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Aqua's Folly

Chapter 3: The Graveyard Shift

Summary:

Harry meets back up with Wiz and they start work in the Graveyard.

Notes:

Wanted to get Archive of Our Own caught up to where Fanfiction is with this story. Since it was only two chapters behind, I figured I'd do a double-post today

Chapter Text

Harry got to the graveyard at the edge of town about an hour later. The woman from the store, Wiz (he assumed based on Luna’s information), was sitting under a tree meditating. As he approached, she opened her eyes to look at him.

“Luna says hello,” Harry said, breaking the silence.

“Oh, I forgot to visit her lately,” Wiz admitted sadly, “I’ll have to do that when I can spare some time away from the shop. Did you get registered?”

“Yes, I’m a battlemage. Luna said the class can both learn Magic and non-magical combat skills.”

“That sounds useful. I’ll need to show you some spells some time.”

 Harry couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that, “Why?”

“Well, I can’t really afford to pay you for your help in coinage, so I need to find other ways to pay you.”

“I mean why do you want my help? I’m just a kid?”

“Yet you’ve already experienced much more than many will in their entire lives. Like me you cursed yourself to achieve a goal. For you it was to escape and thus get revenge on your enemies by denying them what they wish. For me it was to save my friends and get vengeance on the pervert who decided to curse us with death. Both of us will be dealing with our curses forever more and it gets lonely after a while.”

Harry was about to say something then he paused. He hadn’t had any friends before Hogwarts, Dudley had seen to that. At Hogwarts, he had gotten a couple. Granted he knew at least one of them wasn’t a good friend but there had been times where Harry had ignored those signs and just focused on enjoying the chess match or the book being read in front of him. He found himself missing those things last year when the school thought he was the Heir of Slytherin. If he was extremely honest with himself, he would probably get lonely eventually…when the pain from last year faded a bit more.

“We’ve got a little longer before night falls. You should connect with your Magic and try to get your gear to come to you. This tree is a good spot for that.”

He moved next to her and sat down. He closed his eyes and focused on his mindscape. It was something that he had created after he had read a book that his roommate Neville Longbottom had accidentally dropped. It was one of those things that Neville’s grandmother had sent him to help her grandson’s memory. His mindscape was Redwall Abbey. It had been one of the few books that, despite being fantasy, hadn’t been thrown out by the Dursleys as despite the talking animals there was no magic and thus acceptable in their minds. It took him a few minutes to go to the armory where he found Gryffindor’s sword in addition to the usual weapons and Martin the Warrior’s sword. He reached out to touch the sword. 

He found himself back in the actual world. In his right hand was a new sword. Instead of the large (and for Harry unwieldy) sword that Harry remembered from the Chamber of Secrets, it was something else. The blade had been changed from thick at the base and narrowing into a point after a good two feet of length, to having the entire length of the blade (about a foot) be the same width before it finished into a point. The handle had also been replaced with something smaller. Instead of the large cross-shaped grip, it now had only enough room for a single hand to hold and the handle was now mostly covered in some sort of metal netting with the rubies glistening around it. The only part of the handle not covered was the part that his hand was currently using to hold the weapon. Harry had no idea what this type of sword was called but had a feeling that he’d be annoyed with himself once he learned the name. It felt better in his hands than it had in the Chamber.

“That took you less time than I thought,” Wiz admitted, “Though perhaps that’s because the sword wants to be with you rather than where it was.”

That was probably true considering Dumbledore had mentioned hanging it up on a wall.

“I know that I already explained why we’re here in a general sense, but my explanation was a bit incomplete. You see, after a person dies their soul tends to linger especially if their body is mostly intact unless one of the Eris priests does the farewell ritual that sends the soul on. Unfortunately, the poor souls in this cemetery did not have the funds needed to pay for the ritual to be performed after their deaths. In theory, such things shouldn’t matter to the priests but even they aren’t immune to needing money. We’re here to send the souls on so that we can prevent the really old corpses from becoming zombies.”

“So, we need to head toward the oldest part of the graveyard that you haven’t done yet, right?”

Wiz blinked, “Ummm yes. We do. Now where is that…”

She paused to look around the graveyard.

“Well, if the people here are as lazy as they are where I am from, they probably buried people closest to the city first then moved further away. We can confirm that by looking at the dates on the grave markers.”

“That’s good thinking…” there was an awkward pause, “I never asked your name.”

“You can call me Harry.”

She smiled, “I’m Wiz but Luna already told you that. Well, let’s start the walk back. By the time we get there it should be dark enough for us to do the ritual.”

After half an hour they had gotten to the oldest part of the graveyard. From there they began sorting through the graves using Wiz’s Lich abilities to tell if a soul was still bound to the body in question or not. For every grave that no longer had a soul tied to it, Harry used his sword to make a small z in the gravestone. His reasoning was that while the z was unique enough that it wouldn’t be put there normally, it was easy enough for him to carve despite his inexperience with the sword and lastly it would not be easily traced back to either himself or Wiz should someone notice it. 

Overall, the task was pretty boring, but in this case boring was good. They managed to check about a fifth of the graveyard. While there were a few scores that needed to be sent on, there weren’t any zombies which Harry was thankful for. He was not sure that he could handle that kind of combat yet. He did keep hearing a very soft ding every now and then that he honestly wasn’t sure actually existed or not. That said, making the quick carving in the gravestones did get easier as the night progressed. The sword also got lighter as he carried it around. He was tempted to switch it to his other hand but with how the handle was set up, it wouldn’t be a good fit for his left hand. Eventually Wiz stopped walking and held up a hand.

“We should stop here,” she said softly, “The guards might take notice if we are out much later.”

Harry nodded.

“I’m going to teleport us back to my shop. You’re welcome to rest in the backroom if you’re feeling tired.”

“I should probably try to rest even if I don’t actually get any sleep.”

Harry heard another slight ding as he observed the teleport spell in action. Then the two of them appeared in a bedroom. Wiz looked around seemingly satisfied.

“The bathroom is through that door,” she said pointing at the door on the back wall, “The kitchen and living area is through there (she pointed at the opposite door) and the shop and tinkering station is down stairs. I’m going to make us a late-night snack. You go ahead and clean up.”

Harry nodded as Wiz walked off. He entered the bathroom and was confused by…well the lack of a tub or shower. Instead, there was a single stool and a pail of water. Harry used his magic to vanish the water and recreate it. Then he noticed the large soup ladle-like thing nearby. After a few minutes, he eventually figured out that he needed to use that to dump the water from the bucket over himself. He cleaned himself off then cast a scourgify on his clothes before redressing. Then he went around the bathroom cleaning it with the liberal use of vanishing spells and Scourgify charms. 

He left the room and went toward the kitchen where Wiz had just finished cooking a rather stereotypical western medieval meal (thankfully it wasn’t gruel). The two of them ate and Harry volunteered to clean up while Wiz took care of herself. Eventually both chores were done, and it came time for bed. At that moment Harry realized that there was only one bed.

“If you’ve got a blanket, I could sleep on the floor,” he offered.

Wiz shook her head, “There’s enough room on the bed for both of us.”

Harry couldn’t help the blush that came to his face, but he followed her orders. She got into the bed after him and wrapped an arm around him. Eventually they both fell asleep.