Meanwhile… A Tragic Truth
Edward advanced calmly, studying Dominic with a cold, frozen gaze. Among the trees, the men who accompanied him waited for his signal to attack; some held wands, others didn't need them. The black claws and elongated fangs made it painfully clear what they were. Werewolves, gaunt and starving, with eyes glowing from hunger and dark magic.
Dominic observed Edward with a crooked smile, so confident he almost looked bored.
"This is ridiculous," he said mockingly. "Not even Dumbledore would be a challenge for me. You, even less."
He raised his hand without even looking at him. "Kill him."
His attention went straight to the only one who truly mattered to him. Harry Potter.
Harry stared back at the man without a single trace of fear. His face was calm, relaxed… almost insulting to Dominic.
Then chaos erupted.
Dozens of sparks and curses flew toward Edward as the werewolves charged with the ravenous desire to tear him apart alive, growling so fiercely it sounded like the trees themselves were splitting under their voices.
Edward only lifted his wand with a movement that bordered on lazy.
Thick roots burst from the ground, twisting in spirals. The first wave deflected the spells; the second snatched arms and legs. A flick of his wrist—soft, elegant. The curses coming from the front were diverted toward the forest. Another movement upward, smaller, more precise.
Spikes of wood shot up from the earth like spears; they pierced the flesh of three werewolves and impaled two more through the stomach before they could even smell their own blood.
They never saw it coming. None of them.
The wizards hidden among the trees, terrified by how easily Edward had eliminated their companions without uttering a single incantation, began firing curses in desperation.
But that was their mistake.
Edward drew a circle in the air. Nothing more.
A wave rippled through the trunks; from every tree, dozens of wooden spikes burst outward, and like nature's own whip, they impaled every hidden wizard. They died in silence, almost simultaneously.
Bodies fell like lifeless dolls, one after another, as the forest slowly returned to stillness.
It lasted three seconds. Four, at most.
Even Dominic turned with wide eyes, genuinely surprised.
"Oh?" he said, now amused and serious at once. "Now you truly have my attention."
A black mist began to seep from his body, as if something inside him were tearing itself outward. His skin shriveled for a second before regenerating—though not completely. Another wrinkle. A lock of hair losing its color. His vitality consumed.
Edward watched him without interest. "A man's attention is the last thing I want."
He lifted his wand.
From the ground, spears of earth erupted, sharp as glass. They lunged toward Dominic.
But Dominic's body exploded into pure darkness. A roar that didn't sound human burst from him. The shadow expanded, twisting, taking shape. His Obscurial. A monstrous amorphous entity made of black smoke, teeth and screams.
As it advanced, the ground cracked beneath it as if devoured by its mere presence.
Edward did not step back.
He raised his wand above his head… and brought it down like a sword.
A pure white slash emerged from the tip. A blade of light that vibrated as it expanded forward. Every inch it traveled made the air tremble; it tore the earth open, split the ground, shredded roots. An attack that looked capable of splitting the entire forest.
Dominic, even in his monstrous form, jerked aside with instinctive terror.
The slash continued until it vanished among the trees, leaving behind a perfect line of trunks cut cleanly in half. The ground was marked with a straight fissure, as if carved by a god.
Dominic returned to human form, older. Angrier.
"What is that magic?" he asked in a raspy voice.
"I don't see why I should tell you," Edward replied, pointing at him again.
This time he also raised his other hand, twisting his wrist as if pulling an invisible thread.
Around him, the air crystallized. Out of nowhere, hundreds of needles of energy formed, floating as if the sky itself had created them for him. All of them pointed at Dominic.
And they flew.
Dominic screamed as he burst into black smoke again, shooting into the sky. From above, he unleashed a torrent of pure darkness—a dense, living mass that fell like a lightning bolt toward Edward.
Edward lifted both hands, forming a shield that shone with white light. Magic collided; light against darkness; a dull roar ran through the forest as if reality itself shuddered.
Dominic stared at the barrier with a twisted grin.
"I see. You're using magic from other continents. Those gestures. The roots. The air. Druidic magic… Eastern magic… Indian magic. Hahaha. Yes. You collect power from other lands."
His voice warped as the darkness continued pushing forward.
Edward didn't answer. He simply raised his wand once more, even while sustaining the shield.
The white slash shot forward, slicing the dark spell cleanly in two as if it were mist, then flew straight toward Dominic.
The man screamed, dodging again.
"What IS that magic?!" Dominic roared, now truly unhinged. His fury was genuine; not fear, but pure humiliation. That white slash meant real death. And every second he controlled his Obscurial form, his body showed it: new wrinkles like cracks, fading skin, hair turning gray.
Then he saw his own hand—wrinkled, trembling. Something inside him snapped.
"Aaah!" he screamed as his body exploded into darkness again, hurling himself downward like a meteor, straight at Edward.
Meanwhile, Harry had not stayed still. He moved his wand at full speed, dropping objects onto the ground: potions, tools, small golems that, the moment they touched earth, ran in different directions as if alive, activating together.
Luciel watched him, alarmed and confused, unable to understand what Harry was planning in the middle of such a colossal battle.
Harry then smiled and shouted toward Edward, "Uncle, I did it! Around fifty meters—now you can Apparate!"
He struck the ground with his wand; a red crack spread across the floor as if invisible crystal were shattering. The anti-Apparition barrier broke exactly in that spot.
Edward—seconds away from being crushed by the Obscurial—allowed himself the faintest smile. And vanished in a sharp flash.
Dominic struck the ground without hitting his target. The dark explosion created a twenty-meter crater, sending a shockwave that ripped open the forest, tearing roots and knocking over trunks like toys.
Edward appeared several meters away, calm, watching as Dominic regained human form… or what was left of it.
He now looked like a man in his sixties; gray-haired, wrinkled, sunken-eyed, and breathing shakily.
"This is absurd… stupid… damn…" he shouted, staring at his aged hands as if time itself were murdering him from the inside. He could feel how his own power was draining his life.
His deranged gaze locked onto Harry and Luciel.
"I need your vitality," he said, staring directly at Luciel. His voice trembled between desperation and madness. "Even if you're just a boy, it doesn't matter… You must return the life that, as your father, I gave you."
Luciel clenched his teeth. "I don't owe you anything. You owe me everything," he yelled, lifting his sword, ready to face whatever came.
Edward was not going to allow that.
With a sharp motion, he pointed his wand at Dominic. Thick roots burst from the ground, trapping his legs and torso.
But Edward's eyes widened as the roots, the instant they touched Dominic's skin, started withering and dying, turning to dust. Dominic was absorbing the very vitality of nature. In that state, he was even more dangerous.
Edward prepared to grab Harry and Luciel and vanish with them.
But he didn't need to.
Before he could act, Dominic transformed again. His body exploded into black smoke and the dark mass flew toward them, roaring like a starving beast.
And at that exact moment, another Apparition sounded just inches from Harry.
"Whoops!" was the first thing heard – a startled shout upon seeing the monstrous black mass rushing toward him.
The newly arrived figure crouched and struck the ground twice with a black wand.
A colossal hand of earth erupted upward, like a titan awakening. It smashed the Obscurial with such force that it scattered into hundreds of fragments, shadows blown apart like thick smoke before rejoining themselves a few meters away.
Dominic reformed, even more deteriorated, as if he had aged a decade in mere seconds. Now he looked like he was in his late sixties, madness painted in his eyes.
"Another… another… another! Why do you keep appearing?! Why?!" he screamed, losing control of his emotions.
The black fog around his body began devouring the vitality of the ground; leaves turned gray, grass withered, and the earth became dry and dead. The darkness seemed eager to escape him, as if it was too much for him to contain.
Harry noticed and looked toward the newcomer.
"That entrance was amazing, right, my dear godson?" Sirius said, turning around with an arrogant smile.
"A hand of earth? Seriously?" Harry replied with a flat expression.
"What? It's cool!" Sirius said, offended, before noticing the rat caught by Dee, Wanda's serpent. His face turned serious instantly.
"Leave, Black. I can handle this myself," Edward said, cutting the conversation.
Sirius turned and looked at him. "So this is where you were? Not surprising, considering your wife works in the castle. Perfect, then you can go flirt with her. I'll handle my godson and the school."
"I said I will handle it," Edward replied in a cold tone so icy that Sirius narrowed his eyes.
Sirius glanced sideways at the frozen section of the castle and smirked mischievously. "Showing off for your wife? I thought you were above that."
Edward ignored him completely.
Sirius snorted. "Unfortunately, I want to show off too."
Edward let out a tired sigh, turning his gaze back to Dominic.
The man was in critical condition. His mind was no longer there; his body trembled, the black fog roared around him, consuming everything. And when he looked at them again, he growled something that no longer sounded human.
"You… are old. But you'll still do to restore my beauty…"
Something inside Dominic snapped. Whatever restraint remained, shattered.
His body exploded again, but this time it did not take the form of a conventional Obscurial.
The black mass grew… and grew… and grew… until it began taking shape.
Two arms… then four… enormous, deformed, made of living smoke.
A head emerged, but not a human one. A mass of teeth, without eyes, without a defined form. A nightmarish face.
An Obscurus… evolved.
A horror forged from years of darkness, fury, and consuming magic.
And it was staring directly at Harry, Edward and Sirius.
The creature's roar thundered like a torn storm.
"GIAAAAAA!"
The scream shook everything around it; the air vibrated, the ground cracked, the trees trembled as if about to snap. It was a roar that was not only heard; it was felt in the chest, in the bones, in the magic.
And then the unthinkable happened.
The castle's defenses… vanished.
The protective barrier… collapsed.
The concealment spells inside the castle… broke.
The infiltrators' illusions… crumbled to dust.
Even Peter Pettigrew's Animagus form didn't resist.
The rat twisted, burst into a grotesque swirl, and returned to its true body: a fat man with yellowish teeth, greasy hair, and dirty Azkaban clothing.
Sirius and Harry's eyes locked onto him simultaneously.
Peter paled even further… because Wanda's serpent, Dee, had grown large enough to hold him. Its coils wrapped around him, squeezing slowly, almost preventing him from breathing.
But what paralyzed him completely wasn't the serpent.
It was Harry.
Harry's eyes, upon seeing Peter's true form, changed. For an instant, a single breath, Harry let an ancient and pure killing instinct slip through—and Peter felt like he would die right there.
"I-it was Snape…" Peter stammered, voice broken, trembling. "H-he told him. He told the Dark Lord… it was him… Snape…"
The words spilled out like a vomiting of desperation. This was what he had come to say from the beginning.
He knew he was doomed.
Inside Azkaban, the Death Eaters only waited for the chance to kill him.
Outside… death had followed him too.
He had only one hope left: that Harry might spare him, or that they would send him somewhere he could survive, even imprisoned.
"What?" Harry murmured.
But his voice wasn't normal.
It trembled.
It vibrated.
"Bellatrix told me… Snape was the one who gave him the prophecy. He said you would be the one to defeat him… Snape said they had to kill the chosen child… that's why he searched for your house…" Peter explained in desperate haste.
Sirius looked at Harry, and his heart stopped for a second.
The boy's tears were falling… but they weren't tears.
They were magic.
Chaos magic.
Red.
Brilliant.
Alive.
The drops fell like liquid blood as Harry's green eyes turned into a deep, burning red.
His hair became red like fire.
His clothes transformed, molding themselves around him: a masculine version of Wanda's outfit.
And on his head… a crimson crown.
A braid of solid blood.
A diadem of chaos.
The air around Harry grew so dense it felt as if it could suffocate anyone.
The temperature dropped.
Silence spread like an icy mantle.
Sirius tried to run toward him, but the monster that had once been Dominic launched itself at them.
Sirius raised a barrier; Edward reinforced the shield.
The impact was brutal, rumbling like an earthquake.
Sirius shouted something to Harry…
but Harry heard nothing.
His entire world had gone silent.
An image appeared in his mind.
Snape in the bookstore.
His guilty look when Harry had asked him about potions.
That slight glimmer of shame, that tension in his eyes.
Sirius shouted something else, but his voice was a distant echo.
Luciel grabbed Harry's shoulder to speak to him…
And Harry exploded.
A red pulse burst from his body.
A shockwave that threw everyone several meters away:
Luciel, Sirius, Edward, the trees around them, even Dominic's monster.
Reality itself… cracked around him for an instant.
The forest bent.
The colors shifted.
The ground breathed.
Harry looked at Peter, and all of Peter's memories entered his mind at once.
The night of Halloween.
Peter showing Voldemort the way.
The screams.
The explosion.
The house burning.
Peter entering as a rat, retrieving Voldemort's wand, looking at baby Harry…
and fleeing.
Years spent as the Weasleys' pet.
The transfer to Azkaban.
The shared cell with Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange.
The constant threats.
Bellatrix telling him Snape had betrayed the Dark Lord.
That Snape had delivered the prophecy.
That Snape had pointed to the child.
Harry saw everything.
Exactly as it had happened.
Then…
Snape appeared right in front of him.
As if chaos magic itself had summoned him.
Severus Snape looked at Harry with absolute shock.
And Harry, when his crimson eyes met the professor's…
Saw his entire life.
…
N/A: But that… you will see in the next chapter.
(insert evil laugh)