A/N: A few notes: 1. Final Fantasy magic exists in my world as a separate entity from normal wizarding magic. Basically a wizard takes the raw, nonspecific magic from their core and channels it through their body, molding it into a spell from one of the different branches (Black, White, Forbidden, etc...), rather than through a wand with specific movements and incantations. The core can be exhausted until recharged, like MP in the games. Not all wizards are capable of it, but those that are generally prefer it. Rods and Staves are often used to enhance magical ability as well. a 2. There are monsters in this world, from Bombs to Behemoths, and they are their own class of creature, as opposed to being lumped together with magical creatures. Most Magical Ministries have a bureau specifically contracted to cull monster populations, but that doesn't stop large pockets from building up every now and then. Hogwarts has a special Study of Monsters class, as well, required for all years, which is why a large number of students carry weapons. Those that can't afford their own are given school ones. 3. Besides the GFs, the Espers exist as well. Most, however, have suffered the same fate as their counterparts from Final Fantasy VI, reduced to Magicite (Dumbledore mentioned it, remember?) and scattered to the four corners of the world because of sick, human experimentation. 4. As for the Eidolons, I'm using the FFIX iteration. As such, the tribe of Summoners did exist and was wiped out (just not by FFIX's version of Garland). As a result, Eidolons have not been seen in centuries. The difference between the Summons? Mostly their appearance. 5. While the heroes themselves will not appear, the villains from FF are so good, I'm using them. As of right now, the villain lineup is Ultimecia, Kuja, Seymour (not Jecht, though his name will be used to refer to an ace Blitzer), and Kefka, all working in concert. Ultimecia's inclusion kinda put a damper on anyone who held out hopes for Draco staying good the entire story, eh? He is Harry's Seifer, after all, and will retain Seifer's dream of being a Sorceress's Knight. For anyone who's read but hasn't noticed, I changed Warrior and SOLDIER to Ace, because I think Tidus fits better with Ron than Cloud or the WoL. Title is the opening theme of FFVIII, roughly meaning "Fated Children" in Latin.
Airship: Fahrenheit, the model used for the airship to Hogwarts finalfantasy(dot)wikia(dot)com(slash)wiki(slash)File:FFX-airship(dot)jpg
Weapons: Brotherhood (Ron's blade): finalfantasy(dot)wikia(dot)com(slash)wiki(slash)Brotherhood
Terra's/Hermione's sword: finalfantasy(dot)wikia(dot)com(slash)wiki(slash)File:Dissidia(underscore)Terra(dot)png
Garnet's/Luna's Rod: finalfantasy(dot)wikia(dot)com(slash)wiki(slash)File:Rod(dot)png
Harry Potter and the Power of the Void
Fantasy II: Liberi Fatali
"What?" Harry asked.
"There is a reason Voldemort targeted you. A prophecy foretelling his defeat," Dumbledore replied.
"A prophecy? How did he even get ahold of it?" Harry asked.
"Wormtail," Sirius growled, seeing red at the mere mention of that traitorous rat.
"We discussed the prophecy as a group, Lily, James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, Severus, and myself, and the implications for the Potters," Dumbledore said, as Remus placed a comforting hand on Sirius's shoulder. "It reads like this: A Snake shall rise, only to be cut down by the the Son of the Lion. Thus the cycle shall begin anew, the Crystals shall dim, and the Void will rise. Our only hope rests with the Lion, the Esperkin, the Ace, and the Summoner. Bearing fragments of the Goddess's power, they shall face the Witch, the Jester, the Unsent, and the Reaper, with Chaos waiting in the wings."
"Wow, what the hell does all that mean? I can understand the first part well enough, my Dad was, after all, called the Lion by the Death Eaters from what Sirius, Remus, and Uncle Sev have told me, but what's all this about Crystals and cycles and Goddesses?"
"Let's go part by part, shall we?" Andromeda, always very logical, suggested.
"Good idea. 'Thus the cycle shall begin anew, the Crystals shall dim, and the Void will rise.' The 'cycle' this refers to is part of the Legend of the Crystals. The Legend states that, long ago, the four Elemental Crystals, without which our world would cease to exist, were drained of their power by four fiends, who had been created by an entity known simply as 'the Void'. It is, in short, nothingness personified, wanting all that exists to return to nothingness. Four Warriors of Light were said to have defeated the Void's agent, a being known as Chaos. I can only take this verse to mean that the Void has awakened once more, and is plotting something, something that I think involves Voldemort. He is one of the beings referred to specifically, so I doubt he'll stay dead," Dumbledore explained. Should I tell them just how intimately I'm connected with that tale? No. Cosmos, I hope I'm making the right decision.
"'Our only hope rests with the Lion, the Esperkin, the Ace, and the Summoner.' Me and three others, seems simple enough," Harry said.
"The only problem is that Espers have been nearly extinct for awhile now, reduced to crystals known as Magicite by magical experimentation. Barbaric assholes. The Summoner tribe was wiped out long ago, as well. Finding someone with even a little Summoner blood is rare," Severus explained, his ire rising at the fate of some of the most unique and powerful beings on the planet. "As for the Ace, there hasn't been a Blitzball player worthy of the title since Jecht's death thirty years ago, though I hear Arthur's son is quite the prodigy."
"'Bearing fragments of the Goddess's power they shall face the Witch, the Jester, the Unsent, and the Reaper, with Chaos waiting in the wings.' Harry already fulfills the first part of this line. My boy, that is no mere emerald that forms the eye of your pendant, it is a shard of the Wind Crystal," Dumbledore said, leaving Harry to stare in awe at his necklace. "The Crystals themselves are living embodiments of the power of the Goddess of Harmony, Cosmos. As for the four referred to, I'm guessing that they're your evil counterparts. I have no guesses as to who they might be, but they say that the Void spans all dimensions, they could be from an entirely different world. Chaos, as I said, is an agent of the Void," Dumbledore informed them. "Any questions?"
"Holy hell, and here I was thinking I'd have a normal life," Harry said, shaking his head.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get at least a few more years before cosmic forces start trying to murder you gruesomely," Draco said, clapping his cousin on the back and grinning.
"Yeah, and it's not like we're all going to stop training you, so you'll be plenty prepared by the time any of these people come after you," Tonks reassured, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. Soon the entire family had surrounded Harry and were tossing reassuring grins and hugs around. Harry looked up at all the people who were there for him and smiled, I'm not fighting...all alone.
---
Harry stood in front of his mirror and sighed, after more discussion and more promises that they wouldn't let him die that easily, he, Draco, Sirius, and Narcissa had returned to Sirius's house. They'd wished him a happy birthday once more before he'd gone up to bed, staring at his pendant and trying to banish thoughts on his destiny. That day was a month gone now, and, during that month, Harry had trained harder than ever, going up against Draco and Tonks at the same time nearly every day, along with trying to learn all that Bahamut could teach him. Now it was time for him to go to Hogwarts and he was glad that Dumbledore had agreed to find him a room to continue in. He looked at his appearance in the mirror, his black hair a mass of spikes that swept to either side of his face with a few strands hanging over his eyes (my best description of Squall's hair), scar that stood prominently on his forehead, and, according to the adult's in the house, his mother's bright, green eyes. He checked to make sure each of his belts was fastened correctly and glanced at his pendant before pulling the bomber jacket his Aunt Andi had given him for his birthday on over his white T-shirt. Hearing Sirius shout to hurry up, he quickly stuffed his gloves in his jacket pocket before pulling on a pair of black boots and grabbing his gunblade case, which had multiple expanded compartments and which he preferred to a trunk.
"Where is it?" he heard Draco muttering to himself from his room across the hall. He was already dressed in his normal clothes and long, gray trench coat; his own gunblade case, adorned with a blood red Cross of Saint James that also appeared on the shoulder of his coat, was open on the floor and Harry could see all his required luggage sitting within. What's he looking for? Harry thought, glancing around Draco's room. He spied a well-worn, old book, small enough to fit in a pocket, sitting half-buried in clothes on the floor and scoffed, Still refuses to go anywhere without that stupid book.
"Ah, there you are!" Draco said, having heard Harry's scoff and followed his line of sight. He put the small tome in his coat's inside pocket before closing his gunblade case and picking it up.
"Why do you insist on keeping that book on you at all times?" Harry asked as they walked downstairs.
"It's my good luck charm," Draco said simply.
"You mean you still haven't given up on your dream of becoming a Sorceress's Knight. You do realize there hasn't been a Sorceress in over fifty years, right?"
"So? You babble on incessantly about owning your own airship and cruising the skies all the time. Everyone has their own dreams."
"True," Harry replied as they reached the ground floor and Sirius told them to grab onto the portkey.
---
When they reappeared, they were just inside the barrier at King's Cross, in a massive anteroom before the staircase that led to the platform suspended over the train station. Families were apparating, portkeying, flooing, and walking through the wall separating their world from that of the non-magical all over the place and they ignored most of them until they found the Tonks family and they walked up the massive staircase. Harry was in awe as they reached the top; resting on a magically hidden landing platform was a large airship, its hull a deep red and bearing the Hogwarts crest instead of a name on its nose.
"Yo, Harry. Harry," Draco said, waving his hand in front of Harry's face and snapping. Harry shook his head and thanked Draco, he knew he'd have stood there all day just staring at the magnificent blend of magic and machinery he saw before him. Harry, Draco, and Tonks bid their respective parents/guardians goodbye and filed up the boarding ramp, heading for the passenger cabins, which were large rooms set up to accommodate up to ten people per. They occupied the middle level of the ship, with the engines a level below, and the lounge and observation decks above. The cabins were quite nice, small rooms with a few couches and chairs as well as an intercom to call a guard if anything went wrong or the lounge for service. They found a cabin that was only occupied by one person, a girl Harry and Draco's age, with her head buried in a book.
"Mind if we join you?" Harry asked.
"Not at all, the cabin would fill up eventually and you, at least, were nice enough to ask," the girl replied, moving the book away from her face and giving them a good look. She was already dressed in standard Hogwarts robes and her face had all the earmarks of a girl who would one day be a beautiful woman. It was her hair that drew most of their attention, however, it was bushy and mostly brown, with the color fading to a bright cyan at the last inch or so. Her golden brown eyes locked with Harry's and, for a moment, they just stared, before both realized they were staring and looked away, blushing a bit. Harry was just glad Tonks hadn't seen, she was merciless when it came to teasing. "So...I'm Hermione Granger, who are you guys?"
"Nymphadora Tonks, but just call me Tonks. That's not a suggestion, it's your way of avoiding death by my hands," she replied, her deadly serious glare backing up the threat as she and the boys sat down, Harry joining Hermione on her couch and Tonks and Draco sitting opposite on another.
"Draco Black."
"Harry Potter."
Hermione's eyes widened, "The Harry Potter?"
"Yes, the Harry Potter, but I'd rather be just Harry. People gawk at me everywhere I go 'cause they know the Griever," Harry indicated his pendant, "and it gets really annoying."
"Sorry," Hermione replied.
"It's alright," Harry assured her as the door opened again. In the doorway was a tall redhead dressed in a pair of black shorts and a white T-shirt decorated with the symbol of some Blitz team Harry couldn't remember. Trailing behind him was a blonde girl wearing a baseball cap, T-shirt and a skirt. She had bright blue eyes with a slightly dreamy look in them.
"Mind sharing?" the boy asked, shifting his trunk to get a better grip.
"Nah, 'course not. We were just getting to know each other," Draco said, as they set their luggage off to the side and sat down on a couple of chairs near the other four.
"Name's Ron Weasley," the boy said.
"I'm Luna Lovegood."
The conversation shifted as the engines fired up and the airship took off, which was apparently Harry's signal to rattle off every single piece of airship knowledge in his scarred head. Hermione, it turned out, loved learning anything new and soaked up all Harry's technical facts like a sponge. The rest found their instant chemistry a little funny, and were glad they had a good distraction as all the information passed straight over their heads. After that, Ron asked about sports and hobbies, turns out he was obsessed with both of the two major wizarding sports, Quidditch and Blitzball, and was actually quite good at the latter. The boys plus Tonks launched into a discussion of the various official and Hogwarts teams. Turns out Hogwarts's Quidditch pitch was designed to shift into a Blitzball stadium. Hermione and Luna rolled their eyes and began discussing other aspects of the magical school, which both had learned from repeated readings of Hogwarts, A History. All talking stopped, though, as the ship suddenly rocked and a loud roar resounded through the halls.
"What the hell was that?" Hermione asked.
"Sounded like...no, couldn't be. That sounded like a Behemoth," Harry replied, bad memories of a botched encounter with one that Uncle Sev had had to bail Draco and Harry out of coming to the forefront of his mind.
"All students, remain in your cabins and stay calm, the guards are handling a minor monster attack," a voice sounded from the intercom, obviously one of the bridge crew.
"'Minor' he says," Harry growled as he pulled on his gloves, walked over to his gunblade case, and retrieved his Revolver. Draco was right behind him, pulling out and loading Hyperion as Tonks retrieved her katana. The foreign sword suited her agility better than any European broadsword or even Harry and Draco's gunblades.
"What are you guys planning to do?" Hermione asked.
"We've faced Behemoths before, they're not to be trifled with. These guards, not very highly trained and most likely unable to perform Elemental Magic, probably won't be able to take it down. Furthermore, Behemoths can't fly so the only way it's even up here is that it was flown by other monsters. Little distractions like that cut the guards' chances of survival even further. Anyone else besides myself, Draco, and Tonks have experience with a weapon or the ability to use Elemental magic?" Harry asked, his persona shifting from personable, friendly Harry to cold, serious, battle-ready Harry.
"I've got training with a blade," Ron said, pulling a large sword from his trunk. It seemed to be made of glass and filled with water. "A gift from my older brother."
"I've got a little experience with a sword, but Elemental magic is more my forte," Hermione said, pulling out a thin, curved blade, similar in shape to a Persian shamshir.
"White magic is my specialty," Luna said simply, grabbing her rod.
"Good, let's go."
---
The six charged out onto the forward deck, seeing a large purple-furred beast with large, black horns and a red mane rampaging, tearing guards to pieces and just generally causing chaos. Flying around it were large, ferocious looking blue birds.
"Shit, Cockatrices. Here, take these," Harry said, reaching into his pouch and giving each of them a ring that was made up of three bands and a large, purple gem (the Jem Ring from VII). "They'll keep you from ending up like that." He indicated a few guards who'd been turned to stone by the Cockatrices' gaze. He handed a few golden needles to Tonks and Draco, "Take care of those that have been petrified and try and keep the birds off us, please."
"Sure thing," Draco said as he and Tonks ran off towards the circling avians.
"Guess that leaves us the big guy," Ron said.
"Yep, you guys ready?" Harry replied. He got an affirmative from the other three and they charged forward, Harry getting the beast's attention with a well aimed Thunder that struck it in the face. "Hey, ugly, pick on someone your own size."
With a roar, the Behemoth charged for Harry on all fours, its horns lowered and ready to gore the boy. At the last moment, Harry threw himself to the side and sliced the monster across the face, pulling the trigger to increase the damage. It roared and swiped at him with its massive claws, Harry ducked and Ron charged in, leaping over its arm and landing on its back. He slashed repeatedly across its back as he ran over it, leaping off near its haunches. Its tail whipped around, hitting Ron in the chest and sending him flying. Luna had healed him before he even hit the ground, the green sparkles of a Cure spell drifting over the gash in his chest. Hermione stepped up next, her hands glowing with power as she unleashed a furious rain of spells. The very air seemed charged with the sheer magical power that poured out of her. She finished up by charging her blade with a powerful Blizzard spell and stabbing the beast in the chest, it roaring as the spell spread and began to freeze its organs. Hermione didn't overstay her welcome, though, she dodged backwards as it tried to sweep her aside, but a claw still caught her in the leg. Luna healed her before casting a Protect spell over Harry and Ron as they barreled into the monster from both sides, slashing at it furiously. Split between two targets the Behemoth roared, letting loose a rain of thunderbolts. Harry and Ron were blasted backwards and Hermione started casting again before the thing got any ideas about finishing them off.
"Okay, this thing's starting to piss me off," Harry growled. He gathered his magic into his right hand and the image of Bahamut began to glow. "Mega Flare." The clouds parted as a scaly, blue missile shot from the sky. Fifty or so feet from the deck, the Dragon King unfolded his wings and roared. He dive bombed the Behemoth and knocked it into the air. As it was falling, Bahamut gathered energy in his mouth, and, when fully charged, released a blazing beam that reduced the bloody, battered monster to dust. Thanks.
"Anytime, young Lion."
"What the hell was that?" Ron asked, leaning on his sword as Luna healed his burns.
"A Guardian Force. His name's Bahamut," Harry replied, wincing as the healing magic fixed his damaged skin.
"Wow, why didn't you do that in the first place?"
"Needed to weaken it first, Bahamut's strength is dependent upon my own. If I were a little stronger, he'd have been able to vaporize the thing while we were still relaxing in the cabin."
"HARRY!" they heard Draco shout. "THE PILOT'S DEAD AND THE AUTO-PILOT'S FAILING!"
"Fuck," Harry cursed, tearing off towards the cockpit.
"Can you fly this thing?" Hermione asked, watching as Harry switched off the auto-pilot and began to get the ship back under control. They hadn't noticed the drift during the fight, but it was pretty bad.
"No problem," Harry replied, checking the map on the console and making sure they stayed on course. "You guys go make sure all the students are okay, I got this."
"You sure?" she asked, worry showing on her face. Harry nodded and she, Ron, Luna, Draco, and Tonks went to check on the passengers. A few were panicking but the prefects had done a reasonable job of restoring order. The older students were surprised that a few first years had saved them all, but most knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
---
A few hours later they touched down in Hogsmeade, Harry having called ahead and informed Dumbledore what had happened. The prefects and Harry's friends had gathered up all the bodies and they lay on the deck, sheets covering them. Harry sighed as he disengaged the engines, "This was not how I expected my first trip to Hogwarts to turn out."
"What were you expecting?" Hermione asked from behind him, having joined him after body detail had been completed and watching him carefully guide them towards their school. He'd even been explaining a little about piloting to her.
"No monsters, no trouble, meet a pretty girl or two. Two out of three ain't bad," Harry replied, grinning at her. She blushed and shoved him playfully.
"Ah, Harry, I thought I'd find you up here," Dumbledore said as he walked into the cockpit. He'd already seen to the body removal as well as instructing the team sent to retrieve the wounded. "I see you're becoming acquainted with Ms. Granger."
"Hello, Headmaster," Hermione said, embarrassed that the Headmaster had walked in as Harry had been flirting with her.
"Hello, my dear, sorry your introduction to our fine school has been less than perfect. Harry, I'm glad you were here, any other year and all the students might have been killed," Dumbledore said. "These monsters are getting stronger and bolder lately. A few Bombs and Goblins were trying to get into Hogsmeade last week, I think it may be related to that which we discussed at your birthday party."
"Really? It's starting already?" Harry asked, hoping against hope that the Void wasn't trying to kill him this soon.
"I believe so. I also believe that you may have found the other three. Bring them to my office after the Welcoming Feast. See you around, Harry, Ms. Granger," Dumbledore said, bowing as he left.
"What'd he mean by that?" Hermione asked, staring at the door and turning all of her not unimpressive smarts towards this new mystery.
"Things just got a lot more complicated, but I guess this means we'll be spending plenty of time together, so I don't really mind," Harry replied, grinning as Hermione blushed again.
"Insufferable git," Hermione said, shoving him again, but smiling at her new found friend.
---
A/N: Not the best ending, but it felt like a natural stopping point. If you're wondering about the airship, I had originally planned it with the Hogwarts Express, but I just said "Fuck it." and went all out, over-the-top Final Fantasy. Hope you enjoyed, drop a review, por favor.
-Sypher Kyaeon