Harry Potter: The Angel of Death C27 (Patreon)

Chapter 27: The Golden Trio 

“Hadouken!”

“Stop spamming that stupid move!”

Harry barely dodged another fireball before Vega got kicked directly across the screen by Ken with enough force to send his character crashing into the corner of the stage.

A large golden K.O. flashed across the television.

Ron threw both arms into the air triumphantly.

“Yes!”

Harry stared at the screen in betrayal.

“You didn’t even know how to hold the controller an hour ago.”

Ron looked smug beyond reason.

“Well, I do now.” Ron grinned viciously while grabbing another handful of crisps from the bowl between them. 

Harry narrowed his eyes at his best friend sitting cross-legged on the carpet in front of the television.

The first game had lasted approximately thirty seconds.

Ron had possessed all the coordination of a drunk hippogriff upon first encountering video games, staring at the controller like it was a cursed artifact while Harry effortlessly demolished him with Vega several rounds in a row.

Then Ron started learning. Fast. Ridiculously fast, in Harry’s opinion.

It had taken Harry days to learn the basic combos, and Ron mastered them in less than half an hour. Ron enjoyed tactical warfare far more than any sane person should, and was annoyingly good at it too.

By the fifth round he had begun blocking consistently.

By the seventh he learned combos.

By the tenth Ron had transformed into an absolute menace. 

Now, an hour later, Harry was losing with alarming regularity to a boy who had just discovered video games.

“This is so unfair,” Harry said with a pout.

Ron looked smug.

“Natural talent.”

Harry considered throwing a cushion at him.

Across the room, Hermione sat curled into one corner of the sofa with a thick book balanced across her knees, ignoring ninety percent of the chaos surrounding her through sheer concentration alone.

Crowley had “handled” the situation with Hermione’s parents. Harry was not entirely sure what that meant exactly, and frankly, he was afraid to ask.

Knowing Crowley, the man had probably convinced two responsible adults to hand over their daughter using a combination of supernatural charisma, legal technicalities, intimidation, and methods Harry strongly suspected were either immoral, illegal, or both.

Whatever the solicitor had said, it worked.

Hermione was officially staying under Crowley’s “care” until Harry’s legal situation was resolved, though in practice that meant she had been living in the cottage ever since arriving.

Ron had simply refused to leave. He had informed his parents that Harry needed him and then acted as though the discussion was settled. 

Ron had inherited exactly enough stubbornness from Molly Weasley to make further arguments impossible. 

“…I still cannot believe this exists,” she muttered for perhaps the fourth time in twenty minutes.

Harry glanced over.

The book in question was one of several he had bought during the summer regarding magitech theory and magical integration systems from outside Britain.

Hermione looked so outraged by her previous ignorance.

“I spent two years in the magical world,” she said, turning another page with increasing disbelief, “and only now I’m discovering people have combined rune arrays with electrical systems?”

Harry shrugged, eyes returning briefly to the television just in time to block one of Ron’s increasingly aggressive attacks.

“That’s because Britain’s pretty closed off compared to most magical societies,” he explained. “From what I learned this summer, we’re considered one of the more traditionalist magical communities.”

“Not just Britain,” Ron added absently while attempting an advanced combo and accidentally making Ken crouch repeatedly instead. “Most of Europe’s like that.”

Hermione looked up.

“What do you mean?”

Harry paused the game long enough to glance back toward her. 

During the summer, Harry had spent more time studying than he did during half a school year.

Originally, he had focused on subjects that were immediately necessary, like magical law. But once he started investigating the existence of angels, things had spiralled out of control. One topic led to another, from ancient magical history to magic mythology, until he ended up researching about half a dozen cult doctrines.

Yes, apparently, cults existed in the magical world, too. Or perhaps, considering wizards, that should have been expected.

Most of the ones Harry investigated were founded by extremely religious Muggle-borns or half-bloods obsessed with biblical mythology. Harry had hoped they might contain actual information about angels. Unfortunately, all he really discovered was that magical cultists were just as strange as non-magical ones.

“Well, European magical societies are some of the oldest organized magical cultures in the world,” he explained. “At least among modern magical civilizations. Old societies tend to become more conservative over time.”

Hermione frowned thoughtfully.

“What counts as the first modern magical civilization?”

“The Greeks,” Ron answered.

Both Harry and Hermione looked at him in mock surprise.

Ron blinked.

“What?”

“You know history?” Harry asked, teasing him.

Ron looked offended.

“I know some history.”

“Merlin above,” Hermione whispered dramatically. “The world truly is ending.”

Ron threw a crisp at her.

“Bill talks about this stuff all the time,” he defended. “Curse-breakers learn loads of history.” 

“Makes sense,” Harry said. 

“The Greeks created the first modern magical government system,” Ron continued, sounding pleased to actually know something Hermione did not. “Like proper laws and magical citizenship and international treaties and all that.”

“About three thousand years ago,” Harry added.

Hermione looked skeptical.

“I would’ve expected Egypt or Mesopotamia,” she admitted. “Those are much older civilizations.”

“They’re the oldest Muggle civilizations,” Ron corrected. “That’s not necessarily the same thing.”  

Ron took a sip of Pepsi before continuing: “The Greeks are the oldest modern magical society, but not the oldest magical civilization overall.”

That caught Hermione’s attention.

“There’s a difference?”

“Sure is,” Ron said. “Bill talks about it all the time.”

Harry smiled. Ron always sounded fondly long-suffering whenever discussing his older brother’s interests.

“He reckons nobody actually knows what the oldest magical civilization was,” Ron continued. “Though Bill thinks it was probably connected to the Greeks too.”

Hermione closed her book fully now.

“Connected how?”

Ron leaned back slightly, clearly pleased to actually know something Hermione did not.

“So basically,” he began, “there’s this theory that in ancient times some ridiculously powerful ruler gathered loads of witches and wizards together and put massive wards around an entire continent.”

“An entire continent?” Hermione repeated incredulously.

“That’s the story,” Ron said with a shrug. “Supposedly they hid the whole place from the rest of the world and created a fully magical realm.”

Hermione’s eyes widened slightly.

“…Atlantis,” she guessed.

Ron pointed at her.

“Exactly!”

[New Quest!] 

[Beyond the Edge of the Maps]

Description:Long before modern magical civilization, before Ministries, before Hogwarts, before even recorded history… there existed another land.

A continent erased from maps. Removed from history. Buried beneath myth.

Yet traces remain.

Discover the truth behind the lost cradle of magic.

Objectives:

Prove the existence of the vanished continent.

Discover its location.

Discover the reason for its disappearance.

Identify the civilization that once ruled the continent.

Uncover why they vanished from history.

Rewards:

100 000 EXP

Access to Forgotten Spells

???

??? (World-Level Consequences Possible)

What the-

That is more experience points than any of his currently active quests, and what does “World-Level Consequences” mean? 

Yeah… that quest could wait. Something told Harry it wouldn’t be completed anytime soon anyway. He turned his attention to his best friends.  

Hermione frowned.

“But Atlantis is a myth.”

“Maybe,” Ron allowed. “But loads of magical cultures have stories about the same sort of place. Some call it Atlantis. Others call it Avalon. Some places call it Mu.”

Harry noticed Hermione go very still at that.

“Different names,” Ron continued, “but similar stories. A hidden magical land full of powerful wizards that disappeared thousands of years ago.”

“The stories show up everywhere,” Harry added. “Europe. Asia. Even parts of Africa according to one book I read.”

Ron nodded.

“Bill thinks there’s probably some truth behind it because the stories are so widespread.”

Hermione looked fascinated now, mind clearly racing.

“And Bill thinks it was Greek?”

“He thinks the Greeks inherited a lot from whatever came before,” Ron explained. “Or maybe were descended from it.”

“That’s…” Hermione trailed off slowly. “That’s genuinely fascinating.”

Ron looked unbearably smug.

Harry snorted and unpaused the game.

Outside the cottage windows, late afternoon sunlight filtered warmly across the countryside, painting soft gold across the wooden floors and the cluttered comfort of the living room. Somewhere beyond the hills, birds sang lazily in the summer air

It felt peaceful.

It had only been two days since the Golden Trio reunited properly: since Ron arrived awkward and worried at the flat, since Hermione committed international broom theft out of sheer concern for him.

Harry smiled, looking at his best friends. It felt good having them here. Sure, it was a bit inconvenient having to take down all the photos of his parents, and having to go to the other corner of the estate when summoning them to spend time together, but he isn't complaining. He loves having his best friends around. 

Before Ron arrived, Harry had not been entirely sure how much he intended to reveal. 

The memories left behind by the lunatic who had tried to steal his body had poisoned some small, ugly part of his mind, filling him with suspicion and caution and the instinct to carry everything alone. 

Then Ron showed up, and Harry remembered exactly who his best friend was. And then Hermione crossed the English Channel on a stolen broom because she thought he might be in danger.

Honestly, Harry felt a little ashamed for ever doubting them in the first place.

These were his best friends. His family, in all the ways that actually mattered. They had proven that again and again without hesitation.

Not once, in the two years they had known each other, had Ron or Hermione looked at one of the insane and dangerous situations Harry kept getting dragged into and decided it was too difficult or too dangerous. They stayed and fought beside him every single time. 

But even so, he couldn't tell them everything. He just couldn’t.

The system remained secret.

So did the possession attempt in its entirety, and the thing lurking behind all of this. 

No matter how brilliant Hermione was or how fiercely loyal Ron could be, Harry refused to drag them anywhere near whatever cosmic nightmare had almost stolen his body. 

Some things were simply too dangerous to even know about. Harry did not fully understand what kind of entities existed beyond the edges of reality, but what little he did know was already enough to terrify him. 

When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.

Harry had no intention of letting his friends become visible to whatever lurked beyond that metaphorical abyss.

So for now, Harry kept those secrets not because he did not trust them but because he loved them too much not to.

Still, he had opened up more than he ever had before. He opened up about his childhood, about the emancipation case, and about how broken he had really been, still is in some ways. Ron and Hermione had not looked at him differently afterward. If anything, they seemed even more determined to stay beside him than before.

That wormed something deep in Harry’s chest. 

Maybe one day, when he was stronger, when he understood more about what was happening to him and could actually protect the people around him… maybe then he would tell them the full truth.

He just hoped they would not hate him for keeping secrets until then.

[New Quest!] 

[Chains of Silence ]

Description:

For too long, you have carried truths no child should bear alone-

“Oi!” Ron shouted suddenly. “Stop zoning out and fight me properly!”

Harry blinked back toward the television just in time for Ken to kick Vega directly in the face again, the system notification left for later. 

Another K.O. flashed across the screen.

Ron cackled victoriously.

“…I’m beginning to regret introducing you to technology,” Harry informed him darkly.

Ron grinned.

“Too late now.”

***

THE DAILY PROPHET5 August, 1993

THE BOY-WHO-LIVED EMANCIPATION CASE FIRST HEARING

Historic Ministry Hearing To Begin Today

By Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent

At ten o’clock this morning, Courtroom Seven of the British Ministry of Magic will host what legal experts are already calling one of the most unprecedented magical hearings in modern history.

Harry Potter, internationally known as The Boy-Who-Lived, is formally seeking legal emancipation from his Muggle relatives.

The petition, filed late last week through solicitor Anthony J. Crowley, has sent shockwaves through both the Ministry and wider magical Britain, igniting fierce public debate regarding guardianship law, the rights of magical minors, and the treatment of the young wizard celebrated for surviving the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as an infant. 

While emancipation itself is not unheard of under British magical law, such cases remain exceptionally rare and almost never involve a figure as politically and culturally significant as Harry Potter. 

Even more troubling are the allegations reportedly surrounding the case. 

Though official records remain sealed due to Mr. Potter’s age, multiple Ministry sources have quietly confirmed that the petition includes accusations of long-term neglect and mistreatment within the Muggle household where the Boy-Who-Lived has resided since infancy.

Neither Albus Dumbledore nor any representative of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has issued public comment regarding the matter.

This silence has only intensified speculation.

Questions are now being raised throughout magical Britain regarding why Harry Potter was placed in the care of Muggles following the fall of You-Know-Who and whether proper welfare oversight existed during the past twelve years.

Public reaction has been fierce and deeply divided.

Some argue that Mr. Potter’s attempt to sever legal ties with his guardians demonstrates alarming emotional instability and suggests the Boy-Who-Lived has grown increasingly reckless beneath the weight of fame and public attention. 

Others, however, have expressed sympathy toward the young wizard, questioning why a child celebrated as a national hero appears willing to engage in a public legal battle at only thirteen years old.

“It doesn’t make sense unless something truly serious happened,” one Ministry employee commented anonymously yesterday evening.

Adding further intrigue to the affair is the identity of Potter’s solicitor.

Anthony J. Crowley, though little known publicly until recent days, has rapidly become one of the most discussed figures in magical Britain. Described by various sources as “brilliant,” “deeply unsettling,” and “extremely charismatic,” Crowley has reportedly refused all requests for interviews while simultaneously dismantling several Ministry attempts to delay proceedings.

One senior official described the man as “the legal equivalent of a knife hidden inside a smile.”

Rumours surrounding Crowley’s background continue circulating widely, though none have been officially confirmed.

The hearing itself is expected to attract substantial political attention within the Wizengamot, particularly given Director Amelia Bones’ reported involvement in procedural oversight and growing whispers that several influential families are monitoring the case closely.

Security around the Ministry has quietly increased in preparation for today’s proceedings.

As magical Britain waits for the hearing to begin, one question now hangs over the entire country:

Why would Harry Potter rather stand before the Wizengamot at thirteen years old than return home?

***

Author’s Note: And so it begins…