Work Text:
A flick of his fingers sends a glaring red beam forward, the energy leaving behind sparks in the air. The feminine figure of the target slips to the side to avoid it, bending her knees to get closer to the ground. When one hand lands on the ground, the earth trembles and large spikes burst forth.
They grow even larger as they approach him, and he dashes forward instead of away. Keeping a sharp eye out, he leaps up and pushes himself to leap between some of the largest of the spikes, bounding high into the air with a quick pull of an updraft. Once at the peak of his leap, he sends another series of spells down at her and lets himself land atop one of the spikes when she is distracted. As she darts to his left, he places his hands on the earth he stands atop and feeds a large burst of magic into it.
She notices almost at once, but he has already flickered away and the spikes she made all start to explode in a progressively more impressive display.
“Tsk.”
He hears her click her tongue, but that has nothing to do with their relative distance to each other. There is no other sound in this plane than what they make themselves, and everything seems both increasingly louder and yet far too quiet to hear in such a place. The landscape is so vast and yet so vacant, that if a mere human were to come here, they would quickly suffer for it.
This was obviously not a problem for the two of them, which made it a perfect place.
He skids to a stop much farther away than he had intended. Quickly regaining his balance, he dodges out of the way to narrowly miss the figure lunging at him. The punch she had been leading with impacts the ground and causes its own minor explosion. He has to risk guarding his face with one hand from the dust and rock as he takes several leaps back, avoiding more dangerous hits. At the first slight pause, he flips back and plants his hands and knees on the ground, shouting out a short phrase.
Instantly, a great boom resounds as he is hit by a giant strike of lightning. With his magic keeping it just ungrounded, he sends it forth in a wave. He gets an audible curse this time as she vaults herself into the air, spinning back a ways due to the drastic pressure differences whipping the once still air into a frenzy. He gets a moment to breathe and shake off the effects before another rumble starts and he nearly loses his balance.
The earth continues to rumble, and cracks soon start coming straight for him. Running off, he jumps across some to avoid others, trying to keep a lookout for what she might pull next. The cracks start getting more distracting, unfortunately, when they also start spewing fire. Grumbling, he summons a barrier of water around himself, and starts running for a more open area.
Right before he gets to clearer ground, the earth beneath him bursts up with a pillar of fire, sending him flying with a scream. She meets him in the air, cackling, and whacks him back down with a spinning drop kick. His impact with the ground leaves quite a bit of destruction, but he picks himself back up quickly, if not a bit wobbly. He avoids the spells she sends at him, but the last one he catches and sends back at her.
When she dives right, he pushes the advantage and darts forward, keeping low. He manages to grab her ankle and with a pulse of magic, he shifts and throws her into one of the cracks she had made. Unfortunately, she doesn’t go far before she catches herself, but he manages to use the time to build up his own spell. When she leaps out into view, he sends a large blast of light right at her. She braces and manages to withstand the blast, but once it encompasses her, it explodes. He grunts and skids back at the unexpected force, and falls on his butt ungracefully.
When the dust settles, she just lays there on the ground, her body smoking a bit. He sighs and falls back to rest more comfortably as well. Lying down almost spread-eagle, he sighs again, “Geez.”
He hears her chuckle, and he grunts meanly at her in response.
After a little while, as they pay no attention to the world around them slowly moving on its own as it repairs the damage they made, she manages to roll onto her side. She hums and pats the ground affectionately. “You did quite a number, this time.”
“Not as much as you did. You really favored earth manipulation this time.”
“Hm, yes, but it was so amusing seeing you hop around them like that.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
She taps her fingertips against the ground in a mindless rhythm. “You did very well with that last spell, though, Harry. I’m only a bit surprised, though, considering how quickly you always improve when it comes to this stuff.” Ignoring his embarrassed grumble, she rolls and sits up. “Of course, if only you could improve so quickly when it comes to paperwork.”
Harry flexes his legs and springs up into a sitting position. “Oi! It’s not like you even told me this whole death thing would involve paperwork. I was conned.” When she sniggers, he sends a stinging hex at her in vengeance, “Mortia, seriously, when you told me to be your master-not-master you should have maybe told me a bit more about what you wanted from me.”
“Darling,” she swats away the spell, “If I was completely honest with you, you wouldn’t have wanted to work with me at all. You would have just moved on and had fun without any of the responsibilities. You know you’d have only liked that for a little while.”
Harry sends another spell at her, scowling. She bats it away with a grin.
Running his hands through his hair, Harry makes his way to his room in the two-story house he’d claimed. Mortia had offered a castle, but he didn’t care much for castles aside from Hogwarts, and living in a replica after what he’d lived through wasn’t an appealing idea. A castle would also have stood out far too much in this environment.
Looking out the window, he takes in the sight of the sunrise over the small town in the distance. He’d died quite a long time ago, now, and this was just another of the worlds he was “visiting.” He’d not had much of a stake in where, but he did ask for a more peaceful place this time. (The number of times she’d send him off somewhere out-of-the-way and he’d get involved in some sort of trouble has only become more discouraging.)
But the most trouble he’d had to deal with so far in this world was trying to discourage the young men and women who wished to court him. Thankfully, however, those offers had slowed down as the years passed and he became known as a kind but rather shy young man. It was better than constant offers, though it was still a bit embarrassing. Especially when the grannies of the town would ply him with treats and… “advice and encouragement.” Recently he’s been feeling like they’re getting invested in his relationship status, for some reason. They were also the first to swarm him and tell him about new, attractive visitors when he goes into town each week.
Harry rests his head against the wall in his magic-powered shower. One of the things he wouldn’t give up even to try and fit in to the world. This and plumbing in general. He’d come up with many tricks and spells for making a plumbing system that didn’t seem unusual in most any setting. He was rather proud of that project.
Once he’s done cleaning up, he heads to his simple kitchen to make himself something. Poking around the cupboards doesn’t yield much, but he’s the creative sort. His usual trip to town is tomorrow and he doesn’t want to go right now, so he’ll work with what he has.
As rolls a jar of jam between his hands, there’s a knock at the door. He doesn’t drop said jar, as the wards had alerted him to something and someone approaching, but it’s still close. Because he doesn’t get visitors often, but sometimes the grannies will send someone to drop baskets of goodies at his door. Many people still consider him a bit odd, so if they aren’t interested in him romantically or sexually, they don’t tend to seek him out.
He carefully puts the jar down and runs a hand down his shirt, using a touch of magic to make sure he looks presentable. As he walks to the door, he hears some quiet chatter and distant neighs. Just how many people came, he wonders.
So, he opens the door and surprised at the glowing presence that lights up with a smile once they lay eyes on him.
“Good morning, Harrison!” the blonde man is even more handsome than Lockheart was, with a much more honest and pleasant smile. “I’m Andrei Holstein, do you remember me?”
What? Harry blinks. The hair and purple eyes are big indicators, but the name Holstein cinches it. This is the crown prince of this country. What the fuck?
The man doesn’t stop smiling, even at Harry’s stunned silence. One of the men standing just behind the blonde noticeably nudges him, and he continues. “I don’t know if you remember me, but a couple years ago you saved me when I was in trouble. I asked you to marry me then, but you told me to try again when I was older and in better shape. So, here I am!”
Andrei gets down on one knee and holds out an absurdly shiny ring, “Will you marry me?” One of the two aides behind him sighs and the other’s palm meets his forehead.
Harry…
Harry blinks.
And slowly closes the door, which latches with a soft noise.
He jinxed it, didn’t he?