Focus.
A voice cut through the static in Harry's mind. It was Nat's.
Evaluate the situation- enemies, allies, unknowns, tools.
This was Tom Riddle, but not quite as Harry had known him. He did not seem to want Harry dead, at least not right away. Still, Harry'd be a fool to trust him. He needed to get out of here as soon as possible. Clearly, Riddle had won over Neville, Ron and Ginny's loyalty, and while Harry liked to think they'd grown fond of him, he didn't want to bet on who they'd side with if it came down to a fight.
Harry had one advantage over him. Harry knew who he was, while Tom did not know him, did not know the significance of this meeting, of the prophecy between them. Harry needed to keep it that way.
Make a plan, put it into action.
Ginny was looking at his paling complexion with concern. "Harry, is everything alright?" She asked. Peggy had noticed his reaction too. She was tense, clearly bracing for a battle. Maybe it would come down to it, but not quite yet. Harry took Ginny's hand, and as he'd done yesterday, imparted a few select memories.
Ginny staggered back, and Ron caught her. Harry forced his face to adopt a neutral expression and took the seat Riddle had offered him. "I'm fine, thanks." Harry said, as diplomatically as possible. If he was lucky, the tea would merely have been laced with veratiserum. He wasn't going to take any chances.
If Riddle was disappointed by his refusal, he didn't show it. Instead, he took a sip of his own cup and asked "Could we have some privacy? I suspect this conversation will address some delicate topics."
"Of course, Sir." Neville said unquestioningly, and Harry hated the deference in his voice.
Ginny was clearly out of it, and Riddle had taken notice. Harry had to hope that he didn't question it. "So, you wanted to speak to me. What about?" Harry lured, and Tom's attention was drawn back to him.
"Don't play coy, Harry." He said with a curving smile. "We both know about your unique situation. Found at the heart of a temporal anomaly, with knowledge of another world, with impressive magical abilities. Of course I'm curious."
Harry shrugged "Fair enough. I'll do my best to help, though I should warn you that I can't give you all the answers."
Ron and Neville ushered Ginny out of the room, while Peggy lingered. Harry shot her a brief, tense, nod- hoping that the simple motion had communicated their precarious position and what he needed from her.
"Anyway, as you can probably tell, I'm new here. So I'd very much appreciate some background about this world and your organization. While Dumbledore and Grindelwald were well known in my world, I can't say the same for a Tom Riddle." And there it was, the gentle press of a legimancy probe. Harry didn't even blink as he swatted it aside. Harry didn't know how he'd fare against Riddle in an all out legimancy battle, but he was far better prepared now, after years of honing his abilities with Wanda, than he had been at 17.
"I'm not surprised." He said, not missing a beat "I've always preferred to work from the shadows." That was one way of putting it, Harry mused. "As for you, I am familiar with a Potter family. Fleamont Potter was a talented wizard, though sadly he and his family were killed by Hela in 1960." Harry couldn't hide a wince. If Hela had killed the Potters in this world, she probably had the Invisibility Cloak. Shit. Tom noticed his reaction but misinterpreted it. "Were you close to him?"
"My grandfather." Harry answered. "Guess I don't exist in this world."
"Well, now you do." Riddle said, folding his hands together on the table "The question is, how?"
"Err." Harry uttered, and Riddle pressed again, more firmly, with his legimancy. "There was a battle, with Hela in the Time Room of the Department of Mysteries. There was a powerful artifact, the Eye of Agamoto, stored there, and it was destroyed during the battle. That's the last thing I remember before Ginny woke me."
"I'm not familiar with this artifact." Tom probed.
"It was an amulet with a green gem housed within. It granted the user the ability to manipulate time- to freeze it, rewind it, even looping time."
"That's… terribly powerful." Riddle mused, and Harry could swear he sounded wistful "I'm surprised that I haven't heard of it."
Harry shrugged "Maybe our worlds just differ in that way. Or perhaps it was kept secret."
"Perhaps." Riddle said "But I can tell that you're leaving something out. Could you explain exactly what happened in this battle?"
"Err." Fuck, he wasn't that good at lying. Nat could have spun something convincing without skipping a beat, if her mind had been secure. "Well, you see…" Riddle struck his mind again, this time with sharp force. Harry reeled at the sudden assault, his defenses giving a little before snapping back. That small amount of give was enough, however, for Riddle to detect his deception.
"I don't think you understand, Harry." Riddle sneered "I expect full disclosure. You do not have the liberty to keep secrets, not when lives and the world is at stake."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Harry snapped. "You can't just-" He struck again, in a different location, but this time Harry was prepared. His defenses held, and Harry retaliated. Riddle himself was not expecting the counterattack, and his defenses nearly gave in before reforming. With effort, he pushed Harry back, inch by inch. They were very closely matched, it would be difficult for either one to overwhelm the other.
"You're… really shite at making allies." Harry grunted.
"Oh, I don't intend on you remembering this, Harry." His next attack struck Harry head on and… something shifted. Like a scabbed over wound opening up, his lightning bolt scar flared in sudden pain. Riddle reeled back, as thrown off as Harry was by the rupture.
It was the horcrux.
Harry had destroyed it when Voldemort had killed him all those years ago. But then, when he'd used the Time Stone to bring him back… specifically intending to bring his horcruxes back…
Fuck! Almost reflexively, Harry lashed out. In his pain and desperation, the attack wasn't a spell, but a glowing lance of pure energy. Voldemort deflected the attack, letting it crash violently into the wall. "Impressive." He said. Like a shark sniffing blood in the water, Voldemort realized the opportunity that had just fallen into his lap. His next attack struck true, burrowing and tearing its way through the connection, bypassing all of Harry's normal defenses. Blood dripped down from Harry's forehead, and he screamed.
-----
Ginny was only vaguely aware of Ron's grip on her shoulders as he pulled her out of the room and into the hall. Neville and Peggy's voices were background noise echoing in her ears. She could barely even think through her piercing headache. When Harry had shared his memory of their kiss in the common room, he had been gentle. This had not been. The memories he'd shoved into her brain were a tangled bundle that hit her all at once.
Tom Marvolo Riddle – I Am Lord Voldemort.
She was with Harry as he ventured into the Chamber of Secrets, as he found her unconscious body. She could feel his fear for her. She watched as he talked to Tom Riddle- much younger than she knew him now, but still undeniably him. She watched as he revealed his true intentions. He was going to kill her, kill Harry, and return to life as a dark lord. There was more. A battle with a basilisk. A resurrection ritual in a graveyard. Death, murder, war. All at the hands of Tom Riddle, the self-styled Lord Voldemort.
Perhaps the worst thing was that along with the memories, Harry had given her a hefty dose of his emotions. He was terrified right now, the kind of fear that would leave most gibbering in the corner, but he was keeping the fear at bay with an indomitable force of will. He only had the barest scraps of a plan, and for that he was counting on her.
He was counting on her.
She felt like she was unravelling. The memories had struck her mind with force, and it was as if the impact had left spiderwebbing cracks across her psyche. Something was bleeding through, not memories, but pure emotion.
She loved him.
She couldn't let him face Riddle alone.
She rushed for the door. "Woah, Ginny, what are you doing?" Ron asked, catching her arm.
"We have to stop him." She rasped.
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't understand, he- they-" Peggy displaced Ron and gripped her shoulders, centering her.
"Ginny, breathe, focus." She said "What happened?"
"Harry showed me memories from his world. Memories of Riddle. He was evil, he tried to kill both of us!"
"That doesn't mean anything about our world." Neville argued "Don't do something reckless."
Ginny raised her eyes to Neville's in challenge "And what, exactly, is Riddle planning on doing to Harry?"
Neville faltered. "Well?" Ginny pressed.
"Get information from him." He admitted "By any means necessary."
Ginny turned back to the door, Peggy right at her side. "Wait!" Neville yelled, seconded by Ron's "Are you mad?"
"And what do we have here?" Ginny turned to the new voice- Bellatrix Lestrange. She was a formidably talented witch, and perhaps the closest of Riddle's followers. Ginny also knew that Bellatrix wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone she suspected of betrayal.
"Please, wait. We can sort this out." Ron pleaded, placing himself in front of her. They were the only family that they had left. No matter what, Ginny knew that Ron would stand beside her.
"I've heard everything, Weasley. While you and Longbottom are in the clear, your sister…" She sneered in disgust "Is a traitor. Stand aside."
"No." Ron said, defiant.
For a moment, there was a standoff, with neither party willing to make the first move. Harry's scream shattered that moment, and without thought Ginny pushed through the door.
"Avada Kedavra!" The spell streaked through the air, but before it could hit either Ginny or Ron, Peggy intercepted it. The curse struck her shield not with an explosion, but with a muffled thwap. The force of the spell still pushed her back, sending her toppling into Ron and her shield clattering to the floor. The shield had not survived unscathed, marred now by cracks radiating outward from where the spell had struck. It was miraculous that it was in one piece at all.
"God damn it!" Neville cursed, drawing his wand. "Fine! I guess we're doing this!" Neville drew his wand and sent a barrage of spell-fire at Bellatrix. "Go!" He shouted to Ginny.
She didn't need to be told twice. Rushing through the doorway, she found Harry on the ground- having fallen out of his chair. His face was streaked with blood as he moaned and writhed in pain. Riddle didn't even notice her presence, so consumed with whatever mental battle the two were engaged in. Ginny ran to Harry, kneeling in front of him and cupping his cheek with a shaking hand. "Harry." She whispered, doing her best to wipe the blood from his brow. "Oh, Harry."
-----
Riddle showed no mercy. As soon as he had his opening, he exploited it for all it was worth. He sunk his fingers into every memory he could, it terrified Harry, the knowledge that he knew he was giving up-the Deathly Hallows, the Infinity Stones, the Horcruxes… but the sheer pain made it impossible to resist him. Mental defenses required focus, and that was impossible when it felt like a hole was being burned into his skull. It was all Harry could do to shove his knowledge of the prophecy into some dark corner of his mind and hope that Riddle wouldn't notice.
But then the storm broke, the pain releasing with a soft touch to his cheek. "Harry, I'm here." He heard Ginny's voice, as if wafting through a breeze. Suddenly, the pressure relented. Love. The last time Voldemort had been in his head, he'd been driven out by love. Maybe it would work again…
With renewed resolve Harry gathered together some of his most cherished memories- cementing his friendship with Ron and Hermione after defeating a troll, kissing Ginny in the common room, losing his virginity to her, his first night with Natasha, his first time with Skye, making love to Wanda, their minds coming together as they did, learning that Nat was pregnant, cuddling between Nat and Carol as they found solace in each other after losing everything. He bundled all of them up and more and shoved them right into Riddle's face.
All pressure dissipated, and the world around him recrystallized. Riddle had jerked back as if physically shoved by the force of Harry's memories, falling out of his chair with a scream of his own. Ginny helped Harry to his feet "We're getting out of here." He rasped. He'd never created a portkey before, but after getting a feel for how its magic work, he was reasonably confident he could recreate one. Peggy, Ron and Neville burst in from the hall, with Bellatrix Lestrange hot on their heels. She was viciously throwing curses at them, but Peggy deflected them with her shield, resulting in chunks being blown in the ceiling and walls. Neville and Ron, meanwhile, kept her occupied with counter-fire, preventing her from over-committing to the attack.
Riddle rose unsteadily to his feet, obviously weakened by what he had experienced "You will-" Harry sent a blasting curse at the table. Riddle, even in his current state, was able to freeze the shrapnel in mid-air. Harry had known the attack wouldn't take him out, but he used the scant time it gave him to the fullest. Pointing his wand at an overturned teacup, he focused on the feel of the earlier portkey's magic, and then on his intended destination. "Portus."
Three more people, drawn by the sounds of the fight, filed into the room. Harry only recognized one face- Susan Bones. They avoided the fight between Bellatrix and their comrades, focusing a barrage of spellfire on him. Worse, Riddle was up again and there would be no more stalling him. Seeing his quarry escaping, he didn't hesitate. The hail of shrapnel rebounded back at Harry. Riddle immediately followed it with "Avada Kedavra." The words were spoken softly, but with a poisonous fury.
His focus on creating the portkey put him on the backfoot. He ducked and batted away the incoming spells and was able to vanish the rebounding shrapnel just in time, but he was left with little choice but to throw himself to the side and hope to dodge the killing curse and its blast radius. It would never come. Peggy threw her cracked shield into the curse's path. With an ear-splitting crack, the shield broke in two, rent by a deep crack along the center. The two halves fell to the floor, vibrating with a slight hum.
"Shite!" Peggy cursed. "Please tell me we have a plan."
Harry reached out his arm and wordlessly summoned them all- Ginny, Peggy, Ron, Neville, and the broken shield. As they all pilled haphazardly into him Harry shouted "Activate!"
-----
Bellatrix stayed on her knees, the escape of Harry Potter and three of their former allies weighing heavily on her. "I'm disappointed in how you escalated the situation, Bellatrix." Tom said at length. She had rarely failed him, and never due to a lack of loyalty or conviction. Of all his pupils, she had been the most eager to follow him, forsaking her family and old life without hesitation.
"I'm sorry sir." Bellatrix said "I may have acted rashly."
Tom considered her. Perhaps it wasn't entirely her fault. He had asked her to ensure that they didn't intervene, after all. He couldn't have anticipated that Ginny Weasley would betray them so easily. Still… "Weasley was clearly going to side with Potter, but that did not mean the other two were lost to us. You were… overeager." Tom said. "But this is not the worst outcome."
"Its… not?"
"I've gotten what I wanted from him, and more." Tom waved a hand dismissively. "Potter will be a problem, but he will be a problem for our enemies as much as us."
"What did you get from him?" Bellatrix asked.
Tom smiled "Answers."
"To what?"
"Everything."
He was still not at full strength. The pain he'd felt upon Potter's counterattack had been immense. He had been overconfident and had left himself wide open, thinking that Potter was in no position to do any damage. Their two psyches were physically incompatible in a way that provoked a violent reaction in him. It was something to consider, but secondary to the impressive trove of memories he'd scraped from the man's mind. He would be spending weeks dissecting these memories and contemplating their implications.
He dismissed Bellatrix and made his way to his personal study. He ignored his desk, neatly arrayed with papers and books, and went to a disused set of drawers. There he kept a collection of trinkets and artifacts that he had little use for but was disinclined to dispose of. He pulled out a drawer and summoned the ring to his hand. It had belonged to his mother's family, passed down from generations. Tom felt little attachment to his mother, her family, or the Gaunt Ring, but had seen no reason to dispose of a piece of history. He turned the ring over in his hand, his eyes tracing its obsidian black jewel.
To think, all this time, he'd had an Infinity Stone.
-----
"He knew me." She whispered.
Those three words had not quite become a mantra for Binary, but she said them often enough that it had become disturbing, beyond disturbing. It was one thing if one of the Winter Soldiers got uppity, but if Binary got loose, it would be irreparable.
"Why do you not simply reinforce the conditioning?" Zola asked. He was nothing but a pixelated face on a screen, but also so much more than that. He was the ghost in their walls, never present, but never far away either.
"This is after the reconditioning." Vasily Karpov told… him, it, whatever. "Its effectiveness has… diminished." Binary blinked owlishly up at him, as if trying to decipher what he was saying. It was uncanny.
"It is remarkable, how much you committed to an operation that obtained no results, and damaged one of our key assets."
Karpov bristled under Zola's dissaproval. "I had to." He said "Wizards entered the vortex. I had to catch them."
"You received the Goddess' instructions just as I did." Zola said "You know very well what her orders were, if someone were to break the vortex." Karpov froze, a sliver of fear tracing down his spine.
"You don't understand. If she knew that I'd 'let' someone into the vortex. That my failure drew her from her war in Asgard, she would have killed me."
"What lied at the center of that vortex was far more important to her than some rebel prince. If you had followed orders, you would have delivered to her the prize of a lifetime. Instead…" He let the statement hang. It was unnecessary to list his failures, the botched mission, the escape of Peggy Carter and a man with remarkable abilities, and on top of that a damaged asset. "I do not know what she will do to you, Karpov, but if I were you, I would pray for death."
Zola withdrew his presence, leaving Karpov alone in his shame. He did not know how long he had to make this right, but he was going to try. He would have to capture them, by any means necessary. "Put her under again." He barked.
"Sir…" His aide was pale faced, no doubt spooked by the conversation he'd just overheard. Karpov had no patience for his sympathies or his doubts "Again!"