Archive of Our Own ^beta

The white owl flew through the sky above the trees and the moment he saw it, his knees buckled. He gripped his helmet in a white knuckled grip at his side, his fingers grabbing at something, clutching at something that wasn’t there. A smooth piece of wood echoed in his memories but he didn’t know what it was. His eyes widened as he caught himself, glad that there were no other Isu in sight to see his weakness. An image of a human boy flooded his mind, a boy with an owl on his arm. 

Haris blinked and rubbed his eyes, glancing up at the city around him. His long dark hair was braided back and his armor was thin but sturdy, curling around his body to protect himself. It shone with the energy of the Isu tech, pulsing in and out, almost like…

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed.

Memories of a bushy, brown haired young human woman and a red haired man flashed through his mind and he let out a strangled gasp, pressing his fingers to his forehead in remembrance. Juno and Minerva had said that his pains and headaches were nothing to worry about but… Memories had now joined them and flashes of something, some power filled his mind. 

“Are you alright, young one?”

He glanced up at the Isu who was talking and sighed, standing up. He met the man’s eyes easily and dipped his head in a nod. The sun, as deadly as it had been before, was now low in the sky and falling again on the horizon. It had been a cloudless day, a beautiful one, and yet Haris felt something off. The Isu man had a faint glow around his body and Haris narrowed his eyes, reading the man’s cautious intent easily enough. “Of course I am. I must go see the council. Are the humans tired yet?”

“Some are. There are less and less reports of vandalism from the slaves. You may have the hour off.”

Haris eyed the man before stepping around him and walked off towards the temple. The council of scientists was set up in the cave ahead of him but it did not take him long to run through the barricades that had been set up. The humans of course were still at the other end of the city, in an unsteady truce with the Isu. Their war with the humans had ended abruptly and violently by the sun. There were few Isu left and he was one of the only commanders left that had seen the human’s rebelling. Had seen what the humans were capable of.

The courtyard sprawled ahead of them and Harry could see Greyback attacking children, biting into their flesh and spilling blood. 

Luna in the basement of Malfoy manner, beaten and bruised.

Sirius Black falling into the veil.

Cedric freezing and then falling to the wet grass, dead.  

He scowled as he saw one human run towards the shielding around their building and stop, peering up at him with weary blue eyes. Haris was perhaps the average height of an Isu, around seven and a half feet tall, encroaching on eight feet, and this human was only five feet and three inches. Haris reached down to the weapon at his waist, a repulsor gun, and stared down at the human man, waiting him out.

It took several minutes but the man finally walked away, muttering in awe under his breath. Haris supposed the human thought he couldn’t hear him but he was an Isu and superior.

“They are gods! I can’t believe I saw one!” 

Haris eyed the man and then walked away, entered the cave in front of him but paused at the opening. There had been so much death and destruction in the last month and the truce was very thin. He wondered if it would hold. The humans had already started to bounce back and he had seen more than a few pregnant human women in refugee camps. A thought filtered through his mind, something that reminded him of… pureblooded humans… Or was it pureblooded Isu? He knew that there were hybrids amongst them, men and women born of one human and one Isu partner.

Smoke filtered up over what had been beautiful, gleaming towers. The very earth cracked open with quakes. Screams echoed in his memories and he was unsure as to where they came from, either the past month or from the memories that were spilling wide open now.

Memories of… magic.

Haris followed the unseen path of the Isu scientists easily, treading over cracked stone and blood. 

Voices filled the tunnels and he walked towards them, holding his helmet at his side. The temple was a great one, one of their biggest and most of the structure was underground. The pillars were cracked and toppling but the lab was untouched by the sun and earth’s destruction.

“Commander, what news? It is not good I presume.”

Minerva stood amongst her scientists, the four men and women of the Isu who had survived. She had detected his presence before he had even shown his face though he could see her eyes widening a little bit. Perhaps she had expected someone else but then she dipped her head in a nod to him, as if his presence hadn’t entirely surprised her. Juno and Jupiter stood on either side of her and Haris stopped before them as he turned the corner in the tunnel.

“I have no news. I have not found any other Isu for hundreds of miles,” Haris offered quietly, taking a breath and rocking back on the heels of his feet. “I met many humans who thought me a god.”

“Of course they do,” Juno retorted, scowling. “Humans are beneath us.”

“I have questions for you, Minerva,” Haris remarked.

“I would not have expected anything else, judging by the look of you,” Minerva said, exchanging glances with Jupiter. “You are experiencing memories, are you not?”

Haris blinked and met the eyes of his leaders, of the man and women who he had worked alongside with for the past ten years. “How did you know that?”

“You… are an experiment,” Juno remarked, raising an eyebrow at Minerva and then taking a step towards him. 

“Juno! He is not an experiment,” Jupiter argued as he stroked his beard. He reminded Haris of… someone but… he couldn’t quite remember properly. “He is a colleague.”

Haris took in a strangled breath at their words, keeping an eye on Juno as she came to stand in front of him. She reached out, her dark eyes narrowed as she assessed him, and grasped his shoulder, tracing the armor that covered his arms.

“You were not given this posting easily,” Juno remarked, a slight twist to her mouth that didn’t give anything away. It just made her seem alien to him even though they were of the same species. “You wear the skin and armor of an Isu. You carry our blood within you. You share our abilities, our grace, our knowledge and yet… You were not one of us.”

Haris blinked wearily, dropping his hand to the long weapon that he carried on his back. “Juno, what do you mean?”

Juno trailed her fingers over his arm and then stopped at his wrist and squeezed. Haris froze and tried to move only for Juno to stare at him, ice in her eyes. 

“How were you the one to survive when my husband did not?” Juno hissed, glaring at him. Her hair was perfectly loose at her back and the headdress she wore was perfectly balanced on her head.

Haris reached out his arms, memories of a certain graveyard flashing through his mind, and flexed his wrist, his arm and danced out of her way. “Juno, stop. What do you mean by this?”

Minerva’s eyes softened and Jupiter walked over to pull Juno away, embracing her.

“You were human once upon a time,” Minerva explained quietly. “We were wrong to do it. You were something we had not seen before, something more powerful.”

“Human and controllable we thought. You were injured violently when you came to us, falling from the sky. We made you into our image, shared our perfect blood with you, shared everything. And now you are not human but Isu.” Juno sneered at him from where she stood, her dress flowing in a slight breeze.

Jupiter stared at him and so did Minerva, staring at him like a rat in a maze.

“I apologize on our behalf. I unlock you,” Minerva finally said, reaching into a pocket of her dress and drawing out a piece of Isu technology that he had never seen before. It began to glow in her hand as she pressed her finger to it and then dark spots flowed into his sight. “You may be our only hope for the future.”

Haris stared at the three of them, Minerva’s words running through his mind, and then memories and power imploded all at once.

Does it hurt? Dying?

Happiness can be found in the darkest of times. If only one remembers to turn on the light.

Kill the snake, Neville. If I don’t come back, kill the snake.

Harry woke up to the soft blue light of Isu tech and blinked awake, memories flooding back. Of falling and crashing into a temple. Of lights and hands and medical equipment that looked like it came from the future. All Isu tech. Tech that he knew how to use and handle. 

“You are awake.”

“I am Isu.”

“You are. Nevermind what Juno said. You are one of us,” Jupiter said, as Harry quickly sat up, his movements so unhuman like that he was a little bit creeped out. His thoughts and memories of the past ten years came back, of fighting fierce battles against humans. Against his… well his former kind. “We molded you into an Isu and did our best work. Minerva even let you keep that peculiar looking scar. We always wondered why you flinched every time someone said Minerva’s name.”

“You experimented on me,” Harry retorted. “You made me into an Isu. Why?”

“The whys are not important. For now, know that you may be Earth’s only hope to prevent what happened a month ago.”

“What stopped happening a month ago,” Harry argued, feeling his magic sluggishly come to his call again. He couldn’t believe that it had been trapped within him and he hadn’t felt anything differently. Though… it could have. Everything that had happened to him within the past several years felt hazy to him now, like it had happened to another person.

But it was real. He no longer had the scars on the top of his right hand, the scars that Umbridge had given him when she had forced him to write with a blood quill. He was looking Minerva and Juno in the eyes, which meant he was as tall as them. He could see into their intentions, reading them and their steps. He could see that they had paced about the laboratory many times in the past hour, could see where Juno had walked.

“Yes, what stopped happening. It will happen again,” Minerva explained, gesturing to the computers she had set up. To the Isu hologram of the world. “It will happen again and humans won’t be ready.”

“Humans?” Juno echoed, her eyes widening.

“We are dying,” Jupiter said, stepping over to Minerva’s side. “The Isu are dying but not you, Haris. We read your blood and your… power. You have Death’s mark on you.”

“You can stay alive and help prepare the world. Gather what remains of our tech in the world.”

“Protect our temples and what remains of our people, our descendants.”

Harry looked between Minerva and Jupiter, his hand clutching onto the hilt of his sword. The sword that was not Gryffindor’s but one of Isu make. It glowed slightly in his hold, as if reacting to his DNA.

“That sword is yours as you know. You have your power, whatever you call it. Use them both to protect the world. My recordings in this place and others will steer some humans towards you and only you. For you will be the last of us. The Last Ancient. Make right our mistakes.”