A Good Soldier

Everything was getting too much, Sirius was dead, Dombeldore told him this nonsense about a prophesy, and Tom’s memories were overflowing him. He could barley handle his own madness; he did not need that psycho to add his own baggage. Harry couldn’t even get a decent night sleep since he came back from Hogwarts. The idiots from the order actually told Vernon that Sirius was dead, and Harry was grieving thus removing the only leverage he had on the walrus.

Now they are working him to the bone during the day, and not even feeding him enough to survive, he wouldn’t be surprised if the order was watching from the outside doing nothing like always. He was so weak from the latest ‘correction’ from the fat arse and with the amount of pain he was in he couldn’t even sleep.

The only good thing from his latest end of the year ‘adventure’ was that it gave him quite a lot of insight to lord runs away a lot. What none of those ‘masters of the mind arts’ realized was that a connection goes both ways, and when you look in to someone’s mind, that someone can look right back. It provided Harry plenty of insight to what the maniac was planning and Harry knew for a fact that neither the ministry, nor the order were prepared for any of it. Frankly, he places the blame on Dumbledore and his game. The man could have nipped the problem in the bud, now they are all grabbing at the seems hoping to survive. He knew he needed to make plans, figure out a way to not only end this madness but to actually survive.

The wise headmaster and his order of fried chickens are useless, if anything their way of going about things only makes things worse. Though to be fair this was nothing new, he already knew all that since he realized the twinkly eyed menace was setting Harry to die over a year ago. Harry figured he had enough of this charade, he packed his things in the go bag he made sure to have after the fiasco of 2nd year. It was a backpack with expansions that held more than his trunk, though after the situation in the graveyard he made a lot of upgrades. He made sure to have cash both muggle and magical, the supplies inside were not the norm.

Sirius the dog he was, loved Harry’s go bag and made sure to add a few toys for him he thought would be of use, some of it was a leather jacket that had many protections intertwined. The man must have paid a fortune, but Harry was now the proud owner of a magical tent fully stocked and best of all was also the bike he ‘upgraded’ that had runes to shrink, fly, and a few other treats. The maniac snuck out of the order’s headquarters during winter break a few times to teach him to fly it, never mind how he taught Harry to navigate the criminal underbelly of London. Harry really wishes the mutt was here, he would know what to do. Unfortunately, all he has are a bunch of incompetent adults playing at being the good guys.

There is nothing good at shoving a traumatized teen back to an abusive home only to parade him around when they need a lamb to be slaughtered. It doesn’t take a master strategist to figure out the old man is preparing him to die, otherwise why wouldn’t he bother to train him in anything. All of his fighting skills magical or otherwise were self taught, well… apart from what Sirius was able to sneak in.

Occlumency he learned thanks to Sirius, the ‘lessons’ Snape did only tore at his shields. Whatever the man did left him more vulnerable to the mental attacks. Another precaution was his godfather insistence on him be in contact with a solicitor to help pursue matters when he would finally be of age. The solicitor was furious to discover what was actually happening in Hogwarts and had quite the case against the staff. The Headmaster, Potions Master, and Mediwix in particular.

There was so much more for him to go after, but those were directly responsible for much of the damage Harry endured. Harry was confused as to why Sirius doesn’t have the solicitor push for his trial but apparently they tried that avenue several time; however, due to corruption and public opinion they kept getting blocked.

Another thing his godfather made sure to provide him was basic weapons training, and hand to hand combat. Considering the circumstances, Sirius knew he didn’t have much time to work with him, so he made sure that in the tent he got him there was a training room with simulator, and special dolls spelled to spar with him and help push his training. Best of all he copied everything from Black library and placed it there behind wards so only Harry could reach that room. Harry was grateful and also took it up a notch, he paid Dobby with a few favors to do the same with Hogwarts library, he also had the elf go over Dombeldore’s personal library and do the same there. Figured the old man was hiding things from him, it was best for Harry’s long term health to uncover just what the twinkly eyed menace knows.

He was sneaking out from the Dursley wearing his cloak, it saddened him how easy it was to get away from his ‘guards’. When he was finally far enough, Harry got the bike out of his bag and drove away, after 2 hours he knew it was a good stop to get the tent out and work on himself a little.

Technically he could go to Grimauld place, it was sealed after Sirius died, and as his heir it was Harry’s, but it hurt to much knowing the only parent he had was gone. Harry took the day to recover and rest. The potions and balms he had stocked helped treat most of the issues he had, and a dreamless sleep allowed him to finally have a full night of rest, though realizing he slept for 3 days was a big enough hint off how exhausted he was, the good thing was that the potions had time to work thoroughly, and his reserves finally felt like they replenished. After eating and doing a proper training session he had time to review everything he knew and come to a series of conclusions and also plans that he is going to put in to action.

First thing, he had his solicitor arrange for a meeting with the head of the DLME, Madam Bones. They had plenty of planning to do, including him giving her a list of warnings. When Riddle invaded his mind, he saw some of his plans, one of them was remove certain key players in society and place his in their stead. She needed to have the heads up and also know who to look in to. In the meeting he demanded they negotiate certain legal protections for himself and a few others. He wanted it signed by herself, the head of the unspeakable, and the muggle equivalent to them both. He was giving them a list of leaks to remove and only asking for the legal protection to do what they all expect him to.

Harry was horrified to discover the Death Eaters were also a muggle problem.

It was sad to have the head of MI-5 and the muggle ministry look at him with incomprehension of why the were relying on a teenager, but they figured they might as well have someone else who was already gunning for the DE, it’s not like anything they did was working. Thanks to that idiot Fudge they didn’t know of the problem and were caught with their pants down. Bones wanted to argue that he is a child and he should leave it to the adults, but she wasn’t blind to the fact that they were all hiding behind a teenager, waiting for him to fix their problems. The raids already started and 2 towns were burned to ashes, thanks to the former minister's idiocy any help from the ICW was stalled because they were dealing with the spillover to Eastern Europe.

Next he got in touch with the Fred, George, the Tonks, and Longbottoms and let them know of the next phase of his plan. They all knew what was coming, worse, they knew who the first targets were going to be. They need a safe place to get the ‘blood traitors’, muggleborns and squibs when the chaos starts. Mr. And Mrs Tonk can run the sanctuary, while the Longbotoms and the twins would gather information and reach out to people in need. The twins had the ability to move in certain circles the rest of them wouldn’t be welcomed. And Dowger Longbottom is a force in high society that most fear. Dora was shocked to find Harry there, considering she knew he was supposed to be at privet drive under guard, but after a short conversation she understood why he left, and wanted to rip Fumbeldore’s beard off.

The private arrangement he proposed to her left Dora a little off balanced, but after talking to her mother she could see his point and agreed. He wasn’t likely to make it out of the war, and he needs an heir to Black, and Potter houses. But since he is only the godson to the former lord, he needs the mother to be of Black blood, she agreed to a concert agreement and have 2 pregnancies via potions. The children and her would fall under strict protections, that would prevent anyone from using their status against them. Better yet, the kids would be raised and educated via Andromeda who was raised be a pure blood lady, and Ted who who was a responsible adult with better understanding of the muggle world than most. He was surprised both agreed to have that role and understood the constraints Harry was under. They respected he was trying to find the best way to give his future children a chance at a stable home, while still doing what he can to preserve two great houses.

It wasn’t like they were wrong, he honestly wanted his children to have good parents, and the Tonks were the healthiest option, he knew he was a mess and the last thing any child need in their life. Perhaps one day he would be able to have a more active role, if he lived that long…

It surprised him how simple it was to arrange it all, meanwhile he used the time to further train in combat and study. If he discreetly broke into several dojos to slip into the instructor’s mind and learn proper fighting it was no one business. He also used the chance to raid 4 different gangs and ‘confiscate’ their weapons, explosives, drugs, and money. Their minds were very helpful when learning how to use everything. When he was done with them, he left them in the nearest police station with all the evidance he found. All in all it was a very productive summer.

Before heading back he knew he needed to deal with a traitor, the elf might be a living sentient being, but the vermin cost him the only family he had left. When he reached the door, he cut his hand and wrote in blood the runes Sirius showed him last summer, first thing he did when he entered the house was go to the wardroom and took over the wards of Grimauld place. He then summoned Kreature and proceeded to pump him for information about house Black, his former masters, his commands hidden or otherwise, what he actually reveled to Lestrange and Malfoy, and many more secrets the vermin tried to hide from him.

By the time he was done he learned a lot, including the truth about Regulus Black, he respected the guy and sadly understood him. Regulus knew he was going to die; it was a given, he might as well take the monster down with him. Harry had a lot of information to sift through. By the time he was done with everything he adjusted his plans substantially, including what to do with the vermin. He wanted to hate Kreature but couldn’t, Sirius was his Dudley, a family member that held power over him and was just another abuser. Regulus was his real family, and he would have done anything for him. Even the worshipful behavior towards his mistress was an act, he did it because he knew how much Sirius hated her.

That was when he decided to reach an understanding with him, but unlike his godfather he used very strict limitations to prevent him from the same double cross. Dealing with Dobby all those years taught him how to talk to crafty house elves. When Kreature realized that Harry was going to complete his beloved Regulus command and avenge him he happily agreed to help. Easpcially when the first command was to fix Grimmauld to Harry’s specifications and collect all the artifacts that were removed from the house. He loves Sirius but he was an idiot when he allowed the order to gut the place, at least he kept the library from their clutches. Plenty of the artifacts were too dangerous to allow anyone access to it.

The second command was to discreetly get information about the death eaters. Harry already had Dobby do the same, but another crafty bugger was always helpful. Very few of the idiotic pureblood understand just how capable house elves are, it’s actually kinda sad. When he returned to Hogwarts the Headmaster had the nerve to summon him and ask him why he left his relatives, when Harry made it explicitly clear that it was because he was done being a punching bag, and did not have the intention to either starve or bleed to death the wise old twinkly eyed menace had the audacity to look horrified. When Harry looked at him confused and asked why is he pretending to be surprised, after all Harry told him about it all at the end of his first, and second years. The man backed off realizing he severely missed stepped, and perhaps he will finally understand that people around him are not chess pieces. Though he wasn’t keeping his hopes up.

The year past in relative ‘peace’ but Ginny constantly hitting on him did not help, it got to the point where Harry publicly told her that he does not have an Oedipus complex and would appreciate if she would stop. It was kinda off hilarious to see how nauseated the muggleborns were from hearing that, Hermione explained it to her what it meant for the girl to suddenly look just as uncomfortable.

Neville thankfully was keeping him updated about the project for the Haven for muggleborns when the time comes, they all knew that he is under less scrutiny than Harry, and thus safer to communicate with. Ron and Hermione tried to get him to ‘open’ up to them, and bare his soul thinking he was an idiot who was unaware that the moment he would say something that they thought was crucial they would let the order know. Those two don’t really see Harry as a person, no matter how much they delude themselves to believe otherwise. It was pointless to try at this point, he was the boy who lived, and Harry Potter was just a fictional character in the books they read when they were younger. Now they just have to shove him to the mauled they have for him.

He did use the year to train and improve his education of things beyond Hogwarts curriculum, he used the chamber of secrets to practice both battle magics, and how to use firearms and explosives. Harry also took the time to raid the room of lost and found; he removed all the dark artifacts from there, books, even those that need to fixing/restoration, Goblin made everything, and anything else he found interesting. He was not surprised to find another Horcrux there. After Kreature gave him Regulus’ research from before he died Harry knew how to recognize it all better, and the Diadem was very much carrying the same aura the locket was holding. Unfortunately Harry knew he couldn’t yet destroy them, he needed to figure out how to remove the one in himself, and those two were good to experiment when he finally has a solution, never mind that he needs to figure out how much more the psycho created. Another disturbing discovery thanks to Regulus research was what the link between himself and Lord snake fetish actually meant.

The breakdown from that realization was epic and painful to all those that survived the madness.

It was amusing to have ‘lessons’ from the headmaster, the old man was feeding him breadcrumbs hoping he would see Riddle as what ever version the old goat made him out to be, while probably gearing him out to die. Harry was honestly curious what the man had to gain from his death, after all he was working up to it for years, why? It amazed him how it all culminated at the end of the year like always, the old chess master had Harry join him on an ‘adventure’ where he had Harry force him to consume poison, for what Harry didn’t understand. It wasn’t until they reached the bottom of the bowl and he saw the locket that he realized why it looked familiar.

The idiot was trying to get to the fake locket Regulus Black hid. Welp that was pointless, but he wouldn’t let the idiot know just yet. Arriving to Hogwarts when it was under attack and had the twinkly eyed menace bind him and force him to watch as he was being murdered was rage inducing. It amazed him how idiotic the old goat is, it’s like he wants the Death Eaters to succeed. At this point Harry was relived he made his own plans and completely ignored him.

When things settled Harry raided the headmaster's office while wearing the cloak of invisibility, he knew the portraits were keeping an eye, but thought it was a contingency by the old man, at least that was what he heard from them whisper to each other. He removed quite a lot from the office, between books and artifacts he was beginning to suspect the bearded menace was even more dangerous than lord daddy issues. Though it was interesting to find the ring he saw on lord Gaunt in the memory, when he later investigated Dumbeldore’s notes he was not surprised to discover it was a horcrux.

After comparing the findings of both his, and the headmaster he found it sad that he had made far more headway than the old man. It was also not surprising but still insulting that the arse didn’t really do any real research to the safe removal of a soul piece. When he left Hogwarts it was obvious to everyone that the war was truly beginning, at Kings Cross station he took the chance to board a disappear on a random train.

He sent a letter to both Ron and Harmione instructing them to prioritize their families, neither of them were made for war, no matter what lies Dumbledore was feeding them. Neither they, nor their families are going to survive if they don’t take proper precautions and actually do something. Just because he no longer saw them as friends did not mean he didn’t want them to survive.

Harry spent the next few months on the run in Britain riding his motorcycle as ‘undesirable 1’, it was somewhat amusing that thanks to his contingencies a lot of things didn’t work out for the death eaters as they would have liked. Bones was still leading the charge from the inside the ministry. Fred, George, Tonks and Shakelbot (recruited by Tonks) were discreetly moving muggelborns to safety before the DE get to them. The Tonks were leading the Haven that is behind so many wards it’s actually kinda scary. The Longbotoms were leading the charge for the resistance, Madam Longbottom in the wizengamot, and Neville in Hogwarts with the help of Susan Bones, and Daphne Greengrass.

Most terrifying of all was that Kreature and Dobby collected an army of house elves to help as a shadow army to collect intel and remove people to safety. Harry was disconcerted to adopt so many elves to his houses but considering the Haven was technically a Black property, along with the long list of properties belonging to each estate the army of house elves had plenty of work to do. Easpcially since he was able to bond them to the land and not a wixen allowing them a healthier more stable bond.

He has accumulated himself quite the reputation, ‘The Reaper’.

It amused him how stupid the DE, and criminal underground are, but it worked to his advantage, he removed many captives that he had the elves deliver to the Haven, the places he raided were normally stripped of everything and then blown to smithereens. He regularly raided muggle gangs as well to collect more weapons, those were the most affective against the death eaters.

There was no point of his waisting his magic battling an overwhelming number of enemies, a bullet was just as affective as a curse, probably more so. He did stop by the Haven a few times to meet Edward ‘Teddy’ Regulus Potter-Black. Andromeda was in tears when she learned why he insisted on naming his first born after her late death eater cousin. Harry understood him probably more than he did Sirius, funnily enough she agreed with him that Sirius would have been happy by his choice.

He asked Hedwig to stay with his son and watch over their chick, she wouldn’t let anything happen to him. By January he and Kreacher found all the Horcruxes, and Harry even destroyed Nagini in a public battle in front of the Abbott estate so Lord compensating much… didn’t know he was looking for them, he also captured and interrogated both Malfoys which allowed him to learn quite a lot, including the fact the Draco wants nothing to do with any of this, he was forced to take the mark. The entire family in fact wants out, that was when he decided to involve Bones and have her decide what to do with them. Spies in such a high rank could prove useful. He has his own network and she needs something more reliable than him feeding her information.

Bones was shocked to discover that with Malfoys came Rabastan Lastrange with the assistance of his brother, and Thorfinn Rowle, the 2 never wanted to join but were pressured into it when they were teens. Rabastan was asking to provide the memories from the night the Longbottoms were tortured to prove that it was Bellatrix and Barty that caused everything, he and his brother were the ones to hide Neville. (Which Harry knew from Neville to be true because it’s the memory that comes up when dementors are around him, the 2 of them had terrible bonding conversations.) Rodolpho Lastrange and Lucious Malfoy agreed to play informants for Bones, in return Narssica Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Rabastan Lastrange, and Thorfin Rowle would go in to hiding, and serve reduced sentence to the crimes they did commit instead of a life time in Azkaban like they each deserved.

He was surprised and yet wasn’t that both man were perfectly fine taking the risk and going for life in prison as long as their family was out of harms way. Though discovering the affair between Thorfin and Rodolpho was a surprise. The four ended up staying in Grimauld place under Kreature’s carful watch, and Bones had 6 aurors rotate there, that way there was also an auror to question them for everything they knew. (He wasn’t worried about anything in the house since he had Kreature place everything important and/or dangerous in the vault. The library was filled with protections so they wouldn’t be able to touch anything belonging to the Black Familly, not even Narssica.)

Harry ended up raiding Malfoy manor to remove of the prisoners and ‘capturing’ of the 4 so that way the dark lord won’t know yet of his spies, and their behavior would just be attributed to the loss of their loved ones. It was disturbing how many people were rescued, including Luna, and Ollivander. They agreed to move the released prisoners to the Haven since they were not able to secure them elsewhere. Mr. Lovegood happily relocated to stay with his daughter as she recovered.

He did provide the 3 ‘captures’ with a challenge, well… after he had them swear an unbreakable vow for secrecy. Draco he had working in the Potions lab, the Haven needed supplies, and there weren’t enough brewers.

It was obvious to Harry he was getting nowhere with the horcrux removal, and Dombeldore’s research was getting him nowhere, he has 3 experts in the dark arts trapped in a Grimauld place bored out of their mind, why not put them to use. He had Kreature tell them what really happened to Regulus and showed them the horcruxes he found. Safe to say that all 3 were appropriately horrified, Rowel actually threw up. He placed in front of them the diadem, Locket, and Goblet and told them to find a way to cleanse all items so he could finally kill the wanker. Lastrange and Rowle gave him a knowing look, they understood why Harry needed them to find an alternate solution to the normal approach with the abominations and went to work. Apparently, Regulus was a dear friend, and they would have happily helped him had they known the truth.

The two were research beasts and even used their own family libraries to further their work, Narssica had obscure knowledge that helped them find options none even imagined. In less than a month they found a working solution, one that worked on all the items. Narssica was horrified to learn that they needed to preform a fourth cleansing, but when he laid in the center of the ritual she finally understood.

He took a week to recover but after he was feeling so much better. Unfortunately he did need a few more days to allow his magic to adjust and train to work with the new power levels. It was very surprising to realize he was still a praselmouth, but considering it was the old man who told him where it came from, he should have taken it with a grain of salt, Harry used the down time to research what else the old man was hiding, it surprised him the menace believed in the legend of the Hollows, and it was part of why he was so obsessed with the Potter family. He did have Kreature raid his tomb and get his wand, the last thing he needed was for Lord no nose to get it.

Oddly as soon as he held it he felt like they belonged together, it felt even more compatible than his phoenix feather wand. Harry decided not to question it and added it to his ankle wand strap. To the surprise of everyone Rodolpho sent word the dark lord was planning to go to Hogwarts in person, apparently something happened to completely unbalance him, and sent him in to rage. Lord eye infection sent mad Bella to retrieve something and when she returned and told him it was missing.

This really lit a fire under the maniac. They assumed he sensed the removal of the 4 Horcrux pieces and he was getting worried. What he was unaware was that they were waiting for the right time to destroy them so they wouldn’t get his attention, Kreature was probably drooling with excitement considering he has clear instruction of when is optimal time to cause the most damage.

It was hilarious watching him unnerve everyone with his deranged whispering and giggling. Harry used the chance to see his child, and make sure everything was filled with his solicitor and account manager so what happened to him won't happen with Teddy. Harry decided to set the stage for a proper good bye party from the Drama Queen and his entourage. He had Dobby rig an area near Hogsmid that has light traffic but no structures, obviously he made sure to give Bones a heads up so she would take precautions.

Harry made duplicates for all the horcruxes and decided to lounge on a chair sipping butter beer from Hufflepuff goblet, though he thought he looked fabulous with Ravenclaw diadem, and Slytherin locket really completed the outfit. Dobby took several pictures as he was waiting, he really made the whole look work. Harry is not sure who got to him first, but 20 minutes later the wannabe Lord showed up with his posse.

He is fairly sure that Malfoy encouraged him to bring as many witnesses as possible to the inevitable defeat. Meanwhile Bones was inside Hogwarts, where she had all the death eaters removed and arrested, he was really hoping to be there for Snape’s and the Carrow trial. Then she had McGonegal raise the wards in a way that allowed a contingency of aurors, and unspeakables wait for the right time and charge the DE.

The showdown ended up being underwhelming, Harry pressed the trigger for the bombs he had Dobby plant beneath them, whilst Kreature stabbed the removed soul pieces with a basilisk fang. When the snaked faced horror started to scream Harry took out a firearm and started shooting. It was quite lovely seeing the confusion on their faces when the Riddler and mad Bella had a bullet between the eyes each. After that he left everything for Bones and her people. He was done.