Two Steps Forwards...
July 10th 2169
Matufatu, Japan
The Golden Rose, 32nd Floor
The Emperor Suite
Harry went to work the next day.
He knew that Luna and Neville were worried, they'd tried to talk to him about his breakdown at the clinic, but Harry hadn't been ready to talk about it-he doesn't think he'd ever be ready.
What Harry had needed was to get out of those hotel rooms, spacious as they were, Harry needed room to breath, he needed something to do, so he returned to the worksite and threw himself into rebuilding the interior floors and walls.
He'd repaired the foundation and structural supports days ago, he and Luna had dealt with the basement-what a shitshow that had been- and between the runespells they'd carved into the foundation and supports, and the wards Harry had wrapped this place in, nothing short of a Death themselves could put a dent into his baby.
Now all that was left was to rebuild.
If that wasn't a metaphor for his life right now, he didn't know what was.
July 3rd 2169
Masufatu, Japan
164 Industrial Road
Before Harry brought Luna in to help him with the runework, Harry tackled the basement.
He donned his battle armor for the first time since they arrived in their new world, the basilisk hide armor moving easily with him. It might be considered overkill, considering he highly doubted anything down there could even scratch the invulnerable armor, but Harry would rather be safe than sorry.
After promising Luna he'd be careful, Harry unraveled his spell work on the hole, then jumped down the empty elevator shaft.
Harry let himself free fall for about 70 feet, then floated gently above the ground, several lumos snapped open, illuminating the space below him, and revealing what he'd feared.
The cavern was a near perfect circle, approximately 20 feet high, and several hundred feet wide, with hundreds of crates stacked neatly in the space, covered in tarps, but one carefully pried open lid revealed vials of some sort of murky green fluid.
Whatever it was, Harry's magic didn't like it, so Harry had no regrets as he began to vanish the lot of it.
Once the cavern had been emptied, Harry pressed his hands against the unnaturally smooth ground, and reached for that new part of his magic that tied him to his quirk, spreading his awareness through the ground, filling every crack and crevice, and reshaping the stone to his will.
Harry pulled from bellow him, and had lowered the cavern another 10 feet before he managed to fill the tunnels leading out of the cavern, and Harry found himself standing in an airtight pocket of earth, except for the hole in the ceiling that lead to the gutted elevator shaft.
"I'm done!" Harry called up, his voice traveling up to the main floor, and a few seconds later, Luna jumped down, Harry's heart nearly leaped out of his chest for the terrifying 3 seconds before his magic latched onto her, slowly her decent and gently depositing her on the ground.
"Whoa! Lets do that again!" Luna beamed, her eyes wide with thrill, and Harry scowled, placing his hands on his hips as he glared at the unrepentant blonde.
"Are you out of your mind?! I would have come up to get you!" Harry scolded, and she smiled at him, unmoved by his ire.
"This was faster" she said simply, and Harry resisted the urge to pull his hair out.
"Next time. Wait" Harry demanded, and she sighed and raised her hands up in surrender, but Harry knew the little devil wasn't the least bit repentant for the near heart attack she'd given him.
Was this what it was going to be like once Teddy grew up? Gods, Harry was too young to be going grey...
The next few hours passed in comfortable silence as Luna marked the runes with magical chalk, triple checking her lines before giving Harry the go ahead.
With a flex of Harry's power, spider thin cracks formed in the stone earth, following Luna's chalk, the excess stone rising up to form a boulder that Harry set off to the side. With another push of his near limitless magic, the magical metal they'd prepared melted, flowing like water until it filled all of the cracks, the magically charged metal glowed brightly for a few seconds, then faded. The cavern was absolutely covered in the symbols, leaving barely a spare inch untouched, and the magic was quickly kicking in, regulating the temperature, humidity, and oxygen levels to comfortable levels, and rendering the cavern impenetrable by physical, mental or magical means.
It would take a human sacrifice to extend the protection to spiritual shields, which neither of them were willing to do, nor did they think it totally necessary, seeing as they two of them had the most powerful soul-inclined quirks in the world.
"Alright," Luna leaned back to crack her back, "I think I'm ready for some Aunty Time" Luna grinned, holding her arms up expectantly for Harry to carry her back to the surface so she could proceed with stealing his son for herself.
"Oh, so now you want me to carry you" Harry hummed, picking her up bridal style, and with a short jump, they shot upwards, phasing through the stone in seconds, until Harry was landing softly on the freshly reshaped concrete of the main floor.
"Your just afraid that I'll replace you as his favorite human by the time he's a teenager" Luna teased, hoping down to her feet, and Harry raised an eyebrow at her.
"In my experience, parents are seldom their teenagers favorite human anyway, so that's a suckers bet," Harry's expression turned mischievous "you'd be better served giving my sweet son a cousin anyway" Harry teased, and enjoyed watching the way Luna's face burned a soft pink.
"Harry!" she scolded, and Harry laughed loudly.
"What? Like I wasn't supposed to know with the way you and Neville orbit each other? Every day I wake up and expect to see you've eloped and adopted an alpaca farm" Harry laughed, a fond smile curving on his lips at the besotted look that formed on Luna's face.
"We're taking our time" Luna said, love and affection burning in her eyes, and Harry rolled his eyes fondly.
"Well, go on, your future husband is currently trying to bribe my sons love and affection" Harry gave a little shove to Luna's back, and she gave a delicate sniff and tilted her nose in the air in a decidedly Malfoy-fashion.
"Neville doesn't have to bribe, Teddy already loves him!" Luna stuck her tongue out at him, and practically skipped away to join her boyfriend? and Harry's son for lunch.
By the time Luna arrived with takeout under one arm, Harry had finished the apartments on the 5th floor, raising slabs of concrete and planks of wood, reshaping each floor into 52 2 and 3 bedroom apartments and roughing in the plumbing and electrical. It was a slower process than it could have been because he had to engrave the runes to tie each floor to the security wards; Harry didn't have Luna's skill, but he was more than capable of the basics.
"How much longer do you think it'll take?" Luna asked as Harry wiped his hands and mouth, stray pieces of rice sticking to his face.
"Probably another 2 or 3 days for the rough ins, then maybe 4 for the plumbing and electrical, I'll have to have it inspected so its up to code, and another week for the wards and furnishing" Harry said, nodding at the flats full of building material taking up a good amount of space in the open shopfront, which Harry was using to shape the new walls and floors.
"Three weeks of work for all this" Luna smiled at him, and Harry shifted uncomfortably, his cheeks pinking at the admiration in her gaze.
"Its the least I can do" Harry mumbled, and she gave a soft laugh.
"No, Harry, no one in this world would have expected all this from you" Luna clasped his hand in hers.
"Luna-" Harry started, but she raised up a hand to stop him.
"Is this what you want to do in this world? Build homes? Your good at it" Luna smiled, and Harry thought about it.
He'd never thought about what he would do with his life, he didn't technically need to work for a living, but before the War he'd assumed he'd become an auror like his dad. Honestly, the career hadn't actually appeal to him, it just seemed like something Harry Potter was expected to do.
But now that he had the option... What did he want to do?
"I mean... Maybe? I'd like to fix up the rest of the Johnson Survey, I'm sure Hana will be excited to sell to me now that she knows I can actually do something with it, but I don't know about after that" Harry admitted, and Luna exhaled softly, and pulled something out of a fold in her armor, and handed a brochure to him.
Lighthouse Psychiatric Clinic
Call Us For A Consultation Today
Lets Build a Brighter Future Together
"Luna, I don't-" Harry sighed, and Luna's hands gripped his as he tried to give her the papers back.
"Think about it" Luna pressed the papers back into his hands, and didn't say another word about it for the rest of the day.
But Harry couldn't stop thinking about it.
The worst part is, Harry wanted to be okay.
If he'd actually wanted to die, he wouldn't have let Luna talk him into moving dimensions, he wouldn't have taken Teddy in, and he wouldn't have jumped feet first into rebuilding his life in this world.
He wanted to be okay, he wanted to be happy.
More than anything, he wanted to give Teddy the kind of childhood Harry never had. He wanted to raise his little boy, watch him grow, argue with him about bedtimes and Brussel sprouts, and the necessity of wearing pants in public. He wanted to walk him to school, and tell him off for not doing his homework, and argue with him about his curfew. He wanted to terrify his future girlfriend or boyfriend into treating his baby right, and hold him when he got his heart broken.
He couldn’t do that if he was dead.
And Harry was kidding himself if he thought he could walk into the after life-Death’s replacement non-withstanding- and Hermione wouldn’t ring him out for abandoning his son.
So do something about it, Ron’s voice whispered hauntingly at him, cocky and challenging and infuriating in the way that only teenage boys could manage-
And Harry knew he was going to have to do something about it.
He’d always hated when Ron was right…
July 21st 2169
Masufatu, Japan
164 Industrial Road
Contrary to what Harry had predicted, he'd actually finished the renovations 3 days early.
About half way through the renovations, the rest of the neighborhood had caught onto what was happening, and Harry had been hounded by curious busybodies, who usually became so shocked at the changed state of the building that Harry was able to gently escort them from the premises.
But it was finally done.
The cavern had been warded heavily, so only Harry, and anyone he brought with him, could come and go without being ejected by the wards. He'd raised walls, forming two sets of apartments, but most of the space was reserved for the labs, a secure place where Harry, Luna, Neville, and later Teddy, could practice and experiment with their magic and quirks. He'd formed the spaces for the potion lab and ritual chamber, but left the protections to Luna.
Harry's not entirely sure what she'd done to the ritual chamber, but she'd walked in with that vial of Harry's collected magic, and when she left the Ritual Chamber glowed for a week before fading, and Luna was reasonably certain that any rituals done inside would be as safe as they could make it.
As for the apartments, Harry transported down furniture, the combined decorating efforts of Luna and Neville had left it with some... Interesting design choices.
On the main floor, Harry had fixed up the staff lounge and bathroom, reopening, and heavily warding, the staff entrance on the opposite side of the building. He'd divided the huge storefront into two, but besides repairing the damage, he hadn't changed them much.
The elevator had been repaired, and opened on all 13 floors, only 12 of which contained the soon-to-be inhabited apartments, the 13th floor contained two huge apartments, half belonging to Harry and Teddy, and the other for Luna and Neville.
"With room to grow" Harry had said with a shit eating smile, to the embarrassment of his sister and friend.
With some subtle application of space expansion charms, each of the tenant floors contained 52 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, and each apartment was spacious and comfortable. Harry had enlisted Hana's help when designing spaces that would be appealing to the people of this world, while still remaining true to the old world charm of the building.
And finally, the roof.
The real reason people realized someone was renovating the Behemoth, the peoples charming name for Harry's project, was that it was difficult to hide when an greenhouse appeared on the roof without the use of illusion charms.
Said Greenhouse took up most of the roof, was so heavily warded that the magic concentration made Harry sneeze, even though the more dangerous plants remained in the Trunk or in Neville's lab.
The elevator opened up to a rooftop terrace that was open for all the residents to enjoy, though Harry had added a secret patio shielded with magic on the other side of the greenhouse.
Which was where Harry currently lounged on a sofa, Teddy contentedly curled up in the crook of his arm, while Harry, Luna and Neville shared a beer over the completion of Harry's first project in this world.
Though not the last, Harry mused, thinking of the freshly signed papers naming him the owner of a further 5 buildings similar to the Behemoth-dammit now he was doing it too-even if not quite as big or damaged.
"Have you thought about it?" Luna asked after their conversation had lagged for a few minutes to content silence, none of them feeling the need to interject.
Harry knew what she was talking about though.
"Yeah..." Harry trailed off, taking a sip of his beer, and forced himself to meet her eyes, "I'll try, but I'm not making any promises" Harry warned, but both of their faces practically split with the force of their smiles.
"That's all we ask" Neville reassured him, and Luna dripped the arms of her chair, doing a little happy wiggle, which almost made cartoon heart appear around Neville's head.
"We'll be there with you every step of the way" Luna reassured him, but let the topic drop.
Harry hoped she wouldn't be too disappointed if nothing came from it...