“Sorry, darling,” Sirzechs said, sounding not sorry at all.
“Failed?” Venelana asked.
“Yes,” Rias replied.
“I tried a bishop and a rook, and both just popped right out.
It wasn’t like it is when the piece isn’t strong enough.
I felt that when I tried to give Akeno one of my rooks.”
“My scar also burned,” Harry added.
“Curious,” Ajuka said, walking right up to him and hovering a hand over his forehead.
“I assume you mean this one.”
“Yes,” Harry said.
“I’ve had it since I was a baby when a wizard tried to kill me and blew himself up instead.”
Ajuka just blinked.
“Zeoticus, do you mind if I make use of your study for a couple hours?”
“Not at all, my lord,” Zeoticus replied.
“Good,” Ajuka said.
“Come.
You’re going to explain to me everything you know about the incident and your scar, and then I’m going to run some tests.”
“Be aware that he’s hyped up on an energy spell,” Grayfia said.
“Then we’d best be quick,” Ajuka said.
Harry gave Rias one last look, feeling a little better when she smiled at him and followed Ajuka.
“Why do we have to be quick?” he asked.
“I assume that Grayfia came upon you two as you were finishing?” Ajuka asked.
“Probably just after,” Harry replied, trying not to look embarrassed.
“She hit you with a spell meant to refresh you so she didn’t have to carry you two in here,” Ajuka said, “but it’s temporary.
Think of it like sugar.”
“So I’m going to crash,” Harry said.
“Indeed,” Ajuka said, opening the door to a small, richly decorated room. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
He turned the high-backed chair at the desk around and pointed to a smaller chair off to the side as he sat down.
“Now tell me more about this attempt on your life when you were a baby.”
“There was a terrible wizard who called himself Lord Voldemort,” Harry said.
“He tried to take over magical Britain and nearly succeeded.
There were plenty who opposed him, my parents among them, but he was as powerful as he was brutal.
On Halloween night of 1981, he came to the cottage where my parents were hiding from him and killed them.
When he tried to kill me, though, something went wrong.”
“What happened?” Ajuka asked.
“No one really knows,” Harry replied.
“His spell hit me, but he was the one destroyed.
For some reason, I lived, with only this scar to show for his attempt to kill me.”
“So the scar is over a decade old and hasn’t faded at all,” Ajuka said, tapping his chin.
“Does it hurt?”
“Most of the time, no,” Harry replied.
“Explain,” Ajuka commanded.
“Voldemort was destroyed that night, but he isn’t truly dead,” Harry said.
“He survived death?” Ajuka asked.
“Professor Dumbledore, er, the headmaster at my school says that he’s a wraith now,” Harry said.
“He possessed one of my teachers in my first year there and tried to kill me.
Multiple times over the year, when I looked at him, my scar burned.”
“Curious,” Ajuka said.
“You’re still alive, so I assume things went poorly for him.”
“He was trying to get his hands on the Philospher’s Stone, trying to use it to restore himself,” Harry said.
“It was in the castle, and when I went to stop him, I touched him, and he burned under my touch, turning to ash.”
“Like your scar burned when you looked at him,” Ajuka commented, tapping his chin again.
“Has it burned since?”
“It did when I rejected the evil pieces, and…” Harry trailed off for a moment.
“I’ve been having dreams this year, dreams of him, dreams that I don’t think are dreams.
He’s stronger now, somehow, and I think he’s close to coming back.” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Ajuka chuckled softly, staring at nothing for a moment before saying, “this is a fascinating case.
To summarize, this man tried to kill you as a baby, failed for reasons that remain elusive, and gave you a cursed scar that burns in his presence as he managed to evade his death.
Flight from death, that’s what his name means.
A psudenym, of course.”
“His real name was Tom Riddle,” Harry said.
“Irreleveant,” Ajuka said dismissively.
“Now you’re connected to him in some way, and he can’t touch you without burning even a host body.
These dreams seem to be from his perspective, I assume.”
“Yes,” Harry said.
“Fascinating,” Ajuka said, “and absolutely none of this explains why in the Underworld his curse would interfere with the evil pieces.
You, my young friend, just became my new research project.
We’ll be going to my lab after we leave here.”
“I can’t stay here!” Harry exclaimed.
“I have school…”
“Your paltry education is nothing compared to what I could teach you if I deign to,” Ajuka said coldly, “and this conundrum with the evil pieces could spell doom for my people.”
“Even if I wanted to stay here, I couldn’t,” Harry said.
“The whole reason that I summoned Rias in the first place is that I’ve been entered into a deadly tournament against my will.
If I don’t compete, I’ll lose my magic and die.
Like it or not, the only way you’re going to study me if I return to Hogwarts, learn what the three tasks I need to compete in are, prepare for them, and survive.”
“Annoying,” was all Ajuka said to that.
“Do you know what any of these tasks are going to be?”
“The first one is a task of bravery and cunning and involves dragons,” Harry said.
“I think that I’m going to need to get something from a dragon, preferably without becoming barbeque in the process.”
“Hmm,” Ajuka said, tapping his chin again.
“Rias was hoping that remaking you as a devil would make you powerful enough to deal with the dragon by force, which it would have, of course.
Bereft of that option, we’ll need to be more cunning.
Are you capable of summoning objects?”