218 Chapter 218: Of Darkness and Death

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1 May 1994, Unknown Place

The shot made a hole in Sirius Black's chest and Harry watched as the light left the eyes of the man who could have once been his godfather, "Goodbye, Sirius Black."

Well, that was a thing. Harry groaned and limped down to find somewhere to sit. This whole mess had exhausted him to the extreme, both mentally and physically. First, he entered that bloody maze for the third task, then he ended up being accosted by Pettigrew, because why wouldn't the rat be dead. Of course, that's when he found himself trapped in the Gardens of Avalon. He didn't know how long he spent in that place. He didn't remember every iteration and he was thankful for that. He could have spent decades in that place, working on a single spell.

But he could tell that something in him was different. It was very hard to describe. He felt older, in a weird way. Because while his mind didn't remember anything other than the last iteration of the time loop, Harry's soul remembered.

Even when he escaped, while exhausted and tired beyond belief, he was still accosted by an army of mercenaries and vampires, as well as his godfather. And he killed them all.

And wasn't that messed up? He killed dozens of people, his own godfather, in cold blood. Mentally, he could tell that he didn't really have a choice. He was too tired to hold back and try to detain them. People really underestimated just how good and skilful you had to be to defeat people without causing permanent harm. You needed to either be very good or be very prepared like Harry did during the Hogsmeade attack. Generally speaking, it was a bad idea to hold back against people that were trying to kill you. Sirius Black and his followers were definitely trying to kill Harry.

That didn't stop him from throwing up at the sight of tortured bodies around him.

It took a few minutes for Harry to centre himself again. He looked down and saw a few metallic golden shards on the ground, the remnants of the hellish gardens that almost took his life. He could still feel the small remnants of his magic and decided that it was a bad idea to leave something like this lying around. The shards alone would have been perfect ways to spy on him, and even get past a lot of wards that use magical signatures to decide who was allowed in.

He picked up all the fragments, deciding not to risk doing anything. His circuits were too strained to cast any spells and he needed to rest them before he tried anything. He didn't even know where he was, after all. That was the first thing he had to do anyway.

However, before he could do anything, a voice spoke up behind him, "Harry Potter. Now, that's an unexpected surprise."

Harry turned and stiffened as he realized the identity of the person speaking to him, "I've seen you before."

"Ah, yes. Your little vision months ago. I had to change my plan for the Hogsmeade attack and put a few things in motion to get young Sirius to do it in my stead and I had to activate my protections afterwards. I haven't had to compete with another seer for a very long time. Your gift is impressive for your age, even if it's untrained."

The last Potter stiffened when a small memory flashed before his eyes. He remembered the man in his vision of the Hogsmeade attack, a man with white hair and black eyes. He remembered waking up sweating, breathing heavily out of fear. He forgot all about this detail. Was this some kind of protective charm? Or did Harry genuinely forget this specific part of the vision?

Still, Harry remained silent, "You must be Grindelwald. Weren't you supposed to be locked away in Nurmengard?"

"Of course, and yet here I am. I see that you've been busy while I've been away. I was only gone for less than an hour, greeting a very old friend."

"Dumbledore?"

The man's eyes brightened, "So you do know a lot more than you should! I wasn't certain. That little comment about killing his sister was a nice hint. How much do you know, little Potter?"

"I know enough. Did the old man always know that you escaped?"

"No, he just found out. You should have seen his face. We didn't fight, of course, but I did leave a hot mess for him to deal with. I have no doubt he'll be very busy in the near future."

Harry tilted his head, "What did you do?"

"Nothing really. You see, while Dumbledore had this grand plan that involved trapping you in the Garden of Avalon, I had one of my own. Of course, you weren't the target. His golden boy was."

"Neville?"

The former Dark Lord burst into laughter, "I know, right? Sirius really did a number on the kid. Not that the brat was sane to begin with. He was just one small push away from a breakdown and you know how Sirius could be. All it took was a sad story, Sirius pretending to sacrifice himself to save him, and point him towards Snape, a man who he already hates, with a mental compulsion towards using the Killing Curse."

Harry couldn't help but pale at what was probably happening in Hogwarts, "But why?"

"It's a shame about the brat, I know that. But Albus was planning on the Riddle boy killing him anyway. But no one really knows that. Instead, they think Neville Longbottom is his golden boy, his heir, and he just publicly used an Unforgivable Curse. Sure, people might come up with reasons to justify the act, and maybe even the Wizengamot will take pity on the boy, but Albus just lost the very last piece of credibility he had left. You did a very good job at shaving away his influence over the last year, so thank you for the help."

"As long as Dumbledore has his prison, the Ministry will not touch him."

The Dark Lord's grin was feral, "Sure, but what would happen if someone patched his wards without him knowing? Albus can be so arrogant sometimes. He never thought he'd encounter someone with my capabilities again, so confident of my imprisonment. It took some time, but Albus has no control over the prison wards anymore. Soon, the Wizengamot will meet about taking control of the prison completely and they'll ask warders and curse breakers to take a look at the place."

Harry couldn't help but feel some vindictive glee at the idea but restrained himself, "You still didn't answer why you did any of this? You could have just gone back and restarted the war again, so why take this course of action?"

"Albus was getting too comfortable. He needed to remember that the world will not bow to his whims."

"That's not the full answer," the last Potter commented.

"Perhaps, but it's the one you're getting."

"You still tried to have me killed," Harry protested.

"I didn't try to kill you, I just let Albus do it and told my followers to acquire the artefact. I couldn't let your sacrifice go in vain, after all."

"But you didn't try to stop it from happening."

For the first time ever since they started speaking, Grindelwald's face was entirely serious, "Why would I? You're a threat. Your lineage alone is a threat. A son of the Peverells and Lily Evans. Your potential is dangerous, and the frightening part is that you're realizing it. You're a seer as well, and with two seers of power existing at the same time, their visions will clash, and be distorted by each other's predictions. Look at what you've just done! You killed a battalion of trained mercenaries, three vampire lords and their thralls, and that's no mentioning Sirius Black, a true anomaly. That's not even mentioning your mother."

"What about my mother?"

"It doesn't matter anymore. You're the first survivor of the Garden of Avalon. You're a wildcard, one that I saw no problem being left off the board. If Albus wanted to get rid of you, why would I stop him?"

Harry grimaced, "So, what now? Are you supposed to give a very long speech about your righteous cause and why I should join your side?"

Grindelwald snorted, "Oh, brat. I'm not Albus or that foolish Riddle boy. I don't need you and I can see that you would try to sneak away from me the moment you would think you would get away with it. No, I'm sorry, kid. I can't afford to have someone who could mess with my visions. Don't worry, I'll make sure that it's painless."

The Dark Lord raised his wand at Harry, who took out his Colt from his pocket. Like he wanted to, a piece of the Garden of Avalon was stuck near the jewel in the bottom to accelerate its charging. He had done so the moment Grindelwald revealed himself. He had done his best to try to prolong their inevitable fight. Thankfully, the gem seemed to very quickly acclimate to the energy from the remains of the hellish garden.

Just as he did to Sirius before him, Harry fired his weapon while pointing it at the Dark Lord. The moment his finger brushed the trigger, the air around them crackled with palpable energy, as if the very fabric of reality was holding its breath during the attack. A beam of light, swift and sharp as a whisper, leapt from the weapon, carving through the space between them with deadly precision. A shower of kaleidoscopic particles spiralled into existence, painting the air with a spectrum of ethereal hues that shimmered with an otherworldly glow.

The world held its breath as Harry's strongest attack, one that had slain the World Serpent itself, approached the Dark Lord.

Victory was just a microsecond away when a wave of Dark Energy appeared out of nowhere and swallowed the projectile somehow.

Harry couldn't help but gape at the scene. The Colt was an unstoppable attack. Nothing could shield against it because it used the properties of souls to hit every dimension at once. The only chance was to dodge it, but even then, it was faster than any attack Harry knew of.

The dark energy dissipated and revealed a Dark Lord whose eyes had turned completely black before returning to normal, "Now, isn't that interesting? Using the nature of souls to make an unstoppable attack. How novel, I haven't seen anything like this before."

Harry, still reeling from the shock of his attack being neutralized, managed to find his voice, "What was that?"

"You mean the dark energy? It's conceptual destruction given form. I never expected a kid like you to get me to use it. I'm impressed."

Harry's mind raced, trying to comprehend the gravity of what had just transpired and Grindelwald looked amused at his expression, "Come on, kid. Don't be so down. There's a reason why Albus and I are called the strongest Light and Dark Champions since Merlin and Morgana," the man then suddenly froze, "Wait a minute. Did you use your weapon to kill the World Serpent? That was you?"

Harry grimaced and did not respond. Grindelwald, on the other hand, looked slightly paler than he used to be before going back to normal. The last Potter did not give Grindelwald the chance to elaborate. The man's reaction to Harry's role in Jörmungandr's death was the only opening he was going to get. He summoned the few remaining shards of the Garden of Avalon, stored with years of his own magic. He used one of the shards to fire another shot at the Dark Lord, hoping he would be too distracted to notice.

It didn't work; Grindelwald moved the Dark Energy to swallow the projectile once more. However, Harry had planned ahead. He had no plans on becoming conservative with the bullets, with his life being on the line. He warped space around him to go behind the Dark Lord and used another shard-filled energy to fire on the man's back. However, the wave of darkness moved on its own and defended him once more. Harry warped space in front of his hand and fired another shot, the Colt heating up once more in his hand, the Goblin Silver being overwhelmed by the magic. The bullet this time came from above the Dark Lord, who smirked and just took a step to the left.

He fucking dodged! What the actual fuck!

As Harry readied himself to fire another shot, he felt his hand freeze in the middle of his movement, making him miss his next shot. With a wave of his hand, the Dark Lord casually froze the rest of Harry's body completely, and levitated him in the air, "That's not bad, brat. But you really should learn how to fight seers, if you're planning on taking me by surprise."

The man clenched his hand, and Harry's weapon fired on its own, missing him again. Then it tried to fire more, however, nothing left the barrel. The Dark Lord grinned maliciously, "What are you going to do now, kiddo, without your little weapon."

Harry knew that he had no chance of beating the man without tricking him, not a single one. The Colt was Harry's only chance, but he wouldn't have been able to do anything as long as Grindelwald's guard was up. During one of the previous shots, Harry faked firing one of them and took it out of the gun. The dark energy had swallowed the fake projectile immediately, and he had hoped Grindelwald wouldn't have noticed. The plan was to pretend to run out of bullets and trick Grindelwald. It worked. Sort of. He didn't expect the man to make him fire on his own.

He tried to levitate a rock towards the Dark Lord's back, and he used his telekinesis to put the bullet back in the Colt. As the Dark Lord stopped it Harry warped the space in front of him, making his gun almost touch the Dark Lord's chest and grinned, "Boom!"

Harry would have smiled at the comical expression on the Dark Lord's face if it wasn't for the fact that he was sent away with a pulse of magic. He slowly got up and saw what seemed like black shadows coalescence again into the figure of Grindelwald, "Ouch, that stung you brat. Fucking Peverells."

"How?" he asked, baffled. This was impossible. The Colt was supposed to attack Grindelwald's very soul. There was no shielding against it.

"You don't seriously expect me to answer that do you?"

"How would that change anything? We both know I'm not walking out of here."

"You know what, brat? It's been a while since anyone other than Albus landed a hit on me, especially one that deadly. That kind of innovation is to be rewarded. And considering the fact that you killed the World Serpent, I'm inclined to spare your life, this time. Unfortunately for you, from the state of your weapon, I don't see you repeat this feat again."

Harry looked down at his hand and noticed the Colt slowly melting away from his hand. It was hot, yes, but he knew that this wasn't why it was being destroyed. Harry had channelled too much magic, almost every single drop that the Garden of Avalon had collected from him for decades… Goblin Silver just wasn't enough to deal with that much power. He couldn't help but feel vulnerable at its destruction. The Colt had always been a safety net in case Harry found himself over his head, and now it was gone.

The Dark Lord looked seriously at him, "Now, let me make things clear, me choosing to spare you doesn't mean that I will be inclined to do it again. So, I advise you to prepare for our next meeting. Now, let's get you back to school."

In the blink of an eye, Harry found himself looking at the familiar sight of Hogwarts' hospital wing. He barely had time to see Madam Pomphrey's panicked look before everything turned to black.

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AN: I'm not sure about this chapter, to be honest. I didn't want them to have an actual fight since it wouldn't make sense for Harry to even scratch Grindelwald, so I decided that this would make a good encounter. As for the Colt, I'm also not sure if it was a good idea but I think that destroying it was kind of necessary. It was just too overpowered and it would have stifled his growth if he kept relying on it as a safety net. As usual, please let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.