Enchanting Melodies (HP SI)

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10 May 1995, Azkaban

The man nodded slightly before turning back into a golden spark and flying toward Ekrizdis' tomb. Harry followed him instinctively and walked inside. Ekrizdis might be dead, but there was still the mess with Nidhogg, wasn't there? For fuck's sake, when will this fucking day end?

Harry looked at the entrance of the cave feeling exhausted. Singing a realm into existence was very draining, even if he could think of a lot of ways to optimize the spell using Solomon's magic. He had a very basic grip on the principles of the magic system. It wasn't enough to even call himself knowledgeable of the subject, but he had worked from worse. After all, he had taken the space expansion charm and practically built an entire field of magic from it.

Still, he entered the cavern with trepidation, remembering how difficult it was to leave this place. However, he still needed to deal with the breach and get Voldemort. Which meant that he had to go back and resist once more the temptation of staying there until the end of days, studying Solomon's magic.

However, just as he was about to enter, he froze. He remembered how those creatures were able to sustain themselves in the material world. Harry sang softly and a small film surrounded him, protecting him from any outside influence. Huh, that was a pretty interesting way to use his magic, which was very simple. The spell itself was surprisingly easier than he expected. He had no idea why that was the case, but he would worry about that later.

He took a step forward and smiled as his idea worked. Harry found no alien perception of the world or of magic and took a sigh of relief. Yes, his protections must have worked. He walked forward, easily bypassing the basic tests that Ekrizdis had put in place, finding himself illuminated by their true purpose. They were tests, but they were designed to measure someone's viability for Ekrizdis' plan. Whoever he planned on tricking would have to be magically proficient enough to take his place, and have a good understanding of magic, while also being intelligent enough to get to the tomb in the first place.

If Harry had to guess, Ekrizdis did this to stop poachers from finding this place and wanted a power-hungry or reckless scholar, to trick. It would have probably worked, if he hadn't overestimated the intelligence of most people. After all, he had created a veritable fortress for his experiments and the government of magical Britain used it as a prison of all things. Where he must have expected Azkaban to be a mysterious tomb that scholars and curse-breakers would have loved to explore, it became a government asset that no one would ever want to step foot into.

Without a doubt, Ekrizdis had failed, and now Harry had to deal with the consequences of that decision. Arriving at the now-dead man's tomb, Harry watched as Voldemort slumped, obviously in pain. He looked at the young wizard and let out a smile, "I assume that Ekrizdis is dead."

"He is. He put up quite the fight. I see that his death didn't free you from your binding," Harry responded neutrally.

Harry used his soul to check for any hidden magic and noticed the obvious binding that surrounded Voldemort. The Dark Lord promised his help, but he didn't specify how long it would take. Only Ekrizdis could say that the act was over, and with him dead, there was no one that could free Voldemort from his service.

The heir of Slytherin chuckled bitterly, "I should have listened to you, Potter."

Harry nodded, "You should have. To be fair to you, neither of us expected a verbal agreement to become binding using magic we didn't understand, but I did warn you. If something is too good to be true, then it probably is."

"I know. I was reckless. I was…"

The man didn't seem to finish the sentence, so, Harry did it for him, "You were scared. You became mortal for the first time in decades, and you couldn't risk shattering your soul making another Horcrux."

"It feels so meaningless. I'm technically immortal now, staying in this cave forever. This was my greatest desire, but I can't help but doubt if it was worth it. I'll forever be alone, for decades, maybe centuries. And then I'll be forgotten, just a meaningless name, a fake one at that. It was my deepest fear, you know. It was never about dying. It was about not being remembered, not mattering in the grand scheme of things."

"What about the Light and Dark?" he asked

The Dark Lord chuckled bitterly, "Don't get me wrong, I hate them with a passion, the destruction they brought. But my obsession with killing them was never about justice, not really. I wanted to be known as the man who destroyed the Light and Dark, who subjugated them for an eternity, who would use their power to create a new world, a better world. And here, look at me. There's no escape from this. I now have the power to achieve my dream, but I have lost my freedom to do so. Don't bother, I took some time analysing my bindings. There's nothing either of us could do."

Harry didn't have the heart to tell him that his access to Solomon's magic was completely bound to this place and that even if he had found a way out, he wouldn't be able to do shit against Dumbledore or Grindelwald. It would have been cruel, after all.

Seeing Voldemort there, seemingly as calm as possible while also being regretful. It reminded Harry of Tom Riddle; the boy he killed to become this monster. Even with his soul torn off, there had to be something of Tom beneath the hate, anger, and fear.

Maybe it helped that Voldemort looked human and not like some gross serpentine thing, but he had never been so human. It was a shame that it took being practically enslaved and imprisoned for an eternity to do that.

Curious, Harry asked, "Do you have any regrets?"

"A few, perhaps. I regret attacking the Longbottom boy, that was foolish of me. I regret ever coming to this place and falling for Ekrizdis' tricks. Perhaps I should have made sure that my Diary didn't have so much autonomy. But the path I have taken, it was mine, and I would not change it for anything. Who knows, maybe after a few centuries I'll figure out how to escape this place. Perhaps, this is not the end of Lord Voldemort."

Why did he have to say that? He was never going to stop, was he? This man had destroyed lives, waged a useless war while being used as a pawn and yet regretted only the outcome, not what he had done. To be fair, his sense of morality was skewed, to say the least, and there was no use for the recklessness or the madness.

With a heavy heart, Harry knelt down to look Voldemort in the eye and murmured, "I'm sorry."

Voldemort's face turned to confusion before morphing into pain as Harry stabbed him in the heart with a dagger of ice, in which he channelled the resurrection stone.

It was the right thing to do. Lord Voldemort had proven during their brief time together, that he'd make reckless decisions without consulting him. Even if he wasn't bound, Harry knew that their partnership wouldn't have worked out, and he would have become more of a liability than an asset.

But the fact that he was bound also mattered. If Voldemort still lived, there was every chance that Dumbledore would find him, and Harry would have essentially made his job even easier, a prepared lamb for slaughter for his final ritual.

Killing Voldemort before the task was always a path that Harry had been considering. So far, he had only stayed his hand because of Vlad's help, and the prospect of having a powerful ally against the Champions on Light and Dark.

The Dark Lord's red eyes slowly lost their meagre light, the hatred constantly burning inside them finally extinguished. He couldn't even wish Riddle better luck in his next life, for he would experience no reincarnation, he would remain in the void for an eternity, alone, suffering. He had broken Death's rules and now he had to pay the price. Fancy soul magic or not, there was nothing Harry could do to stop that.

It should have been a victory. Lord Voldemort's death over a decade prior had been celebrated by an entire country, so much so that it threatened to break the Statute of Secrecy, with Neville Longbottom becoming a national celebrity.

And yet, all Harry could feel was emptiness. The man was a monster, he knew that for a fact, but he couldn't help but mourn the potential that would never be realized, the boy that the monster used to be. Tom Riddle was a brilliant young wizard who could have saved the world, and all that remained was the husk of a man who did his best to throw away everything that made him human.

Of course, Harry didn't get to contemplate too much, after all, he had just broken a prophecy, after all. He liked to think that if Voldemort would have liked to die, he'd have liked to have done it as a final 'fuck you' for Dumbledore. There was something very satisfying about destroying the former headmaster's decades worth of planning. After all, with this gone, all the crap he did with the boy who lived, all the manipulations, the boy he was planning on martyring, all of that became entirely meaningless.

The magical release of the broken prophecy pulsed, and the young wizard used the Elder Wand to absorb it all, every single drop. He brought Voldemort into his realm momentarily to make sure that there wasn't any bleed-through, and that Nidhogg wouldn't use the energy to make his tear in reality even bigger.

Harry grabbed the book in Voldemort's hand, the Grimoire he had come to retrieve, and slowly walked out of the cavern, and back into the breach. He was able to overwhelm whatever spacetime anomalies there were with the sheer power of the prophecy and found himself in front of a familiar small pool of black tar that covered Nidhogg's breach.

It would probably take a few years for the breach to fully close without anyone actively sustaining it. But that was more than enough for some idiot to mess things up, and Harry had enough. Harry would not risk it.

With a flick of his wand, he directed the magic stored inside it and commanded the breach to close. The entity quickly realized what had happened and was fighting, but Harry had a prophecy's worth of magic behind him. His goal was to undo everything that Ekrizdis had ever done, destroying his legacy. It took a while but the defences protecting the material realm from outside influence finally activated and helped Harry close the breach, including any form of space warping involved, this meant that the dementors would also perish. He didn't see anyone protesting that.

With that done, Harry started to sing, taking over Azkaban one meter at a time, destroying whatever taint. He released a gigantic pulse of light which destroyed whatever corrupted creatures remained, and the entire island was reduced to rubble.

Azkaban was finally destroyed, the ambient magic surrounding it having lost its taint, and he could feel the world itself be grateful for it. No one would know what he did that day. No one would know of the threat he had just disposed of.

With that done, Harry just felt drained and exhausted. He knelt, watching his handiwork. As he was contemplating his choices, the Grimoire in Harry's hand burst into motes of golden light that morphed into a familiar form once more. From the look in his eyes, Harry knew who it was, the otherworldly detachment and wisdom were more than enough to make a very educated guess, "Solomon, I'm guessing. Are you actually going to speak this time, or are you going to vaguely guide me somewhere else too?"

Yeah, maybe Harry was a little irritable. Perhaps it was a stupid idea, but he was out of fucks to give. Funnily enough, that seemed to amuse Solomon more than anything, given the small upward twitch of his lips, "Yes, young hero, I believe it's time for us to have a proper conversation."

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AN: So, Voldemort is finally dead. I liked the idea of Voldemort getting what he wanted in some twisted way, and I thought about leaving him (there was a twist in the future) but I changed my mind. A part of me thinks that I was a bit too hasty with killing Voldemort like I should have added more build-up to it, but a part of me likes that it was sort of sudden. I hope it came out well, so, as usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.