In a ramshackle hut in the middle of nowhere, a figure lounged on the ratted musty bed like it was a throne, watching as the shambling figures around him did his bidding. They were women whose skin was deathly pale, and had eyes that were white and clouded by death.
They were Inferius. Reanimated corpses.
"This is the life, eh Gretta?" The man asked one of them with a smirk, who shuffled past him mindlessly as she tried to clean the hut.
His name was Thomas, and he was a necromancer, wanted for possible murder, grave robbing and reanimation of the dead.
It all started when the muggle woman he fancied near his home spurned his advances, despite the fact that they had grown up in the same village aside from when he attended Hogwarts. Shortly afterwards she suffered an unfortunate accident(which he truly had nothing to do with), and died.
Thomas, seeing his chance, stole her body and replaced it with a fake that he transfigured, before using the dark rituals to reanimate her as an Inferius. The result was a resounding success!
Through her, he found himself the perfect lover!
She was obedient, forever beautiful(since he reanimated her before she started to rot), subservient, and most importantly, his.
Like a drug, he found himself desiring more. From that moment on, whenever he saw a woman he fancied, he would plot to end them so that he could reanimate them into his perfect women.
Now he had seven devoted 'wives' that showered him with unlimited service and devotion. It would have all been perfect, had the last girl he'd reanimated not had been involved with another wizard.
Unfortunately Thomas was wanted by the Ministry now, forcing him to lay low with his women. But that was fine. With them waiting on him hand and foot and taking care of all his needs, then there was nothing to worry about.
"You know..." A voice suddenly said, stirring Thomas from his musings as he opened his eyes to see a young boy standing before him.
"If I had a Sickle for every time I found a wannabe necromancer using their magic to make themselves a harem of corpses, I'd have two Sickles. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice." The boy said with what sounded like exasperation.
"How did you get in here?!" Thomas demanded with agitation as he sat up hurriedly.
"I just opened the door and walked inside.". The boy answered, and it was then that Thomas noticed something. The lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead.
"Harry Potter?!" He exclaimed worriedly, immediately recalling the story of what Harry did to the Dementors when he visited Azkaban. So he panicked.
"Kill him!" Thomas immediately ordered his thralls, lest Harry reveal where he was to the Ministry.
Several of Thomas's Inferi groaned as they turned towards the boy, and rushed him as one.
"Depulso." Harry said while lazily waving his wand, creating a wave of kinetic force that sent several of the corpses flying across the room.
"Incendio." Harry said as he ducked under the flailing arms of the next Inferi, setting her on fire as she continued shambling around.
"No! Aqua Eructo!" Thomas yelled as he tried to put the fire out. But Harry was faster.
"Expelliarmus! Confringo!"
With only a second in between, Thomas's wand was sent flying out of his hand while another of the Inferius was hit by a fiery explosion, setting fire to two others that were near her as well as several pieces of furniture in the shack.
"Stop it!" Thomas yelled as the fire spread, but without his wand he was helpless.
"Carpe Retractum." Harry said next, producing a rope of light that wrapped around Thomas that then pulled him towards Harry himself, before sending him flying out of the shack before he too was consumed by the rapidly spreading blaze.
"No-o-o-o-o..." Thomas wailed as he watched the shack burn, taking his beloved women with it. All while Harry watched on calmly before raising his wand once more.
"Aqua Eructo." Harry said, copying Thomas's earlier spell.
This time Harry's wand was the one that produced a stream of water, one that was fairly weak at first, before steadily growing in strength. Soon water was spraying from Harry's wand in strength akin to a firehose as he prevented the flames from spreading, and then worked to put them out one it was clear that the shack and those inside were burnt to a crisp.
"How could you?!" Thomas yelled at Harry with tears in his eyes, prompting the Boy-Who-Lived to actually look at him once the flames had died down enough.
"Incarcerus." Harry said plainly, producing several ropes that wrapped around and bound him tightly, preventing him from even trying to fight back or escape. Especially since his wand had burned with the Inferius and shack.
"When I get out of these-" Thomas tried to threaten, only for Harry to hit him with a silencing spell next so that no noise came out of his open mouth.
"Hedwig." Harry called out, and a snowy white owl flew down from one of the nearby trees to his outstretched arm. He then handed her a small roll of parchment, which she accepted with her beak.
"Go and find Moody girl." Harry told her, and Hedwig dutifully took flight to go and find her quarry.
Harry didn't know how the owls were able to find their intended targets, or how they reached them so quickly, but he swore he'd find out as several cracks sounded in the early morning light less than an hour later, heralding the arrival of Moody and several Aurors.
"Potter." Moody growled as he hobbled towards him, his false eyes swirling to focus on Thomas. " We 'ppreciate you finding this filth for us."
"But you should have left this to the Aurors." Another of them growled as he stalked towards Harry threateningly, before holding out his hand. "Wand."
"Excuse me?" Harry asked him, cocking his brow as he did so.
"Give. Me. Your. Wand" The Auror growled irritably, using his superior height to try and intimidate Harry.
"That won't be necessary." Moody growled as he limped over, making the other Auror glance at him.
"This student used magic outside of school. The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery is quite clear on that." The Auror shot back.
"And I have a writ allowing me to use magic outside of school." Harry replied cooly, pulling said writ out of one of his robe pockets to hand it over.
"And this also allows you to hunt down wanted criminals?" The Auror sneered down at him next.
"Well how else am I going to get proper spell slinging practice?" Harry asked as if it were obvious, earning him a lopsided grin of approval from Moody.
"Well? Did you get the practice you were looking for from this scum?" Moody asked while giving a not-to-gentle kick to Thomas.
"Not in the slightest." Harry replied with disappointment.
"I expected not. Scum like this are usually cowards that don't amount to anything. So they end up turning towards the Dark Arts." Moody replied while the rest of the Aurors surveyed the wreckage of the shack.
"Better than having a new Dark Lord pop up every so often." One of the Aurors called back to them.
"Aye. I worry at the idea of a new Lord Voldemort appearing." Moody growled, making several of the people around them flinch from the name.
"So are we just going to overlook this BOY going off to capture dark wizards by himself?" The Auror from before demanded of Moody.
"Aye, unless YOU want to be the one known for expelling THE Harry Potter from our world." Moody sneered at the other Auror.
"I see. So HE gets a free pass for being famous." The Auror sneered back at Moody, before stalking away angrily.
"What crawled up his butt and died?" Harry asked as the Auror left them.
"Just ignore him. Though he does have a point about something. We TECHNICALLY can't just sit back and let civilians try to bring down dark wizards." Moody growled while rolling his eyes.
"So I take it that I won't be getting a bounty for taking this guy down and handing him over?" Harry asked while furrowing his brows.
"Unfortunately. We don't follow a bounty system here, so all of our criminals are apprehended by either Hit Wizards or Aurors under the employ of the Ministry."
"That's idiotic." Harry immediately replied with exasperation.
"I agree. How can we expect people to defend themselves if we always tell them NOT to fight dark wizards? CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Harry smiled at the old Auror's attitude, thinking(not for the first time) he'd probably do very well for himself in Skyrim. If he could ever find a way back, and possibly open a permanent doorway, Harry figured he'd ask Moody if he was interested in going as well. It would interesting to try sending him after the Thalmor.
They discussed a few other things while the rest of the Aurors finished surveying the sight, making sure all of the Inferi were dealt with and no Muggles noticed anything, before they prepared to take Thomas away.
"Need any help getting back?" Moody asked as they all prepared to leave.
"Nah. I got it covered." Harry answered, before summoning Arvak.
"""!!!"""
If the Aurors were stunned by the sudden appearance of the demonic hourse, they were all cowed as he reared back and gave an eerie neigh that echoed throughout the trees around them.
"This can't be allowed..." One of the Aurors muttered as Harry mounted the horse. "It could be seen by muggles!"
Then, as if to answer his concerns, both Harry and Arvak suddenly vanished as he used an Invisibility spell on the two of them. And with an additional Muffle, the two of them were neither seen nor heard as they galloped away, leaving Moody and the other Aurors behind as they returned to Potter Manor.
...
"Haaa..." Harry sighed tiredly as he entered his office, annoyed by the events that took place.
He spent THREE DAYS hunting down that necromancer, and then took care of him for the Aurors so all they had to do was pick him up, and what did he have to show for it? Nothing.
Harry may not necessarily need the money, but decades of bounty hunting had taught him to ALWAYS be paid for his work. So all he saw was several days of wasted effort.
"Goggles."
"Yes master?"
"Bring me something to eat and drink." Harry commanded the elf, who dutifully departed with a crack before returning seconds later with a platter full of food and a bottle of chilled ale.
"Thank you."
"Goggles is always pleased to serve the master." The elderly elf replied, before vanishing once more as Harry began to pick at the food, interrupted occassionally by a swig of ale.
When he was done eating Harry entered his trunk and used the bathroom to bathe and freshen up for the new day, which was also an important day. Today was the day that his store, Potter's Place, opened on Diagon Alley.
Potter's Place was the store that Harry had been planning to open since his trip to the Alley during Christmas, where he could have tangible income aside from the royalties earned from the Potter family investments. Now that summer had started, and he had prepared enough potions, gear and enchanted items to act as inventory, they were ready to open.
The hardest part however had been finding someone to actually man and run the store since Harry obviously didn't plan to do so himself, and Goggles couldnt be expected to do EVERYTHING. But now he had Narcissa to help with that, which she reluctantly agreed to so that she could have her own income. Plus Harry also found some part time help for the duration of the summer.
Once cleaned and dressed in a set dress robes, Harry joined the others in the dining room where they were eating breakfast.
"Morning. Where have you been?" Sirius asked as Haarry sat down to eat yet again.
"I was out all night hunting a necromancer." Harry replied without hiding anything.
"So that was YOU?" Amelia asked him incredulously. Apparently she already heard about Harry turning him over to the Aurors.
"Yep. Don't worry, I won't do that again. No point when I won't get paid for my work." Harry told her, earning him a scowl from the department head while Sirius barked with laughter.
"Did you really face a necromancer?" Susan asked in awe.
"Yeah, but he wasn't anything worth talking about." Harry said without even trying to hide his disappointment.
"That was still incredibly dangerous." Amelia warned him.
"Anything can be dangerous. But that was significantly less dangerous than taking on the necromancers that I'm used to." Harry countered, not even getting into the Dragon Priests, Draugr, vampires, ect.
"Still..." Amelia began, only to trail off slowly. Harry fought back a smirk as it became evident that she didn't know how to deal with him.
The rest of the meal passed with Sirius and Susan eagerly asking Harry about his battle with the necromancer, with Amelia watching disprovingly, until it was finally time for them to go to Diagon Alley.
"Ready everyone?" Harry asked, and after receiving several nods of affirmation he grabbed a pinch of Floo Powder and stepped into the fireplace.
"Potter's Place." Harry declared firmly, before he was enveloped by green flames. A moment later he stepped out of a fireplace in Diagon Alley, where Harry was greeted by a counter and his two employees.
"Potter." Narcissa said stiffly at his appearance.
"Boss..." Percy Weasley greeted him while avoiding looking Harry in the face. How could he after all, when Harry was his boss despite being younger than him.
"Percy. Narcissa." Harry said while greeting them as well, before glancing around the shop in appraisal.
An entire wall was dominated by armor mannequins that sported different styles of armor that Harry had made, Leather, Elven, Glass, and chainmail variants of Steel, Orcish, Dwarven and Ebony. All light armors of course since Harry fully expected that no wizards in Britain would be able to even wear the heavy armors he could make. And accompanying the armor samples were lists of various enchantments that Harry could apply to each one for custom orders, if the customers wanted to pay for such services of course.
Opposite the armor Mannequins, the wall was dominated by weapon samples of nearly every type and material. Swords, axes, daggers, maces, hammers, all made of steel, moonstone, malachite, orichalcum, ebony, dwarven, and even a couple dragonbone. That last one was in limited supply though.
And similarly to the armors, there were lists of enchantments that people could peruse and pay to have applied to any weapons they purchase.
In the middle of the store were two shelves that ran up and down the length of the building, one carrying potions that Harry had made, while the other carried ingredients native to Skyrim that people could buy and experiment with. Only those that Harry was already growing replacements for of course, either at Hogwarts or his own greenhouse.
And finally the counter itself was lined with various types of jewelry crafted by Harry, rings, necklaces, amulets, and circlets. The same counter was also home to various metal ingots that Harry had made using Transmutation.
Harry gave one last look around the shop as Sirius, Amelia, Draco and Susan arrived after him, before turning his attention to the front of the store.
In the window were several display pieces that were locked behind secure glass and spells, ranging from potions, to jewelry, to even some armor and weapons. And through all of that, Harry could see a crowd of people standing out front, waiting for them to open.
"Is everything ready?" Harry asked Narcissa.
"Of course." She stated in a voice just barely below a sneer. Harry couldn't help but wonder HOW this woman was going to be with customer service.
"Alright then." Harry said while looking to Percy. "Flip the sign, and open us up."