HARRY POTTER: Witchcraft and Devilry

"Most of the time, no," Harry replied.

"Explain," Ajuka commanded.

"Voldemort was destroyed that night, but he isn't truly dead," Harry said.

"He survived death?" Ajuka asked.

"Professor Dumbledore, er, the headmaster at my school says that he's a wraith now," Harry said. "He possessed one of my teachers in my first year there and tried to kill me. Multiple times over the year, when I looked at him, my scar burned."

"Curious," Ajuka said. "You're still alive, so I assume things went poorly for him."

"He was trying to get his hands on the Philospher's Stone, trying to use it to restore himself," Harry said. "It was in the castle, and when I went to stop him, I touched him, and he burned under my touch, turning to ash."

"Like your scar burned when you looked at him," Ajuka commented, tapping his chin again. "Has it burned since?"

"It did when I rejected the evil pieces, and…" Harry trailed off for a moment. "I've been having dreams this year, dreams of him, dreams that I don't think are dreams. He's stronger now, somehow, and I think he's close to coming back."

Ajuka chuckled softly, staring at nothing for a moment before saying, "this is a fascinating case. To summarize, this man tried to kill you as a baby, failed for reasons that remain elusive, and gave you a cursed scar that burns in his presence as he managed to evade his death. Flight from death, that's what his name means. A psudenym, of course."

"His real name was Tom Riddle," Harry said.

"Irreleveant," Ajuka said dismissively. "Now you're connected to him in some way, and he can't touch you without burning even a host body. These dreams seem to be from his perspective, I assume."

"Yes," Harry said.

"Fascinating," Ajuka said, "and absolutely none of this explains why in the Underworld his curse would interfere with the evil pieces. You, my young friend, just became my new research project. We'll be going to my lab after we leave here."

"I can't stay here!" Harry exclaimed. "I have school…"

"Your paltry education is nothing compared to what I could teach you if I deign to," Ajuka said coldly, "and this conundrum with the evil pieces could spell doom for my people."

"Even if I wanted to stay here, I couldn't," Harry said. "The whole reason that I summoned Rias in the first place is that I've been entered into a deadly tournament against my will. If I don't compete, I'll lose my magic and die. Like it or not, the only way you're going to study me if I return to Hogwarts, learn what the three tasks I need to compete in are, prepare for them, and survive."

"Annoying," was all Ajuka said to that. "Do you know what any of these tasks are going to be?"

"The first one is a task of bravery and cunning and involves dragons," Harry said. "I think that I'm going to need to get something from a dragon, preferably without becoming barbeque in the process."

"Hmm," Ajuka said, tapping his chin again. "Rias was hoping that remaking you as a devil would make you powerful enough to deal with the dragon by force, which it would have, of course. Bereft of that option, we'll need to be more cunning. Are you capable of summoning objects?"

"Yes," Harry said. "I learned the spell because my initial plan was to summon my broom and try to fly around the dragon."

Ajuka just stared blankly at him for a moment before rolling his eyes. Holding out his right hand, it glowed in teal light for a moment, and a small, dark-colored ring appeared in his palm. It too glowed teal for a moment, and afterward, little runes appeared engraved in the metal.

"Unless your tournament organizers are morons, they'll have enchanted the thing you need to steal from the dragon to prevent summoning," he said. "This will let you bypass such enchantments."

"Do I wear it?" he asked, concerned slightly because it looked like it might barely fit on his pinky finger.

"No," Ajuka said. "You slip this thing on your wand, and whatever spell you cast, it will ignore all attempts to stop it. You'll only get one spell out of it, though, as it will turn to dust once its charge is used up."

"Thank you," Harry said, taking the ring and pocketing it.

"Technically speaking, I suppose I don't need you here constantly to study the problem," Ajuka sighed, "but I will be calling on you often over the coming months."

"So long as I survive the tournament, I'll help you however I can," Harry said.

"Now," Ajuka said, waving his hand and summoning a small hospital bed. "Lie down here, and we'll get started on the tests."

"I can't believe this was all a test," Rias said as she sat down across from her mother.

"Thank you, dear," Venelana said, smiling at the servant who had brought her tea. "Do you want anything, Rias?"

"No point," Rias sighed. "I'm going to pass out soon enough anyway."

"That will be all," Venelana said, dismissing the servant. "It was and wasn't a test."

"What do you mean?" Rias asked.

Her mother sighed in pleasure as she tasted the tea and set it back down on the saucer.

"The benefits I saw in the union were perfectly valid," she said. "Uniting the Gremorys and the Phenexes together would have been quite the coup, especially if you and Riser managed to have a truly powerful child or two. That said, you made your opposition to the idea plain as day. and so I wanted to see how you'd get out of it. If you succeeded, you'd prove yourself to be an eminently capable devil, and if you failed, we would get the benefits of the marriage."

"So you'd get something out of it either way," Rias said.