NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 100: Black Family Mansion
Harry Potter Universe, Flamel Cottage
Universal Time: January 10th, 1989
Time until Hun and Po souls are deemed suitable by the laws of the Harry Potter Universe to learn structured HP magic: July 31st, 1991
Harry's Physical/Mental/Emotional Maturity: 13 years old
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The next morning came with a light drizzle that made the garden smell like wet earth and roses. Harry finished his breakfast quickly, eager to visit the Black family mansion for the first time. He'd heard stories about the building from Sirius, most of them rather unflattering, but he wanted to see it for himself.
Nicolas appeared in the kitchen wearing formal dark blue robes. "Ready to go?"
"Almost!" Harry ran upstairs to grab his dragon-hide belt. He checked that his pouch was secure, then touched Chrysa's Premier Ball to make sure she was comfortable inside.
Everything felt right.
Harry ran back downstairs to find Perenelle waiting by the door. She straightened his collar and brushed some invisible dust off his shoulders.
"Now remember to be polite to Lord Black," she fussed. "And don't forget to eat something if they offer refreshments… you need to keep your strength up after consuming that heart yesterday."
"Yes, Mum," Harry smiled at her mothering. The word slipped out naturally, and Perenelle's eyes went wide before she pulled him into a tight hug.
"Oh, my little artist..." she squeezed him close. "Be safe, okay?"
"I will." Harry hugged her back just as tightly. "And I'll paint you something nice when I get home."
Nicolas cleared his throat from the doorway. "We should get going. Arcturus Black isn't known for his patience."
Perenelle released Harry reluctantly and wiped her eyes. "Go on then. And Nicolas, make sure he-"
"Yes, yes, I'll watch over him," Nicolas waved his hand. "Come along, Harry."
They stepped outside into the drizzle. Nicolas pulled out a small silver compass and held it out. "This portkey will take us directly to the Black Family Mansion. Grab on."
Harry touched the compass, and Nicolas spoke the activation phrase: "Toujours Pur."
The world twisted and compressed around them. Harry felt the usual hook of teleportation magic behind his navel as they were yanked through space. When everything stabilized, they stood before tall iron gates with the Black family crest worked into the metal.
The gates opened without a sound.
There was a long and well-maintained gravel path that was bordered by neat hedges. The mansion at the end of the path looked exactly like what Harry would expect from one of Britain's oldest magical families… a large stone building with multiple wings added over generations. Some sections were clearly newer than others, built with different types of stone as the family expanded their home through the centuries.
Just looking at it gave him the vibe that the Malfoy family must've copied this the style of this mansion…
"Master Flamel and Young Master Potter!" A squeaky voice called out. A house elf wearing a clean black uniform with silver trim appeared in front of them. "Lord Black awaits you in the main library. Please follow Tippy!"
They walked up the path, gravel crunching under their feet. The front of the mansion had wide steps leading to heavy wooden doors. Harry noticed old spell marks on some of the stones, maybe remnants of past magical conflicts that hadn't been completely repaired?
Inside, the entrance hall was bright and airy, with tall windows letting in natural light. Family portraits hung on the walls between the windows, and Harry caught snippets of conversation as the portraits discussed his arrival.
"Young Potter!" One portrait called out. "You have your grandmother Dorea's chin!"
"And Charlus's nose!" Another added.
Tippy led them up a curved staircase to the second floor. The carpet muffled their footsteps as they walked down a long hallway lined with bookshelves. They stopped at a set of double doors made of dark wood.
She knocked three times, and the doors opened to reveal a large room filled with books and scrolls. Arcturus Black looked up from a desk covered in old texts.
"Ah, right on time!" He stood to greet them. "Welcome to the Black Family Library, young Harry. We have much to discuss."
Arcturus gestured to comfortable chairs near a large window. "Please, sit. Tippy, bring us tea and those excellent scones you made this morning."
The house elf beamed at the praise and disappeared with a soft pop.
Harry settled into one of the chairs, noticing how the window offered a clear view of the emotional aurora flowing across the sky.
"Beautiful and terrible at the same time, isn't it?" Arcturus followed Harry's gaze. "The Ministry's been flooded with reports. Magical communities are adapting, we understand what we're seeing, can prepare our children. But the muggleborns..." He shook his head.
"What's happening to them?" Harry turned away from the window.
"Imagine being six years old," Arcturus stapled his hands together. "You see rivers of pure emotion in the sky, feel joy or sorrow when the colors shift. But your parents see nothing. Your teachers see nothing. When you try to explain, they think you're hallucinating. Even if they by chance glance at the correct part of the sky… they might just wave it off."
Nicolas nodded grimly. "We've received concerning reports. Muggleborn children being taken to mental health facilities, prescribed medications..."
"Three cases last week alone," Arcturus growled. "Well-meaning muggle parents trying to 'help' their children by subjecting them to treatments that do nothing except cause suffering. And that's not even counting the ones too scared to tell anyone what they see!"
Tippy returned with a tea service and a plate of warm scones.
"This is why the old families have always advocated for early identification and relocation," Arcturus continued as he prepared his tea. "Not out of hatred or prejudice, but from centuries of watching magical children suffer needlessly in the muggle world."
"But separating children from their parents..." Nicolas frowned.
"Is sometimes necessary for their safety and wellbeing!" Arcturus set his cup down harder than necessary. "We have traditions, techniques passed down through generations for helping young wizards and witches control their developing powers. Methods of emotional regulation, understanding of magical theory... these aren't just customs, they're survival techniques!"
He stood and walked to a nearby shelf, pulling out a thick leather-bound book. "Which brings me to why I asked you here today. The nature of magic itself seems to be changing. New phenomena appearing worldwide. We need to understand the risks of experimental magic now more than ever."
Harry accepted the heavy tome from Arcturus. The pages were filled with neat handwriting documenting various magical experiments. Many entries ended abruptly with notes like "experimenter deceased" or "permanent transformation - mercy killing required."
"Let me show you something," Arcturus drew his wand. "A relatively simple spell created by my great-grandfather..."
With a quick flick of his wand, Arcturus cast a spell that created a small shadow on the floor. The shadow moved independently, following an invisible path before stopping to make a rude gesture at Nicolas.
"Seems harmless enough, right?" Arcturus smiled without humor. "A simple prank spell meant to annoy siblings. My great-grandfather created it when he was fourteen. Want to guess what happened?"
Harry watched the shadow do a cartwheel. "Something went wrong."
"The shadow started absorbing light," Arcturus nodded. "Grew larger each time. By the time anyone realized the danger, it had consumed half the room. Two of my great-grandfather's cousins tried to banish it... the spell backfired. The shadow merged with their own shadows, started eating away at their magic. They lived for three more days before..."
The shadow disappeared with another wand movement.
"That's why we document everything," Arcturus pulled out more books from the shelves. "Every failure, every accident, every unexpected reaction. Magic responds to intent, yes, but also to the structure of reality itself. And right now, that structure seems to be changing."
Nicolas nodded solemnly. "The emotional aurora..."
"Is just the visible symptom," Arcturus spread several books across the table. "Look at these reports from the past week. Spells behaving differently, potions producing unexpected effects... even the ghosts at Hogwarts have noticed minor changes in how they interact with the physical world."
Harry picked up one of the books, reading an account of a simple cleaning charm that had somehow transformed a witch's entire house into soap bubbles. The witch survived, but the house...
"And that's just from established spells!" Arcturus ran a hand through his grey hair. "Creating new magic has always been dangerous, but now? We're seeing effects that defy all previous understanding. Odd anomalies..."
As if to emphasize his point, Harry suddenly felt that strange disconnect again. Like the world skipped a beat, or maybe his perception jumped ahead without him. The sensation passed quickly, but left him feeling unsettled.
"Something fundamental has changed," Arcturus continued. "The very fabric of magic itself seems to be... stretching. Adapting to new possibilities. And we need to understand these changes before-"
The time distortion hit again, stronger this time. Harry saw ghostly afterimages of everyone in the room, moving slightly out of sync with reality. His Elder Blood stirred, responding to the temporal instability.
"Harry?" Nicolas noticed his expression. "What's wrong?"
"I think..." Harry started to answer, but the world TWISTED around him.
Everything blurred into streaks of color and light. He caught glimpses of other places, other times - the library empty and dusty, the library full of people in strange clothes, the library burning while spells flew through the air...
Reality shattered like glass, and Harry found himself standing in Hogwarts' Great Hall. But something was terribly wrong. Bodies lay everywhere - professors, students, friends... all dead. The air felt heavy with invisible poison.
A figure stood among the bodies. Harry recognized him instantly, an older version of himself, holding Grandpa Dumbledore's wand. The man looked... broken. Not physically, but in a deeper way that made Harry's soul ache.
"No..." Harry breathed. "What... what happened here?"
Future Harry's eyes dimmed as he looked at his younger self.
"The end of everything," Future Harry answered quietly. "But maybe... maybe not your everything."
"I don't understand." Harry stepped forward, careful not to look too closely at the bodies. "How did this happen?"
"Nuclear weapons," Future Harry spat the words. "Humanity's crowning achievement in destruction. Bombs that poison the earth itself, that kill everything for generations. Even magic couldn't stop the radiation."
He knew about nuclear weapons from his time with the Dursleys, had seen documentaries about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But this... this was beyond imagination.
"There has to be a way to-" Harry started, but stopped as his eyes darkened.
[Laws Of Physics-san Went On A Vacation – A Wild Last Boss Appeared!] – Costs 0CP, 100CP available to spend.
In the world that you originally came from, people were subjected to the laws of physics, a set of rules and constants that govern reality that dictated that most of the things that you would see in this document are impossible. Of course, when the Goddess made the universe that hosts Midgard with a small portion of her power, the Laws of Physics-san was fired and instead it got replaced by the Laws of Fantasy.
What does this mean? You see, in Midgard there are quite a few people capable of breaking through the speed of light quite constantly without causing nuclear fusion, girls with regular weight are capable of going around tossing mountains, and when they grab these colossal objects, they don't collapse under their own weight. Now, these same rules apply to you and your companions too at your own discretion.
It seemed harmless, and there was no way he wouldn't accept this. Harry accepted… but the moment he did, Future Harry's body started dissolving into motes of light.
"NO!" Harry reached for him, but his hands passed through the disappearing body.
"It's alright," Future Harry smiled, actually smiled. "This timeline... it was already dead. But you..." His expression became urgent. "Listen carefully. The worlds I visited? One of them had legends of the Sharingan. When you achieve these eyes naturally... merge them with these!"
Future Harry ripped out his own eyes - eyes with a strange star-like pattern - and PUSHED them into Harry's Hun Soul. What he felt was… indescribable.
"Remember..." Future Harry's voice faded as his body disappeared completely. "You can still..."
The rest was lost as reality fractured again. Harry saw flashes - a military command center where people screamed about phantom Soviet attacks, a CIA office where someone laughed about 'The Cleansed', a Russian facility filled with cooling bodies...
The world spun, and suddenly Harry found himself in a peaceful grove. A young Indian man sat cross-legged under a tree, meditating quietly. When Harry tried to read him with his soul-level danger sense, he got... nothing. Not safety, not danger, just... emptiness.
"Welcome, traveler," the man spoke without opening his eyes. "I am Siddhartha. I felt Time's disturbance and came to meet whoever would arrive."
"I..." Harry started, but Siddhartha raised a hand.
"Your mind churns like a stormy sea," he said simply. "Sit. The ground is quite comfortable."
Harry hesitated, then settled onto the grass.
"Time flows strangely around you," Siddhartha observed. "Like a river meeting the ocean, where salt and fresh water create unexpected currents."
Harry's soul instinctively tried to read the man again, but still found that peculiar emptiness. Not void or absence, but a state beyond such measurements…