her there.
Today's Defense Against the Dark Arts class had been a nightmare of taunts and repressed rage. If Voldemort were still alive, Harry knew he would have snapped. But the Dark Lord was dead, which gave Harry just enough peace of mind to hold his tongue, even if his hand still ached from the "I must not tell lies" detentions she had given him when he said that had actually been the dark lord that had been killed.
Despite Amelia Bones and her people confirming it indeed was the man, and the papers writing it, they still refused to believe, and she punished him for speaking out. He had learnt to keep quiet since arguing when he wasn't winning or gaining anything was useless.
Suddenly, a sound echoed through the Hall.
RIIIP.
It was a sound like a silk curtain tearing apart. Harry's heart leaped into his throat. He knew that sound. He had heard it only a few times, but it was etched into his soul like a brand. Hermione's head snapped up, her eyes wide with recognition. Ron's fork clattered against his plate, splashing food onto his robes.
A rift formed in the center of the Great Hall, and a jagged tear opened up in the middle of the room.
Dumbledore stood abruptly, his wand out, his voice booming with authority he still possessed. "Silence! Everyone, stay back! Prefects, move the younger students!"
The Hall fell into a stunned, terrified hush. Harry's heart hammered against his ribs as the rift widened, leaking out an aura that made people take a step back away from it.
And then, a man stepped out. Looking the same as Harry remembered.
He carried himself with the effortless, terrifying grace. He wore a suit that looked very expensive, his emerald eyes glowing with a faint, dangerous fire that seemed to see right through the walls of the castle.
But he wasn't alone this time, like the last time Harry saw him.
Tucked into his arm was a woman who caused a collective gasp to ripple through the student body. She was breathtaking, blonde hair like spun silk, eyes of icy blue that held the depth of a frozen ocean, and an aura of such refined, cold elegance that even the most haughty Slytherins looked humbled.
The rift snapped shut behind them with a definitive thud that sent a shockwave through the room, blowing out the remaining torches. The older Harry looked around the room, his gaze sweeping over the banners, the terrified faces, and the teachers' table.
Finally, his gaze locked onto the younger Harry. A slow, amused grin spread across his face.
"Ah," he said, his voice carrying perfectly through the heavy silence. "Mini me. It's been a while, hasn't it? You look like you're having a delightful time."
The younger Harry could only stare, his jaw hanging open, as the older Godslayer stood in the center of the room.
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