Herpo the Foul reached out and grabbed the Basilisk Staff.
Then, slowly, looking right into Darth Vader's hidden eyes, he got up.
Surrounded by deafening noise and pure destruction, the two Above the Pillars existences stared at each other, standing merely two feet apart.
The world lost its breath.
"As long as you are not from my Bubble," Herpo the Foul said, "you… are also an Outsider. And I… I loathe your kind, Darth Vader. Especially yours… Inquisitor. Huh… Inquisitor… like the sound of that word, don't you? Let me tell you how it sounds to me. Dog. A tailless dog. That's what you are. That's what you have made yourself by accepting those bastards' authority over you. You do not mourn for anyone? Haha… Perhaps… Perhaps you should. You should mourn for yourself."
Darth Vader breathed in and out.
"Under the rules of Inquisition, as written in the Grand Old Contract," he said, holding his lightsaber tighter, "I command you, Herpo the Foul, to come with me as both a witness and, now, an offender. Once we have taken your statements, you will be judged as per…"
Herpo the Foul stepped closer, the wind and rain barely passing between them.
"No," he hissed. "I do not accept you, your Masters, and your Contract… dog."
The downpour that had drenched the entire planet suddenly paused.
All the raindrops, the ones that were condensing in the clouds, the ones suspended between heaven and earth, and the ones almost melting into the mud… all halted, hanging listlessly in spacetime.
The fire lost its momentum as well, its fiery tongues pausing in the picturesque scene of lashing out.
Even the wind, both booming like hypersonic jets and blowing gently like breaths, halted.
Instantly, the temperature dropped.
From wind to stones, from seas to lava, from fields of mud to blankets of clouds, everything began freezing on the planetary level.
However, instead of gaining a frosty appearance, the planet gained a different color.
A monochrome, grayish hue that took over everything… with Vader's one thought.
Dark Cosmos —
Magic ceased to exist.
Spirituality ceased to exist.
Life, in all its forms, ceased to exist.
All the laws that governed the functions, from living to dead, from animate to inanimate, were shredded to pieces.
— Concept Nullification!
Darth Vader lifted his lightsaber in that frozen, grey node of time and hacked.
The Harry Potter world was a world of Magic.
Take that away from its Characters, and what would they have left?
There was no need to exert more power than that, Vader believed. It wasn't as though he wanted to kill the serpent. As an Inquisitor, his first and foremost duty was to see to the Inquisition's completion, not… acting on his anger.
However, the moment the fuming red lightsaber was about to scorch through the serpent's torso, something odd happened.
Herpo the Foul's entire body gained a… trail.
It was like there were many of him, standing behind him, becoming transparent as they went on.
The lightsaber landed on the wizard and cut through absolutely nothing but frozen, gray space.
In the very next moment, those trailing images of Herpo the Foul vanished.
A hiss pervaded the seams of the dimension, as the green, serpent-like eyes of the Legendary Wizard narrowed, becoming needles.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A green-hued force exploded out of Herpo the Foul.
Nothing could prevent it from shooting up and around, engulfing the entire planet instantly, not even the Concept Nullification.
It was no Magic.
It had nothing to do with Spirituality.
Life? It contained no such phenomenon, either.
It was the Will — of a Conqueror of Timelines; of a man… who had lost his everything.
The Will pushed back Darth Vader as if an entire world had slammed into him, his feet dragging farther and farther, skidding over the mud, stones, and chasms alike.
Herpo the Foul stepped forward, his narrowed eyes spewing not only his Will, but also his fury.
"I… hate you…" The Legendary Wizard drawled. "I… despise you… I loathe the way… the way you stand there as if you are better than me… No. NO!"
Every word that came out of Herpo the Foul's mouth blasted right into Vader's body, pushing him back and back by miles. His armor rattled with those blows, electric sparks dancing here and there. Even mountains and volcanoes couldn't stop him, his body blasting right through them.
Those blows didn't leave him, though.
They rested on his shoulders, bending his waist and knees.
Slowly, the tip of his lightsaber kissed the earth, leaving behind a scorched trail as the blows of Will pushed him back by another hundred miles.
Vader, with his legs bent and his knees merely inches above the earth, resisted the weight and looked up.
Despite the hundreds of miles between them, he could see the wizard, just as the wizard could see him.
Herpo the Foul ground his teeth, the corners of his eyes splitting apart.
A drop of blood trickled from his eyes, the hate in them becoming… Fury.
"How dare you…" Herpo the Foul let his Mysteries run amok, "…come into my home and threaten me… you soulless asshole…"
With a low hiss, and with a rhythmic hum, a pulse of that Fury slithered out from him, becoming one with the Will, becoming almost… tangible.
It shredded the very color of gray that had frozen everything.
It shredded spacetime, disintegrating it into Nothing.
Far into the distance, Vader sensed the Fury come for him, like the lightsaber of his Master… eons ago.
That was not the memory he had expected to recall.
Dark Cosmos —
Darth Vader stretched out his left hand, holding the Fury by its throat, just like he had done to his Master.
And, with one last breath, he choked it.
— Singularity Choke!
Silence.
It started with that.
In the very next instance, the planet ceased to exist, becoming a point of mass.
And when it exploded, Fury and Anger spilled out, becoming a wave of destruction; a wave that continued to lay waste to planets one after another before reaching the Sun.
Slowly, the lights went out.
Quietly, one of the infinite Key timelines in the Harry Potter Bubble…
… vanished.
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