Gateway 63

The string tying Voldemort’s soul to his body withered away, the string attaching Harry to the body with it. And then Voldemort’s soul changed, from a desiccated corpse-like thing, into black, ectoplasmic smoke coming out of his head as he attempted to fly away.

Not like it did him any good. He was so slow compared to what I was used to that he didn’t even move an inch before I had already taken him by the head.

As I inspected his new form, Voldemort used his smoke-like tendrils to probe at me, probably as a possession attempt. I ignored it, my focus being on the diagnostic spells and Kido I used to find the reason for his form to change.

It didn’t take long to find it: his connection to a body grounded his soul into a human-like shape. Without it, the only thing he could maintain was his head.

That was a result of tearing his soul into pieces. His concept of self was torn apart, and only a small part remained in this piece.

“Bakudo #4: Hainawa,” I cast, letting the ropes made of spiritual energy flow from my hand to envelop Voldemort’s head, binding him in place.

I had found more than enough from my examination to understand what the other strings meant. One led to a manor I could see in the distance, but the other one close by…

“Harry,” I said quietly, releasing him with a wave of my hand. “Come over here, I have to check something.

It took him a few moments. First, to get his bearings back, and then by warily moving among what he knew were his enemies. The Death Eaters, for their part, remained eerily still, with only Lucius taking a further step forward to get a closer look at his previous master.

When Harry arrived by my side, I noticed how rough he looked: cuts and scrapes everywhere, with the one on his arm still bleeding, and dirt everywhere. His wide eyes stared at Voldemort’s dead body as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Taking pity on him, I cast a basic healing spell on him, leaving the only sign he had been harmed the drying blood on his skin.

His head snapped towards me when the spell hit, his hand moving to where his wand should have been before he realized Wormtail had taken it.

“What do you want?” He asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Calm down,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I need to see what’s up with that string tying Voldemort’s soul to your scar,” I pointed at it, and it seemed like he just noticed it, his eye crossing to look at it before he jumped back in shock.

“What the hell is that!?” He demanded, and I wondered if he didn’t see because he wasn’t paying attention to it, or if there was some other reason.

“That,” I said in a calming tone. “Is one of the strings tying Voldemort’s soul to the World of the Living.”

“Then take it off!” Harry screamed, waves of panic rolling off of him.

As a response, I stepped up to him and put my gloved hand over his scar. With a push, both Harry’s and Voldemort’s souls fell out of his body.

Harry’s soul was normal, as expected, but the piece of Voldemort that came out with him was a slightly healthier version than the first one. The size was still the same, but it wasn’t as desiccated, and it moved a bit.

“What the fuck.” I heard Harry mutter, staring at the thing that had been with him who knows how long.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “It looks to be at around twice the power of the other one, which explains way too much.”

“Explain what?” Harry asked.

“When I took Voldemort’s soul out of his body, my first theory was that it had splintered when he died,” I explained, letting my voice carry to everyone present. “But that didn’t make sense, since if that were the case, the strongest piece would be the one trying for resurrection. After I checked its new form, I found out he tore his soul apart, but that still didn’t explain why the main part was so weak.” I stopped and looked around, noticing the shock in the Death Eater’s faces, finishing with my eyes on Harry. “And now I see this, and the only conclusion I can find is that Voldemort has been tearing his soul in half and hiding away the pieces.”

“B-But, how!?” One of the Death Eaters asked.

“Horcrux,” Lucius replied with a whisper, his face paler than I had ever seen, before it flushed in rage. “He put one of them in MY HOME!”

He quickly advanced on the bound soul, drawing his wand and pointing it at it.

“Avada Ke-” He froze midstep, his wand halfway into the movement for the Killing curse.

“Lucius, I know you’re pissed off, but I need you to calm down,” I said placatingly. “I can guarantee you that he’ll receive a punishment worse than death, but I need you not to mess it up, ok?”

I released him from the Freezing charm, leaving him to bend over panting while I returned to Harry.

“Well, now that that is done, we can-”

And then I felt it. Luna’s panic was equal to when she caught my attention before I came back from the Soul Society. That meant she and Severus had just traded their memories of the events at the end of the third task with their future selves, and they would soon be going to the past to call me back.

It was an ingenious plan from Severus: have the ones going back remove their memories of the changed future and insert the memories that brought them back in the first place.

But that meant I was on a time limit. Severus said he could hear chaos from the room he was in when he went back to the past, so I had a few minutes to go back and make a lot of noise.

“Never mind that. Time to finish things here,” I said, drawing my Zanpakuto and cutting the piece of Voldemort’s soul tied to Harry’s scar in half. “Harry, get back in your body.” At his incredulous look, I rolled my eyes. “Just lie down inside of it!”

Leaving him to it, I walked back to the bound soul.

“Lucius, what was it that you said about Hourcux?” I asked, snapping my fingers to rush him.

“They’re the darkest kind of magic. The wizard splits his soul and stores a piece in an object, becoming immortal, or something close to it,” he explained, fast and to the point, exactly how I wanted it.

I felt a burst of satisfaction at that. I was pretty sure of my course of action before, but this confirms it was a good idea.

“Thanks, Lucius,” I said before using my Zanpakuto to cut all but one of the strings tying Voldemort’s soul to the living world. Raising my hand towards the manor in the distance, the direction of the string I left untouched, I summoned whatever object he put his soul piece into.

A ring hit my hand like a comet, and I felt how much stronger the soul inside of it was than the others. There was also a hint of divinity in it, but that was something I’d check later.

I kept the ring in my hand as, with a casual swipe, I severed Voldemort’s last connection to life.

But nothing happened. Both the ring’s and the normal soul were still there, head and smoky tendrils still bound by my Kido.

Maybe that was it? I released the Kido, but all that did was let the soul try to flee again.

Sighing in exasperation, I cut it down. I really wanted to see the natural process of moving on to the afterlife in this world, but that’s something I could do later, I suppose.

As I sheathed my sword and pocketed the ring, Harry and Lucius approached me.

“Potter,” Lucius said while turning up his nose.

“Malfoy,” Harry glared.

“Ok,” I clapped. “I don’t care what you two have against each other. Lucius, Harry is a teenager, stop beefing with him, it makes you look bad. Harry, what’s up?”

Lucius looked annoyed and resigned at being called out, but really, what kind of adult had beef with someone their kid’s age?

“I need my wand back,” he said, turning his glare at Wormtail. “And Pettigrew comes with me.”

“Pettigrew?” I questioned.

“Wormtail,” Harry snarled. “He faked his death and pinned it and the murder of 12 muggles on my godfather, who spent 12 years in Azkaban for it.”

“Well, that seems reasonable,” I nodded, summoning Wormtail from where he was standing and knocking him out. “Here, all yours.”

I didn’t particularly care, but from Lucius' face when the guy’s name was mentioned, I figured he agreed that disposing of him was best for everyone.

“Lucius,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear, while Harry searched for his wand in Wormtail’s pockets. “You are in charge of this lot,” I waved at the assorted Death Eaters. “And all of you are now my subordinates. I’ll figure out a proper hierarchy later, but for now, you follow your brother’s and Severus’ lead.”

He nodded jerkily and started to gather his new subordinates. He barked a few orders while two big, burly men stood at his sides like bodyguards.

“Fleur!” I called out, she was still sitting on the sofa I conjured, dazedly staring in my direction. She blinked a few times after hearing my call, finally paying attention. “Come on, it’s time to go!”

With a jolt, she jumped from the sofa and joined me and Harry, who had managed to find his wand.

“Get ready, you two. The Cup is still a portkey, so I’ll summon it and we’ll go back to Hogwarts,” I brought Voldemort’s body closer and held it by the arm while Harry held Wormtail’s arm. Fleur just nodded, snaking one arm around my free one.

After a last check that everyone was ready, I summoned the portkey, and we were off.

___

The chaos started as soon as we arrived.

From what Severus said, it took a while for people to realize something was wrong in the original timeline. But that was when only Harry and Fleur returned. This time, both competitors came back with three strange men, and everyone had a problem with that.

Dumbledore was the first to arrive, followed closely by Madame Maxime, while the other one stood frozen in his seat.

“You’re here, great!” I said, subtly casting a spell that’d let everyone hear our conversation clearly. “Harry and Fleur tied for first place, but someone changed the portkey to send them to this one,” I kicked Wormtail lightly. “He did a whole dark ritual to resurrect Voldemort,” I waved Voldemort’s hand.

I removed the spell after it had its effect. It had worked wonderfully. The crowd went silent as I explained things, only to explode in even more panic after I finished.

Dumbledore, on the other hand, only looked sad.

“I fear that, while you did us a great service, Mister Lupi, Lord Voldemort will be back in the future,” he said in a resigned tone.

“What are you blabbering about, Dumbledore!?” A short, fat man in a lime green bowler hat said as he approached us. “And believing such obvious lies too!?”

“Now, Cornelius, I’ve said plenty of times that Lord Vol-”

“I don’t want to hear your kooky theories! The man is dead! He has been dead for over a decade! Move on!” The man, Cornelius, exclaimed. “And who are you supposed to be?” He rounded on me. “Another one of Dumbledore’s followers? Lying to self-aggrandize?”

I looked at Dumbledore in shock. It had been years since I last had anyone talk to me like that, long before I even became a Campione. And the man didn’t stop there either, ranting about meaningless things and making himself a bother.

With a simple pinching motion, his lips closed. I could have used the Silencing charm, but that wouldn’t have been as satisfying as physically making sure he couldn’t open his mouth anymore.

“Who’s the bozo?” I asked Dembledore, while the tiny little man’s grew redder and redder.

“That, Mister Lupi, is the Minister for Magic,” Dumbledore said calmly, a twinkle in his eyes showing his amusement.

“Ah, so just a pointless bureaucrat,” I nodded. “Anyway, as I was saying, you don’t have to worry about Voldemort anymore. I used my partner here,” I patted Stargazer’s hilt. “To cut his soul’s ties to the living world, he won’t be coming back.”

“Truly?” Dumbledore’s voice cast a wondrous tone, and he looked as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Yeah. You can check to make sure, but what I did was pretty final.”

“It was bloody brilliant!” Harry laughed. Fleur had already been taken by Madame Maxime to be checked for injuries. “And here, Peter Pettigrew! Knocked out and-”

I ignored what else he had to say because I had just felt present Luna go back in time, and with that, a thin, subtle shockwave of divinity washed over the area.

___

A/N: And that’s that.

As always, thank you all for your support! See you again next week.