Ch489- Her
Harry shrugged. “Call it whatever you like. Cheat, secret weapon, imaginary friend in a suit. He is Magic’s Servant.”
“What does that even mean?” Hannah asked, frowning at Harry, then flicking her eyes back toward Nigel.
Harry gestured with his spoon. “Care to explain?”
Nigel sighed as though someone had asked him to polish the cutlery at a table for thirty. He flicked his hand and conjured an elegant chair from nothing, then sat down neatly, crossing one leg over the other.
“Well, at the beginning of time there were three entities.” Nigel started. “They weren't gods per se. Names came later, when lesser beings needed words. Call them what you will, they existed before everything. Belief is what gave shape to the rest.”
Susan frowned. “So people imagined things into being?”
“Not quite,” Nigel said. “But close. Once Magic, Death, and Time set the rules, everything that came after bent to belief. That is how sprites, fae, and every petty godling came about.”
Luna clapped her hands once, delighted. “That’s what Daddy said! The Crumple-Horned Snorkack will appear once enough people have faith.”
Pansy muttered, “Brilliant. So our universe is one big wishing well.”
Ginny rested her chin on her palm. “You’re saying Magic, Death, and Time are… real, alive, still about?”
“Very much so,” Nigel said. “And they play their games still. Their champions are the pieces on the board. One day, all of you will meet them in some form, though you may not know it at the time.”
Fred whistled low. “Sounds like a rotten chess match.”
George added, “Except the pawns complain more.”
Nigel stayed seated in the conjured chair, straight-backed as if the room were his drawing room instead of Harry’s. His voice carried clearly.
“I was Magic’s Servant. Legendary Ethereal Guardian of Immortal Nexus. If you prefer a shorter title, Nigel will do. Immortal Nexus is what you’d call Magic herself. And Harry”—he inclined his head toward him—“is her Champion.”
That set the room buzzing straight away.
Tracey let out a low whistle. “Merlin, Morgana, Grindelwald sharing bodies, and now you’re apparently Magic’s hand-picked bloke. You’re just stacking titles at this point.”
Harry grinned. “Looks good on a CV.”
Hermione’s eyes narrowed. “You’re saying Magic is a… person?”
“Not person. Entity,” Nigel corrected smoothly. “But close enough for conversation. Do not picture a witch with a wand. Think instead of the reason spells move when you whisper them. The fabric that holds it all together.”
Susan frowned. “And belief makes this happen?”
“Exactly,” Nigel said. “Belief is the most powerful force that ever existed. Your intent shapes spells. Entire faiths shaped spirits. And when enough minds pressed their will upon the void, it began to bend. That is why intent matters so much in spellwork, it is belief distilled into will.”
George leaned forward, biscuit still in hand. “So hang on. If belief makes things real, who believed first? If there was no one before, how did those three start?”
“Ah,” Nigel said, steepling his fingers. “The oldest question. How did an empty universe produce three entities without anyone to think them into shape? That mystery even the three have never explained.”
Hermione’s brow furrowed as she leaned forward. “Wait, some of what you just said lines up with Muggle science, but the rest doesn’t. It sounds half right, half nonsense.”
Nigel allowed himself a thin grin. “Are you certain, Miss Granger? Let’s test that. Tell me, what are the great forces of your precious science?”
Hermione didn’t hesitate. “Gravity. Electromagnetism. Strong and weak nuclear forces.”
“Precisely,” Nigel said, steepling his fingers. “And all of those? They are rules. Boundaries. Walls set up so matter doesn’t fly apart the second it tries to exist. Now, what happens when you remove the rules?”
“Chaos,” Hermione said quickly. “Entropy.”
“Entropy,” Nigel repeated, nodding. “The scientific mask for Death.”
That made a few people straighten.
Nigel continued smoothly. “Entropy is the law that everything falls apart. Stars collapse. Heat spreads. Systems break. Your kind dress it up as numbers and equations, but what is it really? Death, by another name.”
Susan gave a low whistle. “So Muggles worked out Death with chalk and blackboards?”
“They gave it symbols,” Nigel corrected. “But they never realised they were staring at Him.”
Hermione frowned deeper. “And Time? Physics has rules for that too. Relativity, time bends with speed and gravity. It isn’t an entity, it’s just—”
“A measurement?” Nigel cut in. “Then why does it never stop? Why can’t you freeze it, bottle it, reverse it? You can only ever move along its path, never step off. Your equations call it linear. I call it what it is. A leash.”
Luna tilted her head. “So if entropy is Death, and Time is… well, Time, then Magic’s the odd one out.”
“Magic,” Nigel said, “is the crack in the wall. Science calls it probability, chance, quantum this and that. They say it is particles dancing when no one’s looking. In truth? It’s the wild card. The force that refuses to stay inside its lines.”
Hermione’s hand went to her forehead. “This is absurd. Entropy isn’t a person. It isn’t alive.”
“Of course it isn’t alive,” Nigel replied evenly. “It simply is. And yet it acts with more certainty than anything else in existence. Your science proves its hand every day.”
The group fell quiet for a moment, weighing it.
Neville scratched the back of his neck. “So Harry’s… Champion of Magic?”
“Correct,” Nigel said.
“Lovely,” Daphne muttered. “As if he wasn’t insufferable enough.”
Harry smirked at her. “You picked me, Greengrass. Don’t complain now.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.
Fred pointed a finger. “So if he’s Magic’s Champion, does that mean he can just snap his fingers and—” He clicked them dramatically. “—poof?”
Harry shrugged. “If I could, you’d be wearing a tutu by now.”
George immediately checked his clothes. “Still trousers. Shame.”
The laughter that rolled through eased the edge off the topic, though Hermione still looked like she wanted to pull apart every sentence Nigel had said.
Astoria, quieter but sharp, leaned forward. “If Magic has a Champion… then Death does too.”
Nigel inclined his head once. “He does.”
“And Time?” Cho asked.
“Yes.”
The room stilled again.
Susan glanced at Harry. “And you reckon you’ve met them already, don’t you?”
Harry nodded. “I think I do. I’m certain about Death’s Champion, it’s Merlin. Or Nicholas. Or whatever name he’s decides to wear.”
That drew a few frowns around the circle, but no one interrupted.
“As for Time’s…” Harry paused, scanning the group. “Do you remember the vision Luna saw?”
A ripple of nods answered him. Luna’s usual smile slipped, her eyes going still for once.
“In that vision,” Harry went on, “we were fighting a man and a woman. Both of them commanded magic like it was nothing. I’m convinced they were Merlin and Morgana, two-faced creature. You can work out who’s that. But there was also someone else. A woman who moved before spells even left wands, who dodged because she’d already seen it.”
Every head turned towards Luna.
“Wait,” Susan said slowly. “Is she… Time’s Champion?”
Luna frowned, tilting her head. “Am I? If I am, I’d like to go back eight years so I could meet Harry earlier.”
Tracey groaned, dropping her head into her hand. Daphne rolled her eyes. Ginny snorted into her teacup.
Harry laughed. “No, Luna. You’re not. Time’s Champion used you to show us that vision. She knew I couldn’t take on Nicholas as I was, so she slipped you the sight to tip us off.”
Hermione’s eyes sharpened. “So that’s what you meant when you said the vision wasn’t random.”
“Exactly,” Harry said. He leaned back against the arm of his chair. “And I don’t think it was the only time. Remember the note in my room? The one that warned me Voldemort was raiding the Ministry? That wasn’t luck. That was her again.”
“That’s… mental,” Hannah muttered, exchanging a look with Susan.
“Practical,” Harry corrected. “Time’s Champion doesn’t have to fight. She just has to shift things at the right moment. Put a note in the right pocket. Tilt the board without anyone noticing.”
Fred let out a low whistle. “So we’ve got Merlin and Morgana on one side, Death’s lot. Harry, Champion of Magic. And then this mysterious seer playing for Time.”
Then, as if it dawned on them all at the same time, they all stared at him at once.
“Wait,” Susan said first, eyes wide. “You can’t mean her.”
Harry laughed, the grin spreading across his face as he leaned back in his chair. “Yes. I’m afraid, her.”
The room erupted in overlapping voices.
“No way.” — “You’ve got to be joking.” — “Bloody hell, Potter.”
Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose. “Harry. Absolutely not. You cannot be serious.”
Tracey twisted around in her chair, half laughing. “Oh, I love this. Tell me again, because I want to see Hermione’s face twice.”
Harry smirked, enjoying it far too much. "I am afraid, you guessed it... exactly right."
