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Master of Puppets

Author: USA Tiger

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowling and Puppet Master is the property of Full Moon Entertainment. I own neither.

Author Note: This is a little side project I’m working on and off of. It’s not a crossover I’ve seen as of yet and thought it could be fun. I’m mostly amused by the idea of Harry having a mini army of killer puppets and Voldie and his Death Eaters getting their butts handed to them by the puppets. This isn’t going to be one of my main series, I’m not even sure how well this is going to be received by you the readers (hopefully well but I don’t think Puppet Master is as well-known as other horror series like Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th) but if it is I plan on this being a side project to work on when I get writer’s block or something.

Hopefully everyone will enjoy this odd little crossover.

This story is now beta-ed by Tsuyu-the-Hanyou.

Timeline wise, this story falls around the start of the third Harry Potter book and a few years after Puppet Master Legacy. Puppets vs. Demonic Toys should be disregarded as that movie isn’t considered canon to the Puppet Master timeline.

Warnings: Only thing I can think of right now, since it’s a crossover with a horror series, is that this will be a bit of a violent fic. First chapters would be pretty PG-13 but later chapters would be rated higher maybe.

(update) A nice reviewer pointed out I spelled diary as dairy. That’s the problem with spell check, since it was a real word, it didn’t show that it was wrong. Anyway, the word throughout the fic has been fixed. (All other issues have been taken out by Beta)

Chapter 1

Harry Potter was always the curious sort, the urge had been stifled over the years of growing up with his abusive family, but when he was away from them, his cat-like curiosity came out. This, of course, was evident during his first two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as shown by trying to find out what was on the 3rd floor corridor or just what the strange diary found in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom was. Harry was just lucky that neither of these events led to his death, though it had come close, but it didn’t stop him from being curious about everything. He guessed it could be because he had to keep his head down, not to ask questions while living with his Aunt and Uncle, as that behaviour was frowned upon by the Dursleys.

So where did that curiosity lead to now? Exploring the shops of Diagon Alley at his leisure. It was the summer before Harry’s 3rd year at Hogwarts, he had been here a week since he accidently blew up his Aunt Marge, not his real aunt as she was his uncle-in-law’s sister, after she insulted his parents over and over again. He had run away from the house that night and accidently summoned the magical Knight Bus after getting the crap scared out of him by a large dog. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, had met Harry at the magical pub, the Leaky Cauldron, to assure the youth that he was not in trouble for blowing up ‘Large Marge’ and he was going to be allowed to stay at the Cauldron until it was time for him to return to Hogwarts.

This allowed Harry to fully explore the alley he was first introduced to when Hagrid, the Grounds Keeper at Hogwarts, had brought him here when he had turned 11 to shop for his first year at school. So far he had found several different types of stores that he didn’t even know were there before which led him to the one he was in front of now, peering through the slightly dusty window. It looked like some sort of second hand junk shop, Harry could see several different items inside that he had never seen before. It was enough to draw the curious boy inside to explore the new wonder.

Inside the junk shop it was cool, unlike the heat of summer outside. Harry walked around looking at the different items on display, passing a shelf with a doll like item dressed in black. As he passed the doll, it turned its head slightly to watch the boy. Harry stopped, feeling something watching him and quickly turned around.

“Hello?” He called softly as he looked for what was watching him. After a few minutes, Harry slowly relaxed, there didn’t seem to be anyone there. Sighing in relief, Harry glanced at the shelf beside him then quickly looked back when he noticed the doll. Tilting his head to the side, Harry reached over and gently picked it up. It was a little over a foot and a half tall, dressed in a black trench coat and wide brim hat. The doll had a gaunt white face and long white hair, and as Harry lifted the figure’s arms, he saw that instead of hands, it had a hook on its left arm and a knife blade on its right.

“See anything you like, young man?” A man’s voice asked from behind Harry. Harry yelped and quickly turned around, holding the doll close to his chest.

“I’m sorry! I wasn’t going to damage him or anything!” Harry quickly said. Behind Harry was an older wizard with thick white hair and a small neatly trimmed goatee.

“That is alright, mein freund.” The man said with a German accent. “I see you found one of Herr Toulon’s wondrous puppets.”

“He’s a puppet?” Harry asked as he looked down at the doll-like puppet in his hands. “He doesn’t have any strings.”

“Ja.” The shop owner agreed with a smile as he held out a hand. Harry gently handed the puppet over to the man who looked down at the puppet fondly. “This puppet, Herr Potter, was one of the marvelous Andre Toulon’s string-less puppets.”

Harry flushed slightly as the man called him ‘Herr Potter’, sometimes he forgot that everyone here knew who he was.

“Who was Andre Toulon?” Harry asked. The man smiled, looking down at the puppet again then handing it back to Harry.

“Andre Toulon was a world famous puppet master, he used to entertain children all over Europe during World War 2, that is until the Nazi’s attacked him and killed his poor wife.” The man shook his head slightly. “He fled to the Americans afterwards. I remembered seeing one of his puppet shows when I was a small child, still living in Germany. I am, what you say, a ‘Muggleborn’ and it was the first time I had ever seen magic.”

“Was Mr. Toulon a wizard?” Harry asked.

“I do not know, mein freund.” The elderly wizard said with a shake of his head. “I have never found anything about a wizard with the name of Toulon, if he was he did not let anyone know. But he must have been, for what he did with his puppets was pure magic.”

“Wow.” Harry said as he looked at the puppet in his arms again. At first glance you would think it was terrifying looking, what with the puppet all dressed in black with the bone white face and not to mention the hook and knife blade for hands. But Harry couldn’t help but feel drawn to it; appearance was only skin deep after all.

“Would you like to see the rest of Herr Toulon’s puppets?” The shop owner offered.

“Really?” Harry asked as he looked up shyly.

“Ja, come this way.” The wizard said with a smile, waving his hand for Harry to follow him. Harry was lead to the back of the store where an old green trunk stood. The wizard opened the latches on the side and opened the trunk for Harry to see.

“Wow.” Harry said as he knelt down to get a better look. Inside were five other puppets, one had a large drill on its head, the next was large-bodied with a small cone shaped head. In a small curtained off area, stood a puppet dressed like a jester and next to him was a girl puppet with long black hair. Lastly, there was also a puppet with six arms, dressed like an American cowboy. (1)

“They are wonderful, ja?” The wizard asked with a smile, watching as Harry gently picked up the jester dressed puppet. Harry noticed that the jester puppet’s head appeared to be horizontally split into three pieces.

“Where did you get them?” Harry asked.

“Well… I was travelling in America a year or so ago and I came across the trunk in an old hotel.” The wizard explained. “I recognized the puppets from my youth, this one right here,” he gently tapped the cowboy puppet, “had been in the puppet show I had watched, shooting at a puppet of Hitler. The hotel was to be torn down and no one wanted the puppets, so I brought them back here to my store.”

“Can… can I buy them Mr… err…” Harry asked as he looked up at the older wizard.

“Heinz, Herr Potter,” The man introduced himself. “Kasperle Heinz. Why do you want the puppets?”

“I… I don’t know. I just…” Harry trailed off, not sure how to explain it as he looked down at the first puppet that he had found on the shelves. Heinz smiled as he watched the boy with the puppets.

“Ja Herr Potter,” He said as he stood up. “I will sell Herr Toulon’s puppets to you. Perhaps you will find the magic that gave them life so long ago, once again.”

“Thank you.” Harry said with a bright smile.

“Wait a moment, ja? There is one more that goes with the rest of them.” Heinz said as he entered the back area of his shop. Harry looked down at the pale faced puppet again then at the rest of the trunk.

“I don’t know what I’m doing buying puppets but I’ll take care of you.” He whispered softly.

“Here we are, this one was also with the rest of the puppets in its own case, if you are going to buy them, might as well take him as well.” Heinz said as he came back with a small carrying case, opening it so Harry could see a puppet wearing a black leather coat and had a black featureless head.

A few minutes later, Harry’s coin purse was 4 galleons lighter and he was dragging the old trunk, which had a feather light charm cast on it by Heinz, towards the Leaky Cauldron.

****

That night Harry sat in his room in front of the open trunk, pulling the items inside of it out. The puppet with the knife hand stood on the table in Harry’s room watching the boy explore the trunk. On top of the trunk sat Harry’s beloved owl, Hedwig, who gave her master a questioning ‘Kree?’

“Aren’t they neat, Hedwig?” Harry said with a grin as he held up the large puppet with the pin head. “They used to belong to a puppeteer a long time ago. They’re a little strange looking but I think they’re neat.” He added as he eyed the puppet with the giant drill on its head. He put the puppet he was holding to the side and pulled out a couple of smaller posters from inside. Harry unrolled one that had the original owner’s name on the front and advertised a show called “Faust”. The poster showed a puppet that looked a little like Blade, with the same sort of face but it had no hair or hat, instead it had little curved horns on top of its head.

On the table, the puppet Blade watched the boy pull more and more out of Toulon’s trunk, the bullet-like spikes in his eye sockets, popping out. This was the youngest person ever to own him and his friends, he wondered if the boy would end up finding the elixir and bring the others back to life. Then he wondered if he even wanted the boy to. They weren’t nice puppets, they weren’t /bad /but they weren’t nice either. He and the others had killed in their long lives, sometimes violently under their bad masters. Blade reached up with his hook and pushed the brim of his hat up, should they corrupt what appeared to be an innocent child? Then again, how could he stop the boy? Blade was just thankful that Torch had been separated from the rest of them before they had been taken from the old hotel, the fire wielding puppet had no problems killing children and Blade wouldn’t have wanted the younger puppet to hurt or worse kill the child.

On the other side of the room, Harry pulled out a scroll and opened it, tilting his head as he looked at what appeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphics and wondered what it was doing in a trunk full of puppets. He shrugged and put the scroll to the side, then dug into a little side pocket, fishing out a hand written book. Flipping through the book, Harry saw little drawings of each of the puppets with their names in the corner.

“Tunneler, Six-Shooter, Leech Woman, Pin Head, Blade and Jester.” He named off as he flipped through the pages. He got up and walked over to the table so he could read what appeared to be a diary under the desk lamp. “So your name is Blade hmm? I guess that makes sense with your knife.” He said to the puppet. Hedwig flew over to rest on the back of the chair, appearing to read the diary over Harry’s shoulder.

Harry settled down to read Toulon’s words about how he made the puppets and his life as a puppeteer. One part of the diary, Harry had to read twice then blink at it in confusion.

“That can’t be right…” Harry said softly as he read the passage again. Toulon wrote about how, while in Egypt, he and his wife Elsa had been taught how to make an elixir that would give their puppets life and how he had brought his puppets to life. “He can’t have really brought them to life… it had to be a charm or something…” Harry felt eyes on him again and looked up surprised. The Blade puppet had moved so it was looking right at Harry.

“Yo-you’re not really alive are you?” Harry asked as he reached up to touch the puppet. Blade hissed and gently knocked Harry’s finger away. Hedwig hooted in alarm flapping her wings, Harry turning to soothe her then turned back to the puppet. “Oh Merlin, you really are alive!” Harry bit his lip, he remembered what happened with Voldemort’s diary the year before. The book had somehow been alive and had tried to drain his best friend Ron’s younger sister Ginny’s soul so that the younger Voldemort in the book could come to life. Harry glanced at the diary again, Toulon had written about how the puppets had /helped /him fight against the Nazis during World War 2, didn’t that make the puppets good? “You’re not going to hurt me or try to suck out my soul are you?”

Blade hissed softly and shook his head, watching as the boy relaxed slightly then gave him a curious look.

“Are the others alive then too?” Harry asked, looking over at the puppets by the trunk. Blade shook his head again, then pointed at the word elixir with the point of his blade. “They need their potion to wake up?” Blade nodded and watched as Harry walked over to the trunk to look for the elixir. Hedwig gave him a distrustful stare, ready to attack if she needed to protect her chick.

A few minutes later, Harry found a small box with two little bottles of glowing green liquid inside and an old fashioned syringe. He picked up the puppet called Jester and carried both items to the table. Finding the part of the diary on how to use the elixir, Harry filled the syringe up and carefully injected some into the puppet. Putting the syringe to the side, he sat back and waited to see what would happen, petting Hedwig’s chest feathers.

Blade watched as well, waiting to see his friend come back to life. After a minute, Harry was starting to wonder if the elixir didn’t work or if he hadn’t used enough when Jester started to move. The puppet sat up and looked around then scared Harry when all three parts of his head started to spin around quickly, Harry’s owl screeching in alarm again.

“Ohhh ooohhh.” Jester said as his head came to a sudden stop looking up at Harry, then over at Blade. The gaunt faced puppet patted Jester on the back with his hook as Jester climbed to his feet.

“Hmm… hi? My name is Harry.” Harry said.

“Ohhh.” Jester looked over the boy who was to be their new Puppet Master. Harry watched, amazed as the two puppets seemed to be able to communicate with each other, then bit his lip as he looked back at the trunk. He wanted to go ahead and wake up the rest of the puppets but he was still freshly reminded of what happened with Voldemort’s diary the year before and reached up to place his hand over where the scar, from the basilisk fang, was on his arm.

“Look, I think I need to contact the Headmaster of my school before I wake up the rest of your friends.” Harry explained. The two puppets looked at him and Harry bit his lip again. “It’s not that I don’t trust you but… last year at school my best mate’s little sister was given a diary by a bad man that somehow had a part of a really dark wizard in it and it tried to suck out her soul and kill me.”

Harry watched amazed as Jester’s face morphed into a shocked face with wide eyes and an open shocked mouth, one of the puppet’s hands coming up to cover it.

“Ohhh!”

At the same time, Blade’s mouth dropped open and the spikes in his eyes popped out.

“Yeah,” Harry said. “I don’t think you’re bad but… I really think I should tell someone first.” The teen watched amazed as the two puppets nodded their heads in agreement. “Thanks.”

Blade and Jester watched as Harry walked over to a trunk at the end of the bed in the room and took out some parchment, a quill and ink, then brought it over to the desk to write out the letter. Both of them were surprised and quite angry that someone had tried to suck out the soul of anyone, much less a child. Yes, both of them and the rest of the puppets also contained souls, but they knew what was going on and had allowed themselves to be placed in the puppet bodies after their human bodies had been killed by the Nazis. Hell, the puppets had killed one of their last masters, Dr. Mcgrew, for forcing his assistant, a human boy named Robert, into a puppet he called ‘Tank’, a name that had been taken from Robert’s nickname. That was hardly the first master they had killed, Blade and his friends had murdered many of their past masters, including a reanimated Toulon.

Not that they killed every master they had, when Toulon had originally been alive, they served him faithfully until the day he died, killing himself to keep the puppets and the secret of how they were alive, safe from the Nazis. Rick had almost been a kind master, he had treated the puppets like friends rather than tools and the puppets had been loyal to him. They had liked Mcgrew’s daughter Jane as well, Pinhead had a special place in his heart for the girl and she had adored him, but after they killed her father well… needless to say, the puppets were sent back to the hotel where Toulon had lived up until his death. Blade had no idea what had happened to the puppet ‘Tank’.

Blade thought it was good for the boy to be cautious after what happened to him the year before, as Harry finished the letter and attached it to the Snowy Owl’s foot.

“Take this to Professor Dumbledore, Hedwig.” Harry said as he carried Hedwig over to the window, opening it for his beloved pet. Hedwig lovingly nipped Harry’s ear then gave the two puppets a glare that said ‘Don’t you even think about hurting my chick’, then she launched off of Harry’s arm into the night.

****

Inside of his office at Hogwarts, Albus smiled happily as he dug a lemon sherbet candy dish on his desk. The summer so far had been peaceful, there had been the scare when Harry disappeared from his house but the resourceful boy had managed to make it safely to Diagon Alley where he was staying for the rest of the summer. Albus had been spending his time between looking into what sort of object the diary that Harry destroyed was, he was starting to lean towards it being a Horcrux, and arguing with Fudge about placing Dementors around the school in an attempt to catch Sirius Black.

He was not happy about those soul sucking monsters being around his students and neither was Poppy, the school nurse. They had ordered several boxes of chocolate, he had a feeling they were going to need it, and Severus was brewing an extra-large batch of calming potions.

On a positive note, Remus Lupin had finally accepted his offer to take up the Defense Professor post, he had been trying to convince the young werewolf to come to the school the last couple of years now. Now that Harry was quite aware of the magical world, Dumbledore thought that the boy would love to meet and talk with one of his parent’s friends. He just hoped that Remus would take his suggestion of getting to know Harry again.

Tap Tap

Albus glanced over his shoulder at one of the windows of his office, fluttering outside the window was Harry’s owl Hedwig. Wondering why the lad had decided to write him a letter, Albus waved his hand to wandlessly open the window.

“Kyrreee.” Hedwig landed on the desk in front of him and held out her leg. After gently removing the letter there, the owl didn’t stick around for a response and quickly took off again, wanting to get back to her master.

“Hmm, I wonder what the lad wants.” Albus mused to himself as he opened the parchment.

Headmaster,

Today while exploring the alley, I found an old junk shop and bought a trunk full of puppets that used to belong to a man named Andre Toulon. Sir, the puppets are alive! Or at least one of them was awake, I brought a second one back to life. I don’t feel as if the puppets are evil, but after what happened last year, I was wondering if someone could come and check. Blade and Jester, those are the two puppets, seem to approve of my decision. I’m in room 4-C at the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry Potter

“Hmmm… Toulon… Toulon…” Albus shut his eyes and used his occlumency to shift through the decades of memories. After a few minutes, he felt a memory nudge at the edge of his mind, a memory of a handsome young man and his friends performing a charming, if somewhat dark, puppet show. He also remembered hearing from some of his comrades during the war against Gellert that the Nazis had been after a man named Toulon for some reason. He wasn’t sure if it was the same young man though. “Living puppets hmm? Well Fawkes, my dear friend, shall we go see these puppets and young Harry for ourselves?”

Fawkes trilled beautifully, spreading his wings and flying the short distance to Albus’s desk as the man stood offering his arm for the phoenix.

“The Leaky Cauldron then, my friend.” Albus requested. Fawkes sang again as he fire flashed the both of them to England.

****

Back in his room as he waited for someone to show up, Harry spent his time setting up a couple of wizarding history books on the desk so Blade and Jester could look at them. He watched, amazed, as the two puppets seemed to be able to read, Jester turning the pages for the both of them. The puppets seemed to act like real people. They couldn’t speak, at most, Jester could make an ‘ooh’ sort of noise, but they acted like they understood everything Harry said to them, and they reacted to things inside of the books.

“Oohhh.” Jester was pointing at one of the pages of the book while looking up at Harry. He leaned over and winced when he saw it was about himself and the end of the last war.

“Yeah, that’s about me.” He answered. “I don’t know how much of that you can believe in. The wizarding world seems to have some strange ideas about me, they act like I’m some big hero. It was really my Mum who defeated Voldemort, not me. I’m just Harry, not this bloody ‘Boy-Who-Lived’ crap.”

Jester gave him a sad look, he seemed to understand that Harry didn’t enjoy being the ‘hero’ of the wizarding world. Harry was amazed that Jester’s face was able to change expressions like it did. He just had a wooden head after all, but somehow the puppet was able to look sad or surprised.

Knock-Knock

Harry turned toward the door as someone knocked, then turned back to the puppets.

“Hide until I see who it is.” He whispered. Blade and Jester quickly jumped off the table and hid themselves, peeking out of their hiding spots as Harry walked over to the room’s door. “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, my boy.” Dumbledore’s voice said from the other side of the door. Harry opened the door, seeing his Headmaster standing in bright blue robes covered in stars and clouds. Fawkes trilled a greeting from Albus’s shoulder.

“Headmaster.” Harry said as he opened the door wider for the elderly wizard to enter. Fawkes flew off of Albus’s shoulder to rest on Harry’s instead. “’ello Fawkes!” Harry said as he gently petted the phoenix’s chest feathers. Fawkes cooed and gently preened Harry’s hair with affection. Albus smiled and closed the door.

“Now, I believe you made some new friends?” He asked. Harry smiled and turned around.

“It’s ok, you can come back out. This is the Headmaster to my school.” Harry called. Albus watched as two foot-high puppets, slowly walked out, looking up at the old man. Blade’s eye spikes popped out as he wondered what the hell the man was wearing. “This is Blade and that one is Jester.” Harry said as he pointed to each puppet.

“I see.” Albus said. He walked over to the desk, tutting at the plain wooden chair, then transfigured it into a comfy arm chair that was a bright lime green. “Ah, much better.”

Harry laughed softly at the chair as Albus sat down with a content sigh.

“Now my little friends, if you don’t mind?” Dumbledore asked, waving his hand at the desk top. Harry helped both of them back up onto the desk, letting Fawkes walk down his arm to rest on top of the desk as well. The phoenix eyed both of the puppets who looked back at the scarlet-coloured bird, who knew that phoenixes were real after all? After a few seconds, Fawkes gave a soft trill and settled down contentedly.

Albus smiled, his familiar couldn’t sense anything evil about the two puppets, deeming them safe at the moment.

“This won’t hurt a bit, I just want to see…” Albus waved the Elder wand over both puppets, using a scanning spell over both of them to figure them out. Whatever brought them to life, it wasn’t any spell he was familiar with but the scan did show that they were both alive, to a certain extent. “Remarkable.”

“This was the diary inside the trunk.” Harry said, giving it to the older wizard. Albus took the diary and quickly glanced through it. Albus discovered that this Andre Toulon was in fact the very same young puppet master whose show he had watched years ago.

Albus read that one day a sorcerer from Egypt, a man named Afzel, had been found outside the theater. Afzel had stolen something called ‘the secret of life’ from the temple of the Egyptian god Sutekh, or a demon that claimed to be a god at least. Afzel had claimed that one day Sutekh and others like him would walk the Earth again and the spell he had stolen may be the only thing that could defeat them. The diary went on to say how Afzel taught Toulon the spell, which allowed the souls of the recently dead to enter the bodies of the puppets. The first puppet brought to life, housed the soul of a young beggar boy that Toulon had befriended but had died of a sickness. Afterwards, Afzel and 4 of Toulon’s friends were killed by Sutekh’s servants. Toulon had then used the spell to bring the rest of his puppets to life and had fought against the god’s servants.

Flipping through a few more pages, Albus saw how one by one, the original puppets ‘died’ and Toulon found himself unable to use ‘the secret of life’ anymore. He and his wife Elsa traveled to Cairo where they met an Egyptian magician who showed Toulon and his wife, another version of ‘the secret of life’, in the form of an elixir. The man taught the Toulon’s how to make the elixir, though what the formula was wasn’t written in the pages of the diary. From there it was just pages on the newest puppets and whose souls were housed in them. One thing Albus did see, was that the puppets always protected their Puppet Master.

/‘Hmm… Puppet Master… could this be the power Tom doesn’t know?’ /Albus wondered as he closed the book.

“Well sir?” Harry asked.

“Mr. Toulon was quite remarkable, you should take the time to fully read his diary, my boy.” Albus said as he placed the book back in Harry’s hands. “But the gist of it is, you are now the Puppet Master as you brought your friend here back to life.”

“Puppet Master?” Harry asked. Albus nodded, then gazed back at the two puppets on the desk.

“Yes, these two and I’m sure the rest of their comrades will follow you and protect you, am I correct?” Albus asked. He watched the two puppets nod in agreement. “Now, shall we awaken the rest of your little friends?”

Harry grinned and rushed over to the trunk where he gently picked up Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman and Six-Shooter. After laying each on the desk top, Dumbledore watched as Harry loaded more of the glowing green liquid into a syringe, then inject it into each puppet. It took several minutes but, one by one, the puppets started to move on their own and stand up.

“Hee hee hee.” Six-Shooter stood up and flexed his six arms while Pinhead happily greeted his fellow puppets.

“Hi.” Harry said with a smile as he stood in front of the desk. The newly awakened puppets looked up at the boy, all of them startled at how /young /their newest Puppet Master was. Tunneler looked over at Dumbledore, wondering if he was the new master, but Blade and Jester, in whatever way the puppets were able to understand each other, informed their friends that, yes, the boy is their new master. Leech Woman looked worried, he was just a boy! A child, what parent would give their child, creatures like them? “My name’s Harry.”

“Harry, my boy, it seems to be dinner time.” Albus said as he looked at his pocket watch with all the little planets around the outside. “Why don’t you take Fawkes with you and have Tom bring us up a nice full dinner?”

“Oh ok.” Harry said as Fawkes fluttered over from the desk to his shoulder. “Will they be ok?” he asked, looking at the puppets.

“I believe we’ll be fine, lad.” Albus said with a twinkle in his blue eyes. Harry looked back one final time over his shoulder then left with Fawkes gently cooing in his ear. Once the boy was down the hallway, Albus stood from the comfy chair and stood in front of the desk, looking down at the assembled puppets. “I do not understand the process that Mr. Toulon used to bring you all to life and in most circles what he did would be considered dark magic, but he seemed to believe that you all willingly allowed yourselves to be placed in these wooden bodies after you died.”

Albus saw one or two of the puppets nod their heads as he spoke. “As I thought. Mr. Potter and I will endeavor to protect you from wizards that would wish to cause you harm or use you to their own gain. I will be honest with you, young Harry has a hard destiny in front of him. The man who killed his parents is still out there, bodiless but no less dangerous. He had tried to regain a body of his own at least once already and I know one day, he will succeed in doing so. You must protect Mr. Potter with all your worth, there are those out there that wish to cause him great harm.”

The puppets reacted to this unseen threat to their master with displeased noises. Albus nodded his head in agreement. “Harry will have to face Voldemort one day. That is his fate, nothing can stop it. But he is taking you into a school full of children, all I ask is that you don’t cause harm to any of the students or staff within the castle… unless Harry’s life is in real, grave danger.” He quickly amended as he thought about the last two years where his defense teachers tried to kill or harm Harry and his friends.

“The man who betrayed Harry and his parents to Voldemort recently escaped our wizarding prison and is now coming after Harry. I believe all of you will protect Harry from any harm this man can do.” Blade and the others nodded, as long as Harry was a good master, the puppets would protect him willingly. Albus smiled, a part of him had been unsure of letting the puppets be around Harry. The process that made them, reeked of dark magic as it dealt with the soul, but something told Albus to trust the puppets. That Fawkes didn’t deem them a danger helped as well. And who would expect a bunch of puppets to be dangerous? This could be one of the best defenses Harry had, at least for a while.

The door opened at that time, a smiling Harry entering holding a small tray of drinks while Tom, the owner of the pub, followed behind with a floating tray full of food.

“’Ere we are Headmaster!” Tom said with a smile as he settled the tray on the desk. When the man had entered the puppets had frozen in place, not alerting the man that they were alive.

“Thank you Tom, it smells quite good. And is that a piece of lemon pie I see?” Albus said with a grandfatherly smile.

“Of course, knew you would like a piece.” Tom said. “I’ll return for the plates later, lad. Eat up, you’re all skin and bones.” He ruffled Harry’s messy black hair, then exited the room.

“Mister Potter, I must stress that you keep your friends a secret as much as possible.” Albus said once the door was closed and he helped himself to some of the stew in one of the bowls.

“Ok, but why Professor?” Harry asked.

“Some people may not understand your new friends here.” Albus explained. “It’s really for their protection. I will understand, of course, if you desire to introduce them to Mister Weasley and Miss Granger, but to everyone else they are just puppets that have an animation charm on them. Do not let anyone else know they are alive if you can avoid it.”

“Alright, I understand.” Harry said. He didn’t want the puppets taken away from him.

“Good, good, now… tell me what sort of things have you been getting up to in the alley?” Albus asked with a twinkle in his eye.

****

That night as Harry slept peacefully in his bed, Hedwig perched on the headboard, after her return flight from Scotland, with her head tucked under her wing, the puppets conversed among themselves in a way only they could understand.

‘Are you sure this is wise?’ Jester asked Blade, all of the puppets glancing over at the sleeping teenager. ‘/He’s just a kid. Should he really get tangled up with us?’/

‘Do we have a choice?’ Blade asked. ‘/Whatever magic that Andre used to bring us to life has us bound to the next puppet master that awakens us.’/

‘He is a child, but I think he’s seen more than anyone his age.’ /Leech Woman commented, her little hands smoothing back Harry’s hair from his forehead. When she had been alive, she had been the daughter of an ambassador from Switzerland named Elsa and had met her future husband, Andre, after sneaking out of the house she lived in with her father to see Paris’s nightlife. She had been kidnapped by servants of a demon who wanted to kill Andre for his secret for bringing his puppets to life, different from the puppets she called friends now. Instead of going back to her father, Elsa had followed Andre and married him soon after, helping him with his puppet shows. She, like Andre, had been given the secret formula by the Egyptian wizard that allowed herself and the current puppets to be alive. She and her husband had travelled all over Europe entertaining people, mostly children, with their puppets. During the Second World War as their friends were killed by the Nazis, they transferred the souls of their dear friends into the puppets Jester, Tunneler and Six-Shooter. Later, Elsa herself, would be murdered by the Nazis who wanted the secret behind the puppets and then brought back to life by Andre in a puppet he had made for her named Leech Woman once her soul was inside. Elsa and Andre never had children of their own, so Leech Woman had a soft spot for kids. ‘/We promised the old man that we would protect him.’

/‘He can’t be any worse than some of our past masters,’ /Tunneler commented. The other puppets quickly agreed, other than Andre when he had originally been alive, the only good masters they could claim were Donny, Rick and Peter, all of whom they had served faithfully until the day they died. Their evil masters, Neil Gallagher and Dr. Magrew, they had turned against as well as Andre, after they brought their original master back to life in an attempt to brew more of the potion that let them live, but he had turned against them in his obsession to bring his wife back in a young woman that looked very much like Elsa when she had been alive. Andre’s soul currently rested in the last puppet named Decapitron that Harry hadn’t brought to life.

‘I think we can keep the kid safe, he seems like a tough little bugger.’ /Pinhead said. He was sitting on the bedside table next to the bed, keeping watch over Harry like a protective big brother. ‘/These wizard guys can’t be any tougher than those little demon things that tried to kill Rick.’

/‘No matter what the situation, Harry Potter is now the Puppet Master,’ /Blade said seriously to his friends. ‘/We’ll just make the best of this, like we always have. Hopefully we’re right and he’s a good kid.’ /The other puppets nodded in agreement.

‘But what happens if we run out of the elixir?’ /Jester asked. ‘/There isn’t much left in those bottles and the kid doesn’t know how to make any more. Only Toulon knew how to make it.’

/‘The wizard taught me as well but I don’t remember the formula as well as I used to.’ /Leech Woman said sadly.

‘Not really comfortable with making a kid handle brain matter anyway,’ /Blade said. ‘/I know that animal brain matter can be used but it was always better with brain matter from humans.’

/‘We’ll figure something out.’ /Jester said, his face pulled into a sad frown.

/‘There’s gotta be a way, the kid’s a wizard isn’t he? Can’t he use that spell that Toulon told us about? The one on the scroll?’ /Six-Shooter asked while absently twirling one of his guns that he retrieved out of the drawer in the trunk.

/‘None of us can read ancient Egyptian and I doubt he can either.’ /Tunneler pointed out.

/‘Hey, still worth a shot if nothing else.’ /Pinhead said.

/‘We’ll see what happens.’ /Blade said, putting an end to the conversation.

****

The next morning, Harry sat at the desk in his room, speaking with the puppets as he ate breakfast. It was a little hard to communicate with the puppets as they were unable to talk, so Harry had to rely on gestures and guesses when speaking with his new friends. The puppets could make sounds like ‘ahhs’ and ‘oohs’ or even moaning sounds. Six-Shooter could laugh in a sort of cartoony villain way and sometimes the puppets made, what sounded like, a low mumbling sound, like they were speaking under their breath but Harry couldn’t understand the sounds no matter how hard he tried to strain his ears.

“I can’t wait for you to see Hogwarts!” Harry said between bites of his porridge. Leech Woman hovered nearby, making sure he ate all of his breakfast. “The castle is beautiful to see at night, when the windows are lit up. It’s my home really, I wish I could live there during the summer instead of living with my relatives. They don’t like me, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always knew I was a wizard but they tried to beat the magic out of me ‘cause they didn’t like it. They think I’m a freak.”

The puppets reacted violently at the idea of anyone hurting their new child master.

“It’s not as bad as you think,” Harry quickly assured them. “Mostly neglect, I had to sleep in the boot cupboard under the stairs until I got my first Hogwarts letter, and I didn’t get much to eat.”

/‘That explains why he’s so damn small for a 13 year old.’ /The part of Blade that was still Dr. Heiss thought, as he looked Harry over. Too small, too skinny, really, he should have noticed when he first saw him.

“And my aunt and uncle yell at me a lot, calling me ‘boy’ and ‘freak’. They rarely used my name.” Harry kept talking. Usually he didn’t tell anyone about this sort of stuff, he never ever went into how bad the abuse was at his relative’s house. Ron and Hermione, his two best friends, knew that he hated living there and that his relatives didn’t like him. Ron and two of his older brothers, the twins Fred and George, had to rescue him during the previous summer by pulling the bars off the window of his borrowed bedroom.

Harry, when he had first started primary school and had learned that the way he was treated wasn’t right, had tried to inform his teachers about what was going on in his life. Nothing ever came out of it, except for extra chores and a beating. Harry never said anything ever again while he attended muggle school. Once he was at Hogwarts, Harry had thought about saying something but he remembered what happened the last time he reached out for help and, honestly, he was embarrassed. He was seen as some big hero in the wizarding world and to let everyone know that he was abused by his muggle family… well Harry couldn’t bring himself to say anything. The closest he got was to ask Professor McGonagall if he could stay at the school during the summer but had been informed not long after that, that he /had /to return to his relatives. After that he never asked again.

But here he was, spilling his life’s story to these living puppets. In a way, it was a relief to finally tell someone, even if they couldn’t do anything about it. The puppets were unable to tell anyone what he said, so his secret would never get out.

“They don’t feed me very much, just enough to keep me alive sometimes and never any of the fancy fatty foods that they eat. You should see my uncle and my cousin Dudley, they’re huge! My aunt, on the other hand, is thin as a rail; it’s funny to see her standing next to them. I also do all the cleaning and cooking in the house, as well as all the yard work. They treat me like a House Elf really.” Harry said with a sigh as he pushed his empty bowl away. Jester had that mournful frown on his face again and Leech Woman laid her hands on Harry’s shoulder. “Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon rarely touch me unless it’s to throw me into my cupboard or Dudley’s second bedroom. I’ve been smacked a few times by my uncle and Aunt Petunia has tried to hit me with a frying pan before.”

Pinhead started cracking the knuckles of his large hands, if he ever meets this aunt or uncle of his little master, he was going to beat the shit out of them. He could see Six-Shooter out of the corner of his eye, twirling his guns again. No doubt the six-armed cowboy puppet was having the same thoughts as him. They all were in fact, even if Harry wasn’t their master, he was still just a kid.

“Honestly, it’s my cousin Dudley who beats me up all the time.” Harry continued, not knowing his puppet’s dark thoughts. “He used to play this… /game /with me and his little gang called ‘Harry Hunting’. I had to learn how to be quick on my feet around them.” Harry sagged in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. He felt a bit better after telling the puppets a bit about his life, but he felt drained now as it brought up a lot of memories he didn’t like remembering. There was a lot he had still left out but he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it anymore.

“I think I need some fresh air.” Harry said as he pushed away from the desk and stood up, heading for the door of his room. Blade and Pinhead quickly followed after him to shadow Harry as he walked the streets. The good thing about being only a foot or two high, is that people rarely looked down and saw two living puppets running past them. Harry did notice them out of the corner of his eye as he entered the small alleyway that lead to Diagon Alley. “What are you two doing? You should be up in my room where you’ll be safe.”

Blade and Pinhead quickly shook their heads, Blade pointing at Harry with his knife.

“Are you two… are you two trying to protect me?” Harry asked. Pinhead and Blade nodded, Harry couldn’t help but feel touched that somebody wanted to protect him. Him, not the whole ‘Boy-who-lived’ thing. And highly amused since his self-appointed bodyguards were a pair of puppets. He gave himself a moment to imagine his Potions Professor, Severus Snape, or his school rival, Draco Malfoy or even the boy’s father, Lucius Malfoy, getting the crap beaten out of them by foot high puppets. He chuckled softly to himself, then looked down at his two friends again. “Ok, I guess I can’t stop you but please be careful.”

Blade and Pinhead nodded in agreement, watching their young master open the wall by tapping bricks in a certain order, then following after him as Harry stepped onto the busy street of Diagon Alley.

Author Note: Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this little idea I wrote up.

(1) I’m sure anyone who’s familiar with the Puppet Master series is wondering, where is Torch and why is Leech Woman there. Well, Torch has no problem killing kids, something I’ve never seen the other puppets do in the movies, and having him around a school full of children and teenagers seems pretty stupid. The creator of the Puppet Master series has gone on record saying that Leech Woman survived the fire from the second movie and was later repaired, so that’s why she’s here now.