3rd Person's POV
A man is walking through the department of mysteries with a purpose. The man was about 6 foot 3 inches or 191 cm in height and was a quite fit-looking young man. At least from what you could see through his armour, which looked like it came from some sort of scaled animal. This man had black unruly hair and vivid emerald green eyes that were burning bright with power. His name was Haraldr James Potter or "Harry" to his friends who were in short supply these days. Haraldr looked around at what was left of the Ministry of Magic. The entire place had been cleared out in a hurry and there were signs of destruction everywhere.
'The nuclear bomb sure did a number on this place.' Haraldr thought looking back and forth inside the structure. The Ministry seemed to have been more unaware of the power of a hydrogen bomb, as in both the Ministry lobby and in Diagon Alley. You could see the remains of wizard clothes and charred skeletons everywhere.
Haraldr wondered if this could have been avoided before dismissing the thought, This war was most likely a long time coming, with the number of resentful squibs who hated how they were treated by the purebloods, not that Haraldr could blame them much, especially after finding out how much the purebloods had been hiding from both squibs and "muggle-borns" not that there is such a thing as a muggle-born. Magic is in the blood, body, and soul of all Magical species and animals. The only exception is house-elves who were created by wizards and witches to be servant race, and in exchange for their services, they were given access to magic. Filtered through their bonds with Magicals or the wards in the location they were bound to.
However because their souls didn't naturally resonate with and absorb ambient magic, their magic became a bit quirky. Magic plants, on the other hand, can only be formed by absorbing the ambient magic that all magical beings naturally exude. So that can only happen in highly saturated areas of how did the first magical beings appear? Who knows. The first reported magic in history dates back to ancient Egypt and many magical researchers within the Ministry have tried to find out the origins of magic with little to no success.
Haraldr noticed his mind got a little sidetracked. The point is magic can't just appear randomly in people. As Haraldr found out when he took the inheritance test at Gringotts. Apparently his mother Lily Evans comes from a squib line of house Hufflepuff. Which made Haraldr the new heir of house Hufflepuff as well as house Potter, Black and Peverell from both his father's side and paternal grandmother Dorea Potter nee Black. When a few squibs found out how much the purebloods had been screwing over their muggle-born children tied in with the fact that the goblins were refusing to give them access to the gold from the vaults that should have been theirs by right of inheritance, they fought the goblins might be honourable to an extent, the one thing they love the most is gold. After all, they had already confiscated it a long time ago, therefore they were not about to give it back so easily.
The squibs had finally had enough and decided to break the statute of secrecy by telling the muggles about magic. They showed it to the general public, getting their children to help with the demonstrations. When the public saw the magic on display, they panicked. Some, like conservative Christians and other Monotheism believers, automatically condemned magic as a tool of Satan. Spouting out that these magic users were abominations others just had a natural fear of the unknown and wanted magic kept in check by them.
Now not all muggles feared magic. Instead, they saw it as something that could help the world with its ongoing issues like disease and hunger. This included more progressive, they were in the minority. Of course, there was also the military application of magic for the world governments to has no idea how the first shots were fired overseas, but in the UK they used government-sanctioned special forces to capture some of the Wizards and Witches for study. Now, these operations were a hit and miss, when the target was a poor pureblood or half-blood they met with little resistance.
Now the more wealthy half-bloods and purebloods could afford clothing with runes embedded in it, like the indestructible charm, which made it harder to penetrate. Shock pistols and batons were useless against the durability of clothes made from magical animal hides. So the wizard and witches had the time to cast a protego and then apparate away. When the news hit the Wizengamot there was an outrage and the purebloods and even half-bloods throughout wizarding Britain wanted to fight back, thinking it would be an easy win over the muggles. After that, the conflict rose from a few scrimmages on both sides to a full-scale war. The wizards refused to bow down to muggle authority and the muggles were not about to let something as dangerous as wizards run around without their oversight.
The war lasted 3 years and while the wizards put up a good fight, there were just too many muggles and not enough wizards that were combat-oriented. It didn't help when almost all muggle-borns joined Dumbledore with his philosophy of using non-violent tactics such as stunners, against an enemy that was trying to kill and capture them.
Eventually, the muggles had enough and decided to evacuate majorly populated centres. Making preparations to nuke the wizarding population into oblivion. The information about Wizarding whereabouts was most likely extracted from torturing captured wizards and witches. They tried precision strikes first, but the wards around Wizarding Britain held up. Leading to an overconfidence from the Wizarding world that there was no weapon the muggles had that could penetrate the defences. So when the nukes came no one expected the devastation that followed. The only wards that were strong enough to endure were the ones surrounding Hogwarts. And that was because the central wardstone was over a millennia-old. While constantly being fed magic by being around magical animals and children.
Now someone might be wondering what Haraldr was doing during the war. Well after Ron abandoned him during the Tri-Wizard tournament. Haraldr was emancipated from forcibly joining the tournament. He received a letter from Gringotts asking for him to come to the bank and receive his Lordships and Titles as he was now considered a legal adult. During his visit, he found out some shocking news. Not only was he Lord Potter but he was also the heir to Ancient and Noble House Black thanks to Sirius. He also found out his real name is Haraldr after his mother found out her family was descended from Helga Hufflepuff, who was a descendent of Norse settlers that came over during the Viking age.
His mother couldn't claim the lordship because she did not possess the house family magic, so Haraldr also became Lord Hufflepuff. He asked for an audit of his accounts and when he read it he found that Albus Dumbledore and Molly Weasley had been stealing from him. Haraldr was furious, but the goblins were unsympathetic seeing that it was his fault for leaving his key with untrustworthy individuals.
While still angry, he could not argue their point and it was the first time he realized he had been a bit too trusting in the past. Finding it odd as before he came to the wizarding world he was far less trusting, which was not all that strange considering the fact he had been abused by the Dursley's. Whenever he tried to tell someone no one would believe him. Haraldr suspected foul play, but couldn't prove anything so put it out of his mind for the moment. He accepted his heir rings for Potter and Hufflepuff, asking to see the vaults as soon as the rings were on his finger.
Something inside him suddenly snapped. He started to feel some pain but Haraldr was used to pain and could shrug it off somewhat. After the pain started to subside, he noticed that he felt more upbeat and stronger somehow. Like something had finally fallen into place. What he didn't see was the lighting arching all over his body during the painful episode. Haraldr asked the goblins about it, and they said it was probably the bindings placed on his magical core that had been removed. This was a common practice for children who had too many incidents of accidental magic.
He went down to the Potter family vault first. There he found gold and history books about the Potter family. However one of the more interesting things he discovered there were his mothers' journals on charms and his fathers on transfiguration. He also found other books on a different magical discipline like Warding, Arithmancy, and other biggest piece was a manor trunk with space expansion charms that included fields of grass, a forest and a small lake outside the manor house. Now he finally had a place away from the Dursleys, but he still had the Hufflepuff vault to go so he put all the books he could find in the trunk manor library and left.
For the Hufflepuff vault, he got there not knowing what to expect. However, he found something incredible: it was the most beautiful piece of armour and chainmail made of the shiniest metal he has ever seen. It also had some sort of fur strapped over both shoulder guards of the purest black, and a cape made of Acromantula silk dyed black. Last but not least was a helmet with intricate designs of carvings and runes, with a cap from which was attached a facemask with two cutouts for the eyes and two small holes in the overlaid nose as a source of air. The mask`s nose, mouth, and eyebrows were all gold inlaid Mithril, cheek guards deep enough to protect the entire side of the face and a neck guard on the back of the cap set on the inside for extra movement.
After coming out of his haze of admiration, he also saw a gorgeous hand and a half sword made of the same metal with an amethyst on the pommel. When he looked closer he could also see both the armour and sword being inscribed with golden runes that he couldn't decipher and reprimanded himself for not taking runes as his elective. After some thought, he decided to bring the armour set and sword with him instead of leaving it with the goblins- who he isn't so sure he could trust anymore.
After looking around some more he found a book about the history of the Hufflepuff house similar to the one the Potters had but older and a book about their family magic which he did not realize at the time. The Potter family might also have family magic, but he would have to look that up later. When Haraldr was done he left Gringotts and took a portkey back to Hogwarts.
During his 4th year, Haraldr started to really get his act together and fell in love with magic all over again. From his books, he learned advanced magic that will help take control over his own destiny. First, he learned Occlumency and Legilimency when he read how important it is to protect your mind from other wizards or witches who might be after your secrets and family magic. It was lucky he did because as soon as his mental shields became somewhat decent, Haraldr felt the intrusion of a mind probe from Dumbledore and Snape. Both of whom, frowned when their probes hit a wall.
He never trusted either again. Next, he learned all he could about charms, transfiguration, and potions from his parent's journals. From there he learned about potions that could help him with his malnourishment and physical growth.
He used his privilege as a champion to the full extent and went to Diagon Alley and purchased nourishment potions and a piece of jewellery to hang on his neck with a glamour to hide any future growth spurts and added muscle. At the end of the fourth year, Voldemort used Haraldr's blood to resurrect himself, but Haraldr put up a good fight and was able to stun Peter Pettigrew and Accio his body towards me before touching the Tri-wizard cup. Thanks to him capturing the rat he was able to get Sirius exonerated and move in with him. Sirius was shocked to hear of Dumbledore's betrayal of robbing Harry of his own money, but also himself because Dumbledore was the one who put up the Fidelius charm over the Potter's house so he knew the truth all along. Sirius started to teach Haraldr how to fight like a wizard but also some sword techniques that he had to learn as a pureblood son. However, he was far from an expert so if Haraldr wanted to learn for real he had to find someone to teach him proper swordsmanship.
By his 5th year, he had lost the dead weight of Ron Weasley but was still friends with Hermione even if he couldn't agree with her pro-Dumbledore stance. Haraldr started to completely focus on preparing himself for Tom Riddle. That year he focused on Warding, Arithmancy, and rituals. Nothing interesting happened that year except that Ron and Hermione wanted him to train others in the school, and while he did not feel like it, Haraldr knew he couldn't fight this war alone. Unfortunately while teaching them, the rift between him and Hermione increased. As Haraldr started teaching them strategies of how to kill Death Eaters instead of capturing them, she looked at him like she didn't even know him. While Hermione understood the need to kill unrepentant terrorists she couldn't reconcile the brutality of the magic and fighting he was teaching. She was still too innocent and had not seen the world as he had. She and a couple of Dumbledore supporters left the group, but the few that remained became a force to be reckoned with.
Last but not least he learned of the prophecy. A prophecy concerning Haraldr and Voldemort. He also got confirmation that Dumbledore knew about his home life with the Dursleys. Which he had already suspected because his Hogwarts letter even said "cupboard under the stairs". When he heard the full prophecy from Dumbledore, Haraldr realized that the man had been leading him like a lamb to the slaughter. Haraldr trashed his office and left, he had no intention of dying.
In Haraldr`s 6th year, he finally found out about Tom`s Horcruxes. The hunt was officially on. Now at this point, Dumbledore had completely shut Haraldr out of his order. Haraldr had picked up his stray thoughts through Legilimency and found out that after failing to enter Haraldr´s mind Dumbledore assumed that the Horcrux inside Haraldr was gaining leeway in taking control over Haraldr´s mind, and did not want him close to any of his plans. Haraldr panicked when he found out because he did not know how to remove it from his mind. Using his Legilimency he tried to subvert the Horcrux inside of him. While it didn't work, he was able to acquire the knowledge of the Horcruxes locations.
Haraldr located and destroyed all of the Horcruxes except Nagini during his 6 and 7th year, while also studying about Hufflepuff and their family magic. Which came in two parts - a strong affinity for runes and being a partial lightning elemental. Apparently one of the ancestors of House Hufflepuff was a powerful wizard and a lighting elemental, who was worshipped by the Norse muggles as the God Thor. It turns out that all the Pagan Gods in muggle history were just extremely powerful wizards who were mistaken for Gods.
It was during the Horcrux hunt that Haraldr stumbled upon one of the Deathly Hallows which Voldemort seems to be obsessed with. Seeing them as rightfully his as a descendent of Cadmus Peverell. Haraldr had learned from Voldermort´s memories that Dumbledore was the master of the elder wand and that Haraldr himself had the last one in his possession.
Now that Haraldr had 2 of the 3, He decided to steal the elder wand from Dumbledore. He wasn't interested in immortality he just wanted to keep the artefacts out of Voldemort's hands and at the same time give a sod off to Dumbledore. So at the end of the sixth year, he snuck into Dumbledore's office while the man slept. He disabled the alert charm on the door and chose a day right after Fawkes burning day. Haraldr had Dobby keep track on the magical bird, so he couldn't alert Dumbledore.
Haraldr reached Dumbledore´s bed and stunned him before putting the elder wand in the man's hand, disarming the man, and leaving the way he came. Afterwards, he had Dobby teleport him to the room of requirement. When he united the Hallows a couple of things happened, first they were absorbed into his soul and violently pushed out the Horcrux out of his scar causing Haraldr to pass out from the pain. As he regained consciousness not much had changed, but he did realize later that while the master of death thing was hogwash, the hallows did offer some bonuses.
Haraldr Pov
First, the Elder Wand. I no longer needed to use a wand but I could still call forth the elder wand in the form of a staff if I needed more precise control over my casting. It gave me the knowledge of all the spells the previous masters of the elder wand. It also fixed my eyesight so I no longer needed to use glasses, the rest was negligible. Secondly, the stone allowed me to see the spirit of a deceased person, but the spirit was obviously in massive pain. So I sent it back to wherever it came from. Cadmus must have been one sick fuck to create something that only seems to hurt the souls of the, the cloak made it easier to cast illusions but not much else at least from my preliminary examination. When Dumbledore noticed the theft of the elder wand, he was not happy and was highly suspicious of me. However thanks to my Occlumency, he couldn't prove anything.
By my seventh year, Voldemort was on the move in a big way. He took over the Ministry and had a few of his people take over running Hogwarts, which left me with a lot of free time to train and destroy Horcruxes. As my Potter luck would have it I had to break into Gringotts for my family's cup and while the heist succeeded and I was able to destroy the Horcrux. The goblins were so angry that they took all the gold in my vaults and barred me from their bank for the insult. My opinion of the goblins was never lower but there was nothing I could do about it. I might have been powerful by then, but they could still have overwhelmed me with sheer numbers. They also had the advantage of knowing their terrain.
It did, however, teach me though that reckless behaviour has consequences, which became useful later and helped me during the war. Luckily I had already taken most of the things I considered important from my vaults, my last showdown with Voldemort and his forces was brutal, to say the least. I lost all the people I cared about in that fight like the people who supported me. Luna, Neville, and Susan were not pulling punches after the death of her aunt Amelia, Daphne Greengrass, and worst of all Sirius who I might not have known for long, but he was the only adult who listened to my opinions.
The last one I lost was my first friend Hedwig. Who took a killing curse directed at me by some random death eater. After seeing her go down, I lost it! My elemental powers unleashed a massive lightning bolt from the sky, striking down in the middle of the army, moving from person to person, burning many death eaters to a crisp.
In my rage, I unleashed a barrage of deadly spells overwhelming the opposition. So by the time the battle was done Voldemort was slain for good. Nagini having been taken out by Neville before being struck down by Voldemort himself. I had personally destroyed half the army and it had not taken long before the new Ministry was labelling me as a new Dark Lord, which I really should have seen coming.
From my point of view, it looked like the ministry would label anyone too powerful for them to control as a dark lord and any magic too powerful as dark magic. Maybe that's why dumbledore chose to present himself as a benevolent grandfather to lower the ministry's fear of him undermining their authority?
3rd person pov
Anyhow when the war started, Haraldr had already cut himself off from society as a whole but still defended himself ruthlessly when the need was required. Unfortunately, both sides wanted him luckily before the war started he had harvested some of the basilisk skin and made it into several padded jackets and padded coifs, to put under his armour and mail set from the Hufflepuff vault. He also made two sets for Dobby and Winky, his two house-elves, the only companions he had left. He also bought himself a full set of language books, in case he needed to move abroad because at the time no one had realized how bad it was going to be.
He also had a mail coif and intricate helmet as part of his armour set. Made from the same metal as the rest of his armour. Which he found out was Mythril or "goblin silver" which easily protected him from sniper fire to the head, which was the muggles' preferred method to catch Magicals off guard. They finally realized that some of them had clothes that could easily stop sustained gunfire long enough for them to get their protego up.
2 years into the war, Haraldr realized the wizards were going to lose and his place on this planet was becoming more perilous by the minute. So he planned to leave it since he had no interest in committing genocide on them. He may have become more jaded in life, that did not mean that he hated muggles. Nor that he had truly lost his "saving people thing" that Hermione used to call it, even if the urge has been greatly reduced. Haraldr gathered up as much as he could of both magical plants and animals both to preserve them and for potion uses. Should they die there was no reason to let their corpse go to waste after all.
He also stole as many potion ingredients and plant seeds as he could find from different sources. It was on this hunt for animals putting them in his manor trunk to be preserved that he met his first familiar. It was a female Thunderbird who instantly felt a kinship with him and his magic. He named her Hedwig after his first friend. Haraldr could feel through the bond that she felt honoured by the comparison. Although the original Hedwig had not been a familiar, she meant a lot to Haraldr.
He learned from the books found in his vault that wizards of old thought that the veil was a portal to another world, made of an unknown material that hasn't been identified to this day. Even though Haraldr didn't know what type of world it leads to. It was easy to understand that it was going to be a one-way trip. However, Haraldr was desperate especially since he had been hiding from the muggles in the Chamber of Secrets for a while now.
It was parseltongue protected, which only he can speak now that Voldemort is dead. Apparently, his parseltongue ability did not come from the Horcrux, but from his black blood and he just happened to be the first black in centuries to be born with it just like Nymphadora and her Metamorphmagus. Haraldr was there when the hydrogen bombs fell and that is why he is here now in the Ministry, which was deserted of people because at this point any Magicals that survived the blast had probably gone into hiding. The goblins having, retreated deep into the mountains long before a coordinated nuclear strike was even a choice the muggles wanted or were forced to make.
Haraldr stood in front of the veil "I guess this is it huh, Dobby?"
Dobby appeared out of nowhere, "Yes Master Haraldr sir!"
Haraldr looks down, " Is everything ready? Have the plants and animals been put under a stasis charm?"
Dobby jumps up and down on his toes. " Yes Master Haraldr sir! Everything is ready"
Haraldr smiled at his friend "alright pop back into the trunk. Winky and Hedwig are already waiting for you. Hopefully, the magical defences on the trunk will protect you from any adverse effects from travelling through the veil."
Dobby gets teary-eyed " Master Haraldr sir is such a kind master for thinking about Dobbys safety" and pops away.
Haraldr sighs 'I hope one day his exuberance over someone finally caring about him goes away.'
Haraldr looks back one final time towards the destruction around him and with new determination in his eyes, steps through the veil.