A Riddle To be Solved Ch. 13: Day of Reckoning (Patreon)

Harry James Potter sat behind his desk at the office of the head auror. His office.

He was swamped with paperwork. Ever since he'd taken this job, he'd become a glorified desk jockey. Expense reports, incident reports, departmental memos, invitations to some stuffy ministry function, leave requests and everything else under the sun. Any moment he wasn't signing or reading something, he was off to some meeting, and not even the fun kind where they planned out a sting operation, but the boring, multi-departmental kind where Hermione bogged them all down in minutiae until the cows came home.

Harry wasn't being fair, or course. Hermione was an excellent minister and had done a lot to work on on her natural inclination to micromanage. But there was only so much to be done about it, running a stable government was boring work.

Harry glanced at one of the photos on his desk and smiled. His daughter Lily smiled back at him. She was seventeen, in her final year at Hogwarts, and Harry looked forward to her graduation dearly. He always enjoyed going back to Hogwarts, having a chat with McGonagall and Nev, strolling through his old stomping grounds and reminiscing about the old days, good and bad.

“You know there's a more efficient way of doing all this.”

Even after being dulled from years behind a desk, Harry was still an auror, he'd still spent his formative year struggling for his life. Those reflexes never went away. He'd flipped over his desk and held his wand in hand, shooting off a pinpoint accurate stunner that held true.

The intruder had his hands in his pockets, and yet Harry's stunner fizzled as it splashed against an invisible force field that surrounded him.

“Nice reflexes, man! That's awesome for your age. Me, I was never the best at all the rough and tumble stuff.”

“Who the hell are you?” Harry hissed as he crouched down. He couldn't risk another spell, not when he had no idea what it was that protected this man, but he couldn't just sit here either. Whoever this was, they'd slipped in through the wards of his office, unnoticed by an entire department full of aurors. He was dangerous.

Harry tapped his auror badge, sending out a distress signal that should have half the force bearing down on his doorway any moment now.

“If you're calling out for help or something, just know that I've blocked all of that. I'm just here to talk, Harry.”

“I seriously doubt that.” Harry kept on tapping his badge. For all he knew, the man might be bluffing.

The man raised his hands up. “If you could turn off fight or flight mode for a second, I suggest you take a good look at me.”

Out of reflex, Harry began to take in the man's appearance. He had a head of raven black hair, perfectly styled at the top with a low fade on the sides. He wore a well-tailored muggle suit, he was tall and slim and young and handsome.

Tom Riddle. Was the first name that sprung to Harry's mind.

But Tom Riddle wouldn't be caught dead in a muggle suit. And Tom Riddle's eyes were dark, this man's eyes were emerald green.

“You're me.” Harry was less shocked that he thought he'd be. Though he figured after all he'd been through, meeting himself was par for the course. “You look… younger… and I don't remember styling my hair like that.”

“I'm actually right around your age, Harry, just take better care of myself and have a bit more style.”

Harry snorted. “You don't have any kids.”

“That too.” The other Harry grinned. “You can call me Harry J., if that helps. I'm from an alternate dimension where you were a genius.”

“And humble, too.”

Harry J. shrugged. “I don't have the time nor the inclination to play humble.”

“What exactly do you want with me? I imagine someone of your genius doesn't go around lesser Harry Potters just to ridicule them.”

Harry J. snapped his fingers. “Damn, am I coming off as irritating again? Listen, Harry, I told you I came to talk. The truth is, I need your help.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “And what exactly does the supergenius Potter need regular Potter for?”

Harry J. reached into his suit pocket. When his hand came out, he was holding something made of chrome in his hand.

Harry's eyes widened in shock as his brain registered the gun. Harry J. pulled the trigger, and there was a loud gunshot as he aimed directly at Harry's heart.

Harry jolted, and for a moment he dared not move. Then, time began running anew, Harry was still breathing, and while his heart was thumping against his chest, it was still whole, intact.

“What the fuck was that?” Harry cursed at his counterpart.

“Look behind you.”

By now, his other self had burned through any goodwill Harry should have had in him, but he still found himself turned around and staring at the wall behind him.

Directly behind where he'd been standing, at precisely chest height, was a bullet hole. Harry could actually see the metal slug lodged into the wall. 

“You, my friend, are the luckiest Harry Potter in the entire multiverse.”

“Luckiest? I wouldn't consider myself lucky.” Harry said. “My school life was hell!”

“I'm you, remember? Being put into shitty situations just comes with the territory of being Harry Potter. I killed my basilisk by discovering the spectrum at which its killing gaze functioned and creating a set of glasses that reflected it back on the beast. I'm guessing your encounter went a bit different.”

Harry grit his teeth. “Just a bit.” He'd never had any issue admitting just how much of his survival could be attributed to luck. It was a standard part of the speech he always gave when they did commemorative events and the like. But now, in front of this pompous mirror of himself, it left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“So anyway, luck like that can't really be replicated -yet- so I'm here to offer you a chance to join me on a mission that has to do with the safety of the multiverse.”

“Mission?” Harry perked up upon hearing those words.

Harry J. grinned. “All this paperwork gets boring, doesn't it? Don't you yearn for all the fun and adventure of your youth?”

“Unlike you, I've got responsibilities.”

“Yeah, I can see. Cute kids, though your middle son seems to be going through a phase.”

Harry snarled and Harry J. chuckled. “Big family man, I get it. But may I remind you that you are talking to a genius? I can get you out of here and bring you back five minutes ago. No one will even have noticed that you're gone.”

Harry couldn't help but be intrigued by the entire situation. A chance to stretch his legs and go out on an adventure like old times? And with everyone else none the wiser?

“What is it?”

“There's a Harry Potter out there, an evil one. Real arch-villain type, really into going to other Harry Potter's worlds and sewing chaos and destruction. Fucking kids too, apparently.”

Harry took in a deep breath. “So he just goes to other worlds and… destroys them?”

“Pretty much.”

Harry couldn't picture himself doing such a thing. Boredom aside, he'd loved the tranquil life he'd built from the ashes of the second wizarding war, and he couldn't imagine being such a bastard that he'd want to go and ruin other people's happiness. He pictured what would happen if that evil Potter were to come to his world, to topple the peace that they had achieved. 

“I'm in.” Harry said with determination, placing his wand back in its holster. “What do we do?”

“I need to go collect another Harry first.” Harry J. laughed at the surprise evident on Harry's face. “What? You didn't think I'd try to take him on with just you, did you? My Hermione crunched the numbers, three Harrys is the optimal number to take this bastard down.”

“I'll go with you then.” Harry said.

Harry J. shrugged. “Suit yourself. Just try not to get yourself killed. Your luck isn't infinite.”

…

“Die, you inhuman beast!” The constable yelled as he bludgeoned the demon over the head.

The words didn't come out precisely like that, seeing as his entire lower jaw was missing, and the constable was using the jagged remains of his jawbone to try and stab through the demon's skull. It was proving to have mixed results. He had managed to pierce the giant red beasts's skull and draw blood, but the wounds were shallow at best and did nothing to slow down the monster that was currently gnawing its way through his good arm.

The constable knew he was going to die, but he'd be damned if he gave the beast the satisfaction of taking him down easy. He was going to make sure he was the worst meal this thing had ever had.

He would have had a fighting chance, if only that villain hadn't taken the hallows from him. Now, he was barreling towards death with the knowledge that the world he had sworn to protect would soon join him.

There was a swirl of light, and two men materialized amongst the ruins of Hogwarts.

“What the hell is that thing?!” Harry yelled in shock. The sky was blood red, he was amongst very familiar rubble, and there was a giant demonic creature poised to devour someone.

“I'll tell you in a moment.” Harry J. pulled out his phone and aimed the camera at the demon, angling it back to fully scan the demon's shape. Harry looked perplexed, having cut contact with the muggle world well before the advent of smartphones. 

Harry glanced at the screen, feeling embarrassingly like a muggle witnessing magic for the first time as the image on the screen became populated by text all around.

“Wrath daemon, pretty powerful one at that. Impervious to most forms of magic, let me see if I can hack through that.”

To Harry, it seemed that Harry J. was just randomly tapping on the screen when a red border came followed by an alarm noise. “Magitech can't touch it either, that sucks.”

Harry looked up anxiously as he noticed the man being attacked was dangerously close to death. 

“Shouldn't we try to help him? He's our other Harry, isn't he?”

Harry J. didn't even look up from his phone. “Sure, go knock yourself out.”

Harry sighed as he sprinted off to the demon, his ‘saving people thing’ in full effect. He wasn't as spry as he used to be, so he felt the burn much quicker than he used to, but it only marginally slowed him down.

“Expelliarmus.” Harry's disarming charm flew straight at the red-skinned demon's chest and bounced off like it was nothing, but it achieved two things: it redirected the creature's attention and it loosened its grip on its prey. Harry's charm bounced at the perfect angle to hit the remaining Potter, who was thrown off the monster's grip and sent flying away.

Harry focused on controlling his injured counterpart's fall while he backtracked away from the monster that was now fully focused on him. He had no plan, but he'd never needed one before. He gently placed the grievously injured Potter on the floor, hoping that he'd manage to hold on for a few more minutes, and then focused his full attention on the demon.

Meanwhile, Harry J. was still locked in on his phone. While it pissed him off that his superior magic couldn't affect the demon directly, and he'd be sending some patch notes to Hermione immediately after this, he could still take the thing down. The scan had shown that the demon's greatest weakness was fae water, the ‘holy water’ that the christian religion had tried to imitate. It was a supremely rare resource found only in a scant few sacred meadows across the world.

Harry J. found a decent sized shipment online and ordered it to his current location. The delivery time was six to eight minutes, a bit longer than usual due to having to breach dimensional boundaries, but it would have to do. He sat back, seeing how Lucky Harry was scrambling for his life trying to get away from the demon. He saw the other Potter's broken form on the ground and summoned him towards himself. 

The mangled body glared up at him, unable to really speak due to missing half his face. Harry J. smiled, “Don't worry, you'll start liking me once I'm done here.”

The Harry facing the demon cast a thin sheet of ice beneath the creature's feet, hoping for it to slip. Instead, the ice cracked and shattered under its weight. Harry J. sighed, thinking he'd need to pause what he was doing to make sure Harry didn't get himself killed, when Harry sent the shards of ice at the demon's head, where most of them splashed harmlessly against its face, but some managed to embed themselves in the wounds the constable had previously opened up. It wasn't enough to hurt it, but it was enough to make it rear back in anger and grab its head.

Harry J. shook his head, deciding to trust in Harry's luck as he went to the MRLN app and started a livestream.

“What's up, guys! Harry Potter here!” He switched over to the front facing camera and showed himself and his injured counterpart on screen.

“Guess what, chat! I'm in an alternate universe! Real crazy shit, fighting a demon with another buddy-” he panned the camera over to show Harry doing his best to survive the demon. “And we've got an injured Cowboy Potter here on the ground. Listen, chat, I want you guys to draw up some good designs to heal my boy up, winner gets ten thousand Marauder Bucks!”

As always, Harry's stream exploded with millions of views in an instant. Comments began flooding in, but Harry filtered those out. Soon, images began to come in, some hand drawn and other using editing software. It didn't take long for Harry to find one he liked. He downloaded the image and projected it onto the constable before pressing ‘apply.’

“What the fuck!” The constable exclaimed as he suddenly found himself in a new body. He was taller, and he felt a vitality that he had not had in well over a decade. His silver arm and copper leg had both been replaced by a different, sleeker alloy that he couldn't identify. It felt more lightweight, which was actually throwing off his balance. 

“There you go, good as new, looking real badass.” Harry J. said as he held up the camera to show everyone the new and improved constable. “Chat's loving this!”

“Hey! I could use some help!” Harry yelled as he rolled over to them, sweating profusely as the demon bore down on them.

The constable patted himself down. This new body had none of his enhancements or adjustments, and he didn't have a wand on him, nor the hallows, he was practically useless.

Just then, something popped into existence between the three Potters. A nondescript cardboard box about waist height.

“It's here.” Harry J. waved his phone and the box popped open. Out came two large jugs filled with a clear liquid. He took on a thoughtful look as he considered what to do. “Maybe I should make some sort of gun to shoot it at the thing? Like a water gun… or maybe-”

“Oh for Merlin's sake!” Harry yelled in exasperation as the demon bore down on them. He vanished the jugs at the demon. They exploded upon impact and the monster's skin began to let off a loud hiss as it burned up. Its inhuman screech rattled their very souls as it quickly began to melt down into a growing puddle of flesh and gore.

The sky lightened very rapidly, its blood red hue turning back to a placid blue. The atmosphere settled down, and before long, it was as if a demon from hell had never been summoned to these quiet ruins.

“That's what I call a job well done, chat! Alright, catch me next time when we go after the big bad!” Harry J. winked at the camera as he ended the livestream.

“Alright, now let's get down to-GAH!” 

Harry J. kicked his feet in the air as the constable choked him, having lifted him bodily with his metallic arm. His phone clattered to the floor as the constable glared up at him.

“Whoah, woah, woah! Hold on!” Harry aimed his wand at the constable. “Let him down!”

“Make me.” The constable growled as he squeezed harder on Harry J.’s windpipe. 

“We just fucking saved you, you idiot. If it wasn't for us, that thing would be shitting you out right now!” Harry yelled in frustration. “Are you angry at that other Potter? Don't take it out on him?”

That seemed to stop the man in his tracks. The constable glared back at Harry, but his grip loosened, and Harry J. fell to the floor, coughing and wheezing as his hands went to his reddening face and neck.

“T-Thats the last time I do charity work for a psycho fucker like you!” Harry J. spat out between coughs, his voice raspy as sandpaper as he sprayed spittle out onto the floor, dry retching on his hands and knees.

“You two. You're me as well.” The Constable said to Harry, receiving a nod in response. “And you're after that wretched cur who bears our likeness?”

“Shouldn't it be fucking obvious?!” 

“Yes, we are. And we want you to help us.” Harry said. “We need to band together and take him out before he screws up any more worlds.”

The constable's eyes bore into Harry's, his magical eye focusing in on him, making him feel as if he were being x-rayed.

“Fine. I'll do it.”

Harry J. picked up his phone, checking to make sure the screen wasn't cracked before he glared up at the Constable. “I'm lead on this, so you better show me some proper fucking respect.”

The constable twitched, a snarl forming on his face.

“Alright, so what do we do now?” Harry asked, wanting to keep things as civil as possible.

“Now, we go back to my world and I explain my plan to you as many times as it takes for you to get it.” Harry J. said.

“We're not leaving yet.” The Constable said. “There's something I need to do.”

“Need to gather up all your stupid cowboy hats and snakeskin boots?” Harry J. asked.

Harry glared at his immature counterpart. The Constable didn't rise to the bait, he tipped his hat down over his face, a somber visage falling over him. “I need to collect the bodies of my kin.”

Harry's heart fell. “Who did he kill?”

“Deputies Granger, Longbottom and Weasley, my best men.” 

Harry felt a knot in his stomach. The idea of his own friends meeting such a fate made his blood curdle. “We'll give them a proper burial.”

“He doesn't want to bury them, dumbass.” Harry J. cut in.

“You're a very irritating person, you know that?” Harry hissed.

“Am I supposed to care?” He snapped  before turning over to the Constable. “Guy like you? That stench of death magic all over you? And a Hermione that's willing to off herself at the drop of a dime? You have a way of reviving them, but you need the hallows, hallows that that bastard Harry stole.”

Harry couldn't believe the gall, the sheer arrogance of this Potter to come to such outrageous conclusions with nothing but conjecture. He felt righteous indignation on behalf of his counterpart.

Except, the Constable did not look like a man that was hearing licentious lies. He was serious and stone faced.

“Are you quite done?” the Constable asked. “I need to collect the bodies before they deteriorate any further.”

In stunned silence, Harry followed along with his two other counterparts as they made their way out onto a field, where he felt his stomach turn once more.

First he saw Hermione. She looked a bit different, not as plump as his own Hermione had become, and she was laying on the ground, staring up into the sky with empty eyes, a wide, jagged gash running across her neck.

Then he saw the other two bodies. If the Constable hadn't previously mentioned Ron and Neville, he wouldn't have recognized the two mangled corpses that were laid out a few yards away. He did see a patch of ginger hair, but that was the only thing that could help someone identify them. Morbidly, Harry thought of swiss cheese as he observed the two bodies.

There were large chunks bitten out of them, the wounds smooth and circular, missing the teeth marks that one would expect. 

Around the bodies were dozens of carnivorous plants. Most of them had been crushed by the demon when it had been summoned, but some had survived. They were dragging themselves sluggishly across the ground, bellies full to the point of bursting.

The Constable sighed. He reached down into his wand holster, only to be reminded that he didn't have a holster, nor did he have a wand.

Harry J. smirked. “Need some help there, buddy? Let me guess, you need me to hoover up all these little bits and pieces of them.” He didn't wait for the prideful Constable to respond. He tapped away at his phone and a glass tank with a partition down the middle appeared in the middle of the clearing.

“Lets start with Ron.” Harry J. said as a little more than half of the mess of blood and gore, along with Ron's corpse, became highlighted in a light purple.

“Seems that only 96% of him can be salvaged. That good enough for you?” 

Harry watched as the corpse, the chunks of flesh, the blood, the squished plant matter and a few of the still living plants were sucked into the tank. The same process repeated with Neville.

In the end, the field was left almost completely clear.

Harry J. turned to the other two. “Now, as I was saying, its time we talked turkey.”

…

Harry thrust into her from behind as she huffed and gasped. She was gripping her silky green gown, having hiked it up to her hips to allow her daddy better access.

His hips were slamming against her backside as her tail wagged behind her, its movements independent of her will. Harriet had her face turned sideways, staring lovingly back at her sexy daddy as he fucked her pussy raw.

Lyra and her had just finished getting ready in their room. Harriet had gone out to get some hair clips when daddy had grabbed her, shoved her against the wall and began fucking her.

“I figured this had happened.” Lyra said as she exited the room, “Did you find the hairclips?” 

Lyra held her hand out, and Harriet dragged her balled up fist along the wall until she could reach out and drop the clips onto Lyra's open palm.

“We do not want to be late.” Emily said as she exited a room, adjusting her dress as Fleur and Delphi walked out behind her, clearly having gotten in some fun times of their own.

Harry grunted as he buried himself inside of Harriet and pressed her against the wall. Harriet sighed in contentment as her daddy emptied his balls inside of her, wondering if this fresh load that was flooding her womb would be the one to finally impregnate her.

Done with their quickie, Harry pulled out of Harriet and put his cock back inside his pants. Lyra went up to Harriet and helped her readjust her dress.

“Can we bring our doggy with us?” Fleur asked as she tugged at Rosmerta's collar. 

Harry chuckled. “Of course, this is a celebration for all of us.” 

Lord Gaunt's Ball was the most important event in the year's calendar. For all intents and purposes, it was a day the people had dedicated to their lord and saviour, the ultimate day of appreciation for their king.

Harry did not consider himself vain, but he could indulge in such grand gestures. For his subject's sake, of course.

This year, the event was being held at a grand ballroom in London that had once been owned by the muggles. 

Harry and his family, including Fabiola and Fiona, were sitting at the high table, the complete epicenter of the universe as hundreds of their loving subjects ate and toasted to his name. 

Harry shared a secret smile with Emily, who had also been basking in all the adoration. Everyone was dressed to the nines, and outside the ballroom, thousands upon thousands of people were gathered, celebrating Harry's supremacy.

Even with their inevitable clash with Fate looming over their heads, Harry and Emily couldn't help but feel content. They had built and molded this world and bent it to their will. They had succeeded, and now they and their beautiful girls were true royalty. Divine and absolute.

…

Harry J. whistled as he walked down the empty halls of Hogwarts.

It tickled him pink, considering the extreme modifications that his own Hogwarts had gone through, just how quaint this version was.

It was an old stone castle with creaky stairs, no insulation and still lit by torches. He was sure that this Harry had done nothing to correct the inefficient, ofttimes jumbled magical circuitry that ran through the place either. Some might call it ‘charm’, Harry J. considered it waste.

He cursed when one of the trick steps activated and he tripped, almost falling halfway down the stairs. 

“Annoying fucking shit.” He grumbled as he pulled his leg up and continued his trek up the stairs. He had half a mind to pull out his phone and reconfigure the entire castle's ward scheme, but he didn't have the time.

He finally made it to the seventh floor. The gargoyle recognized him and leapt aside. One ride up the spiral steps later and he was there.

The Headmaster's office.

He glanced at the nameplate on the desk with the surname Gaunt and snorted. To think he would shed his namesake. Harry J. would understand if he'd chosen Peverell, a powerful name that reflected their past. But to call himself ‘Gaunt’? It was just another marker of how far he'd strayed.

“Lets see here.” He now pulled out his phone, holding up the camera as he scanned the abundance of items that littered the office.

None of them were it. Harry J. frowned as he ran another scan. Nothing. He went behind the office to the Headmaster's quarters, but those were empty. 

He cursed. Of course this bastard would set himself up somewhere else. But where else? He really didn't feel like searching the entire castle to find his quarters.

Harry J. sighed as he went through his contacts list, finding the name he needed and starting up a video call.

It rang three times before the person on the other end picked up. A skinny young teenager with his hair dyed green picked up.

“Mr. Potter! We gonna collab again?!”

Harry forced a smile. “Sure thing, Colkie, just hit that follower goal and I'll get right on it.”

The teen frowned, “But sir, I just hit ten thousand the other day, one million seems really hard.”

“A million is easy kid, you just have to hustle. Now, I kind of need your help.”

“My help?!”

“Yeah, listen. I'm on my multiverse adventure-”

“Oh my god, you're filming that now? I just saw the video where Cowboy Harry saw our London for the first time.”

This time, Harry J.’s smile was genuine. That asshole Constable had proven to be a veritable gold mine of viral content as a sort of George of the Jungle discovering civilization. Thankfully, they hadn't stayed in his world long enough for the bastard to figure out what was going on, or he'd have tried to strangle him again.

“Yeah, well, I need your expertise, kid, if you help me with this, you can tell your followers you helped save the multiverse.”

“What do you need, sir?”

“I'm at Hogwarts castle right now, the old one from the grainy videos. I'm trying to figure out where this evil bastard would have his quarters for him and his little inbred family.”

Colkie rubbed his chin in thought. “How tall is he?”

“He's as tall as I am.” Harry said irritably.

The teen let go of his phone, which hovered over him as he tapped away at his computer. “Fifth floor, east wing, by the painting of Eldrik the Elder.”

Harry had dealt with the boy enough times to know not to even ask how exactly he'd figured it out. It was a mixture of clayvorance and autism, he was sure. “Alright, thanks.”

“Can I post this convo?!” 

Harry's lip twitched. “Just wait until I post mine, alright?”

“Thank you so much sir!”

Harry hung up on him and made his way to the fifth floor, where he soon found his counterpart's quarters. A quick search led him to a simple snow globe sitting atop a shelf.

“Found you.” He crowed triumphantly as he snatched the snowglobe from the shelf. Inside was a serene scene: a small, solitary log cabin nestled inside of a verdant forest.

Harry shook it, and as the snow began to dance around the edges of the glass, he felt himself being squeezed from all sides as he was pulled into the globe.

…

The violinist finished her solo and bowed as she was showered in cheers by the esteemed onlookers.

Harry's eyes roamed over her body, deciding that he'd offer her a seat at their table later on.

But first, Cygnus stood up, holding his glass up high. “I propose a toast!”

That had not been scheduled, but Harry thought it harmless to let the man make himself feel important, as long as he did not get too long winded.

“Toast! Toast! Toast!” The crowd chanted. Harry and his girls joined in on the cheering, clapping along happily as Cygnus walked to the center of the ballroom, the natural acoustics letting his voice carry far and wide.

“A toast to Harold Gaunt… the most vile, pernicious, evil scum I've ever had the misfortune of knowing.”

Raucous cheers spread across the crowd like wildfire, and the faces that had been looking down upon him with love and adoration were now filled with nothing but pure hatred.

“He's taken my house, stolen our society, he's orchestrated events and our lives, treating us as nothing more than puppets on a string. Well, I say enough is enough! I say it is time for us to strike back!”

Harry felt Emily's hand on his shoulder as she whispered into his ear. “Perhaps we should leave.”

It all happened in a snap. Harry felt the heat of the incoming spell from his side and he reared back, barely managing to dodge it.

Down the table, glaring hatefully at him, was Fabiola. Harry's daughters were staring shell shocked at her.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Delphi screamed at the older teen.

“Shut the hell up, you brat!” Walburga said. She, Minerva, little Fiona and Rosmerta, they were all shooting murderous glares at Harry.

“How does it feel to have your own perversions turned against you?” 

The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood on end as he turned to the ballroom's entrance. Clad in his leather attire, the Constable was strolling down the carpeted floor, good as new.

“Its over, give up and we won't have to hurt you.” Said a new voice from the other end.

Another Potter. This one was slightly schlubby as he walked up in his plain red auror robes.

“Fate.” Harry said.

“Not fate. You.” The Constable said. “You've brought this great reckoning down upon yourself.”

…

He found himself inside the same scene he had seen in the snow globe, though from the inside looking out, the sky was clear and blue, not a single sign that would indicate what lay outside of this little pocket dimension.

As Harry walked up to the log cabin, he heard grunts and the sound of wood being chopped. As he drew closer, a man in his thirties with light brown hair came into view, wiping sweat from his brow as he swung down on a log.

The man turned his head and smiled as he waved at him, embedding his axe on the trunk he'd been using to chop the logs. 

“Lord Gaunt! It's an honour to receive your visit, sir!”

Harry J. smiled back. “Always a pleasure, Robert.”

Robert faced the cabin, “Rosie dear, Lord Gaunt is here!” 

The door to the log cabin opened, and a woman with auburn hair and emerald green eyes stepped out. She resembled her, but not fully. Many of the features were there, but many more were missing.

The woman smiled at him in a fashion that made Harry J.’s heart ache.

“Lord Gaunt! You've shaved off the beard.”

Harry J. absently touched his face. “I have.”

“Please, sir, come on in.” Robert insisted.

And so, Harry J. found himself sitting at a small, quaint table inside of the small, quaint cabin as these versions of his grandparents puttered about, his grandmother minding a kettle of tea.

The cabin truly was the perfect picture of an idyllic scene, a frontiersman and his wife, living off the land and completely removed from the ways of the world.

The only thing that threw it off was the calendar on the wall.

It was the fact that it was so big. It wasn't a month-by-month calendar with cute little photographs of magical creatures, no, it was a large, utilitarian square with every single month laid out in full view. It also did not cover a single year. Quick math told him that this calendar covered approximately five years. Individual dates were crossed out with perfect, identical dashes, all marching inexorably towards a date in the future that had been circled and re-circled many times.

The 13th of May, 1959. Precisely nine months before January 30th, 1960.

Harry let out a breath as he pulled out his phone.

“What a strange contraption you got there, sir.” His grandfather said as he took a seat across the table from him, having just finished a shower.

Harry J. opened his file folder and tapped on his laptop, which faded into existence in front of him.

“My lord!” His grandmother exclaimed. “You never cease to amaze us, sir.”

Harry J. smiled tightly as he booted up the laptop and went back to his phone, summoning his converter from his folder.

A three foot long cable appeared. Harry plugged one end into one of the ports while he seemingly stuck the other one into thin air. The end locked in and let out a little spark as it remained suspended in nothing.

“This is a magitech to analogue converter.” He explained as he typed away at his laptop. “Well, right now its the opposite. I'm going to convert the magic of this pocket dimension into a format that I can manipulate.” He pressed a button on his laptop and a progress bar appeared on the screen. “There, this should only take a few minutes. Now then, Mrs. Evans, could you tell me a bit about yourself?”

…

They were backed up into a corner. Harry and Emily stood in front of Lyra, Delphi, Fleur and Harriet, who was carrying baby Bellatrix in her arms.

“Get ready to fight, girls. We'll fight our way out of here, no matter what.” Lyra whispered through gritted teeth.

Harry and Emily shared a look, and Harry dug into his pocket, pulling out a small glass orb. 

“Girls.” Harry said over his shoulder. “We love you, and we trust you.”

“Daddy! Whatever it is you're about to do-”

“Do not disappoint us.” Emily said as Harry smashed the glass orb against the floor. Before the girls could react, there was a flash of light and they were all sucked into a swirling vortex, which snapped out of existence as soon as it had emerged.

“Thank you for letting us whisk them away.” Harry nodded his head towards his counterparts.

Middle aged Harry shook his head. “They're innocent in all this. For your sake, I hope you sent there somewhere safe and peaceful.”

The Constable, on the other hand, simply shrugged. “Wherever they are, it won't be too hard to hunt them down.”

“We left you in a very bad way.” Emily said. “You came out of it rather well.”

The Constable cracked his neck. “I'm afraid I wont be able to say the same for you once we're done.”

Met with thundering jeers, Harry and Emily stepped up to the middle of the ballroom, where two Potters would meet them in a deadly waltz.

…

Harry laughed heartily as he sipped from the tea. “No way! And then what did she say?”

“Oh, well, you know, she was all red-faced and sputtering, she barely got a word out after that. Never said a thing about my rose garden again, though.” Rose said between giggles.

Robert squeezed his wife's shoulder. “I told you she was a spitfire, sir.”

“I can tell.” 

They were interrupted as Harry's laptop chimed, letting him know that the conversion was complete.

The air around them flickered, pixelating randomly before settling back in.

“What in the heavens was that?”

“That means that this entire pocket dimension has been digitized and is under my control. It also means my work here is done.” Harry closed the laptop, “Thank you for the conversation, but I need to scrub you from here.”

“Scrub us? Geez, sir, you know we're not up on all that newfangled lingo.” His grandfather said earnestly.

Harry smiled tightly, and Robert startled when he glanced over at his wife only to find her gone. His panicked eyes turned back to Harry, “I'm sorry, but I have to do it. I promise you wont feel a thing.”

He didn't get a chance to respond before he was air-brushed away, leaving nothing but an empty chair behind.

“Its time to make my grand entrance.”

…

“Fuck!” Emily hissed as she was clipped on the shoulder, forcing her to stumble back and fall to one knee.

“That's what you get, you evil bitch!” Minerva screamed from her place in the gathered crowd.

They'd miscalculated. They'd focused their efforts on the Constable, seeing him as the bigger threat, especially once they saw the other Potter's limited skillset and repertoire.

They'd been wrong. The other Potter was the real danger. Harry would try and lazily dismiss him with a flick of his wand, only for his spell to malfunction. Emily sent a supersonic spike directly at his head, much too fast for him to even register, and a piece of the chandelier broke off and intercepted it at just the right time.

Their coordination was broken and sluggish, they made basic mistakes. There was miscommunication, they fought like rank amateurs.

It led to the current situation, where their well of creativity had completely dried up, and they found themselves sending killing curse after killing curse towards the man who dodged, weaved and dived with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. 

Meanwhile, the constable kept picking them off. A cutting curse here, a bludgeoning curse there, slowly but surely whittling them down.

“We may have bitten off more than we can chew.” Harry said. He'd conjured a stone slab to protect from the other Potter's disarming charm, only for his opponent to sneeze at the precise moment of casting, causing his arm to whip in a way that the spell curved around his slab and ripped his wand from his hand.

“Agreed.” Emily said as she desperately tried to hold back the Constable's latest onslaught. “Perhaps a retreat is in order for us.”

Emily jabbed the elder wand skyward and the glass ceiling above them shattered. Harry grabbed onto her arm as she thrust the wand downward, jettisoning them upward, towards the ceiling and towards escape.

A web of invisible chains appeared, and Harry and Emily screamed as thousands of volts of electricity surged through their bodies. They fell back down to the ground, crashing unceremoniously, and the elder wand fell from Emily's grip, sliding its way towards their victorious opponents.

The Constable kicked the wand towards the other Harry. “You can have that one, I only want my own back.”

Harry knelt and picked up the wand with some trepidation. He'd always been weary of the elder wand, and this one carried with it an ominous green glow.

“You really thought that would work?”

Harry and Emily lifted their heads as a new voice entered the fray, a third Potter, sharply dressed in a business suit.

“Harry J. Potter at your service, mastermind behind this whole shebang. Gotta say, I'm a bit disappointed, I thought I'd finally met my equal, but you're just like all the other losers that cling to their arcane magics- don't mind if I do.” He took a flute of champagne from one of the servers and downed it in a single gulp. “That global mind control wave you had going on? It was child's play for me to hack into it and reverse it, that's why all these people hate you now, by the way.”

Harry J. pulled out his phone and held it over his head as he panned the camera all across the room. “Just finished it off, guys, no diff. What can I say, I guess that lays to rest who the greatest Potter really is.”

He walked over to where Harry and Emily were crumpled on the floor, unable to move. The other two Potters closed in as well, and all three men stood over their broken forms.

“What do we do now?” Lucky Harry asked. He'd never been one for executing the enemy, but in a case like this…

“That's where this comes in.” Harry J. pulled out the snowglobe, and Harry's eyes widened in shock. “Heh, recognize it, don't you? Well, I made a few tweaks to it, had to get rid of the previous tenants.”

“You killed them?!” Harry spat in true anger.

“Please, don't get righteous with me, I spared them the hell that you were putting them through. The hell that you're about to go through.” Harry J. turned the snowglobe upside down and knelt down, pressing the glass top against Harry's hand. “Any last words.”

Harry did not speak, instead, his eyes went over to Emily, and whatever conversation the two shared was lost to the outside world.

“Alright. Whatever. Goodbye then.” Harry J. let go of the snowglobe, and Harry was sucked into it, gone in mere moments.

“This one's mine.” The Constable said as he held Emily up by the scruff of her neck.

Harry J. nodded. “Like we agreed,” He looked at Emily, whose face was blank and impassive. “Whatever contingency you two have, its not going to work. This-” he pulled out a smooth slab of thick metal. “Is a magnet. It fucks with muggle electronics, and it messes with magitech all the same.”

He pressed the magnet against the snowglobe, and they all heard the sputtering and warbling as things inside the snowglobe went haywire. The glass display cycled through colours in a frantic pattern before suddenly dimming and going completely dark.

“Your partner in crime's file has just been corrupted. I know your primitive mind can't comprehend that, but just know, there's no coming back for him.”

Emily paled, though her expression remained stoic as the constable pulled at her collar. “If you're done with all that, I want to bring my prisoner back home.”

“Sure thing.” Harry J. said before turning to the silent, obedient crowd. “How about a toast to a job well done?”

Glasses were raised as the three Potters basked in their triumph.