Chapter 153: Interrogation
3rd September 1995, Hogwarts (Earth 2)
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
I watch as the confused young man leaves the classroom. For my counterpart, he didn’t have that bad of a deal, especially with how the Dursleys have been treating him. It wasn’t actual abuse, but more like neglect. They emotionally broke the boy, turning him into the people pleasing teenager that he is now. He might have lived in the cupboard, and he might be a little underweight, but a lot of people had dealt with a lot worse. Yes, his childhood wasn’t a happy one, but it wasn’t as miserable as mine, not even close. I had taken a look at his memories during the lesson and noted the difference between both of our situations. Sue me, I was curious.
Was it my gender, or is it because Petunia felt some sort of grief for her sister because she was dead, unlike in my world where she was still alive and she took her aggression, hate and envy out on me? I’m past it, but the boy while rash and easily led around, was a lot better adjusted than I was, but had also demonized the Dursleys in his mind. It was understandable; children tend to exaggerate their suffering and the objects of their hatred. It’s why phobias tend to be more easily developed if they occur during childhoods.
Being in the castle was both weird and natural. Teaching a class came naturally to me, considering my decades of experience as an educator, was expected. But the castle itself was muted, different, it lacked the life that my Hogwarts always exuded. Plus, it was weird seeing someone else’s castle. I kept expecting to go through certain secret passages only to find out that they don’t exist. Most of the little things created by the other founders were still there, but I didn’t know what this world’s Helga Hufflepuff’s contributions were. I spent a good hour using the wards to map out the castle, but I keep trying to access non existent shortcuts as a habit.
Still, teaching my counterpart was a fascinating endeavor, I wanted to analyze the differences in skill and magical aptitude. He had the potential to equal Dumbledore and Riddle, but nothing more. Plus, ancient magic is very scarce in this universe for some reason. I think it might have been the lack of sorcerers or mutants, that preserved the knowledge. Or maybe someone had made sure to hide whatever they deemed dangerous. I didn’t care; this isn’t my universe.
I decided to take my counterpart and Longbottom, under my wings, so to speak. Mostly for curiosity’s sake, nothing more. I was stuck here for a year, and while I had ideas on how to charge the ritual quicker, it would break half a dozen natural laws to use any of them.
Truth be told, I’m starting to not care about the damn things. The cosmic entities are supposed to actually uphold them and enforce them. The laws are supposed to be absolute, a way to protect realities. And yet, Entropy played with them as if they were suggestions, breaking them left and right, just because he had a temper tantrum.
If he’s willing to do it, then there's nothing stopping me. I was playing ball for now to make sure Fate doesn’t mess with me and actually sends me back, but I’m one small push away from doing something drastic.
Speaking of Entropy, our encounter sobered me. I was always the top dog, the most powerful being on the planet, without question, without rival. I knew that I lost a lot of people and a few fights here and there, but it was always because I was taken off guard or because of my lack of foresight. But this fight, he absolutely trashed me, and I was able to pull a stalemate because of a trick. I needed to be better, to be more powerful, and I needed something more than magic. I had a few ideas, but I could only perform them on my home world, but since I’m stuck here, there’s no reason for me not to plan ahead.
Now, back to the events of this universe, I have ruffled a few feathers, and I was waiting to see where that was going. As far as I could tell, Voldemort only had three horcruxes remaining, the locket which is at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, Nagini who is always at his side, and the Gaunt ring, still in the shack. I’m excluding Hufflepuff’s cup because I have it in my possession and could use it to destroy all soul shards at once. It’s an easy kill switch if Voldemort goes too far.
I didn’t touch the ring because I didn’t feel like it, to be honest. I only took the cup because I chose to steal from the Lestranges. I didn’t care about the Horcruxes but decided to use the cup as an anchor in case I chose to destroy the Diadem.
I was letting things progress accordingly. I’m acting a bit like a Bond villain, or an evil scientist, but I shook things up a bit, and I wanted to know how that would pan out. A small simulation of what could have been.
Speaking of shaking things up, there’s something else I needed to address, “Dumbledore, what did you think of my lesson? Was it engaging enough?”
The man’s invisibility spell was shattered, revealing the headmaster with his wand pointed at me, “what did you do to Harry?”
“Nothing really, just removed a little parasite from his forehead. I wonder what would happen if he knew that you were setting him up to die. No wonder you’re not training him. You want a martyr, not a warrior. If it was a question of competency, you would have trained a weapon from his youth, but no, you don’t like the idea of someone like that existing. You prefer a softer solution, love…”
Dumbledore visibly twitched with every sentence I finished, “You removed it? The Horcrux, did you remove it?”
I nodded, “It wasn’t technically a Horcrux, it would never be enough to serve to anchor Riddle’s soul, but it would make it easier for him to possess the boy, should he had wanted to.”
“No, I scanned it. The boy has a soul shard in his scar.”
“The boy HAD a soul shard, but from what you’re saying, you’re obviously not proficient with anything about soul magic. No wonder you planned on killing the boy, you really thought that there was no other way.”
I took his silence as confirmation and continue, “the soul needs energy to be bound to a physical body, or in the case of a Horcrux, an object. The soul shard in Harry’s scar wasn’t planned, so it had a minimum amount of life force from Riddle’s main soul. A soul without life force just passes on, like a killing curse. The soul shard used Harry’s soul to sustain itself, but it can’t hold any life force. If Voldemort dies, with no other anchors than the shard in Harry’s scar, then the pressure of anchoring Voldemort to life would overwhelm the soul shard and it would be destroyed along with Voldemort. I still don’t understand why people actually make Horcruxes, since they would be destroyed when their life force runs out, and their crime against magic, against death, would make sure that they wouldn’t even have the luxury of an afterlife.”
Dumbledore looked pale at my words, “but you removed it?”
Again, I nod, “yes, I did. You could check later on, but the soul shard is gone.”
“How?”
“It doesn’t matter how, Dumbledore. I know it’s surprising sometimes, but you don’t know everything Dumbledore, not even close. The fact that you’re running a country from the shadows, banning magic left and right, doesn’t change the fact that you’re fallible, opinionated, and somewhat of a bigot towards any kind of magic you consider to be too dangerous to the public. Look at this classroom, they didn’t have a single clue about magic. You must see that. They don’t even understand how magic works, and I don’t mean the theories, I mean the basics. They just follow the instructions like little ducklings, without understanding the wand movements or the incantations and hope for the best.”
Dumbledore glared at me, “my methods worked. The magical world has never been this peaceful.”
“You consider Voldemort peaceful? All you did was pit the old families against you. You hammered them with legislation after legislation and you hammered them to the point of desperation and in their desperation, they turned to a man that they didn’t fully understand. You made Lord Voldemort possible, Dumbledore. No one dared to oppose you, so they found someone who could, someone dangerous, someone horrible, someone mad, someone who hated you with a burning passion for how you treated him as a youth, how you made him stay in muggle London in the middle of the fucking London blitz.”
“I didn’t create Voldemort!”
I snort, “Yes, you did. You sent a boy, scared of death, scared of being nothing, to a place where he could have died. You made him desperate and so he turned to magics that he didn’t understand, that someone his age, no matter their brilliance, could never understand. The second he made his first Horcrux, Tom Riddle died, and Lord Voldemort was born. And all this just because you were wary of an abused, violent, arrogant boy who though himself better. All this pain, all this suffering he created, all this death, originated from you.”
The aged headmaster glared at me, “I will not take the responsibility of creating that monster. He chose to perform this magic, he chose madness, he chose evil. I am not responsible for the actions of every student while I wasn’t even Headmaster.”
I actually burst into laughter at this, “Then why do you act like it? Oh, I know your type. Control freaks who try to give up control. You made yourself a main figure in politics who everyone pretty much obeys, for no reason other than your reputation. You actively made the decision not to let Riddle stay at Hogwarts during the holidays, and now when you look at Lord Voldemort, do you see Riddle somewhere in there? The brilliant cunning boy who could have changed the world. No, you don’t. He would have ended up a politician, probably rivaling you, choosing your methods of ruling from the shadows like you are. That’s the smart way, the Slytherin way, but instead, he chose to rule through fear and hatred. And we both know that even if he won, somehow, it wouldn’t last for long. Muggleborns and half-bloods are important for magical Britain’s economy, and killing them like he wants to, would destabilize everything and collapse society, something that Tom Riddle would have taken into account, but something Lord Voldemort ignores. What is happening right now, it’s your legacy, your life’s work. You pushed too hard and asked for too much for no reward, and these are the consequences of your actions.”
Dumbledore looked impassive but I could tell that my words had shaken him. He chose to change the subject, “And the defense curse? Did you really get rid of it?”
“Yes, it was in a hidden room somewhere on the seventh floor, I felt it trying to curse me and tracked it back to the source. It was powered by another Horcrux. From my analysis, his soul is in seven pieces, that is not counting Mr. Potter’s scar. I have destroyed two, I found one before the term started, and the one in the castle as well. I know that Mr. Potter destroyed one, a diary, I believe. There are only three left, and from my analysis, one of them has to be Slytherin’s locket, as the two other artifacts that I destroyed were Hufflepuff’s cup and Rowena’s diadem. I know for a fact that the sword of Gryffindor is in your possession and is full of basilisk venom, which means that it cannot be one.”
I was, of course, lying about the cup; I wasn’t going to tell him that I planned to use the cup at my discretion, whether to destroy it or use it to destroy all the other soul anchors, it was up in the air. The man did look frightened of my information, “How do you know all of this?”
I point to my head, and he understands that I used Legilimency. He glared at me, “Using Legilimency on a minor is a very grave offence, you understand that?”
I snort, “tell that to Snape. And did you seriously say that when the first thing you did when meeting me was trying to enter my mind?”
The man looked away sheepishly, he then stopped kidding and spoke up, “I want you to join to Order.”
I snort, “Not likely. I’m not getting involved in your pissing match with Riddle. You could easily just go there and destroy half of his forces by yourself, but you’re limiting yourself because of that prophecy. Manipulating a prophecy is a recipe to a disaster, it never ends well for anyone. What was fated to happen will happen and there’s nothing and no one that could stop it.”
No one except me, of course. I was going to break that fucking prophecy and I’m going home. I’m done being Death’s little pawn soldier, its attack dog. I’m done with fucking cosmic entities and their hypocrisy. I had always resigned myself to my fate as Death’s champion. But no more! I am the Morrigan, and I will be free. I will hunt down those who are trying to chain me, and I will be free once more, free from the binds of Time, free from the claws of Death, free from the threads of Fate. I will save the multiverse because I want to, not because it’s my duty, I will protect my world from all threats. This is my vow. No more!!!
I could feel my soul resonating with me, as I make my vow, and something shift deeply from my being. And for the first time in a very long time, I feel a weight lift from my shoulders. I am changed. It’s funny that I made this promise to myself in front of Dumbledore of all people. Not that he knows that something deep in me changed, that something monumental has happened.
Speaking of Dumbledore, he turned around and exited the classroom, not taking my rejection well, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Chapter 153: Interrogation
3rd September 1995, Hogwarts (Earth 2)
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
I watch as the confused young man leaves the classroom. For my counterpart, he didn’t have that bad of a deal, especially with how the Dursleys have been treating him. It wasn’t actual abuse, but more like neglect. They emotionally broke the boy, turning him into the people pleasing teenager that he is now. He might have lived in the cupboard, and he might be a little underweight, but a lot of people had dealt with a lot worse. Yes, his childhood wasn’t a happy one, but it wasn’t as miserable as mine, not even close. I had taken a look at his memories during the lesson and noted the difference between both of our situations. Sue me, I was curious.
Was it my gender, or is it because Petunia felt some sort of grief for her sister because she was dead, unlike in my world where she was still alive and she took her aggression, hate and envy out on me? I’m past it, but the boy while rash and easily led around, was a lot better adjusted than I was, but had also demonized the Dursleys in his mind. It was understandable; children tend to exaggerate their suffering and the objects of their hatred. It’s why phobias tend to be more easily developed if they occur during childhoods.
Being in the castle was both weird and natural. Teaching a class came naturally to me, considering my decades of experience as an educator, was expected. But the castle itself was muted, different, it lacked the life that my Hogwarts always exuded. Plus, it was weird seeing someone else’s castle. I kept expecting to go through certain secret passages only to find out that they don’t exist. Most of the little things created by the other founders were still there, but I didn’t know what this world’s Helga Hufflepuff’s contributions were. I spent a good hour using the wards to map out the castle, but I keep trying to access non existent shortcuts as a habit.
Still, teaching my counterpart was a fascinating endeavor, I wanted to analyze the differences in skill and magical aptitude. He had the potential to equal Dumbledore and Riddle, but nothing more. Plus, ancient magic is very scarce in this universe for some reason. I think it might have been the lack of sorcerers or mutants, that preserved the knowledge. Or maybe someone had made sure to hide whatever they deemed dangerous. I didn’t care; this isn’t my universe.
I decided to take my counterpart and Longbottom, under my wings, so to speak. Mostly for curiosity’s sake, nothing more. I was stuck here for a year, and while I had ideas on how to charge the ritual quicker, it would break half a dozen natural laws to use any of them.
Truth be told, I’m starting to not care about the damn things. The cosmic entities are supposed to actually uphold them and enforce them. The laws are supposed to be absolute, a way to protect realities. And yet, Entropy played with them as if they were suggestions, breaking them left and right, just because he had a temper tantrum.
If he’s willing to do it, then there's nothing stopping me. I was playing ball for now to make sure Fate doesn’t mess with me and actually sends me back, but I’m one small push away from doing something drastic.
Speaking of Entropy, our encounter sobered me. I was always the top dog, the most powerful being on the planet, without question, without rival. I knew that I lost a lot of people and a few fights here and there, but it was always because I was taken off guard or because of my lack of foresight. But this fight, he absolutely trashed me, and I was able to pull a stalemate because of a trick. I needed to be better, to be more powerful, and I needed something more than magic. I had a few ideas, but I could only perform them on my home world, but since I’m stuck here, there’s no reason for me not to plan ahead.
Now, back to the events of this universe, I have ruffled a few feathers, and I was waiting to see where that was going. As far as I could tell, Voldemort only had three horcruxes remaining, the locket which is at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, Nagini who is always at his side, and the Gaunt ring, still in the shack. I’m excluding Hufflepuff’s cup because I have it in my possession and could use it to destroy all soul shards at once. It’s an easy kill switch if Voldemort goes too far.
I didn’t touch the ring because I didn’t feel like it, to be honest. I only took the cup because I chose to steal from the Lestranges. I didn’t care about the Horcruxes but decided to use the cup as an anchor in case I chose to destroy the Diadem.
I was letting things progress accordingly. I’m acting a bit like a Bond villain, or an evil scientist, but I shook things up a bit, and I wanted to know how that would pan out. A small simulation of what could have been.
Speaking of shaking things up, there’s something else I needed to address, “Dumbledore, what did you think of my lesson? Was it engaging enough?”
The man’s invisibility spell was shattered, revealing the headmaster with his wand pointed at me, “what did you do to Harry?”
“Nothing really, just removed a little parasite from his forehead. I wonder what would happen if he knew that you were setting him up to die. No wonder you’re not training him. You want a martyr, not a warrior. If it was a question of competency, you would have trained a weapon from his youth, but no, you don’t like the idea of someone like that existing. You prefer a softer solution, love…”
Dumbledore visibly twitched with every sentence I finished, “You removed it? The Horcrux, did you remove it?”
I nodded, “It wasn’t technically a Horcrux, it would never be enough to serve to anchor Riddle’s soul, but it would make it easier for him to possess the boy, should he had wanted to.”
“No, I scanned it. The boy has a soul shard in his scar.”
“The boy HAD a soul shard, but from what you’re saying, you’re obviously not proficient with anything about soul magic. No wonder you planned on killing the boy, you really thought that there was no other way.”
I took his silence as confirmation and continue, “the soul needs energy to be bound to a physical body, or in the case of a Horcrux, an object. The soul shard in Harry’s scar wasn’t planned, so it had a minimum amount of life force from Riddle’s main soul. A soul without life force just passes on, like a killing curse. The soul shard used Harry’s soul to sustain itself, but it can’t hold any life force. If Voldemort dies, with no other anchors than the shard in Harry’s scar, then the pressure of anchoring Voldemort to life would overwhelm the soul shard and it would be destroyed along with Voldemort. I still don’t understand why people actually make Horcruxes, since they would be destroyed when their life force runs out, and their crime against magic, against death, would make sure that they wouldn’t even have the luxury of an afterlife.”
Dumbledore looked pale at my words, “but you removed it?”
Again, I nod, “yes, I did. You could check later on, but the soul shard is gone.”
“How?”
“It doesn’t matter how, Dumbledore. I know it’s surprising sometimes, but you don’t know everything Dumbledore, not even close. The fact that you’re running a country from the shadows, banning magic left and right, doesn’t change the fact that you’re fallible, opinionated, and somewhat of a bigot towards any kind of magic you consider to be too dangerous to the public. Look at this classroom, they didn’t have a single clue about magic. You must see that. They don’t even understand how magic works, and I don’t mean the theories, I mean the basics. They just follow the instructions like little ducklings, without understanding the wand movements or the incantations and hope for the best.”
Dumbledore glared at me, “my methods worked. The magical world has never been this peaceful.”
“You consider Voldemort peaceful? All you did was pit the old families against you. You hammered them with legislation after legislation and you hammered them to the point of desperation and in their desperation, they turned to a man that they didn’t fully understand. You made Lord Voldemort possible, Dumbledore. No one dared to oppose you, so they found someone who could, someone dangerous, someone horrible, someone mad, someone who hated you with a burning passion for how you treated him as a youth, how you made him stay in muggle London in the middle of the fucking London blitz.”
“I didn’t create Voldemort!”
I snort, “Yes, you did. You sent a boy, scared of death, scared of being nothing, to a place where he could have died. You made him desperate and so he turned to magics that he didn’t understand, that someone his age, no matter their brilliance, could never understand. The second he made his first Horcrux, Tom Riddle died, and Lord Voldemort was born. And all this just because you were wary of an abused, violent, arrogant boy who though himself better. All this pain, all this suffering he created, all this death, originated from you.”
The aged headmaster glared at me, “I will not take the responsibility of creating that monster. He chose to perform this magic, he chose madness, he chose evil. I am not responsible for the actions of every student while I wasn’t even Headmaster.”
I actually burst into laughter at this, “Then why do you act like it? Oh, I know your type. Control freaks who try to give up control. You made yourself a main figure in politics who everyone pretty much obeys, for no reason other than your reputation. You actively made the decision not to let Riddle stay at Hogwarts during the holidays, and now when you look at Lord Voldemort, do you see Riddle somewhere in there? The brilliant cunning boy who could have changed the world. No, you don’t. He would have ended up a politician, probably rivaling you, choosing your methods of ruling from the shadows like you are. That’s the smart way, the Slytherin way, but instead, he chose to rule through fear and hatred. And we both know that even if he won, somehow, it wouldn’t last for long. Muggleborns and half-bloods are important for magical Britain’s economy, and killing them like he wants to, would destabilize everything and collapse society, something that Tom Riddle would have taken into account, but something Lord Voldemort ignores. What is happening right now, it’s your legacy, your life’s work. You pushed too hard and asked for too much for no reward, and these are the consequences of your actions.”
Dumbledore looked impassive but I could tell that my words had shaken him. He chose to change the subject, “And the defense curse? Did you really get rid of it?”
“Yes, it was in a hidden room somewhere on the seventh floor, I felt it trying to curse me and tracked it back to the source. It was powered by another Horcrux. From my analysis, his soul is in seven pieces, that is not counting Mr. Potter’s scar. I have destroyed two, I found one before the term started, and the one in the castle as well. I know that Mr. Potter destroyed one, a diary, I believe. There are only three left, and from my analysis, one of them has to be Slytherin’s locket, as the two other artifacts that I destroyed were Hufflepuff’s cup and Rowena’s diadem. I know for a fact that the sword of Gryffindor is in your possession and is full of basilisk venom, which means that it cannot be one.”
I was, of course, lying about the cup; I wasn’t going to tell him that I planned to use the cup at my discretion, whether to destroy it or use it to destroy all the other soul anchors, it was up in the air. The man did look frightened of my information, “How do you know all of this?”
I point to my head, and he understands that I used Legilimency. He glared at me, “Using Legilimency on a minor is a very grave offence, you understand that?”
I snort, “tell that to Snape. And did you seriously say that when the first thing you did when meeting me was trying to enter my mind?”
The man looked away sheepishly, he then stopped kidding and spoke up, “I want you to join to Order.”
I snort, “Not likely. I’m not getting involved in your pissing match with Riddle. You could easily just go there and destroy half of his forces by yourself, but you’re limiting yourself because of that prophecy. Manipulating a prophecy is a recipe to a disaster, it never ends well for anyone. What was fated to happen will happen and there’s nothing and no one that could stop it.”
No one except me, of course. I was going to break that fucking prophecy and I’m going home. I’m done being Death’s little pawn soldier, its attack dog. I’m done with fucking cosmic entities and their hypocrisy. I had always resigned myself to my fate as Death’s champion. But no more! I am the Morrigan, and I will be free. I will hunt down those who are trying to chain me, and I will be free once more, free from the binds of Time, free from the claws of Death, free from the threads of Fate. I will save the multiverse because I want to, not because it’s my duty, I will protect my world from all threats. This is my vow. No more!!!
I could feel my soul resonating with me, as I make my vow, and something shift deeply from my being. And for the first time in a very long time, I feel a weight lift from my shoulders. I am changed. It’s funny that I made this promise to myself in front of Dumbledore of all people. Not that he knows that something deep in me changed, that something monumental has happened.
Speaking of Dumbledore, he turned around and exited the classroom, not taking my rejection well, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
