Chapter 2
Harry stepped carefully into the world of Red Hood’s mind. There was ash floating in the air in a laxidasical drift, ominous and forboding. He had to navigate around some impressive natural shields to get where he was, but once inside he was left standing before a derilect iron gate leading onto overgrown private property.
Everywhere he looks there was ash drifting in the air, settling in a thin layer on all its surroundings.
The gate was welded shut with a green substance. Harry projected his mind closer to get a better look at the twisting sludge of rotting green slime. Hovering a hand over the substance, he pulsed a bit of his magic at it to read what it was before jumping back in shock.
Pain. Suffering. Agony.
All that pain and torment was so potent it was a corroded poison attacking Harry with how strong the psychic hold had over the gate. What Harry was more concerned with however, was the memory the sludge was strangling.
Harry gathered himself once more. Focusing his efforts on freeing the memory, he tore at the sludge with his magic. After many years studying under the best medi-wizards in Europe, he found legilimens to be a practice in absolute control. Done right, it was a muggle scalpel to a surgical wound, finding and closing the bleeding artery from within.
When he looked back on the times watching memories alongside his headmaster, he wondered if it was fate; a stepping stone to what he would eventually become. A healer of heroes.
The muckish green substance fizzled under his attentions. It fought at first, before retreating into a single glob and slipping away from the gate, evaporating into ash particles that hissed at him before flying away down the road beyond the gate. In the distance, Harry could barely make out the remnants of his work slipping away into a gothic-style mansion. The details were faint, but he could see silloetts of gargoyles and terraces.
Harry gently touched the now clean bolt-lock baring gate, and the memory unlocked. It was so delicate, so fragile after so long being choked by that corrosive pain.
Jason didn’t know what to expect after the attempted theft of Batman’s tires, but a warm fast food meal and an offer for shelter from the cold was definitely not it.
The batmobile sped to places unknown, and Jason could hardly breathe in the back seat. What would happen to him? He wouldn’t go back into the system, not again. The last foster home had been a front for an undercover human trafficing ring full of pedophiles and he had barely escaped with his life.
“Hey.” The deep voice of Batman had softened to something gentle and kind. “Have you ever seen the movie Mask of Zorro?”
“Huh? Uh…no. No, I haven’t.” Jason muttered hesitantly. Was this a test?
“Good, we can watch it tonight. I bet you’ll love it. I certainly did at your age. Did you know the actor trained with the Spanish Olympic fencing team for his fight scenes?” The man looked back at him with a genuine smile.
Jason reassessed his judgement of Batman’s character. The old man was a nerd.
He couldn’t stop the warmth from rising in his heart. Maybe. Maybe something would go right this time. With all the shit that he’s been dealt in his life he deserved something good. He just hoped that he could keep it.
Knowing his luck, he’ll make sure to enjoy it as long as it lasts. Once CPS is called he’ll be out the window.
Then Jason got a look at the mansion and its windows. His hesitance gave way to awe and a little bit of imposter syndrome.
Both were reassured by Batman’s kind smile and promise of a movie night with popcorn and hot chocolate. That earlier warmth threatened to encompass him at the possibility of a home, a place to belong. Jason wanted nothing more than to loose himself in it, but he knew better. He’d keep his guard up, ‘cause this was still Gotham and anything could happen in this retched city.
The gate opened slowly to permit the adult wizard to pass. Around the gate, the ash in the air dissolved in the warm light of the iron gate. The restored memory clensed this area of Red Hood’s, no—Jason’s mind, but this was just the start.
As he projected his mind beyond the gate, Harry sensed the insurmountable task ahead of him. The ash around the manor was thick. It made his eyes burn, and got into the crevasses of his nose, mouth, and ears. It cried outrage and terror. The oppressive force threatened to fill his lungs and kill him, so he would have to go about this the smart way.
Planning multiple appointments for Jason to restore his mind gradually, Harry turned around to head back when he saw it.
The ash around him was creeping back towards the gate like erant jellyfish. If he were to try this in multiple stages over the course of a week or month, he’d have to start at the beginning each time. And with how weak that memory already was, he didn’t like its chances if he left it to the spreading ash.
He would have to cleanse Jason’s mind in one fell swoop.
The core of the pit madness causing all of this was waiting for him in the manor. He could feel the remnants of dark magic from way out here, breathing. The ash drifted back and forth with each inhale and exhale.
He projected himself forward, and opened the door to the imposing manor.
Inside, the green sludge was everywhere. In the emptyness the echoes of a laughing maniac bounced off the walls.
Harry sighed and batted the ash away from him, just to see it spin in place ineffectively. Well, it was time to get to work.
——
Memories assulted Harry as he worked his way through the maze of a manor.
It was so much like Grimauld House that the wizard expected to see a bogart flying out of a dusty closet, turn into a dementor and suck his soul. How that would work on his projected mind he had no idea, but it still invoked another level of caution to his already careful footsteps.
Jason was a troubled individual, much like Harry himself. Out of the many doors open in this mansion, he saw a great deal of not-repressed memories freely available to the vigilante. Harry did his best not to look too deep just to respect Jason’s privacy, but every now and again he would catch glimpses of horrible things.
Child abuse from a drunk father in a dingy appartment. Harsh words from Jason’s siblings repeated in an endless loop. “You will never be Dick Grayson.” “B, what possessed you to pick up a street urchin and give him my uniform?” “Street rat.” “I’m better than you ever were, Todd.” “You’re not my Robin, not anymore. Your first impressions saw to that. Stay away from me.”
Merlin. This was bad. Harry did what he could to free repressed memories of the time when Jason was young. He freed a door from green slime and forced it open. A white light poured free, evaporating nearby ash. Inside was a good memory.
It was the time Dick appologized on Jason’s birthday for being an ass when he and Jason first met. His birthday gift to Jason was a couple nights together for driving lessons on his motorbike. They both wore Robin-colored helmets and it felt like acceptance.
“Okay, okay. You can be Robin. Just promise you won’t take the name Nightwing when you grow up, alright?”
“Ha! I make no promises.” Jason cheers and does slight of hand with his older brother’s cape, drapping it around his shoulders.
“You lil’ shit-“
The hurtful words repeating down the hallway lowered in volume in the wake of brighter days. Harry continued his way through the maze of halls and doors.
——
Assassins crouched in the shadows of many rooms, and Harry almost got to work on elliminating the green pool of water before realising it was a memory manifestation. He left the pool alone after that.
Then he came upon the first real obstacle. The memory-manifestation of Talia Al Gul, daughter to the Demon Head of the League of Assassins.
She saw Harry and sauntered over to him. “You don’t belong here.”
“I am the medicine to your poison.” Harry responds. “So yes, while I don’t belong here, I have a purpose. What is yours?”
“I guard the memories of Jason’s training. You’re not needed here. Move along.” The dangerous woman waved her hand at the wizard dismissively.
Harry nodded. Just from a glance he could tell that these memories were well cared for and clean of ash and slime. Jason had likely picked through those memories with a fined tooth comb, separating memory from the pit influence on his own. As a vigilante, he likely used those memories the most.
While Harry had Talia’s attention he might as well see if she was willing to help, “Do you know where I can find the root of Jason’s pain? That’s likely were the lazarus has its strongest grip.”
“I do.” Talia demured, “Follow the laughter.”
With that, she was gone.
“I feel like I’m in second year again.” Harry mutters with a voice mimicking Hagrid’s drawl, “‘Follow the spiders.’”
He listened for laughter and followed it down a dark branching hallway, and down long, winding stairs. Further and further down it got darker and darker, until the wizard could only make his way down the stairs by touch.
The laughter echoed from below, the staircase a throat swallowing Harry whole only to drop him down into madness.
——
There was a green light glowing where the staircase ended however many miles down. Harry projected his mind the rest of the way to save time, happy to see some form of light at last.
The light gave way to a deep cave full of fluttering, chirping bats. The cave walls dripped with soluble green lazarus waters, several pools of green glowed where liquid drops down from stalagtites; a cavernous mineral deposit of death.
To one side of the room was a computer completely caked in green sludge; nearly crystalized. The same could be said of the many strange trappings around the room such as the dinosaur and giant penny. The batmobile was drowned in one of the liquid green pools…like a victim of one of Hermione’s muggle games, ‘the floor is lava’.
The laugher was loud and racous here, and Harry only had one more step to take to see the culprit.
In the middle of the cave sat a grown…man? Whatever it was had bleached white skin, blood red lips cracked in a smile that would curdle milk, and hair painted a shade of green no self-respecting Slytherin would be caught dead with. The murderous clown sat in a cardboard box labeled with colorful crayon ‘Arkam’, like a kid sentenced to a time out.
“Okay, this is a bit on the nose.” Harry observed.
“Welcome!” The clown shrilled, eyes bright and throwing his hands up in greeting. “It’s so good to have visitors! It gets so boring here. What brings you to casa de clown, hmm?”
“I’m with house cleaning.” Harry explained in his own way, in which his sarcasm takes over his mouth before he can stop it. “You didn’t put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the front door, so I’m gonna continue doing my job and get this all cleaned up. Right? Good talk.”
“Ooh, I like you. You’re funny. You’d probably get my jokes, so I’ll give you a clue. Do you wanna know why the lazarus clings to this bird so well?” The joker asked, popping up from his crouch to stand in the box so he can jesture with more swinging limbs.
“Because it’s what lazarus pits do.”
“WRONG ANSWER!!! Madness is the emergency exit. Robin can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened to him. He locked them away…foreeeeever. Hahahaha!”
“Yeah, I can see why he hates you.” This man was pale, pasty, kinda like a muggle Voldemort. He was quite deranged, and Harry was done talking. His magic flowed around him as he made to focus it on the crazy man before him. “With you gone, the lazarus will finally let go of Red Hood.”
“HahaHAHAHA! Oh that’s a good joke. You think I’m the center of Robin’s hatred? His anger? His WORLD? You don’t know him at all.”
“Then who?” Harry asked, tired of being pushed back and forth in this maze of green.
“LOOK AROUND YOU. I should relieve you of the burden of your failed, useless life, imbocile.” The joker cried out in a fit of madness, eyes wide and spittle going everywhere. “I’m not the problem. I killed Robin! I did my good work. And I continue to do my good work guarding those beautiful memories. Hahaha! It’s so funny. The look on your face!”
Harry didn’t see it coming. The hit came out of nowhere and had him sprawling on the ground with a metaphysically cracked rib and bloody scratches from the tumble on the rocky floor. Harry looked up and through the room dimmly illuminated by phosphorus green, he could just make out a large hulking figure in a moldy cape.
The bat symbol stitched over the chest was warped and stretched, the wings dripping over the suit’s design like a bad spray paint. Never the less, it glowed on that suit like the brightest fuckin’ glow stick…the brightness only matched by the figure’s eyes. The entirety of the man’s eyes were glowing green, the light viening outward into large cracks in skin. The cracks fissured out from the eyes onto eyelids, eyebrows, and cheek bones like faults in the Earth’s crust. Where he walked, green mold remained covering the stone in foot-shaped marks that slowly began to spread.
The part of Jason the lazarus pit had latched onto and spread from…was his father.
Harry gulped as he was pinned by the cold merciless gaze of Batman.
——
Jason was bored. Not to mention staring into this dude’s eyes was getting slightly into romcom ranges of embarrassment. At least he made sure he could slouch beforehand, so unlike the wizard, Jason wouldn’t be getting shoulder stiffness from this little excercise.
Two hours in, Jason was about to ask Siri call for pizza when the wizard siesed up. Out of nowhere the wizard started sporting cuts and bruises on his chin and his ear…and did he just hear a rib crack?
What the fuck was happening? Jason shook the man’s shoulder, but the wizard wouldn’t snap out of it. Was the vigilate’s mind really so shitty that it was gonna kill the one person willing to help?
“Hey Doc. C’mon Doc, wake up! Get outta there, it’s not worth it! Wake up!!”
——
Harry dodged a slew of batarangs and jumped behind a stalagmite for cover. Damn it, why didn’t he keep up his auror training while in med school?
Now he has to fight Batman of all people. That’s just the Potter luck.
“Haaahahahaha!!!!”
Why won’t that clown shut up?!
Harry dodge in the nick of time as Batman rushed his location and punched his cover to rubble with his reinforced gauntlets.
“Shit, that was close.” Harry dodged as Batman threw a something at him…which just happened to be a flashbomb. Following quickly after that was the Gothom equivalent of Peruvian Instant Darkness powder, and Harry couldn’t see shit.
Before Batman could kill him, Harry let out a burst of pure mind magic, clearing the cave of the powder in time to see Batman baring down on him with a black steel blade.
“Protego!” The magic shield blocked the weapon, as the weapon was part of Jason’s mind and part of the overall spell of Legilimens. This was a fight of the mind.
Batman hissed. He then did something that surprised the wizard even further.
In an audible poof, Batman dispersed into a bunch of ash that clustered together to form a colony of bats. Those bats flew around Harry, clawing at his eyes, ears, anything they could reach.
Harry let out a pulse of magic and the bats screeched in fury. They retreated and flew into a single ball of ash to form Batman once more, now crouching atop a glass podium housing a ragged and torn Robin uniform.
On the casing was embossed, “A good soldier.”
“Oh hell no.” Harry felt that to his core. He was a child soldier himself, and died for his friends in the war. He got better, but that memory was still sensitive. …like a pig to the slaughter. You raised a good little soldier and now, the boy must die?
The boy must die?
No. He couldn’t get lost in his own memories.
.
.
.
Too late.
They were now in the forbidden forest. In the exact same clearing he died in. The forest was holding its breathe, as dark and dim as it had been that night.
Across from Batman and Harry stood a memory…and Harry Potter knew just how real a memory could be.
Voldemort stood alone on the other side of the clearing, smiling at Harry and raising his wand.
Then the boy wizard was seeing green.
“AVADA KEDAVRA!”
——
The doctor wizard was hyperventilating before falling into a god damn panic attack, and Jason didn’t know what to do.
Wait. What did that wizard say earlier? Breaking eye contact would break the spell, right?
Jason closed his eyes.