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I watched Tonks leave.
A part of me knew that I was taking a big risk. Nymphadora Tonks was a member of the Order, and utterly loyal to Albus Dumbledore. My experience with Hestia and Emmeline had taught me well that the more complicated the oath, the more the chances of trickling one's way out of things. It would take considerable skill, but no one had ever accused Dumbledore of ever being foolish. Plus, with that terrifying perk of his, chances were he would find a way to extract the information from her without her breaking her oath and suffering whatever consequences would befall her afterwards.
There were like a hundred and forty-six different reasons to restrain her.
But it didn't.
Tonks was an Order member, just like Hestia and Emmeline. The latter two had joined me by their own accord, and compelling Tonks using my charms would tarnish the image I had worked so hard to cultivate. If I compelled her like Death Eaters did with their victims, it would only paint me in a darker light than I was comfortable with.
More importantly, letting her go just felt right.
I know, I'm speaking bullshit. I had been quite careful not to drink from anything other than my own glass, and would have instantly noted if someone spiked my drink or worse, switched it for something else. Yet, there was something at the back of my mind that told me that things were far from simple.
At least, with Nymphadora Tonks.
And then the Screen hit me with the strangest of notifications.
Your Perks have clashed against Fate
You survived!
I blinked. In the background, I could sense others talking in the background. My letting Tonks walk away like that wasn't appreciated by many. Nor was my idea to include people like Narcissa and Anastasia inside this secret group. All of that fell into white noise, as my mind raced, wondering what this new status was about.
Clashed against Fate? What the hell's that supposed to mean?
Perks — Child of Prophecy, Library of Knowledge, Subversive Activist, Culpability, Lording Around clashed against Fate.
You survived!
Perks - Lording Around, Subversive Activist and Culpability have been upgraded. Would you like to combine them with Perks — Child of Prophecy and Library of Knowledge?
For the second time, I went blank. Three perks upgraded out of nowhere? Just like that? For clashing against Fate? How? When? And they'd all combine? Was that even possible?
Library of Knowledge - a manifestation of Hermione's eidetic memory.
Subversive Activist — a perk from Hestia, allowing me to see through conversation patterns and hypothesise precise results out of them.
Culpability — a perk from Susan, operated along similar lines, and allowed me to guilt-trip others the right away to generate the right reactions by triggering the right emotions.
Lording Around — a perk I had gotten courtesy of taming the power of the yenaldooshi spirit and absorbing it into myself.
And finally, Child of Prophecy — being the prophesied one destined to face off the Dark Lord in a final clash? Wait… this brush against Fate. It couldn't be because I had effectively sealed Voldemort away, could it? No, the other perks had little to do with that. Unless, the clash with Fate wasn't a single event but multiple? What had even happened?
Nothing made sense.
In the middle of this, my mouth ignored my parched throat and decided that the rest of me was taking way too long to come to a decision and went ahead with a —
"...yes."
Your Perks have been combined to create an Omniblend.
OMNIBLEND — LIVING THE ROLE
"In the theater of existence, where stories shape reality and belief molds the world, some performers do more than act—they become. Living the Role is the art of stepping beyond the veil of identity, weaving yourself into a persona so convincingly that the audience—and even the universe—accepts it as truth."
EFFECTS
The performer adopts the persona's appearance, voice, mannerisms, and aura with perfect accuracy. He can project immersive, believable illusions based on the story being told, and thus, alter perceptions, memories, and minor physical realities temporarily through narrative conviction.
He can amplify the emotions in the audience, influencing their actions and beliefs. The stronger the performer's emotional connection, the greater the effect's potency.
Living the Role is not just storytelling—it is storytelling made real, a force as inspiring as it is dangerous.
DRAWBACKS
Vulnerable to skepticism; self-doubt, and emotional exhaustion; overuse risks losing the wielder's sense of identity.
I don't know what's more surprising. The fact that this was perhaps, the greatest perk — Omniblend — I ever had in my arsenal, an artful and subtle power that was ideal for manipulating without direct control, leaving even the best of people convinced that I was speaking the truth?
Or that this was the first time I was gaining something that also listed drawbacks?
But most importantly, was this why I had every single one among the audience completely fooled and utterly convinced with whatever bullshit tripe I was feeding them, including Narcissa Black.
No. Especially Narcissa.
The fact that the majority of them were powerful Occlumens was telling.
On the other hand, if this was right, then I was also risking myself, my sense of identity in this manoeuvre. The more convincing the act, the greater my chance of falling into the Role I was playing. If I wasn't careful, I might as well start believing that I am a time-travelling Harry Potter.
Talk about trippy!
" —Arry!"
" —RRRY!"
Someone shook me hard, and pulled me out of my musings.
It was Hestia.
"...Sorry, what?"
"I was just telling you that letting her go like that was a terrible idea."
That surprised me. Regardless of everything else, Tonks was her best friend. Hestia was the last person I expected to agree to restrain Tonks until she was completely and unequivocally mine.
"Frankly Harry," said Amelia. "I'm downright appalled at your complete disregard for secrecy. You might not have cared for them, but your tale contained knowledge of several important Ministry secrets." She gave a withering look in Narcissa and Anastasia's direction. "Secrets that weren't yours to give away."
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Your cheek won't make a wrong right, Harry Potter," said Amelia sternly. "The oath might keep her from deliberately revealing your secrets, but we both know that oaths have ways around them if we're being clever about it. And more importantly, it does nothing to keep my secrets. There is nothing stopping Auror Tonks from blabbering about my secrets, or that I know about your deeds and am in support. I practically told her that I knew of her and Kingsley's association to the Order. Do you think Albus Dumbledore won't be able to add two and two together?"
"He probably will, and to a degree, I am expecting her to reveal what she knows to Dumbledore."
"What?" demanded Amelia and Emmeline.
"Why?"
"You should remember that Tonks already knew about your resurrection, Amelia," I told her calmly. "She has been suspicious of me right from the time I first met her in this very house. It didn't help that her best friend and fellow Order member decided to change teams, sleep with me and choose me over their friendship."
Hestia looked away.
"Tonks has had a long list of things to add to her list. Me letting Draco go despite him casting an unforgivable. My deal with Narcissa. That bit about you taking two days off just for me. Emmeline. Tonks was on the roster when Auror Robards was investigating Broderick Greengrass, so she knows of my involvement there as well. And I'm not stupid enough to not realise that she didn't feel my allure back when the Bulgarian veela decided to band together and come for me. Throw in the detonation and everything that followed. If she really wanted to spill your secrets, Amelia, you'd be facing multiple accusations by now."
Amelia had nothing to retort to that, so she settled for a glare.
"As much as I hate to agree, Director," said Emmeline. "Harry has a point. Whatever Harry has shared until now, are the barebones of what happened. This was… how do I put it? The bare minimum needed to get everyone involved onboard without us second-guessing him to be some sort of imposter."
"Even so, that's an awful amount of risk for something so blase,"Amelia scoffed. "I'm certain there were other avenues to pursue if information-sharing was all this was about it."
"You are the Director of the DMLE, Amelia," I said, the first stirrings of annoyance rising within me. "I don't have to tell you that there are plans and then there are plans. There are plans where you must succeed, where you keep the core idea as simple as possible and take every precaution. There are also plans where it is acceptable to fail, and with those you can indulge yourself, and test the limits of your ability to handle complications."
"And you decided that dangling my secrets is the best way to test your ability to handle complications?"
"Yes. Better to dangle a bit of what she already knew and could infer. She ain't stupid."
Amelia was giving me a stink-eye.
"Look," I said, exhaling. "I'm not saying that she won't be a problem. But she's a factor that I know. One I can gauge. Yes, she might just find a way to report everything to Dumbledore, and maybe she even has, but she will also try to limit casualties, if not to protect her known people from getting hurt," I glanced at Hestia, "then at least because she doesn't want to draw attention and complicate her operations. Even if she agrees to selling out my secrets by tricking the oath someway, she'll ensure that things remain peaceful. Not because she wants to protect me, but because the alternative is a terrible madness gripping our nation if they find out that their national hero and the DMLE Director are both involved in something so dastardly. She'll attempt to keep things as they are, and involve the others to a minimum, because she knows that doing so will only help her in the end."
Even Emmeline and the others were nodding slowly.
"And that's all there is?"
That rankled. What the hell kind of question was that?
"What other reason could there be?"
"You might be the Incubus, Harry Potter, and I'm not an accomplished Occlumens for nothing. And it's a no-brainer to see that despite all the reasoning you put forth, you have chosen to display a surprising degree of patience and concern about this one person. It definitely isn't because she is Miss Jones's friend, or because she's an Order member, a Black by blood, or even a metamorphmagus. Psychically, she's a Level-2 Occlumens at best. I guess I'm wondering why you're being so lenient with her, when you've had no compunctions on using your charms on every single one of us present here."
"I only used it because you wanted me to."
"Yes, and it was for a wager. This? This is for something far more dangerous. Do not pretend you're Albus Dumbledore, you're not. You might have saved the nation from crumbling, but it doesn't make it untrue that you committed mass genocide on the Death Eaters and delved into magic most black."
"Well, he is the Black Lord," said Narcissa airily.
Amelia sent her a glare that told everything she thought about her contribution.
"Not helping, Narcissa," I said.
"Was I supposed to?"
"At this rate, we'll probably solve world peace before we arrive at any helpful conclusion," muttered Hestia.
"Why don't you go ahead and just tell me what you think, Amelia," I said. "Why not be frank, like before?"
"Alright, here's frank. Regardless of whatever we share, we all know that none of us in this room, excluding Hermione Granger, shared any kind of emotional attachment with you in your previous life. That much is evident from your description. Me? The DMLE Director that was scorched to death inside the mansion of my forefathers. Hestia Jones and Emmeline Vance? Killed in a Death Eater ambush. Greengrass? You didn't even know that she existed. Malfoy over here? She was playing for the opposite side. And the way you spoke about Hermione Granger suggested that you shared a platonic relationship with her. So who does that leave? Who was the one that you spoke in the most visceral of tones? Who was the one that made you yell out in impotent rage? Every single one of us could see the frustration bleeding through your body language. It was too raw, Harry Potter, like a boiling cauldron.'
"You can't possibly suggest —" Hestia began.
"There is nothing to suggest," said Amelia. "It's easy to see for anyone with the eyes to do so. In his last life, Harry Potter shared something deep and personal with Nymphadora Tonks, and that is the real reason why he refuses to be heavy-handed with her."
A sudden silence dropped in the hall.
"...Harry?" asked Hermione slowly. "Is that… true?"
There comes a time, a single moment in your life, when things simply start to make sense. You gain a certain sense of clarity and you look back at life with wiser eyes as things that were once obscure and incomprehensible become painfully clear. Monks would refer to such a feeling as enlightenment and would dedicate their entire life in pursuit of it. Yet every now and then completely ordinary people going about their daily lives would stumble upon it by pure chance. Just as I did. And in my moment of enlightenment, when the world made infinitely more sense than it had just this morning and the truth was as clear to me as the sun blazing in the sky, I came to a startling conclusion. I realised…
This… All this was because of Living The Role.
My perk, it worked. It had worked so successfully that not only had every single person listening to my tale wholeheartedly believed it, they had read too deep into things. My story had targeted Nymphadora Tonks, and so, I had given the most heart-wrenching performance geared towards making her react. Somehow, that had turned out into Amelia thinking that I harboured deep affection towards Tonks from my previous life and honestly, I couldn't blame her for thinking so.
The signs… they were all over the place.
Talk about serendipity overload.
"Amelia, I —"
The rest of my words perished in my throat, and I screamed, as if someone had just slammed a row of staples into my skin. Pain soared back into my body, inflamed tissue crying out, my bruises throbbing, the edemas beneath my skin pounding with a horrible tightness. Fatigue hit me like a truck. The sensations were so intense, the only way I could tell that I had fallen to the floor was by looking.
And my body abruptly went numb and useless from my stomach down.
That scared the hell out of me.
"HARRY!" yelled several of the women around me, and rushed towards me.
I was on the ground like that for a subjective week, but it could have been only a few seconds before Hermione reached my side, with Hestia and Amelia on the other, with the others right behind them. I knew they were there because I could see them, but their voices swam down to me from what seemed like a great distance among the cacophony of raking sensations scouring my nervous system. They lifted me to a sitting position—my legs started moving again, jerking in a single, gentle spasm.
"Harry!" Hestia asked, anxious. "What happened? What's —"
"It's okay," I said in a ragged voice. "Just suffered from weakness, that's it. Help me up."
"Must be because of the battle earlier," Amelia reasoned. I nodded without meeting her eyes. As skilled as I was, I didn't think I could meet her eyes and smoothly lie. Not as I was right now. Not when I was unable to feel any sense of pressure from them holding me.
Or the temperature.
Or the pain.
All that existed was a numb floating sensation pervading my form. I had been in a similar state when I had run myself into magical exhaustion back at Bones Manor. It meant anything but good news.
The magical screen expanded in front of me, displaying a magnificent status window listing my current affinities and other details. Skimming down the known points, I found my way to the one I was looking for.
Meta-Luck — 35
Still there. That was good. My Meta-Luck, the power to bypass the rules of Cause & Effect and alter Reality upon my own whims, had gone up by 30 units after attempting to save Amelia had brought it down to a measly five. If things went sideways, at least there was that to save my arse.
Just like the Tether perk had promised, every World Anchorage that was fifty percent or greater would gain me 5 units of Meta-Luck. The only exceptions were those that had hit 100%, in which case, I'd get 10 units.
Sadly, the recent 100% anchorages I had gotten from Amelia and Emmeline were all less than a month old, or else it would have boosted my Meta-Luck by another thirty points. And then fifteen more from Susan, Anastasia and Narcissa. Penelope was still an ongoing study and somehow, her natural masochism downplayed my significance in her mind, which was why she was still down at a measly 33% anchorage. Susan would gain a 100% sooner or later, but breaking her mentally had also made it a lot more difficult to enhance my significance more than it already was. I would have to develop my relationship with her further to slowly raise it all the way to a hundred.
And Narcissa was well… Narcissa.
My gaze shifted at the immediate next line and the grin vanished, forming a large scowl.
World Anchor — 820
Required World Anchor — 535
World Anchor 820. I needed at least 300 more points of world anchorage to activate Lecherous Shrine and break even. But despite everything, I was still down by 15 points. And unless I wanted to go back to that night with Romilda, I needed to fuck someone new and get a boatload of anchorage right off the bat.
Tracey, Hannah and her mom were potential options, but I easily dismissed them. School would start in two days, and Tracey was already in a dangerous position working as my spy in Slytherin House. Besides, our relationship was purely transactional, which reduced chances of a rapidly rising anchorage. I already had plans for Hannah and she was going for Neville, so it was best not to soil that particular plot, and Hannah's mum was well, away, and honestly, a boring fuck.
Bottomline. It was time to start searching for new prey.
An easy prey that would shoot up anchorage faster than Hermione guzzling through the History of Magic text.
I winced as my heart spasmed briefly and caused my vision to go white out for just as long. Unlike with all my other injuries I had taken before, this particular one had nothing stopping the painful jolt that went through my nerves.
…Correction. Search for a new prey after I took care of whatever affliction I was suffering from first.
Really, it probably said something about the kind of life I was living. That and the fact that the Screen would inform me if things went seriously wrong.
And for God's sake, why was I feeling so thirsty?
The others helped me to the bedroom right next to the hallroom where we were having the afterparty. I was still able to walk somewhat, if only by mimicking the general movements of walking and breathing.
Muscle memory was convenient like that.
So thirsty…
"Wa… water," I croaked.
"Right away," said Hermione, and rushed out to get some water. Like any other food, drinking conjured water was a terrible idea, especially since it would dissipate soon, causing all kinds of reactions inside the body. Distracting myself, I checked my vitals.
Race — Incubus Lord
AFFINITIES (13)
Transfiguration — 74%
Charms — 91%
Martial Magic — 89%
Dark Arts — 84%
Psychomancy (Occlumency) — 69%
Psychomancy (Legilimency) — 49%
Alchemy — 41%
Spatial Magic — 57%
Magical Analytics — 25%
Magical Sensing — 34%
Runecraft — 33%
Phytomancy — 43%
Eidolonics - 50%
TITLES (3)
RULE-BREAKER
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
BLACKENED PRIEST
DOMAIN: LECHEROUS SHRINE (Dormant)
AFFLICTIONS: INDOMITABLE LUST (Dormant)
LILIMS (2)
HESTIA JONES
EMMELINE VANCE
PERKS (9)
Tether. Horcrux. Defiant. Devil's Charm. Orgasm Binding. Eye of the Incubus. Decadence Link. Curses Without End. Magical Animagus.
OMNIBLEND (1)
Living The Role
Nothing out of the ordinary. I let out the breath I was holding, convinced that this was something normal. Probably the after-effects of having multiple perks fused together and me performing the role of a time-traveller to perfection.
It would be fine.
Inevitably, I suppose, the Screen showed up right then with something alarming on it.
Spiritual Imbalance Detected!
Necromantic content in blood far exceeds existing balance
Contorting Soul Matrix… Activating Horcrux…
FORCE STOPPED!
…
Necromantic content in blood active
Contorting Soul Matrix… Activating Horcrux….
FORCE STOPPED!
…
And just like that, I knew I was in trouble.
I opened my mouth, or at least tried to, but something was melding my lips together. No, it wasn't that. My mouth was missing. Gone. I searched my face for it, and it was gone.
Just… gone.
Aghast, I searched for answers. This… whatever was happening, it wasn't because of the new Omniblend. Something was triggering the Horcrux to activate courtesy of the necromantic energy in my blood. The same energy that I had absorbed from —
Holy fucking shit —
The answer tore through me like a serrated blade.
Voldemort.
Spirit or not, trapped or not, he was very much connected to me, courtesy of this horcrux. And with him now devoid of a physical body, my incubus powers would no longer affect him, whereas his —
Necromantic content in blood active
Contorting Soul Matrix… Activating Horcrux….
FORCE STOPPED!
…
FORCED RESTART!
Damned Voldemort! Was the dark bastard actually attempting a reverse possession through this damned scar? Why? Why now? Nothing of this sort had happened in the book.
No wait. It had.
Voldemort had sent Harry dreams back in fifth year, and back then, he was ignorant of the true nature of the scar. Had things changed?
System is being overridden!
New functions are being added into the system courtesy of HORCRUX
Base Host is under spiritual possession.
Activating Horcrux….
NO! I yelled inside my mind. This couldn't be happening! Voldemort… He couldn't — there was no fucking way he could —
Unless —
My mind went back to the fight where I had transformed to Necromancer mode to devour Voldemort's energies and keep him from killing Amelia and Emmeline. Killing the Snake had resulted in an explosion unlike anything I had ever expected or seen before, and certainly nothing the books had ever covered. That level of energy carried within it a grudge that could level an entire village if left unobstructed.
I had done the only thing I could.
I had absorbed it all, believing that the Necromancer mode would be able to deal with it.
And it had.
But in my hubris, I had forgotten one simple thing.
I wasn't facing another random wizard. I was facing the greatest necromancer alive.
Lord Voldemort.
Had the worst happened? Had Voldemort realised that I was in fact, his horcrux? Or was the horcrux within me reacting to Voldemort's potent magic in my bloodstream and acting out?
I didn't know! I didn't know!
I panicked.
'Path-Switch to Incubus Lord!' I thought as clearly as possible.
Activating Voluntary Path-Switching
Overriding Existing Anomalies
Rewriting Configuration Baseline
…
Activating Incubus Lord
Path Incompatible with existing magical constitution
Altering magical constitution requires Lecherous Shrine
Lecherous Shrine found Dormant
Quitting…
NO! I screamed inside. Path-Switch! Path-Switch to Incubus Lord —
Anomaly agglomerating..
Forced Activation of Incubus Lord
Path Incompatible with existing magical constitution
Altering magical constitution requires Lecherous Shrine
Lecherous Shrine found Dormant
Lecherous Shrine is being forcefully activated…
Try not to die!
…Shit!
My world went white.