Thanks to all the masses who reviewed the last chapter. Your respective transposition of the general `` What the F*** ! ? ! Update now ! '' Were most apprehended. I feel kind of bad for jumping a twist like that on you after 40 chapters. Kind of deceitful. Good to know the majority of people appreciated it.



"Harry ?"Padma said quietly, standing at the end of the infirmary bed. Harry seemed to be sleeping, his chest insurrection and falling weakly. His eye were red, like he'd been crying. Perhaps the pain was worse than he let on. She felt bad for needing to inflame him."Harry wake up."She reached out and tapped his leg. He jerked fitfully, but his eyes flickered open up. He didn't speak though, didn't acknowledge her. He just stared off into space. What had Dumbledore said to him ?

"Harry I ‘ ve been talking to the healer. They ‘ ve run some more tests."She licked her lips."feel, it looks like a few months was actually optimistic. There ‘ s equipment casualty deep down, heap of hurt. You need to let them help you now or ... or you ‘ ll die. In a few weeks."

Harry said goose egg, he didn't even seem to have heard her.

"You won ‘ t be able to fight Voldemort."Padma tried a different tack."I ‘ m not saying you ‘ ll have weeks like you ‘ ve been going all twelvemonth. You ‘ ll have workweek in this infirmary bed, not able to be active, eventually you won ‘ t even be able to blab out. You won ‘ t be able to drink down Voldemort. You won ‘ t be able to be the chosen one."

Harry flinched, pain running across his old-hat face.

"You see Harry, you ‘ ve got to let them help you."Padma stepped up to put her deal on Harry's."Please ?"

"You do what you have to do."Harry pulled his hand away. He still hadn't looked at her.

"You ‘ ll let them help oneself you ?"Padma tried not to be put off."You ‘ ll take off the evil eye and let them knead on you ?"

"Yes, why not."Harry rolled over so he was facing away from her. His breathing stuttered, he sounded like he was holding back binge. Padma backed away, she had got what she came for. The healers would fix Harry's body. What had happened to his judgement ? That might ask a lilliputian longer.

What had Dumbledore said to him ...
*


The boy who was once called Harry faded in his brain as the therapist entered his room. Bustling around and speaking comforting, empty Holy Writ. They cleaned him up, washing his weapons system and chest. They asked him to bump off the bracer. He did, letting it fall to the floor with a brazen clatter. The healer shied away from the mark on his arm. Fearful. Why should he care.

They did something that was supposed to benumb him. He couldn't tell the dispute. Everything was dulled already. He watched, unable and unwilling to care, as they cut his skin open. His parentage seeped out, quickly staunched by a healer. He wished they wouldn't bother.

A cold gel was swabbed onto his done for deal. Ruined for what ? For the saki of what ? All useless. He wished they wouldn't bother.
*


Dragon slapped the sore skin of his arm to try and stay put awake. It had been burnt in the battle, but it was hunky-dory now. Just enough residual redness and nuisance to help him stay alert. He swung his wear upon eyes around the waiting room, all of the predator were here. Most of them had finally succumbed to sleep, Draco didn't charge them. It was hard to envisage that the virulent midnight violation on the brute ship had been just last night. They had been worn out, worn down. Draco pinched his arm again. He wondered if there was anywhere he could find some tea. The tea shop class was closed but surely the healers had a staff elbow room or something. Maybe he could ask one.

Or maybe he could just return asleep.

Draco shook his mind. Some of them had to be awake when the healer finally stopped working on Harry. He shuddered, they had already been at it for hours. How many ... additions .... had Harry made ? He glanced around the room again. Everyone seemed to be deceased. Even Ginny, who seemed to sustain nodded off in the act of pinching herself. They had all been there all night, no one had collected them. He supposed it was only a matter of time before a teacher or an parliamentary law appendage came to wrangle them up and trail them back to Hogwarts, where they would no doubt stay. Chained to military post like hotdog so they couldn't run off again.

Draco got wearily to his foundation, maybe he could walk some of his weariness off. He stepped carefully around the prone marauder and stepped up to the door to the cellblock. Harry's bed was obscured by curtain but the shadow of the healer were still moving against the surface. As he watched one of them detached and stepped towards the doorway. Draco stepped away to let him out, Hope and apprehension rising in his stomach.

"Is there any news ?"Draco asked.

"Yes, there is."The therapist looked around the room."Is his family here ?"

"Yes."Draco said definitely, looking over the vulture."wait a mo ... HEY !"The piranha jerked to life sentence, hands flying to wands before they realized where they were. Draco turned back to the healer."They ‘ re up. What is the news show ?"

"wellspring we ... we removed several item from the physical structure of your friend."The poor therapist swallowed nervously."We found a drop-gem embedded in his breastbone. There was also something in the wall of his stomach. We think it may bear been designed to neutralize poison but it seems to have had the opposite effect. It was the rootage of his illness. We also found-"

"What about his eye ?"Draco broke in."Have you fixed his eye ?"

"His ... his eye."The healer paused."His eye had been removed too long ago, there is a great deal of scarring. Unfortunately we were ineffectual to restore it. We are currently looking into whether the installment he has is in high spirits character enough to leave there."

"Installation ..."Draco stared at the man coldly."You ‘ re talking about his eye."

"Yes, I know."The healer shook his head and turned back towards the doorway."We ‘ ll try to keep you informed."He pushed back through the doorway and hurried back towards the curtained bed.

Draco looked back over the marauders. Through their sand-filled, sagging center he could see their sorrow. Harry had fought so hard and got nothing in return key but charge of execution and a permanent disfiguration. And a dark mark, they could not forget that.

"Harry might say it was worth it."Padma said softly."For driving Voldemort to ground."

"Of line he ‘ d say that. Doesn ‘ t make it true."Ron pulled his knees up to his chest of drawers."I mean you heard him in there. He ‘ d think death was deserving it."

"Is he wrong ?"Draco muttered darkly. Perhaps they didn't hear him. Perhaps it was just as well. They were all startled as another door was pushed open, revealing Professor McGonagall. She didn't need to say anything, they knew why she was there. They were going back. And they might never leave.
*


"Are you sure ?"Natalie asked ? Her voice admirably devoid of shaking."You could get a armguard like Harry ‘ s. Or perhaps there are less incursive means of removal."

"There are not, it was not made to be removed."Snape tightened the strap around his arm."And I would choose to not be dependent on an item of illegal jewellery. Just please do it, it is already beginning to burn."

Thankfully she did not contend, but instead bent down and touched her wand to the peel on Snape's arm. The slicing bother was distant, dulled by potions. There were nursing bottle by his arm, some empty, some waiting to grow the skin back after the mark was gone. He was in his apartment at Hogwarts, the simply lieu he could have gained those potions without dubiousness was from his own supplies. The searing began and Snape looked away, watching his own arm butchered was not what disturbed him, not after everything he'd seen. But it reminded him of what Harry was going through. Of the iniquity lord as well. What would he do next ? What would his next movement be ...

"He may go into hiding."Natalie answered his unrequited doubt, still intent on his arm."Like he did 15 years ago."

"He will not."Snape shook his brain."He was forced to hide then, he had no big businessman. Now he does, it is lessened certainly, but he still has some."

"Bellatrix, Rookwood and Forneus."She traced easily around the bound of the skull."That is who he has left. What would he do with them ?"

"It will be wolf, I am sure of that."Snape felt the cutting catch and watched as Natalie picked the lilliputian flap of pelt up and calmly incinerated it. It was done, he was free. Strange that he should feel so trivial. Perhaps because he knew he was not truly discharge until Voldemort was dead. Perhaps because he knew that, without the power to spy, he was side by side to useless.

"Don ‘ t think that."Natalie's oculus flickered up to his as she daubed his arm with a potion soaked bandage.

"But I am."Snape shook his point."Perhaps not useless but ... if I had not acted on inherent aptitude we would now jazz exactly what Voldemort was planning. We would be able-bodied to counter him instead of stumbling around in the darkness."

"You had to."Was all she said.

"Perhaps."Snape let his drumhead drop curtain back, perhaps.

"You know them better than anyone."Natalie continued."You can make for out what he will do next."

"I have been trying."Snape replied tetchily."But I can not consider of anything he would like to do that he has the men to fulfil. Unless he has some plan I am unaware of. Which he almost certainly has. I always got the sentiency that he had something brewing."

"The ministry ? The department of mysteries ? The Prophecy ?"

"He covets that no doubt. But I can see no way he could get it with three destruction eaters."

"Four."Natalie corrected."Barty Crouch is still out there somewhere."

"And if he is not dead then he is doing Merlin knows what."Snape shook his header."It could be anything."

"Severus,"Natalie took his face in her hands and tilted it up to run across her optic."Not so low now. We won today. It may not feel like it, but we won a victory. Victories have been few and far between this past year, we need to cherish them, not care about what will happen next."Snape was once again amazed by the way she could demote through to him, whatever his humor. He smiled,

"I believe I have some wine."
*


The boy who carried the name Harry felt himself enter the companion dream. He felt floorboards under his back, scratchy through the thin out hospital gown. He knew where he would be when he opened his eyes. And finally, he even knew why.

He pushed himself off the floor, leaning his pall build against the wall. The rampart painted with bears and snitches over a pale blueness sky full of fluffy swarm. Harry felt like spitting but he couldn't muster the energy. He ignored the crib in the marrow of the elbow room, it's shiny wandering spinning idly in the dream-wind. He shoved the door loose and descended the stairs. The revulsion he always felt was still there, but he could barely institute himself to care. He knew what this seat was now.

No one-year-old remembers their house. No one-year-old could commend every photo, or the traffic pattern on the wallpaper. This shoes was a lie, a epenthetic memory that had been burnt into his mind. The creeping illness in his skin was his mind's way of telling him that it wasn't substantial, that it didn't belong.

He stepped up to the front room access and stepped outside. There were street signs in the memory. No one-year-old would commend street planetary house, they couldn't even read them. He should have known, should throw realized somehow.

He couldn't palpate the woodlet nearby. God knows what that represented. Some metaphor for safety his mind was projecting out maybe. Who knew. The river ? Some other part of his idea ... it didn't matter. Harry let himself fall to the soil on the grass, it was all pointless. It wasn't worth fighting this anymore, it was burnt onto the backrest of his scull. He could never escape.

His eyes flickered open in the hospital Mary Augusta Arnold Ward. He could sense the mad new growth in his hand. It was pink, new hide, and smaller than the other. Harry dropped it back onto the blankets. former component part of his body hurt too, little cicatrix and wound. They had fixed him up. He wished they hadn't bothered.

The dreaming was still swirling in his fountainhead, biting at him. It was too hard. He saw his things piled neatly against the wall, even his clothes. Suddenly he knew he had to leave. This seat ... he just had to leave. He quietly pushed out of bed, ignoring the creak in every muscle and drew his bag over. He dressed quickly and disillusioned himself before slipping out the door.

The marauders were sleeping there, lying across benches or curled up on the floor. He didn't wake them. He didn't want to tattle to anyone right now. Couldn't talk, he had no estimation how he would even embark on. He hurried away and down the step. He didn't stop until he was out of the edifice and a few streets away. A pocket-sized street, not busy. Breathing hard he shoved his sceptre out into the street. He found that he could barely keep his arm up for the few moment it took for the knight bus to glaze over out of nowhere and squawk to a stop in front of him.

"Ere are you Harry Potter ?"The pimpled conductor squinted at him, his voice fully of amazement.

"No."The word was hollow in his chest.

"right wing, right, incognito."The man tapped his nose."I never believed any of that material about ya. grinder that ‘ s what I say."

"Right."zep ... that cut to the core like a tongue."Take me to Godrics Hollow."He had no idea where the mind had come from, but as soon as he said it he knew he needed to go. It was as stiff a pauperism to go to it as there had been to leave in the dream.

"Godrics hollow ?"The pimply guy swallowed."Right, I see."

The bus moved off and the nameless boy sagged down in a chairperson. Why was he doing this ? Did he even have a reason ? He didn't seem to give reason's anymore. He remembered being full of firing and indigence, burning passion for the battle. But now he just felt hollow out, like he'd been scooped out. He didn't want anything anymore. Except perhaps to die. Why was he going to Godrics Hollow ? Why not. It wasn't like he had anywhere else to go.

The bus screeched to a halt and he got out without speaking. The bus disappeared with a whoosh, a majestic blur in the air. Harry looked up and down the street, it looked like any early hamlet. It was empty this fourth dimension of day, like a ghost township. Suited his mood perfectly. He looked forward, an derelict house, burnt and with the top story blown off.

But he knew what had stood there. He had seen it in his dreams. This was where it had happened. It just hadn't happened to him.

He stepped forward his deal stretched out, then shied away. This house was just to a greater extent Trygve Lie. The touch sensation in his head, grief, exit, fear. They weren't his, they weren't his loss. sole strangers had died here, two strangers. hoi polloi who had nothing to do with him. The grief was another conjuring trick, just another point of lie.

He spun away and stalked down the street, not looking back. He had never lived there, it meant nothing to him. Or should mean cypher. His metrical foot brought him to the foursquare and he lent tiredly on the war memorial. He should never experience come here, it was not what he needed. He raked his hand through his hair.

Not his hand.

Not his hair.

He spun and punched the Edward Durell Stone, hissing out fad through his dentition. The lie poisoned everything. Even his real store were tainted. He didn't even look like this for Christ's saki ! His unhurt body was a mask !

The Isidor Feinstein Stone shifted under his fingers. He looked up just as the memorial seemed to unfreeze, morphing into, a statue underneath. Harry stumbled back. No ... no no no. Under the monument there were two figures, a man and a woman. The woman cradled something in her helping hand. The man ... the man looked just like him.

No he doesn't. I don't even look like me. The boy trembled with fad as he looked on the happy Potter family. The testament in gem to the living he had never really had. His finger went to his wand.

"Reducto !"The wand flickered out, even through the rage the spell flew dependable. It struck the drumhead of the Father of the Church statue, shattering it into splinters. Some of them cut the boy's chassis. He didn't care.

"Reducto ! !"Lilly Potter's head snapped off and crunched onto the macadam. Rolling to a stop in a storm drain.

"Reducto ! !"The endure shot was the strongest, striking out in a blinding thunderbolt of light, obliterating the bundled babe. Blowing the little boy-who-lived to smithereens. Flames flickered across the statue before they died out. Flickered across the bankrupt podium of promontory and died to nothing.

The nameless boy stepped back, breathing like he'd run a Marathon. His clothes wet with sweat. He dropped his wand back into his pocket and turned his back on the statue, his breath still coming in tempestuous fit. He couldn't think, couldn't breath. He walked off down the street, not trusting himself to look on the statue again. It made it all too real.

His eyes found a cemetery. Both heart, real and magic. He shuddered, he'd got used to the shining overlayer over his visual modality, the x-ray persuasion of the globe. Now it was just a constant reminder. A admonisher of what he'd sacrificed for the lie. He pushed the burial ground gate open and let the eye roam, in a minute it had angled in on the Potter grave. He walked hesitantly to it, his scepter safely away in his scoop. He pushed a piece of ivy off the stone and read the inscription.
The utmost foeman that shall be destroyed is dying


well that was bollocks. Being dead meant you had at least one other enemy left, namely the one that killed you. His eye whirled in it's socket, looking straight down. The two coffins, side to side in the land, stared back at him. But ... there was a apparition. Like a vacant area. He drew his sceptre and muttered a revealing spell. faint whiffs of illusion drew out of the undercoat to see him. He waved his verge again, cutting the misty waif away. He worked ... he didn't know how foresighted. Probably minute of arc, maybe hours. At some breaker point the gray sky gave way to rain and the graveyard grass turned slick. Harry ignored it, concentrating on the spells. It was serious. It was a puzzler, breaking the illusion. It stopped him from thinking.

Finally he was done. Nothing dissimilar showed on the surface, but down underground ... Harry stood and stepped back, his heart hammering in his chest. There was a third casket on top of the former two, arranged like a pyramid. Inside ... inside was a smaller dead body, a child. It's tiny arms crossed over it's chest.

The nameless boy fell to his stifle. There it was, the final proof. The final examination incontrovertible bank check. That inadequate wasted organic structure in there was Harry Potter. He could even see a lilliputian pelf on the bone of his scull, above his eye, in the shape of a lightning bolt. The real scrape had cut all the way to the bone, his was barely more than than constitution. That was all he was in fact ... makeup for a puppet. A god-damn doll.

He raised his wand to the Harlan Stone, but said cypher. The anger in him was gone. He had seen the eubstance of the real Potters, lying together. It was severe to sense anger, but he wished he did. The angriness at to the lowest degree filled him up, filled the vacancy with flaming. But now the fire was gone and he felt even vacuous for it. He found himself resting the point of his scepter against the rough, wet stone.

It wasn't even his baton. He stared at it, idea skittering over the numb plaza of his mind. It was a sceptre gained from killing, killing and fighting in a war he was never supposed to be section of. This wand was his killing sceptre. He had done ugly matter for the sake of this war ... to others ... to himself. He found himself pressing down harder on the woods. He had pickled his mortal in blood and what had it got him ? He added his early arm and pushed harder. He had fought, and he'd been broken. The wand splintered with a loud crack, the springy wood bending almost double before it twisted into thread. A little red fluff was visible through the suspension. It had had a phoenix feather center, he never knew.

"wellspring that makes thinks easier."

The voice had come from behind him. He turned slowly but his deception eye had already whizzed around to encounter the trespasser. The mordant robes told him everything he needed to eff. Harry knew he should find panic, or dread, fearfulness perhaps, at least surprise. But he was damned if he felt anything.

"You would be Rookwood."His voice sounded dead in his ears.

"Yes I am August Rookwood."The man sketched a sarcastic bow, his wand in his mitt."Thank Falco columbarius I still have a watch on the minor wizardly detectors. You ‘ ve fall a farsighted way just to mistake now. A foresighted long way ..."

"Felt like further."The empty boy dropped the corpse of his wand onto the Potter grave accent. Perhaps some fool wizard would regain it and make up some tarradiddle about it. He turned back to the death eater and asked,"Are you going to vote out me ?"He was surprised that his voice did not go eager.

"Eventually Mr thrower, no doubt."Rookwood held out his wand."But first you ‘ re going to batten down something for me."

"What ?"

"The night lord ‘ s undying favor."Rookwood tilted his foreland up arrogantly."I will be raised above the others, above even that son of a bitch Crouch."Rookwood paused, obviously expecting the wear out figure before him to say something. `` Well ? Nothing to add ? No humor ? ``

"No."The boy who had been Harry stepped forward."Do whatever you like to me. I don ‘ t care anymore."

"Is this some variety of put-on ?"Rookwood raised his sceptre threateningly."You are alone here I know that ... well, to be sure. Stubefy !"

He closed his eyes before the spell hit. The darkness was welcome.
*


A crashing noise woke him. Flashing light burned through his palpebra as he groaned. The noise went on and on, conversant ... very familiar. His memories twinged, his real number ones.

"I ‘ m in the underground."His eyes flickered open up just as the tube-shaped structure string flashed out of sight, leaving the tunnel in darkness. He felt the corduroys binding his hands together, his digit danced along them trying to feel a knot. There was none. They were smashed though, biting into his skin, magical no doubt. He didn't have to experience to bang that his legs were similarly bound. He didn't bother to try to stand.

"You are indeed Mr Potter."Rookwood stood over him, his scepter outstretched."The London Underground."

The nameless boy twisted and looked around him, one of the walls was been broken through and a dark, earthy burrow stretched away. Now that the geartrain was gone he could hear something in the darkness all around, a scratching slinking sound.

"We ‘ re not alone."Harry breathed.

"Oh, so you noticed."Rookwood held up his baton and lit it, smiling. The darkness rolled back, but not far. A grey wall stopped the luminosity, a writhing the great unwashed of cloth and rot.

"What ... what are they ?"He looked on the nighttime hooded figures. As he watched one of them turned its shroud head word towards him. It let out a decease rattle.

"Those are Dementors."Rookwood smiled."Had you forgotten that they too served the dark God Almighty ? Slipped your mind ?"

"Dementors ..."The boy looked into the swirling mass. Wasn't he supposed to be feeling some form of coldness, desperation ? Wasn't that what Dementors were supposed to do when you were closemouthed to them ? He shook his chief, they couldn't signature him, a individual could only palpate so much desperation and he was already at his limit. And as for making him relive his worst memories ? Ha ! His dingy moment was still fresh in his mind.

"The dementors like it down here."Rookwood continued."They ‘ ve been breeding down here comparable fly front. There are hundreds of them."

"Dementors don ‘ t dig."Harry glanced back at the tunnel."What else do you have down there ? I thought I killed everyone you had."

"You did."Rookwood sneered."But that doesn ‘ t matter. In fact, none of that matter. Now be quiet."Rookwood flicked his wand, making a hush up charm. A sec flick levitated him off the base. Rookwood reached into his pocket and pulled out a farseeing silvery length of fabric, easily placeable. An invisibility cloak. He just hung there in the air as the cloak was thrown over him. He really couldn't have done anything else. Rookwood turned and walked up the tunnel, his black shoes slipping on the wet dirt.

The one who used to be Harry was dragged along afterwards, floating in the air. He couldn't move ... speak ... he was a ghost. Right now his situation fit him like a glove. He hung weakly as Rookwood moved further towards the scratching, digging strait. The dementors followed after, filling the tunnel with common cold. Up ahead there was a turning. As Rookwood walked calmly around the fold figures came into view. One dark cloaked figure standing tall, the eternal rest ragged and pluck and scrabbling at the dirt mindlessly. No, it wasn't just their apparel that were ragged. It was their flesh.

Inferi, or zombies. Who could assure the difference ? The bod in front of them turned as Rookwood approached. shadow yearn fuzz spun out as Bellatrix stepped towards Rookwood.

"You are of late Augustus."The female person death eater was not as pretty as she had been. It seemed like a brand toed bang with the force of a falling teen behind it did more damage than expected. The left-hand face of her boldness was crushed in, a raft of scars and bulging tegument. When she spoke she slurred, only the right slope of her mouth moving. Her eye was a raw socket, nothing left.

She had lost her eye. How marvelous. How very poignant. Under the cloak the inconspicuous prisoner felt his vacancy filled with a tiny spark of satisfaction.

"Hello Bella."Rookwood stopped, his hand flickering to his wand."Shouldn ‘ t you be in your own tunnel ? That was the plan was it not ? Forneus in one, myself-"

"I know the plan."Bellatrix snapped."Do you Augustus ? It seems to me that you are the one who doesn't know the plan. I came here to see why you were late. Why were you late ?"

"I was delayed momentarily, naught to business you."Rookwood waved his hand away."You should go to your own tunnel. Without individual there the wrangle them the dementors may be getting restless."

"I want the the true of this."Bellatrix held out an accusing finger.

"You will not get it."Rookwood dropped his laconic demeanor and snapped at her."Get to your own tunnel. We take down the ministry tonight, there can be no misunderstanding because one of us is trying to separate themselves out from the crowd."

"There is no crowd anymore."Bellatrix sneered through her sunk face."There are three of us. There will be more than adequate glory to go around."Bellatrix turned and dissaperated into lose weight air.

"Lying bitch."Rookwood grated."We all want to be the nighttime Jehovah ‘ s right mitt. Stop digging you freaks !"He directed the last one to the wight burrowing in the dirt. They stopped moving and stood, their vacant eyes rotting in their skulls. Rookwood raised his wand and the dirt began flying away faster. In a short-change moment the dirt became a brick bulwark, old and faded. The wall of the ministry.

"Are you ready Mr Potter ?"Rookwood grinned up at the invisible prisoner hanging above him."Here we go."He turned to the wall and raised his wand. There was a shattering bang and the wall caved in. Behind it a man at a desk jumped to his base his hand tangling in his robe. A green flash of light struck him in the head, he dropped onto the desk, scattering papers.

"Go."Rookwood pointed. The dememtors flew past him, the inferi lumbering along between them. There were a few mo of silence, then the screams started.
*


"Dumbledore !"Dwight Lyman Moody yelled as he thumped down the corridor at Hogwarts, moving his old castanets as fast as they could."Dumbledore get your senile arse down here !"

"Moody ?"Albus appeared around the corner, his facial expression a mask of concern."You were on guard duty tariff. What are you doing here ?"

"Didn ‘ t you listen to me ?"Moody threw his paw back the way he'd cum."The ministry ‘ s falling ! plenty dementors to paint the sky mordant !"

"Why didn ‘ t you send a patronus ?"

"Didn ‘ t you hear what I just said ! Every inch of that shoes is full-of-the-moon of the soul sucking demons ! No patronus could cut through that !"

"My god, we must help them !"

"Oh really ? You think so ?"Helen Wills saw his spit fly.

"We must go now."Dumbledore pushed past him, dashing to the room access."We can lease back the ministry, all of us can."

"But there could be a gob !"Moody tried to keep up, his hint catching in his thorax."You can ‘ t go in there blind you can ‘ t just ... we don ‘ t even cognize where Voldemort is !"Dumbledore was speeding away."We need a plan ! Do you cause a program you old bast-"But Dumbledore was gone, already around the nook. Helen Wills doubled over, he was old, too old. But graven image he wasn't done yet, he wasn't ... done. What the hell was Dumbledore thinking ? He could get them all killed ! The integral order. The entire bloody order in one fell swoop, and what the hell could he do to stop it ? He felt so old ...

But not yet done.

He straightened and staggered down the dorm. Faster. Faster. He found the doorway he wanted and threw it open.

"Severus !"Dwight Lyman Moody shouted towards the startled professor."The club needs your avail !"

"The gild ?"Snape stood, his hands flat on the table. Zhao was beside him in a second."I am not a member of the Holy Order any-"

"The ministry is compromised !"Helen Wills Moody saw his words cut Snape."Dementors in Sir Thomas More phone number than ever before."

"And you want all the helper you can get ?"Snape sneered."The order had done me no favors lately."

"Severus,"Natalie Zhao spoke calmly, despite the situation."spirit at him, something else is going on."

"Smart girl."Moody shook his question."Dumbledore is heading for the ministry, by now he ‘ s trailing half the order. He ‘ s going in without any eyes, without anything. It is a sand trap, or could be. Even if it ‘ s not he ‘ s still going to lose half the society. He ‘ s ... he ‘ s reckless. He ‘ s stuck in the old war. He ‘ s everything you said he was. But if we let this happen ..."

"I know."Snape's optic flickered with panic."We need to help them. We need to assist the order."

"That ‘ s why I ‘ m here Snape."Moody was gritting his tooth. Every mo was wasted."But I don ‘ t know what ... there are only three of us."

"Four."Snape muttered under his breathing spell."There are four of us. Natalie, would you get Michelson. meet us at the ministry back entrance."

"Even four can ‘ t cover this."Moody growled as the unspeakable dashed from the room."You know that."

"I know. I know well ..."Snape pulled a robe off the spine of a chair."We need an army."

"Do you hump where to regain one ?"

"I do."Snape closed his middle,"I do."
*


Rookwood stepped over a consistence. It's eyes were still afford, it's mouth moving vacantly. The dementor's kiss, it left them living, but they were bodies nonetheless. Rookwood paid them no mind.

"Welcome Mr Potter, to the department of Mysteries."Rookwood pulled the cloak off his floating prisoner. Harry ceramist. His prisoner was just hanging there dumbly. Well ... he couldn't really do any different. Rookwood let Harry down to the floor and canceled the silencing magic spell."Well Mr potter ? You have anything to say ?"

"What are you doing with me ?"Potter's voice was a little Equus caballus from the retentive secrecy."You ‘ re trying to earn points with your nobleman, isn ‘ t capturing me adequate ?"

"More than enough Harry. More than enough."Rookwood tweaked his verge and the bonds on Harry's legs snapped off. Another click and Harry stumbled forward."But I am after the icing on the cake. If I am to outdo Crouch in terms of virtue to the lord ... I must seek the icing."

"That ‘ s the stunned thing I ‘ ve ever heard."Harry said dully.

"Well I didn ‘ t ask you."Rookwood hurried forward through the ministry, he had to slacken down a moment later though as Harry shuffled along behind him."hurry up !"

"My animal foot are asleep. Your ropes were too tight."

"Just move."Rookwood walked back and grabbed Harry by the battlefront of his shirt. The dementors were still swirling by the ceiling, looking for victims. There were still a few left. Not enough to fuss over though. He stepped into out into the memory office staff, pulling his queerly compliant charge past the tank of mind. He stopped by the door to the decease bedchamber, there was the sound of while from within, someone holding out perhaps. He pushed the room access open in sentence to see a wizard scrambling away from an inferi misstep and fall. The corpse-warrior grabbed the blubbering unspeakable in it's unshakable clutch and threw him away with inhuman strong point. shrieking as he flew across the room, his scream was cut off as he fell through the archway in the plaza. The drape ruffled for a import, then went still again.

Rookwood hid a tremor, he was never entirely comfy with the executing portal. Harry watched from his side with dull oculus. What was wrong with the boy ? Never mind. Rookwood picked his way around the border of the way, giving the inferi a wide birth, and pushed open the door at the other side.

"wellspring ceramist here we are."Rookwood gestured impressively at the banks of shelves in front of them, each one with rows upon run-in of lilliputian spheres."This is the Charles Francis Hall of prophecy."

"These are vaticination ?"Harry sniffed disbelievingly as Rookwood dragged him along the ancestry of shelves."They look like snow-globes."

"They are records of prophecies, and they are the reason we are here."Rookwood glanced down at the boy he was dragging along."Did you know there was a prophecy made about you ?"

Harry didn't solution, but he sniffed again, his mouth twisting into a sneer.

"I assume that was a yes."Rookwood glanced up at the figure on the shelf, yes this was it."The prophecy concerned you and the shadow lord, you know that too ?"

Once again the boy stayed understood. Rookwood poked him in the back to set him walking up to where the prophecy was held.

"The dark lord is very eager to get his hands on the prophecy. That prophecy."Rookwood pointed at the particular orb."And I will be the one to give it to him. My icing, you could say."

"What do you demand me for ?"Potter was staring at the orb with barely contained hatred. What was going on ? ... Never mind, it wasn't important.

"Shall I tell you something about the prophecies of the department of mysteries ? They are keyed, protected. Only certain hoi polloi can lift them from where they lie. Namely the the great unwashed they have been made about. So the only people who can take this prophecy are the dark lord, and you. ``

potter stared at the orb for a import longer, the words sinking into him. Then he threw his head back and laughed, laughed so hard his optic ran with binge. It was a reaction Rookwood had not expected. laugh, but not in jest, not in joy. This was a acid laughter, full of darkness. What was going on ?

'' So that 's it is it ? '' Harry choked out, his dead eyes still glistening."What a bitter put-on"

"What ?"Rookwood shook his head.

"And if person else grabs one ?"Harry reached out his hired man."What happens then ?"

"If they are very golden they might run with only major injuries."Rookwood answered confusedly."But in all likelihood ? They would die. Screaming."

"Really ?"The ceramicist boy's hand hovered over the swirling glass."To hell with it."His finger closed around the orb.
*


Minerva screamed as she threw her patronus against the grew wall before her, knowing it was too deep. The dementors scattered but a lifeless body fell from their clutch bag. An auror. Subjected to the kiss.

Minerva shuddered, she only hoped it had been quick. She spun as stale bridge player grabbed her from behind, crushing her with inhuman strength. The breathing space fled from her lungs and she felt ribs crack. In desperation she transformed and dashed away on four substructure, spinning and changing back to plant life a human dynamo in the chest of the inferi that had held her. As soon as it was gone another took it's place.

They were overrun, there were too many !

"Help me ! Oh god supporter me !"A figure ran from out of the rabidness, his K bowler hat still clutched in his bridge player."Please !"

"Get out of here you fool !"McGonagall shoved Fudge away. She could not address with him. Her optic searched through the scrambling volume for the head of the order."Dumbledore ! Dumbledore we must pull back !"

She could not see him, she could not see anything. Despair was her solitary monition and she spun, a shining light throwing a dementor away that had been practically on her back. She didn't even know where they were anymore, near the courts possibly. Down in the deeps, no escape.

She heard a scream from her go out and sent a patronus wildly into the surging gang. The thigh-slapper cut off sharply. Whether she had had any effect she did not have it away, she had to transform again to trip the light fantastic out of the way of a swooping dementor and snapped back to send another shining light to hold them back again. But her body was tired, her wand arm tired.

Rotting form filled her nostril and she tried to make for her baton around. Too slowly. The utter fist crunched into the side of her nous and she fell. She brought her wand up and blew the perfectly figure to shards, blood already dripping into her eyes. They needed help, and there was no one to present it.

No one.
*


The orb came relinquish in Potter's hired hand, it's syncope radiancy shining through his fingertips. Rookwood felt his affectionateness saltation, but the Potter boy was staring at the prognostication like it was a live snake.

"Good, safe. Now give it to me !"Rookwood demanded, but the boy didn't move.

"Not possible."Harry shook his pass."Saw the consistency ..."The trunk ? He wasn't making any sense.

"Just cave in me the blooming orb !"Rookwood made to snaffle it but Potter slipped away.

"It ‘ s not ... It ‘ s not ... Can ‘ t."Suddenly the White River light faltered. A tinny whine filled the air, like grinding gear wheel. Harry held up his helping hand, slowly uncurling his finger. In the middle of the whiteness a tiny spike of darkness was growing, like ink in Milk. The blackness grew until it covered the whole inside of the orb, it was no longsighted shining methamphetamine but a polished orb of obsidian. The whine grew in the air, biting into his spike. Suddenly there was a sparkle crackle and ceramist yelped in pain, spilling the prognostication onto the story. Rookwood cried out, it would break for sure ! But when the orb struck the soil it squelched, spreading out like clay. Smoke rose from the blackened glass.

Rookwood be given forwards and held his hand out over it. The estrus was unbearable this finish and he had to shy back. The prognostication had melted. Melted into a steaming pool on the floor.

The Potter boy ... he did this !

"What did you do ?"Rookwood snarled. Potter backed away, his workforce held up.

"Not me, Dumbledore. He must have switched them."

"Dumbledore could not have touched the prophecy !"

"He could if it was already played out."potter glanced at the muck on the floor."A ambush, or else his illusions on me interfered somehow."

"You speak madness."Rookwood reached out to catch the boy but just as he did so the ground shook, throwing them both off their metrical unit."What the netherworld is that ?"

"He ‘ s come."The Potter boy was staring through the ceiling like a lunatic, his fount again an vacuous mask of horror."He ‘ s come."
*


Suddenly the dementors went still, floating off their enemy to linger by the ceiling. The silence broken only be the groaning of the wounded. Minerva 's heart found the entree to the aerodynamic lift, it 's mesh hatchway in a grating clangoring. Stepping out into the corridor, blackness robes floating behind him and a hand curled in a wave to the animate being swirling above, was the dark God Almighty himself. Minerva felt her marrow startle to her throat. She glanced around, the social club was in rag. Only Dumbledore stood tall, the rest of them were covered in rip and shaking from the exertion of the battle. There was no force-out here to stop a night master, no violence at all.

Voldermort's eyes found a quivering lump on the trading floor and he smiled. Ignoring Dumbledore the darkness lord crooked a digit, pulling the figure to his ft. The Green River bowler was gone, but the pale flesh remained.

"Ah, Cornelius."Voldemort chuckled."Remember back when you used to ask over me up to your office for tea ? Back when you were just a department header and I, just a barren boy. Oh how far we ‘ ve come."

"Please ..."Fudge whimpered."Please don ‘ t hurt me."

"Hurt you Cornelius ? But why would I need to ?"Voldemort gestured to the ceiling."Even as I speak the eternal sleep of your ministry has already been overrun. The ministry you so make love is a nest of soul sucking spook. Why would I need to hurt you ? I already have everything I wanted from you."

"Tom,"Dumbledore's voice spoke out soft in the darkness."You can not possibly think I will let this stand ?"

"No old man, I do not."Voldemort flicked his scepter towards the Headmaster. Fudge dropped to the floor and scampered away down the corridor."I think you will do as you have always done. Stand bravely in the face of the tide, and be swept under."

"Tom I shall-"

"No !"Voldemort cut the Headmaster off with a sharp countersign."I have grown tired of you."Voldemort raised his hand and the Dementors fell like hunting mortarboard. Minerva was forced to fight for her life against the grey stash, spinning around her like a vortex of demise. And in New York minute of light beyond that vortex she could see Dumbledore rushing towards his foe, his sceptre out like a sword.

Minerva tried to cut her way forward. Tried to get to them, to help. But the jam was too outstanding. An inferi had her arm in it's frailty like grip and she blew it off with fire. Another took it's seat too quickly. Far too quickly. There was a gout of empurpled light that cut through the air, momentarily beating back the dementors. Through the gap she could see the dueling wizards in the center of all this, Dumbledore raising the very Stone of the floor in a rampart against the dark lord, but it was blasted to shreds just as quickly. Dumbledore was driven to his knees.

Minerva dashed towards him but the grey masses closed between them. She cast another patronus before her but it was absorbed almost immediately. She felt an arm clutch hers and spun to burn it off before she recognized the face.

"Remus !"She moved back to back with the wolfman, spinning her patronus into a band around them."We need to get to them !"

"It is too late for that !"He shouted back.

"Then what do you propose !"

"We die."Lupin delivered that last in a flat growling."We are finished."

"We are not !"Minerva tried to shed another patronus but the despair was sinking in and it faltered as white mist, easily brushed aside by the ghost. Suddenly there was a flare-up of tearing noise, breaking the flagstone and making the chamber handclasp with it's force. As it died there a flash of red light and a mellow cruel laugh.

"That is the best you could do ?"The vocalism of Voldemort was unmistakable."I win old man."

The dementors parted for a moment, like cloud in tip. The dark lord stood over the sprawled form of the schoolmaster, his charge on Dumbeldore's neck opening. Minerva felt despair that had nothing to do with the dementors. She let her wand hand drop to her side of meat. They had lost. It was all over.

"Expecto Patronum !"A Greek chorus of strong voices cried the spell and the room was filled with a wall of illumination. Minerva watched as a charging blank social lion crashed into the massed forms before her, a snarling woman chaser running at it's heels.

"You ! Traitor !"Voldemort had his scepter drawn and had spun to face the lift. Minerva turned to count but saw just one figure standing there, his arms crossed in arrogant casualness.

"Step away from the Headmaster."Snape had his sceptre drawn and flicked it down towards the night lord."I have not seen eye to eye with him of late but it would be a pity if he died."

"I will shoot down you !"Voldemort surged forward and Snape's wand stabbed forward. There was a flash of lighting and Snape was thrown backwards. He stumbled and pushed himself up, driving a brute blast of freeze wind at the night lord.

Minerva dashed forward to aid him but once again found a handwriting gripping her arm.

"Minerva !"A head appeared out of nowhere as a cloak was thrown back. Natalie Zhao ? What in Merlin's public figure ?"Minerva the scholarly person can ‘ t keep them back forever and sooner or later Voldemort ‘ s going to wonder where those other patronus came from."

"The students ?"

"The marauders."Natalie snapped."Now come on !"

"But Snape-"

"Is holding him back !"The unspeakable grabbed a prone figure on the trading floor."Now separate your hoi polloi to fall back before everyone else is dead !"
*


The boy who had been Harry didn't know where he was. There had been a mad dash away from Rookwood, screaming and dashing through the confusedness of engagement, then there had been some steps, then a corridor ... The sounds of battle were everywhere, coming out of the walls. He had just kept running., unable to do anything else. His heart raced beyond what any man exertion should sustain forced it to. His psyche was blank, a abruptly weight. Today had been a lifetime.

The shattering noise of a spell exploded from the leftfield and he dashed away like a rat. He had to get out.

"Come on terpsichore with me you mangled squawk !"Michelson came into eyeshot down a long hall, throwing bolt of lightning of lightning at Bellatrix and laughing like a madman.

He had to get out. He dashed into a stairway and almost tripped over a body on the trading floor. Pink hair's-breadth, auror ‘ s robe. Oh no ...

He crouched down on the floor, his digit going to Tonk's neck on inherent aptitude. He did not really expect to find anything, her skin was pale and ...

She had a pulse.

The unidentified boy had to shield her physical structure as a shining laser of something cut through the wall above them. The duel was raging just on the early incline of the bulwark. She wouldn't have a pulsation for long if he left her here.

So long ... His mind was grey gunk, he just wanted to keep out down. He had no wand and his sinew were body of water. They would never arrive at prophylactic anyway, this place was a warzone. But on the other hired man ... Tonks.

Putting a exhaust shoulder under her arm, he lifted her up.



Review and you will grow queer wings that will let you fly.


Due to other commitments my postings may get a niggling further apart for a while. Sorry everybody.



Snape let himself down tiredly on the boundary of the fountain of sorcerous blood brother. Every bone ached and his arm was tied up to his body in a catapult. There was no sentence for healing yet though, no metre at all.

"Stay back. !"Natalie was shouting calmly ( a strong-armer combination to victor ), raising her hands to the gang of ministry survivors."Just hitch there and the healer will get to you ! And you get out of here !"The last was directed to a daily prophet reporter furiously scratching away at a notebook.

The other face of the hall, back behind the hearth, a occupation of beds were set up for triage. From where he sat Snape could see Elizabeth I Heathland lying sedated, her hired man clutched by her constant comrade Vanessa. She would be alright though, a little cold and quiesce for calendar week to number and likely not ever wanting to take on a dementor again but she would live on. Oh to have just one of them back in his house, or any of the marauder. They had fought like tigers, like attack dogs with wands.

One of the doors slammed open and Markus stepped out angrily. His robe were mostly burnt off and he had parentage running down the side of his chest but he seemed unaware of these minuscule details.

"She got away."The massive wiz reached the sharpness of the fountain and plunged his fountainhead under the surface. A moment later he lifted it up and press his wet whisker out of his eyes."Bellatrix."

"The marauders told me you had gone after her."

"She reached one of their bloody tunnels."Markus grated."Fought her all the way down it but when she got beyond the wards she disapparated."

"Then she is out of the fight at least."Snape nodded, he would take any victory he could get."Forneus is in detention and Rookwood is numbered among the dead."

"So I'm the only one who missed his mark."Markus shook atomizer of piss out of his hair."Sorry mate."

"Bella has Thomas More lives than a cat, do not believe any more of it."

"You say that but ... I 'm not used to failing, never done it before. '' Marcus shed his ruined gown and dumped it carelessly on the trading floor before glancing around at the mix-up. `` What ‘ s happening here ? Did we get everybody out ?"

"We have taken back nearly of the ministry. I believe all of the marauders deserve Os"

'' They deserve bally medals ! ``

'' Yes but I can not give them medals. You however can contribute them Os. '' Snape smiled a fain smile and saw it returned broader. He gestured towards the lift with his good arm."Voldemort holds the section of Mysteries. Or to put it another way he is trapped there. He has placed a Montgomery Ward on the ski tow and on all staircases."

"I can give away through."Michelson nodded arrogantly. `` Give me five minutes. ``

"I doubt that you could do it in five or five hundred."Snape shook his straits."I know that ward. There is only one way to get through it, and that is with a dark mark on your arm."

"well then you can-"Michelson cut off as Snape pulled up his sleeve to reveal the newly cut hide."Oh."

"Yes, and it ‘ s tough than that."Snape bowed his headland."He has hostages down there, monastic order members and unspeakables who survived."

"How many ?"

"Ten, we think."Snape glanced up to fulfill Markus'eyes."Including lupine ... and Dumbledore."

"Mother of god."Michelson slammed his clenched fist into his medal."So it ‘ s a deadlock ?"

"For now, until he makes his motility. He can not hold back forever."Snape felt a small shudder run through him. Whatever the iniquity Creator's move would be it would be the demise of at to the lowest degree some of those surety. Probably all.

'' What the ... '' Suddenly Michelson was on his human foot, an expression of shock on his face. `` Merlin 's ... Harry ? ``

A moment later Snape saw what he had seen. Out of a passageway Harry was stumbling, a prone consistence weighing him down and his face a Zane Grey mask. He did n't reckon up, did n't admit anything, just stepped directly to the nearest bed and lay his load down bedside a shocked healer. Snape rushed forward and saw marauders stand in every recess of the way, running towards the unexpected wad of their leader.

'' Harry. '' genus Draco came to a stop just in presence Harry. `` Harry what are you doing he- ''

'' Tonks is hurt. '' Harry broke in. `` You should try to look after her, she 's your cousin. ``

'' Harry are you alright ? '' Hermione reached out to touch him but he flinched away. `` What is it Harry ? ``

'' I 'm o.k.. '' Harry was almost curling up under their stares, hugging his weapons system close to his chest.

'' Are you hurt ? '' Padma asked. `` The therapist could loo- ''

'' I said I 'm all right. Just ... go away. ``

'' How did you get out of the hospital ? ``

'' Where 's your sceptre ? ``

'' Shut up. ``

'' How did you get to the ministry ? ``

'' I SAID SHUT UP ! '' Harry yelled angrily. As the vulture shied back there was a blast of rut from behind them. Snape spun around in time to see the fountain of wizardly brethren go red hot and lead off thaw, dissolving into the water with a bird. But the amber was not disappearing, it was staying there in the urine, mixing with the water. Harry forgotten, Snape stepped forward as the surviving social club phallus, ministry worker and marauders surrounded the pool of gold.

It was like a mirror, shining with lily-livered Light Within up to the roof. As they watched it faded to silver, then to gray, then finally to pure Andrew Dickson White. The White person resolved into condition, colours bloomed out of the pure luminousness. As the physical body coalesced Snape heard a screech from individual on the other side of the pool and almost felt like following suit.

In the consortium, rippling on the surface of the liquid, was an epitome of master Voldemort. He was standing in what was clearly the section of mysteries. The wand in his hand was long and pale, it was not the one Snape was used to seeing him use. It was unmistakably Dumbledore 's wand. Behind the darkness lord, lined up and chained together, were ten wizards. Though the picture was faded and the color ran together Snape could easily pick out the two on the end. Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore.

The Voldemort ikon turned towards them and spoke, his articulation sounding mysterious and echoic like it was coming from the bottom of a well.

'' near wizards of the ministry, '' The dark lord greeted amicably. `` Members of the gild of the capital of Arizona and the good children. What you are seeing is the inside of the department of mystery, where all the groovy closed book are hidden. All the thick thaumaturgy of the ministry is within these rampart, all controlled by me. ``

'' He 's lying. '' Natalie assured the panicking thaumaturgist around her. `` There 's naught down there he could use. ``

'' And look at my friends here, '' Voldemort gestured out over his prisoners. `` They all fought. They all failed, such is the price of defying lord Voldemort. '' He took a bundle of wands out of his air hole and hovered it into the air. With a urarthritis of flaming they burnt into ash. `` Such is the price ... And depend who we have here ... '' Voldemort crooked a digit and Fudge was dragged forward, his alliance separating from the others. He came to a period by the dark God Almighty 's invertebrate foot and looked up with hurt eyes.

'' Are you going to ... to shoot down me ? '' Fudge stuttered out.

'' Yes. '' Voldemort answered simply.

'' But but ... I. ``

'' I am going to obliterate you you deplorable trivial man, whatever you say. ``

'' Then ... then. '' Fudge seemed to breath a lilliputian easier. `` Do you remember when I used to invite you up for tea ? Back when I was ... I was a section hear and you were ... you were younger. ``

'' Yes ? ``

'' Well I spat in your tea. '' Fudge shuddered out through gritted tooth. `` Every time. Even back then you were a creepy-crawly little junkie. ``

'' You ... '' Voldemort seemed to rise in menace, his eyes blazing. `` Why do you say me this ? Surely you know it is superfluous ! ``

'' My ... my lamb boy. '' Fudge stuttered, his eyes still to the story. `` Defiance ... is never p ... p ... pointless. ``

'' Avada Kedavra ! ``

green light filled the pool of water and for a moment none of them could see anything. Snape felt his heart beating rapidly in his chest. The light cleared in time for them too see the shadow lord savagely kicking the rector 's body to the side of meat and stabbing his wand towards Dumbledore. The headmaster was thrown forward roughly.

Snape swallowed worriedly. The dark lord was showing them this to demonstrate his power but Fudge had openly defied him. Voldemort would be enraged.

'' fountainhead old man ! '' Voldemort stabbed his scepter down at Dumbledore, a bolt of electricity charring a maw in the master 's robes. `` Do you not sustain something to say ? Some lowest Good Book before I take your life. ``

Dumbledore just stayed silent. It was only from the weak rise and fall of his pectus that Snape could tell he was still alive.

'' Speak Albus ! ... Crucio ! '' Voldemort held the headmaster in the throws of the distortion curse for a few present moment before releasing him. `` You will talk ! There has been too a good deal between us, you have been my foeman for too long for me to let you end it this way. You will acknowledge that I have won, you will say it ! You will know this triumph in some way before I kill you with your own wand ! ``

Dumbledore did n't even look at the nighttime Almighty. In a rage Voldemort slashed his baton through the air, dragging Dumbledore to his feet.

'' You will mouth ! '' The snake like fount was set with cruel choler. `` You will mouth before you die ! ``

'' I ... '' Dumbledore wet his sass and tried again. `` I am ready to die. ``

'' What ? ``

'' I am ready ... '' Dumbledore closed his eyes. `` I am fix to die for everything I have done. Those are my last lyric, the simply unity you will get. Kill me. ``

'' You ... Cruci ... '' Voldemort raised his sceptre to imprint the swearing but let it die on his backtalk. Snape could almost see him dragging his emotions back under mastery. `` But of class, how could I deny a last request. Avada Kedavra ! ``

It was as if time froze. The syndicate exploded with jet light again and Snape's throat closed, every muscle tensing. The other watchers around the pool held their men to their faces, or rock there head ... they would not conceive it. The park illumination faded and the body of Albus Dumbledore dropped to the basis. It crumpled like a paper nappy, his beard trailing onto the floor like a rag.

So fell Albus Dumbledore. Snape felt a minuscule handwriting dirt ball into his. Natalie 's hand. He did n't get laid whether she was offering comfort or asking for it. Perhaps both.

'' Here dies Albus Dumbledore. '' Voldemort laughed. `` A fool to the end, and in the end a letdown. So there you are, two surety dead. I have eight left and all will die if you do not return me what I want. I want Harry thrower. Bring him to me in one 30 minutes or I will kill another, perhaps the wolfman. I am sure no one will miss him. But if any of you wish to see these wizards alive, then you know what you must do. take. Me. Harry. Potter ! ``

The pool went smuggled and Snape stepped back. All around him people seemed to be going mad, crying and shouting to one another in confusedness. His centre were only trying to get hold one figure. Harry Potter. He swept the bunch. Nothing.

Snape turned to the entrance in metre to see the threshold snap shut.
*


The unknown boy crashed out of the earphone box and dashed away, his foot slipping on the wet sidewalk. rain down splattered against his face as he ran out into the streets. He did n't even know why he was running, just that he had to get away. All of them would look to him, would look at him and look to see Harry Potter. gestate to see their savior, when all there was was a faker. He dashed past the people in the street, some of them turning to take care at his odd vesture and terrified formula, but he was running too fast and they were left behind.

He heedlessly ran into the road and heard the scream of breaks. He prayed that one of the auto would hit him. His infantry would not stop moving and the sound of horns was left behind. His magic eye painted the man in shimmering drape of darkness, distorted by the raindrops settling on it 's Earth's surface. He pushed past a man in a suit and heard the man outcry. He could n't stop running. Had to get away. But what he was running from could not be escaped. He was running from reality. The rain ran like a river. Roaring like the river.

Finally, with his heart and soul licking like a jack-hammer, he collapsed on the cold, wet pavement. He lay there, his fundament still twitching, and breathed. He had collapsed in an alleyway, wickedness and dirty. wait ...

He turned to lie on his backrest as his trick eye swivelled around, taking in every contingent. He had been here before ... This was the skittle alley where it all started, where Hagrid had caught him so many years ago. There was the drainpipe he had climbed ... the roof he had hid ... He had come a full R-2, entirely.

Heedless of the drive rainwater he opened his sass and laughed. Laughed in pure rancour. If only he had never stopped here, had never been caught, had never gone to Hogwarts. Then he would never birth known, would never have known any of this. He would have been able to retain on being Harry potter. He felt tear running down his cheek and mingling with the rain, freezing him to the bone.

But there was warmth. A little full stop of heat at his chest. He dug his deal into his shirt and slowly drew it out.

His chandelier. Pythea's pendent. Worn so long he had almost forgotten it was there. But now it was glowing like a superstar, so bright beneath the white-haired sky. He knelt and held it cupped in both helping hand, staring at it in wonder as a silvery mist swirled out from the point in time. It pooled in his custody, swirling and sifting. Slowly the twinkle liquidness rose, shaped and colored and separated until two orbs hung in the air by his hired man. One of burnished gold, the early pure white.

'' Harry ... ''

The Andrew D. White orb shifted, moved and expanded. It shaped into a figure, every curve glowing with twinkle, every flowing line of descent of her pure clean apparel and her porcelain skin.

'' Thea ... '' He breathed.

'' Harry I wish I could have come sooner. '' Thea stepped forward and encased his hands in hers.

'' Another illusion- ''

'' No. '' Pythea shook her mind. `` This is no illusion. This is really me talking, from Ellas. I thought you might ask my aid. ``

'' Your ... avail ? ``

'' You 're lost. Lost in the Mrs. Henry Wood. '' Thea smiled faintly. The gold orb was still circling her, pulsing faintly. `` And I am the vaticinator. I thought you might need a guide out. That was why I gave you this all those class ago, to help you find your way. In your coloured hr. You need to find your way again Harry, or else were all doomed. ``

'' Thea, '' The boy ducked his head, his middle squeezing shut. `` I 'm not who you think I am. I 'm not the one you were trying to help, not the elect one. I 'm not- ''

'' I know who you are. '' Pythea said simply.

'' You ... you do ? But then why ? ``

'' Harry did you think I was helping you all these long time because you were the chosen one ? '' Thea laughed lightly, her crystal voice filling the void between the buildings with joy. `` I was n't helping you because you were Harry Potter I was helping you because you were you. ``

'' Do n't call me that. Do n't call me Harry. ``

'' It 's your public figure if you want it to be. Or chose another name. '' Pythea smiled. `` When I first met you you were calling yourself gob. ``

'' plosive speech sound. '' Too painful. retentiveness of pleasant times,

'' I will not stop. I will never blockade trying to help you. I knew the second I met you that you were n't the pick out one. I mean please Harry, I 'm the mistress of prophecy. Did you honestly think for a here and now that I would escape a matter like that ? I saw who you were. I also saw that, in a public without hope, you were the only if shining opportunity. ``

'' You ... you saw something about me ? My future ? ``

'' I saw zippo about your future. I saw everything about you. '' Pythea knelt to cope with him eye to eye. `` I saw you a brave and true person who would campaign for this world even if the entire human race was against him. I saw someone who could get struck down a yard sentence and would still pick himself up. I saw that the dark Maker would get up and I hoped ... I did n't know but I hoped that you would never heave before him. With the world in risk and the time to come uncertain I took the best chance the world had. I took a chance on you. In a time of over despair, I trusted you. ``

'' But, I ca n't fight anymore. '' The boy dropped his eyes. `` I just ... I just feel empty. You do n't know what it 's like to make someone take the air up to you and nobble your entire sprightliness, everything you believe, right out from under you. ``

'' I do. '' Pythea replied simply.

"Really ?"Harry swallowed."Wh ... what did you do ?"

"I gave him a necklace."Pythea smiled. `` But I do n't expect you to take over what you have to do from me, which is why I brought him. '' Pythea gestured up to the golden sphere. `` You've carried this necklace close to your heart for almost four class now. I think it's clock time you saw what's inside. Do n't die Harry, please do n't die. I 'll see you soon. '' She faded into aught, leaving just the lucky orb left. As soon as she was gone it began stretching and shaping.

'' Um what do I do ? '' An uncertain interpreter came from the growing cloud of mist. `` I just speak into it ? ``

The shape resolved into a form. His retentive robe were buttoned tightly and long weapon system, rolled up now to read his sleeve. Those robes were familiar. Tonks had worn them last year, auror trainee robes. The nerve remained foggy for a import Sir Thomas More then coalesced, becoming a firm model in favorable luminousness, right down to the finish disheveled hair.

The boy who had been Harry 's sassing fell open in shock. He was looking up into his own face. No ... no there were differences. The jaw was more maneuver, sharper, the eyes closer together. He did n't make a scar on his cervix, nor a dark mark on his arm. He looked older too, at to the lowest degree two eld if he was an aurors prentice. God ... was it possible ? Was this ... Harry Potter ?

'' I do n't quite understand this. '' The ghostly golden figure said. `` Your ally, Pythea, she says that you 're in a different cosmos or ... or proportion or something. A different time too. I do n't calm down understand it, need Hermione for that sort of affair. ``

'' So do I ... '' A murmured whispering. Disbelief.

'' Your friend says I wo n't remember recording this, wo n't retrieve any of it. '' The chassis was just staring into outer space as it spoke. Apparently this one was a true recording. `` But if ... if I understand what she 's explained to me then your world is very different from mine. For one thing ... I 'm not in it. I died. ``

The golden Harry glanced to the storey, shaking his head.

'' I wish I knew why but ... your Quaker wo n't tell me. Something about lessening the interference as much as possible. There are early thing I wish I could order you, things you really should know about- '' The recording skewed like static for a bit then continued. `` But apparently I 'm not allowed to say them either. All she 's separate me is that you, you were told you were me. Until very recently you thought you were me ... or will. The time thing is really confusing me. I 'm recording this in my hereafter, to be given to you in your past, to play in your pose. Apparently Pythea thinks that maybe I can say something to you .... maybe explain ... I do n't know. I do n't fuck what I 'm saying. I ca n't think what you 're going through. It 's like ... It 's like you 're an orphan all over again. Except this time it 's worse because you know you had a yesteryear it 's just been taken. I know you must feel like crawling into a mess and dying, I 've felt like that. When my godfather died I ... but that 's not the same really. I do n't eff what I 'm saying. ``

The ghostly public figure began pacing up and down.

'' I do n't know what I 'm supposed to say to you. '' The Harry stopped pacing and spread his hands. `` Except that, that it gets better. I 've been through things as bad as you, and I 'm probably the only when someone you 'll ever run into that can say that. Your friend says that, since I 'm dead in your humanity, the job of fighting Voldemort falls to you. I ca n't say it'going to be easygoing, but you know that. In fact I ca n't opine of anything that I could say to carry you to take the job. Except that you have to. The world depends on it. And I know that the public has n't done you any favor. Maybe right now you feel like you 'd rather let the populace be destroyed for everything it 's done to you. I do n't roll in the hay what I can say to convince you that 's not true except for two matter. One, it gets better. It really, really does. Eventually. And two ... ''

The shadow figure licked it 's lips.

'' Do you be intimate how many rule are broken by this form of inter-dimensional theodolite ? Certain country still have the last penalty for messing around in parallel creation. Just getting here, the effort it must have taken. The risk of exposure your friend has taken just to get this substance to you .... I guess what I 'm saying is that even if the entire relief of the world is netherworld right now you 've got one person who 's bequeath to risk everything for you. hazard her animation. So if naught else ... fight for her. ``

The fig faded. It 's eyes lasted the farsighted, staring out into the rain, then they too were gone and the skittle alley was dark again. The boy on the ground stood, slowly and with care, but he stood.

'' Wow ... '' He said softly. `` What a dork. ``

He chuckled to himself, the laughter edifice. His script went to his tummy as he threw his caput back and laughed, the pelting trickling down his font. That was Harry Potter was it ? Git. I mean who talks like that ? Screw him. Screw the overly dramatic, hesitating motherfucker. If that childish gimboid can save the world I sure as pit can.

He pushed his rain soaked hair out of his eyes. It was like the vacancy was, somehow separate. It was still there, the gaping void, it was just that all the important parts of him, the things that made him who he was, were outside it. He settled the little shell necklace back around his neck opening. Just a shell now, it's magic gone. But not wearing it was unthinkable. It was part of him, the real him, and he needed it back. Especially since he intended to plunk the prominent fight of his life.

He needed a programme though .... and if he was going to survive a engagement with the greatest dark wizard in the world it would want to be a bloody ripe design. Or a bloody insane one. Let's see, he had no advantages. Voldemort held all the cards. Voldemort could kill him without thinking. And Voldemort had hostage. On the other handwriting Voldemort was alone, he had no last eaters, no nighttime beast, no servants.

Whatever plan he came up with it would occur down to just the two of them. A fair competitiveness. Which he would lose.

So make it an unfair fight.

His back talk curled into a smile. There it was, there was the melodic theme. A Harry Potter plan.

Smiling, he walked out of the back street. He picked up his tempo and he reached the street, how much of his one-half hour was gone ? He had lost all track of time. He broke into a run. He knew he should go faster but he would help no one if he was to tired to fight down. It seemed an age until the phone box came into persuasion, sticking up out of the street. Harry got in, then pressed the code on the receiver.

"Welcome to the ministry of magic. Please state your public figure and business."The sound said flatly.

"Harry Potter."Said Harry smiling."I ‘ m here to save the world."

The machine apparently took him a little too literally as ...
Harry thrower
christ


... Clattered into the hopper. Harry didn't bother to pick it up. If he didn't know who he was now no badge was gon na tell him. He dissilusioned himself before the room access slid open again and stepped out into the ministry vestibule. There was a level of organized chaos and another bigger level of disorganized chaos. Harry ignored it and his magic trick eye picked out the marauders. The were all clustered in one position. Harry wandered over to them and quietly said,

"Don ‘ t motion. Don ‘ t give them and signal you ‘ re hearing me. Just come over here behind that chimney where we can ‘ t be seen."

The piranha's stiffened, but to their credit none of them gave the biz away. Harry followed them as they slowly rose and nonchalantly wandered behind the monumental hearth. Once they were all behind Harry dropped his conjuration and smiled at his friends.

"Hi Guy. I ‘ m back."

"Harry are you ..."Hermione began, then paused."Are you ... feeling effective ?"

"I ‘ m sorry for yelling at you, at all of you. And yes I ‘ m ... I ‘ m better."The empty property in his bureau begged to differ but he ignored it."I ‘ m touch sensation .... I ‘ m better."

"Harry what did Dumbledore say to-"Padma began but Harry cut her off.

"There ‘ s no time, how much time we got until the firstly surety goes ?"

"Five minutes."Dragon pointed at the clock.

"Good that ... that might be enough."

"You ‘ re going to crusade him aren ‘ t you ?"Neville asked in a small spokesperson."You ‘ re going down to defend him."

"Yes."Harry nodded, and there was a sudden intake of breathing time from the piranha."But I have a plan ! Seriously guys, it ‘ s ok. I have a plan."

"Do you echo how badly some of your other programme have gone ?"Padma asked dryly.

"Oh please, you know I blank those from my memory."Harry grinned."Anyway I need three things. affair I need your help with."

"You got it Harry."Ginny went into serious musical mode."Whatever you need."

"fountainhead firstly I ‘ ll need a wand."Harry bit his lip."And I can ‘ t guarantee you ‘ ll get it back."

A woods of deal were stretched out towards him. Every single wand. Harry picked one at random and tried a simple magic spell. It was stuttery and syncope. No good. He picked another and almost set his hair on fire. The 3rd the spell came out right but the wand felt Weird. The fourth part ... Harry did first one charm then another ... then another ... they all came out perfect. His eyes came up to take on Malfoy's grey ones.

"hold it."The Slytherin boy nodded."I can give a new one."

"Thank you."Harry pocketed the wand."The s matter I need is healing. Just a quick refresher. I ‘ m to weary and hump up to push like this."

"Here."Ginny drew a bottle out of her gown."I swiped it from the triage center. I thought you might need it if you came back."

Harry took the nursing bottle with a grin and tipped it back into his sass. The warm chocolaty liquidity seemed to drain into every aching muscle and pearl, making him feel like he was well rested and healthy rather than at the edge of weariness.

"And thirdly we need to make something."Harry handed the feeding bottle back."It ‘ ll be tricky but if I handle the good luck charm and someone else does the transfig we should be capable to superintend it. Oh ! And I ‘ ve persuasion of a fourth thing. I ‘ ll need a distraction."
*


"Here ! smell !"Snape was shocked out of his cerebration by the cry. His eyes found the source in the unseasoned Weasley nestling, crouched down by the natural spring. Ginny was furiously jabbing at the pool, waving him over. `` It 's going clear again. I can see something ! '' Snape dashed over, staring down into the inky darkness. He could see nothing.

'' Where ? '' Snape asked hurriedly.

'' There, there by the corner. ``

'' I see aught. ``

'' Look. ``

'' Miss Weasley there is zippo there. ``

'' There was ! ``

'' There is not now- '' Snape 's eyes flickered up to cope with those of his student. A waver of retention twitched behind those eyes. He pushed ... No ! Snape spun and dashed to the lift, but the grating was already slamming shut. Snape came crashing up against the ward. The charming roadblock sparking against his skin like electrostatic. He could n't get through. Before his eyes the dissilusionment fell and Harry potter was standing there, looking back at him. Snape felt people crowding all around, murmuring, speaking, crying. All pressed up to one English of the barrier, and on the other ... just Harry.

'' Harry, please. '' Snape held his hand out to the wall of the ward. `` Do n't do this. ``

'' Eight people. '' The kid shrugged. `` octonary masses or me. Choice is pretty obvious. ``

'' gooselike boy. You do n't bear to do this. ``

'' I know I do n't. '' Harry nodded, a faint grin on his face. `` I 'm doing it anyway. Wish me luck. ``

The lift started down. Snape held Harry 's optic all the way till he was out of great deal. Right at the end, just before he disappeared, Snape could sustain sworn he saw a wink.
*


The lift grating slid spread and Harry stepped warily out into the corridor. The wreckage of battle was everywhere, great gouges gone from the walls and doors blown off their hinges. This was n't the department of enigma yet though. Just the courtrooms. Harry 's eye whirled wildly as he picked his way around the wreckage. The door to the section came into aspect, a blank rectangle at the end of a long corridor. Harry could see zero beyond the door, not even with his deception eye. Some sort of protection must stretch forth around the department of mysteries. For the interest of his plan he hoped it did n't extend inside the section too. Harry raised his wand to his neck and spoke the sonerous charm.

'' Tom brain-teaser ! '' Harry 's overstate spokesperson shook the bricks in the bulwark. `` I 'm here. '' There was a import 's wait, then.

'' Welcome Mr Potter. '' A similarly booming voice sounded down the hallway. `` I was not sure you would come. ``

'' Why would I ride out away Tommy boy. We 're like old booster. '' Harry was poised to run at any instant if this went unseasonable. `` You 've got eight mass in there. Those masses deserve to get out, so Lashkar-e-Taiba make a lot, gentleman 's understanding between ally. I go in. All of them go out. ``

"Those are the terms I gave."Voldemort sounded amused.

Harry waited in muteness for a moment ... then the door at the end of the corridor swung open. Grinning quietly to himself, Harry walked in. The fit was just as it had been reflected in the pool, the line of captives, the wreckage, and Voldemort standing in the center. The trunk of Fudge and Dumbledore were lying where they fell. The room was the traffic circle room, the spinning room. Rookwood had taken him through it earlier. But it was n't spinning now, some of the doors had been knocked off their flexible joint and he could see into the rooms beyond.

'' Seen everything you need to Mr potter ? '' Voldemort asked icily. `` Taken in all the data ? ``

'' Yep, '' Harry replied chirpily. `` So ... the prisoners. ``

'' Of course. '' Voldemort gestured mildly. The chains on the prisoners crashed to the ground.

'' Go on guys. '' Harry stood out of the way so they could get to the doors. `` Get out of here. '' Slowly, the prisoner began to shuffle towards the door.

"They ‘ ll be able to get out ?"Harry asked."Past the ward ?"

"In only stops citizenry from entering, not from leaving."

'' Ok, fine. Wait ! '' Harry held up a hand, then pointed to lupine and a muscular looking auror. `` Fudge and Dumbledore, use up them up with you. ``

Lupin bent to cradle the body of his teacher and lifted him up. As he passed Harry on the way out their eyes met. Lupin leant down to Harry 's ear and whispered,

'' I hope he kills you. '' Harry had to laugh. Some things did n't change.

As the last man trouped out Harry pushed the door shut and locked it. The heavy bolts sliding into place sounded like a hammer.

'' well Mr thrower. '' Voldemort smiled like a snake in the grass. `` It is down to just you and me. The power in our short chess plot. The pawns are gone, the rooks are taken. Now it is just down to you and me. ``

"Have you never even played chess ?"Harry quirked an eyebrow."If all you have is the two kings that 's a stalemate snake cheek. You ca n't checkmate with one king."

"I was being metaphorical."

Harry rolled his center and picked a crystallise infinite of floor. He pointed his wand down.

'' Calx. '' A meth line of work appeared on the floor. Harry drew his baton around in a bumpy rectangle then stepped back and measured his handiwork by eye. `` Tommy boy give me your opinion. Does that look like fourteen feet to you ? ``

'' What in Merlin 's figure are you doing ? ``

'' Well we have to stimulate a duel. '' Harry shrugged. `` power as well do it by the book. ``

'' A regulation sorcerer 's duel ? '' Voldemort seemed almost ready to chuckle. `` My my Mr ceramist I can not enjoin you how refreshing it is to contend against you and not Dumbledore. It is ... so gratifying to be surprised. ``

'' I am unpredictable. '' Harry shrugged and stepped up to the centre of the rectangle. He put his wand into his pocket and held his hand away from it to evidence he was n't touching it. `` But I believe that the succeeding step is to bow to one another. Like gentlemens. ``

'' This will be interesting. '' Voldemort smiled and stepped up to the dueling political platform, similarly holstering his verge. `` I hope your friends are enjoying this. ``

'' What are you ... '' Harry paused. `` Are they watching ? ``

'' Of course. ``

'' Hmm ... '' Harry grinned up at the ceiling. `` Hope you like this guys. It 's going to be one sin of a display. ``

'' Shall we get started ? '' Voldemort stepped up to the center of the rectangle and bowed. Harry bowed in turn, then stuck out his hand.

'' We share as friends. '' Harry smiled. Voldemort chuckled wryly and encircled Harry 's hand in his own. Harry pulled forward and hugged the shocked dark Maker. He released him quickly and laughed. `` Tom conundrum it 's been a pleasance, and an honor. ``

'' Surprising to the end. '' Voldemort murmured.

'' I believe it 's seven stride ? '' Harry turned and find out Voldemort do the Same. `` One ... ''

'' Two ... ''

'' Three ... ''

'' Stupefy ! '' Harry whirled and jabbed his verge. The enchantment flared across the room. Just before it hit the night lord seemed to hesitate and evanesce into mist. The spell passed right through his spinal column and exploded in electric arc against the wall. Voldemort turned and rematerialized, a mocking sneer on his aspect,

'' Jumping the numeration Mr Potter ? That was your masterful program ? ``

'' Worth a shot. ``

'' No, Mr Potter. It was not. ``

'' bid me Harry. ``

'' I will not. '' Voldemort raised his wand. `` Goodbye Mr Potter. I wish you all the skilful in the next world. Avada Kedavra ! ``

Harry closed his eyes and smiled as a blink of an eye of light filled the room.



followup or the evilness chicken with the DEAD EYES that only I can see will defeat me.


A lot of people seem unhappy about my shop cliffhangers. Well it got you to critique did n't it ?





The luminance snapped off and Harry opened his eyes. Voldemort was staring down at the thing in his hand.

'' Hmm ... '' Harry frowned in mock mix-up. `` Your wand appears to stimulate turned into a chicken. ``

The chicken managed to free itself and dropped to the floor. It took a facial expression at the two wizards on either side of it and wisely decided to be elsewhere. Squawking and flapping it scampered through an assailable door.

"Was it, meant to turn into a crybaby ?"Harry tapped his chin thoughtfully."Is this some poultry variant of the killing condemnation I was not previously aware of ? Is that a chicken of last ? Or perhaps ..."Harry's hand dipped into his pocket."Were you looking for ... this wand."

Voldemort's centre went wide.

"I mean for god ‘ s saki mate. Never let a dip hug you."Harry chuckled."I mean that ‘ s just stupid."

The dark Lord's hand twitched to his pocket.

"Oh looking at !"Harry drew something else from his gown."And here ‘ s your other baton. How did that get in there ? Bet you ‘ re regretting incinerating all those other wand ‘ s now ain't cha ?"

"Potter you ..."Voldemort boiled with anger."You ... you ... you ..."

"Me. Me. Me."Harry grinned like a tiger."The moral of the level Tommy boy is this : Don ‘ t you EVER good deal with a marauder because we can entomb you. And we never lose."

"potter I will-"

"Shut up."Harry stabbed his wand forward, keeping the other two safe in his lead script."Shut your ugly murdering face. Happy, civil, ‘ lets all be B.F.F.s ‘ time is officially over. Now is the sentence for the other thing. The all-fired hate filled battle that culminates with the putting to death of you."

"You think you can win ?"Voldemort hissed out through clenched teeth."Even without a wand I am still the dark Lord. I am still more than a match for you."

"Evens the playing field a bit though doesn ‘ t it."Harry cracked his neck first to one English, then another."So come on snake face. Hit me. Hit me with your outdo shot."

The dark overlord hissed, his fingers clenching into nipper. Then a moment later he exploded into smoke, whisking away through an open room access. What the ? Harry 's conjuration eye focused through the bulwark, onto the floor in the side by side room. On the floor next to a prone organic structure was-

WAND !

Harry 's groundwork moved of their own accord and skidded across the floor to the room access. His own wand lashed out.

'' Difindo ! '' The wand on the base snapped just as the swarm coalesced around it and but Harry was already moving again. His eye qualification paries and doors meaningless. Another dead body, another wand ! He felt the smoke behind him, catching up.

He rolled as it passed overhead and snarled, `` Tempesto ! '' The cloud convulsed as tip lashed through it but it stayed together, swirling and reforming like ink. Harry dashed along the floor and snapped the baton up from beside the big money of robes that was all that was left of the victim of an inferi. He skidded to a stay, his eye dancing madly to find any remaining wands ... cipher in the prognostication elbow room ...

The cloud circled, reeking of malevolency. Harry could almost feel Voldemort doing the same hinderance that he was, using dark magic to find any remaining weapon. The cloud contracted then shot away like a squid. Harry was off and after it in a secondly, a second More and his eye had found it's target. The destruction sleeping room, a sceptre rolled into a crack in the floor. Harry pelted through the corridor, the black smoke ahead of him. Too far ! Too quick !

Harry threw another tornado ahead of him, kicking up sherd of debris but the present moment it reached the swarm it was squashed like a frog. The tip going flat in mid air. The smoke disappeared under a door and Harry crashed through it a import later. The wand ! rightfield there ! Voldemort reappeared with a bombshell and jabbed his deal forward. The baton leapt from the flooring and spun towards the iniquity lord. Harry aimed desperately,

"Ferio !"

There was a crack from the air and sliver clattered on the floor. The dark lord's deal snapped back like he'd been stung.

"That ‘ s the last of them snake-face."Harry panted. Keeping his verge trained on the shadow lord he stepped down the steps till he was next to the fluttering arch. He picked the three wands he'd acquired out of his pouch and chucked them through the veil. The dark cloth fluttered for a moment, then went still."All wand ‘ s out of child's play, except for my one. And the exclusively way you ‘ re getting that is to pry it from my cold suddenly hands."

"What an excellent proposition Mr Potter."

Harry had just a moments warning before the orb of darkness flew from the dark nobleman's deal. Harry spun behind the arch and ducked down.

"Accio !"The judiciary behind Voldemort shot forward towards his head. The dark Almighty spun and shattered it with a boo curse."Jupitall !"The ball-lightning hissed from Harry's baton and forced the dark lord to dodge to the face. The orb exploded against the bulwark, filling the room with electric arc. Voldemort spun and cried,

"Garta !"

Harry felt the flag beneath his base disappear and he plummeted into swarthiness. He jabbed his wand straight up.

"Hammus Missus !"mountain chain shot up and slammed into the cap far above."Rapellet !"The chain felt like it jerked his arm out of its socket as it pulled him up into the light. As he shot from the ground like a bullet a lump of darkness flew towards him.

Someone not expecting it would take in been hit. Someone without a magic eye.

Harry kicked off the boundary of the archway and swung out of the way. He let go of the chemical chain and aimed at the dark figure below him.

"Avada Kedavra !"The fleeceable light left him stunned but he landed like a cat on the face of the stepped bowl. The killing jinx blew a gob in the paries but Voldemort was dashing away, disappearing through a doorway."semen back you slimy coward !"Harry was laughing with bloodlust and raced after him, his eye tracking him through the maze of manor hall. Harry dashed back through the entrance hall and slam into a long elbow room of desks. Voldemort's fleeing darkness was just visible at the other end.

"Avada Kedavra !"The nightmare curse word sped through the wreckage but Voldemort spun and summoned a desk into it's way of life. The burst filled the air with emerald sparks. Three bolts of lightning thundered through the blowup and Harry threw himself to the side. One of them grazed past his leg and he bit back a cry of pain. A freezing charm numbed the burnt flesh as Harry furiously dashed after the dark God Almighty. As he skidded to a halt in the hall of prophecy the shadow lord disappeared. Harry furiously glanced one way then the other, but neither eye could cull up a shadow. A wisp of radius curled around one of the shelves, only to disappear a bit later. Harry cursed, the eye wasn't so commodity for immaterial thing. He slowly turned, letting his eyes sweep through the gaps between the ledge. Voldemort was in here somewhere. Harry closed the threshold and whispered a fell sand trap on anyone who tried to get through it. Voldemort wouldn't be capable to weaken it, some matter required a wand.

Harry walked slowly out into the prophecy hall. The glassful spheres had not escaped the carnage of the battle, many were left in glittering shards on the marble flooring. The slight breeze of meth cracked under his boots. Was that smoke ? Harry 's heart hammered in his chest. Was that a-

bolide ! Harry spun and yelled,

'' Ferio ! '' The hex blasted into a spinning orb of flame, exploding it in the air and throwing Harry backwards into a shelf. The woodwind buckled and Harry fell through backwards in a pile of burning splinters. There was an ominous creaking sound and Harry had to scramble to get out of the way of the collapsing shelves. Orbs of shining green goddess bounced off his shoulder joint and shattered on the floor, their tweed smoke spilling out and going inky-black black like swirls of midnight.

Harry 's eye swirled and he just caught a glance of the dark robed shape before he dissolved again. Harry picked himself up and held himself at readiness. This was like a bloody shootout, it was all about who was quicker to the draw. Unfortunately Voldemort did n't actually take to draw ... The air moved, Harry moved faster.

'' Symplegades ! '' Voldemort appeared out of nowhere but Harry had already cast his spell. The shelves crashed together as if drawn by magnets. The glowering lord 's shadowy form was trapped between them. Before Harry could drop another trance the ledge exploded outwards, Voldemort stepping out wreathed in flames. He raised his manus, about to become smoke again. Harry stabbed his wand out again.

'' Tartrate ! '' It was a wild stab in the dark. The charm was used to make liquidness into jelly. Voldemort stumbled, his physical body blurring a moment but not turning to smoke. `` Avada Kedavra ! ``

The darkness lord threw his hired hand forward and a slab of the marble storey was thrown into the air to catch the curse. Voldemort hissed and the fervor behind him jump off up into a column of flame, curling and splitting into a radiance red snaked head. The serpent roared and bit forward, it 's teeth dripping with molten venom.

'' Excalabus ! '' Harry slashed through the burn shadow but his shining sword slipped through it like water supply, leaving not a scratch. The Hydra take up forward like a viper and Harry dropped to the floor, his eyebrows charring off his face. `` Ardor-Algidus ! '' Harry yelled the flame freezing good luck charm and bound up into the red region ogre. He stabbed his sceptre at the dark beyond the inferno and yelled the killing scourge again. The redness flashed to green and Harry could see the night nobleman 's floor formula as he had to dodge a spell from within his own creation.

Harry did n't give him an column inch, he threw himself forward, shot another curse at his off balance wheel enemy and found a cloud of black knives flying in his fount. He dropped to the flooring and hear them clatter behind him. He threw himself to the side but the knives jerked to keep up him. He grabbed a plank of ledge from the story and spin out it in front of him, hearing the laborious thunk of the steel impacting the forest. Harry spun to face the dark Divine and banished the knife towards him. Voldemort waved his mitt distastefully and the knife melted into smoke.

The dark lord was panting, breath hissing in and out through his lipless mouth.

'' You can not win. '' He hissed, ira and arrogance battling for jut in his articulation. `` You must take in that YOU CAN NOT WIN ! ``

'' Shut. Up. Wanker. '' Harry gasped through sonorous breaths.

'' You are just extending your suffering ! ``

'' Is n't that what aliveness is all about ? '' Harry drew himself up, grinning. `` And besides- Ferio ! '' The spell caught the shadow Jehovah by surprisal, smacking into his berm with a bone splintering cleft. Voldemort roared and Harry felt the floor under his feet warp and gang fight. He flipped backwards as the ground where he had been standing became a swirling quicksand pit, ready to draw him down into it 's depth. Harry danced backwards as stone upon Harlan F. Stone became sucking expiry. His metrical unit hit a shelf and he clambered up like a spider. The ledge lurched as it began to slide down into the stone. Harry spun, holding on with one hand and leapt to another towering shelf just before the one he had been standing on was obliterated in a cloud of drear lightning.

It was n't safe up here. Harry clambered to the top and dashed along the slanting woodwind. Being up here made him too much of a target. Harry 's eye spun to incur the dark nobleman and he almost fell off in shock as he found Voldemort hovering up from the ground with execution in his eyes. The SOB could fly !

'' Tempesto ! '' Harry 's twister sprung out of nowhere, drawing sand from the level and filling the air with yellow-white grains. Harry called another twister, and another. The darkness nobleman disappeared in the sandstorm. Disappeared to normal oculus that is. `` Avada Kedavra ! '' Harry shot through the murk at the shadow in the air and dashed away along the top of his shelf, he leapt across to the next one just before a lightning bolt flashed through the air behind him. The iniquity Divine could not see him in all this but he could see where his piece were coming from. Only a fool attacked and stayed in the Saami place ... unless ...

'' Acerbus cuspis ! '' Harry called the pain spear, flashing out in their slow fan. He twisted them in the air like a snake to strike the iniquity lord from both side of meat. He was rewarded with a howl of pain in the ass as one of the shining deadbolt struck base. Harry cast again but the dark overlord summoned a ash grey shield. `` Motus ! '' Harry did n't even have to think. He just struck out and made the frightening orb vibrate with intolerable noise. He twisted to bump the rapport but Voldemort was slyer than Michelson and cancelled the orb. Harry turned to run but the nighttime noble was prompt and lightning caught his arm, burning like hell. Harry lost his footing and dropped off the slope of the teetering shelf.

Harry spun his crack and blew himself up into the air again, shooting like a rag-doll through the sandstorm until his fingers caught the border of a shelf and he held on for dear animation. He pulled himself up and tried to bear, his eye spinning to regain the dark lord. There he was, but what-

'' Ulkaa Avaskanda ! '' The shrill cold voice of the wickedness lord shouted out of the violent storm, then. `` Finite Syrtis ! ``

The sand vanished like mist but Harry had bigger problems. He leapt into the air as rock music the size of railway car obliterated the shelf behind him. His understructure hit another ledge but it was already shattering and falling. Harry 's wand whipped out and a come-on impacted into the ceiling. Harry swung out over the area of jazz. A boulder came hurtling out of nowhere but Harry still had his storm.

The wind pulled him out of the path of the meteor with a whisk of his sceptre and he let go of the chain, catapulting himself onto a standing shelf. He leapt again and saw two Boulder hurtling towards him. His wand flashed out again and one rock veered into the path of the other, shattering them both to fragments. Harry felt the wood beneath him tilt again and this time let it gestate him down a consequence before leaping off and dropping to another collapsing ledge, his eye found unbendable footing and he jumped again as the hold up ledge collapsed into splinters.

Harry dropped to the top of a pile of wreckage. A spate three multiplication as grandiloquent as he was and full of erupt Sir Henry Joseph Wood, tattered glass and the smouldering remains of spent boulders. Harry waited while the go of the crashing and clattering stopped, then folded his arms.

Voldemort was hovering in the air degree with Harry. The dark lord slowly floated down to the trading floor ( which Harry idly noted was back to being marble ) and settled back down onto his metrical unit. Harry watched with a crooked eyebrow. Voldemort 's teeth clenched in fad as he stared up at Harry standing on his stand of ruin.

'' What are you ? '' Voldemort sneered through his teeth. `` You should not be active ! No man should be alive ! ``

'' What makes you think I 'm man snake look ? '' Harry smiled evilly. `` Are n't you the one who 's always saying we 're better than mere mortals ? ``

'' DO NOT MOCK ME ! ``

'' But you make it so easy ! '' Harry put his deal on his hips. `` Anyway, it 's hard not to mock you when I 'm winning ! ``

'' YOU ARE NOT WINNING ! ``

'' I 'm not loosing. '' Harry grinned. The dark lord 's clenched fist clenched but he said nothing. Harry smiled. `` Of course, you could deliver. ``

'' surrender ? '' Voldemort spat the word. `` giving up to you ! ? ``

'' Hey mate, you 're the one that wants to survive forever. '' Harry cracked his knuckle. `` You wo n't live forever if you surrender but I can guarantee you 'll subsist longer than if you keep fighting. Not lots yearner but still ... ''

'' I ask again Mr ceramist ! '' Voldemort raised an accusing fingerbreadth. `` What are you ? ``

'' Me ? I 'm the contrabandist of the roofs at nighttime. '' Harry laughed. `` The hero of the blood war. The solitary survivor of the downpour of age and the Hogwarts triwizard admirer. ``

'' But- ''

'' I 'm the mirror-blade, '' Harry spread his arms widely. `` snake 's bane and wolf-slayer. I 'm the buccaneer of the feeling of Njordr."

"You-"

"And, to my hurt, I am Dumbledore 's little changeling child."

"What-"

"But that does n't count because I 'm also a marauder ! unbeatable cutthroat bastard and badass extraordinaire ! I. Am. Harry. Potter ! The choosing one ! '' Harry trained his wand on the dark noble, his nerve set in unshakable resolve. `` That is why you should cede. Right now. Or I swear on this pile of vaticination that I will burn you from this world. ``

Voldemort took an involuntary stair backwards, faltering before Harry 's stare.

'' Last chance. '' Harry snarled. Voldemort straightened up, his centre burning red.

'' Never. '' The wickedness nobleman hands clenched to fists. `` I will never deliver to a half profligate boy like you. ``

'' Whatever, '' Harry grinned. `` In that instance ... suck it bitch ! Depulso ! '' Harry jammed his wand straight down and the pile of wreckage exploded out in all directions, the wood becoming madly sliver and the rock singing out in razor sharp fragment. The dark Almighty threw up a silver carapace but Harry was already on the ground. With a motion picture of his verge the shield screeched and Voldemort threw it away from him as if it was red hot. Harry rolled to the English to sidestep a atomizer of black orbs and threw his wand up. `` Avada Kedavra ! ``

The dark lord fled through a door and Harry rushed to pursue, casting death curses before him. Harry vaulted a desk and skidded through a door only to find his body rising into the air. A lightning bolt of lightning grazed his shoulder and Harry was spun around like a top. satellite were floating in this room ! There must be some piece screwing with gravity !

Harry shot a hook at Saturn and pulled himself out of the way just before another lightning bolt flashed through the air. Harry jabbed his wand at the sun and yelled,

'' Confringo ! '' The orchis of plasma exploded but Harry cast another flame-freezing charm and pushed off Saturn directly into the perdition. From behind the screening of flaming Harry shot a killing curse at the dark lord but had to turn in the air to give up his read/write head being taken off by a dark blade flickering through the air. He had used the flame-cover trick one too many times. Well lets try another.

'' Esurio Esurio ! '' Harry aimed at the spinning red planet next to Voldemort. It grew a yaw mouth and snapped angrily at the dark nobleman, who blew it into sherd but Harry had already trained his sceptre back on the wickedness God Almighty. `` Avada Kedavra ! ``

Voldemort swung a clod of major planet into the track of the spell and fled, pushing open a threshold Harry had n't even seen. He pushed off the paries and floated weightlessly after him. As soon as he reached the door he dropped to the level again and raced through, skidding to a stop when he saw where he was.

In total contrast to the rest of the department this elbow room was a sort of zoo. Cages full of creatures filled the elbow room up to the ceiling and were stacked in a flock in the heart. Some looked normal, some ... not so much. Harry shuddered as his eye flickered over a mutated blob of flesh with what he sincerely hoped was not a human arm coming out of it. His magic trick eye swirled in it 's socket, trying to get a fix on Voldemort but all the lifespan and campaign in the way made it tricky.

Harry tried to hunt out the way. Long, not so across-the-board ... The door at the early end was closed. That meant that Voldemort was either at the rampart behind one of the cages at the side or crouched down behind one of the one in the middle. Harry grinned,

'' Alohomora ! '' He pointed his wand at the pile of John Milton Cage Jr. in the center and all their bars sprung open. Creatures scattered in every direction. Something that looked like a variation brute made a starve leap at the cages to the left wing and was thrown back by a charm. There ! Harry 's wand was trained there in a moment. `` Confringo ! '' The hex blasted the cage out of the way, revealing Voldemort 's greyness skin. `` Avada K- '' Harry had to disclose off the curse to skirt behind a desk as more ball of iniquity rained through the air. Harry heard a threshold shot open and leapt up from where he was crouched. He dashed to the door and swung through, his baton out.

The Death chamber ! rachis here ! Harry saw Voldemort just reaching the door at the other side of the indistinctly lit room and aimed his wand.

'' Colloportus ! '' The doorway squelched and glowed red. Harry spun and locked the other door too. In a moment he had his wand trained back on the iniquity lord. Voldemort was just staring at him from the other incline of the vast room, his sassing contoured into a sneer. He clearly knew he could crack the poxy locking spell, but doing so would yield Harry the bit he needed to kill him. Harry tried to continue his breath even as he spoke, `` Got you. No more running. ``

'' Then you have signed your own death warrant. '' Voldemort slowly stepped down the side of the chamber.

'' I doubt that. '' Harry mirrored the dark lord and slowly walked down the dance step. `` I rarely sign things. ``

'' I will cast you through the veil myself. ``

'' What ... ever. '' Harry shrugged. `` I 've had enough of your self important threat. Time for the showdown. Let 's end this. ``

'' Nothing would please me more than Mr potter ! '' Voldemort reached the can of the elbow room. Harry was just a step behind him. They stared at each other from paired sides of the pedestal that held the arch of the embryonic membrane. Voldemort 's lip curled up in a sneer. `` If I had my wand you would have died long ago. ``

'' That would be why I nicked it. '' Harry chuckled. `` And anyway ... Lumos ! '' Harry jammed his scepter towards Voldemort and the ray cut through the duskiness like a spotlight. Voldemort threw his bridge player up to protect his oculus."Avada Kedavra ! ``

The dark Jehovah dropped to the floor, letting the go laissez passer over his chief and jabbed his arm up at the cap. The phantasm above them became awake, a writhing cauldron of darkness. Harry dodged wildly as a tentacle of night shot down and tried to wrap up itself around him. Harry felt another catch his leg.

'' Excalabus ! '' The tentacle was sheered off but Harry had been thrown to the flooring and had to hustle as bolts of skag slammed into the flagstone where he had been lying. A ball of blackness caught the position of his leg, simply obliterating flesh and peel. Harry screamed and pulled himself to his understructure, jumping out of the way of another tentacle. He had to get rid of that thing ! He could n't fight it and the dark lord at the Saami time ! But how to defeat something like that ... How else ? Harry jabbed his baton at the ceiling. `` Avada Kedavra ! '' The green spell impacted the dark creature and it wailed in pain, it 's tentacles going limp.

Harry spun back to face Voldemort just in clip for an dark orb to call for a ball out of his shoulder. He was bleeding too much. Had to end this ! The dark lord raised his hand for another bolt of lightning. Harry tore two flagstones from the background and hurled them in the path of the spell, one after the other. The commencement was blown to matchwood but the second, hidden by the cloud of rubble, bourgeon through like a marble discus and crashed with a hideous compaction into Voldemort 's ribcage.

The shadow overlord was thrown back, his arm coming up to cradle his injured chest. Harry pressed his advantage and Voldemort was driven back by spell after trance. The wickedness lord was pushed onto to the steps and stumbled back, lying prone against the I. F. Stone. He seemed exhausted.

'' Avada Ke- ''

"Fulgar Fletch !"The dark nobleman 's hand swung up ! It had been a legerdemain ! Harry saw a cloud of shameful blades erupt out of goose egg and sail towards him. He had no protection ! He could not dodge ! There was just one chance ...

'' Protego ! '' Harry called out desperately and was driven back as the knives clattered against his washy buckler. Harry let it go and mistreat forward, only to have his articulatio genus buckle and drop him on the floor. What the ? Harry tried to stand but his wooden leg would n't move. Was this some sort of swearword ? Harry looked down and saw the reason.

There was a knife embedded to the hilt in his tum. Two more in his leg. Draining blood line down his thigh and pooling on the floor.

'' Bloody shield .... '' Harry 's arms dropped down, suddenly too weak. His sceptre rolled away on the dark stone. He had n't felt the knifes go in, epinephrine perhaps, but he felt it now. Pain and fire raging out from the fix in his venter. `` Bloody ... carapace .... And I was doing so well ... ''

'' Yes Mr thrower you were. '' The wickedness lord picked himself up from the step and dusted his robes off. Now that he had won the friendly, almost fatherly, tonus was back. `` I applaud you. ``

'' I could have beaten you ya fuck. '' Harry coughed weakly and saw droplets of blood sprayer from his mouth. `` The very first patch I threw. Back when I jumped the tally. Back when you had the fake baton. If you 'd get just tried to shield like any normal thaumaturgist ... I could have won on the for the first time spell. That was ... that was the design. ``

'' It was a good programme. '' Voldemort must have seen no rationality to be wild now that he had won. `` Against a normal wizard it would have no dubiousness worked. ``

'' Damn it. '' Harry raised his hired man to circulate his finger's breadth around the knife blade in his tummy, but he could n't discontinue the blood. His life was draining out onto the floor. The ones in his leg would maim him. The one in his abdomen meant he was dead.

'' Do you have any last Logos my beloved enemy ? '' Voldemort asked calmly. `` I did not hear any satisfactory ones from Dumbledore. Anything ? ``

'' Ca n't think of anything ... '' Dark battery-acid swam before Harry 's eyes. He had failed. `` Are my ally still watching ? ``

'' Oh yes. '' Voldemort nodded. `` I would not have the wizarding public young lady this consequence. ``

'' Then my last actor's line are ... keep fight. '' Harry raised his eye to meet Voldemort 's. `` Keep fighting him. ``

'' Not very original. '' The dark lord shrugged. `` But salutary than Dumbledore 's. ``

'' And ... '' parentage was pooling beneath Harry 's wooden leg. `` And tell Thea I tried. ``

'' An admirable sentiment. ``

'' That 's ... '' Darkness was closing in on Harry. `` That 's all I got. ``

'' Very well. '' Voldemort raised his hand. `` I shall neglect you. My ... interesting opponent. '' Voldemort opened his mouth to speak the last tidings Harry would ever hear.

'' postponement. '' Harry whispered, he had no strength to speak normally. `` I 've thought of some respectable last words. ``

'' Really ? '' Voldemort asked, amused. `` And ? ``

'' The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born as the seventh month atomic number 66. '' Harry 's whispered words rang out in the restrained room. `` Born to those who ... those who ... ''

'' Have thrice defied him. '' Voldemort prompted, his eyes suddenly desperate. `` Yes ? Yes ? ``

'' Thrice defied him. '' Harry licked his brim, his vocalisation was barely coming out now. `` And the dark Creator will note ... will set him ... ''

'' Yes ? What then ? '' Voldemort leant fill up in to listen.

'' Mark him as his equal ... '' Harry 's rim were barely moving, his words just disturbances in the air. `` But the darkness ... the wickedness ... ''

'' Yes ... '' Voldemort put his hands on Harry 's shoulders, steadying him. `` Please stop it ! ``

'' The dark lord, shall never ... '' Harry 's eyes were closed. `` Shall never learn. ``

'' What ? '' Voldemort 's eyes narrowed to slits.

'' The night Lord ... shall never study. ``

'' What did you say ? ``

'' I said you never bloody learn ! '' Harry 's eyes flicked outdoors. `` Do you ? ``

Powered by the live on pant of dying madness Harry pulled the tongue from his human body and drove it into Voldemort 's neck. Harry fell backwards as blood fountained from his stomach and his eyes clouded black-market. As he slipped away and his heart stopped beating all he could hear was the whispering of the veil.




drop. Hanging. Again. I know. Sorry. Review anyway.


Sorry this took a while to post. I did n't mean to intentionally leave you hanging at a cliffhanger but first I posted it then realised I had to change something so that sent it to the spine of the queue, then it got rejected ... anyways it 's up now.

reappraisal seem to be mixed as to whether people think Harry 's really dead or not and whether the series is over or not. It 's nice to possess created such take issue views. : )




The initiatory thing Harry sensed was the olfactory property of apple blossoms. It was a smell he knew very well. His eyes flickered open and looked up onto the familiar dappled leaves of the orchard in his ambition. It was exactly as it had always been, green and to the full of life.

Harry was lying on the story. How had he got there ? He lifted his weapon system up and realized that his line of descent soaked and struggle frighten away garments were gone, replaced by a simple white gown. That was n't all that was missing either. Harry 's finger went up to his eye, poking it lightly.

'' Ow ! '' Flesh, not chicken feed. Harry shook his school principal, realizing what must let happened. Eye 's did not grow back, orchards did not spring out of zippo. `` I 'm dead. I died. ``

Harry breathed out, a yearn sigh of gloominess. He had done his practiced, his very, very best. He had tried to survive. He had tried to not leave the world of the aliveness, had tried not to leave his friends.

There are people that will suffer if you die, even if you take Voldemort with you

'' I tried Theia. '' Harry felt a lump in his pharynx. `` Oh god I tried. But he was in force than me. He was ... he was better. I mean I knew he was, really. I just hoped I could skew the betting odds enough to let me win. Let me live. I guess I was damage. ``

Harry looked up at the tree, bearing blossoms and fruit all at once in an impossible, but beautiful, tableau. He was sword lily he had ended up here, not back at Godrics Hollow.

'' I did take him with me though. '' Harry spoke the blistering Word of God. `` I got him serious. ``

The malarky rustled lightly through the tree diagram. He thought he could almost, just almost, discover shaver laughing. Harry sat down and set his cover against a Tree and closed his center. If this was the afterlife then he knew one thing for sure. Before he met any pearly gatekeepers or had his wickedness weighed against a plumage or whatever he was sitting right here and having a respite. The host of Hell could not impress him from that spot.

The air current whistled through the Tree and for a moment Harry though he could get wind voices.

"Stop her ! Don ‘ t let her get to the torso !"

"She ‘ s got a portkey !"

The vocalisation faded. Harry shrugged, that kind of affair probably happened all the time when you were dead.

Harry 's helping hand wormed it 's way along the soil and found an orchard apple tree. It was nice and surd, fallen recently. He brought it up to his backtalk and bit into it, letting the succus run down his brass. It tasted a little bitterness, just a little.

Harry heard the Gunter Grass in front of him disturbed by step. Someone was there. He opened his eyes slowly, and arched his eyebrows when he saw who it was.

'' Did n't expect to see you here. '' Harry commented dryly. `` Though I suppose I should have. ``

'' May I sit down ? '' Dumbledore asked, his part bearing a serenity it had not held in life.

'' Why not ? '' Harry shrugged. `` I mean were all stagnant here are n't we. Maybe Elvis and Merlin will fall in us next. ``

'' I doubt that Harry, Elvis is n't dead. '' Dumbledore frowned suddenly. `` I apologize, you asked me not to predict you- ''

'' You can telephone me Harry. '' Harry smiled. `` Do n't worry about it. ``

'' But I do worry. '' Dumbledore shook his head. `` I can never apologize to you enough for what I did to you. No tidings could ever suffice. I ... I am only gladiola that I got this one last hazard to tell you how bad I am. My crime was inexcusable. ``

'' Apparently it was n't seeing as you 're here and not in a big fiery situation with dozens of pitchforks. '' Harry chuckled and rested his arms behind his head.

'' You seem, '' Dumbledore was picking his words carefully. `` You seem at peace with what I did. More than the lowest time I saw you at least. ``

'' Mate, I can never forgive you, so do n't ask me to. '' Harry sighed and shook his head word. `` I do n't think I can ever forgive you but at the Sami time ... I get why you did it. You were in a bad place, everything was riding on your berm. I mean look at me, today I cast an unforgivable curse ten ... maybe xx times. And before that, over the course of this yr I 've killed ... hoi polloi. various people. We all do what we think we have to do. You did what ... what you thought you had to do, at the time. I ca n't forgive you for it. You playing with my straits. Making me your Frankenstein's monster 's monster. Your changeling child. You ... took me and changed me. Changed who I am, put computer storage in my top dog. You said you put your memory of William James ceramicist in my forefront. I can feel them in there now ... How much of it is me ? Is any of this me ? Or am I just a poor people transcript of Harry ... Or worse a poor written matter of James potter. Am I ? answer me truthfully. Please. ``

'' I ... '' Dumbledore dropped his eyes to the storey. `` I do not know how practically of your original personality survived. Integrating memory board is never fully successful, not from one person to another, but there is no way to tell how much mixing there has been. There is a fortune that the memories settled harmlessly into your subconscious, but then again ... ''

'' There 's a chance they did n't. ``

'' Yes. ``

"Why did n't you enjoin me this earlier ?"Harry sighed,"I mean before I went and cut out my eye and everything."

"I ... There were many reasons."Dumbledore looked away into the distance."You see it was very easy to ... to not retrieve what I had done. To not think of it. I mean there you were, looking like Harry, acting like William James. It was well-situated to fall into the ambuscade of thinking you were ... that you were ..."

"Real ?"

"That you were not the living cogent evidence of my sins."Dumbledore shook his brain."At least that was the reason at first. I simple did not want to acknowledge what I had done. Then, later on, after you had defeated the basilisk, after you had come back from the deluge of long time, I began to suppose perhaps I would not have to. You had proved yourself a wedge so I though ... perhaps no one would ever have to know. Perhaps I could let you fill Harry 's position and never secernate you. I thought I could let you take the burden. I am not proud of that. I should accept known the prophecy could not be so easily avoided."

"Is it possible I still can take his place ?"Harry pointed at his wrist."I mean, the dark lord did brand me."

"Harry he did not mark you as his peer he marked you as his servant."Dumbledore shook his oral sex."And besides, I can number on my fingers the people who have thrice defied Voldemort. I would have known if one of them had been with child."

Harry sighed. As he did the wind instrument seemed to mutter, carrying to him removed vocalism. He strained his capitulum to hear,

'' service him ! For Merlin 's sake help him ! '' Was that ... Hermione ?

'' Shut up and let me by. '' Snape 's representative cut across her.

'' His substance 's not flap ! ``

'' Of course It 's not beating he does n't have any descent left you hysteric changeling. Each of you, founder me your hands. It's a good thing Harry acquired so many hanger-on, one of you has to be his rake type. ``

The part faded into the breeze. Harry's eyebrow furrowed.

"Did you hear that ?"He asked Dumbledore.

"No, but then I ‘ m a little more dead than you are."Dumbledore smiled.

"So I ‘ m ... I ‘ m not dead ?"Harry felt hope rise in his heart.

"You are dead, technically. Your gist is not beating."Dumbledore's center twinkled."But I believe that, with meter and a generous donation of dear red blood, you may be pulled back into the world of the living."

"So ... Is this actually you then ?"Harry scratched his top dog."Is this actually the afterlife or just another dream ?"

"This is the afterlife."Dumbledore nodded."And I am, more or less, who I appear to be."

"How ?"

"The fact that you are near death coupled with the fact that you died mere beat from the veil."Dumbledore shrugged."I am just glad I got a last luck to utter to you."

"fountainhead I assume we ‘ ll meet again ... eventually."Harry cracked a smile."When I ‘ m old and gray-headed and die in a bed surrounded by beautiful women."

The old champion and the young laughed. A suppose struck Harry and the mirth dimmed.

"So, while I have you here, can I ask you something ?"

"Of course Harry, anything."

"What is my name ?"

"I ... I do not know."Dumbledore hung his headland."I am no-account Harry. I erased the retentivity from my own head so I would never call you it. Never slip up ... But I can evidence you the orphanage where I found you. It is called the Malyn Orphanage, or was nine years ago, Jan twentieth. It stands about ten miles south of Belfast. If records exist then, well then you might be able to notice them there."

"Malyn orphans' asylum. January twentieth ..."Harry whispered. Then,"So I ‘ m Irish ?"

"Yes Harry. You ‘ re Irish."Dumbledore cracked a capricious smile.

"Interesting."Harry, who had lived his life with a London idiom thick enough to swim bricks on, chuckled."So, do you think there might even be records of my parents ?"

"I do not think so."Dumbledore looked away, not meeting Harry's eyes. He seemed to be picking his Book carefully."I do not think that you will discover records of them there."

"What aren ‘ t you telling me ?"Harry felt the emptiness grow."Were they wizards ? Were they expiry eaters ?"

"No Harry naught like that."Dumbledore shook his head."In fact I believe we can safely sham both your parents were muggles. Let me explain, when I took you from the orphans' asylum they told me a little about you. About how you had come to be there. Apparently you were not given to them in the rule fashion, you were ... found. Found by an elderly couple walking along the Lagan river. The river was bursting it ‘ s banking company a little after a storm and they saw a minuscule bundle washed up in the mud. When they unwrapped you they thought you were dead, I was told that you were blueing all over from the cold and damp, but so weak you weren ‘ t even shivering. You had been in the weewee for a long time."

Crashing rocks. Raging white piss. Harry's mind shied away from the flashes of holy terror in his mind and he felt his breath quicken. The raging cloudburst in his mind banishing all though was real, a memory so scaring even Dumbledore had been unable to rub out. His only if genuine memory was a phobia. Another bitter joke. He licked his lips, had to say something, anything to take his mind off it.

"How old was I ?"

"About six calendar month old, grant or take."Dumbledore answered."The couple gave you to the confidence and of course an investigation was made. Unfortunately nil was ever found. And, inevitably, you ended up in the manus of the child Robert William Service. The story after that is, well, rather as you might guess it."

"It could throw been an accident."Harry spoke, not daring to desire."You make it sound like my parents tried to kill me but it didn't have to happen that way. Maybe I was swept away from my home. You said there were floods."

"I ... I do not reckon that was the slip Harry."A tear rolled down Dumbledore's cheek."You see, I have something the muggle authorities did not. I have my map. That was the understanding lupin knew. I needed him to come up it and show me how to use it, or it could have revealed the truth."

"The map- Or course !"Harry smiled, his centre lighting up."It should present my existent name ! That ‘ s why you kept it concealed and everything ! What does it say ?"

"Harry the map does not evidence your name."Dumbledore brushed the tear away."Do you live how the map works ?"

"No."

"It works by making use of an ancient case of conjuring trick, the illusion of names."Dumbledore's voice took on a lecturing tone, but Harry could still hear the lump in his pharynx."There is an old wizard superstition. An old wives tale, if you will, that a wizard's epithet is tied to their destiny. That the figure first given to a wizard somehow sets his path. There was once a great fad for concealing one ‘ s truthful name so that opposition could not gain superpower over you. betise really, in those days somebody ‘ s genuine name was sluttish enough to divine. That is what the map does in any pillowcase. It works by the legerdemain of names."

"Yeah,"Harry motioned the belated master to continue."And ?"

"And for you it displays nothing Harry."Dumbledore closed his eyes sadly."On the map your name is blank. Just a set of step and an abandon scroll."

"Oh ..."Harry let the silence grow between them. He couldn't really think of anything to fill it.

"Do you sympathise what that means Harry ? It means-"

"I know what it means."Harry said quietly."It means my parents never named me before they threw me away."

"Harry ..."

"I was six calendar month old. Six month they had me and didn ‘ t even manage enough to ..."Harry slammed his fist into the ground."I guess I ‘ m better off without them."

"Is his heart beating ? I can barely-"

"Is that a pulse rate ... it was there I swear it was there."

Harry let the voices on the wind die away. He sighed, looking up into the calming dappled sunlight.

"Harry are you alright ?"Dumbledore asked."I realize that this is a swell business deal to lead in on top of-"

"I ‘ m alright."Harry swallowed painfully."I mean I ‘ m not alright, really. But I ‘ ll be alright. I can already tell. I ‘ ll be correctly. I mean after all the other bombshells this doesn ‘ t really tip the plate that much does it. Like a molehill beside a smoking volcano."

"I ‘ m just sorry that I was once again the carrier of bad news."Dumbledore squinted at Harry, his heart narrowing."You are fading. Not long before you can no longer touch this place. Is there anyone else here you would like to speak to ?"

"I ... I don ‘ t know."Harry scratched his head."virtually of my friends are still alive."

"A blessing."

"So I can call anyone then ?"Harry asked slyly."Anyone dead and they have to make out ?"

"Yes, anyone dead."

"Tom Marvolo Riddle."Harry said the dread public figure loudly into the wood, only deliquium sound reflection came back."He ‘ s not dead then."Harry's script clenched into fists.

"No,"Dumbledore shook his foreland."I believe you have Bella to thank for that again. She snuck in when the wards came down and spirited his physical structure away right under your friends'noses using an emergency portkey. Rather careless of them. Alastor is probably beating himself up right now."

"I though I got him."Harry gritted his dentition."I thought I got-"

"He will be severely weakened."Dumbledore stepped forward and laid a script on Harry's shoulder."Perhaps as badly as he was fifteen age ago. This is a victory Harry, it will be days, possibly decennary before he can rise again. And if we can catch him while he is weak and stop him off, so much the better."

"I guess."Harry tried to see the good side. It wasn't easy."Well let ‘ s try ... Barty Crouch Jr."Again the forest remained empty but for the two of them. Harry grimaced, he hadn't really hoped that the slimy son of a bitch was dead. But it would have been a welcome surprise.

"Is there not anyone you actually wish well to speak to Harry ?"Dumbledore asked, fading a little as he did so."No one in this macrocosm ? Perhaps the real Harry ceramicist ?"

"I ‘ ve already met him. Twice actually now that I think about it."

"How could you possibly ..."

"fountainhead once was years ago when I traveled through time and met him before he died."Harry checked that off on his fingers."And the endorsement metre me sent a substance here from another dimension."At Dumbledore's shocked expression Harry grinned."I lead a very Weird life."

"But interesting."

"Oh yes, very interesting."Harry smiled."All in all I think I ‘ ll let him and his parents rest in peace of mind. After what I did to their statue I don ‘ t think I could face up them. Anyways, goodbye old man. I'll see you again in a long long while."

"I hope so Harry."

"This is weird."Harry chuckled and looked around."Why does it palpate like we 're having this entirely conversation two Christian Bible early ?"

"Simple Harry,"Dumbledore smiled."Until now you have been walking somebody else 's course. From this tip on, you 'll hold to make your own."

"Good."Harry nodded."I 'm ready."

"I know you are Harry."Dumbledore continued to pass."I know you are. Oh wait, may I ask you something before I go ?"

"Shoot."

"What became of my wand ?"

"Your wand ..."Harry thought back."Oh ... I threw it through the velum along with Voldemort ‘ s. Sorry did you want to be buried with it or something ?"

"No no Harry."Dumbledore smiled broadly, a deep scintillation in his fading eye."Just curious."And with that the old sorcerer faded into null, and was gone. Harry chuckled.

"You had to have the last Holy Writ didn ‘ t you. Git."

The air seemed to change grain. Harry breathed out softly, he was alive again. He could feel his flash in his chest. Weak, but there. Harry glanced around at the grove. It was exactly the same as before but it felt unlike. He was dreaming now, just a veritable dream. Harry let his eyes close slowly. He would waken up in good clock time, but until then ? He was very well here. For now.
*


Snape reached his apartments in Hogwarts and barely got the threshold shut before falling into a chair. There was a bed in the succeeding room, but it suddenly seemed very far away. the true be told he could have got fallen asleep in the heart of the majuscule hall, on the storey. He would own been the laughing neckcloth of every pupil though. Even worse he probably wouldn't have woken up when they started laughing at him, even when they started poking him.

Snape raised his wand shakily and levitated the forgotten bottle of wine off his table. It had been left afford, no matter. He poured himself a glass.

He had stood in the waiting way in St Mungos for yearner than he could remember while incompetent healers told him they had no information. When they had finally told him that Harry was out of the Mrs. Henry Wood all his queasy energy had leeched out and it had taken all of his mental strength to stop over himself sagging to the floor right there. He had managed to gull almost of them. He had not fooled Natalie.

She had apparated him back to Hogwarts and made him swear to catch some Z's as soon as he got to his room. Who was she to order him around like that ? Why could she ? Snape's backtalk curled into a smiling. Because she was interesting enough to get away with it and was the only one who could pull it off. Which just added to the interestingness of course of study. Snape smiled as the wine curled down the dorsum of his throat. He was very lucky in many respects. lucky than he deserved.

"Severus are you in there ?"There was a knock on the door. Not Natalie. Snape flicked his wand and the door creaked receptive. Minerva stood on the other position, looking as tired as he felt.

"Minerva."Snape tried to sit a slight less like he was falling asleep."It is right to see you safe, in all the confusion in the ministry I lost data track. Come in. Would you wish some wine-colored ?"

"No thank you."Minerva stepped inside. Now that she was closer he could see that the boundary of her eye held telltale signs of teardrop. She had tried to enshroud it, but to the trained eye it was quite obvious."I heard you were back in the castling and came down to see you."

"Anything in special bothering you ?"Snape asked, perhaps more caustically than was necessary."I am rather tired you see."

"Yes, there is something."Minerva pulled a hard backed chair over and sat down stiffly."When you went off to St Mungos I called the remaining parliamentary law together, there was much to discuss."

"I can imagine that there would be."Snape yawned theatrically. He did not suffer to falsify it."I can not suppose how that would worry me however, I am no longer a member."

"That is partially what we were discussing."Minerva cocked her head to one incline."Voldemort is weakened but not stagnant. The order's project is far from done and we could more than use your expertise. Your primary reasonableness for leaving was Albus. I will not make bold to ask the item of that disagreement, it was between the two of you. But do you not guess that now he is ... gone, that you might be persuaded to come back to us ?"

"That would look on who replaced him."Snape said levelly."For example if it were yourself leading the order, I would deliver no objection."

"I will not be leading the order."McGonagall shook her head."I will suffer quite enough to do here at Hogwarts. The job of headmistress is enough for me. It has been hard enough to persuade parents to send out their shaver to Hogwarts this year. I imagine following twelvemonth may be a little comfortable but I am indisputable I will still have my work force full. And besides, I will need to get hold a new transfiguration teacher."

"Shacklebolt then."Snape waved a hand vaguely."He has always been very capable."

"Kingsley Shacklebolt may very well be the but thing currently keeping the ministry from falling apart."Minerva smiled faintly."He was the most aged auror to survive this debacle so I believe he will be ever more busy than I myself will be."

"There are other candidates."Snape was fully alert now. He could feel where this was going."Alastor Moody."

"Too paranoid."

"Arthur Weasley."

"Has no fight or strategic experience."

"Natalie. Natalie Zhao. She is-"

"Very new to the order."

"Remus Lupin then, he has been with the rescript since-"

"Remus has grown unpredictable recently. Especially where Harry is concerned."Minerva fixed Snape with a level stare."I believe we can agree that whoever should head the order should be soul Harry trusts. soul like you."

"No."

"mortal who knows how the dark lord thinks."

"No."

"Severus listen to me."Minerva leant closer to him."Do you not cerebrate we discussed all these things in amongst ourselves in the society ?"

"If I had been there I would have had a few things to say !"

"Severus please."Minerva's centre dropped to the floor."This past yr Albus ... well you yourself saw. I do not speak ill of the stagnant but he had become ... fag out. He was not the Dumbledore we all knew. He was not acting at his best."

Snape stayed silent. Not at his full was a direful understatement if ever he heard one but there was no penury to say so.

"In any character he was faltering. We all saw it, everyone in the order. But no one did anything about it. Except you."Minerva shook her brain."Perhaps we were all, how did you put it ? ‘ Trapped in the past.'Except you."

"I ... I can not lead the order."Snape tried to gain his voice not vocalize like that of a rat at bay."I was a last feeder, I fell into dark trick. A foresightful time ago yes but some marks do not come out."

"Yours has."

"That is not what I meant !"Snape took a recondite gulp of wine."I am ... tainted. Undeserving."

"Albus always said he did not deserve the swelling he was given."

"Do not liken me to-"Snape bit back the end of that raging sentence. There was no to direct out his anger on the courier."I merely meant that I do not think it is safe to give me this kind of power."

"Albus also said that those who seek mightiness are those least suited to wield it."Minerva held his eyes."The corollary of that is that those who are suited to manage power are those who reject it."

"Do not cite at me."

"Severus, there is no one else who can do the job as well as you. No one else."

"No one else."Snape felt like chuckling."That is what it always comes down to doesn ‘ t it ? We all do what we must."

"I always have."Minerva stood."So you will take the task ?"

"Do I have a choice ?"

"You do, but I already know how you will choose."

"You knew before you stepped through that door."Snape sneered."I am trapped like a rabbit."

"Only by your own traps Severus."Minerva smiled and turned to the door.

"You know that I will do things differently than Dumbledore."Snape said suddenly."There will be changes."

"I know, I look forward to them."McGonagall nodded, and left the room.

Snape rubbed his forehead. He should begin planning, there was much to do. No, he should not. Right now he had a hope to retain. Shedding his robe tiredly, he walked towards his bed.
*


'' Harry ... Harry give your oculus. ``

Harry woke from cryptical dreaming, the sparkling ash gray spokesperson in his ears.

'' I 'm wake, '' Harry murmured, his oculus closed. `` But I 'm still in my orchard. I can smell out the blossoms. ``

'' You are still deceased, in St Mungos. '' Water rippling over shining stones. `` I wanted to utter to you but you 're on a great deal of medicament. It was simpler for me to just add up to you. ``

'' And where are you ? '' Harry 's sassing twitched up into a smile.

'' Sitting beside your bed. ``

Harry chuckled, and opened his eyes.

'' Hello Thea. ``

'' howdy Harry. '' The untested seer was sitting cross legged under a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in nominal head of him, looking like the human figure of speech of serenity. Instead of her usual white robe she was wearing a unsubdivided brown dress, she seemed almost section of the forest. She looked ... different, somehow unlike. It was not her face, she was still the same beautiful girl he had always known, or her eyes, mismatched as they were. Her silver hair was caught up into a long tail down her cover, tied with blue ribbon. She looked exactly the Lapp but there was something missing. Gone was the sensory faculty of ancientness, the belief that the little soul in front man of him had outlasted empires. She seemed ... Brigham Young, the Sami age as him give or remove a year. Harry supposed she always had been. It did not take much to guess the reason for the change.

'' You 're not the oracle anymore. '' Harry guessed, guiltily.

'' No, I 'm not. '' Pythea smiled. `` I was sacked. ``

'' I 'm dismal. '' Harry hung his brain. `` It was because you were helping me, was n't it ? ``

'' Yes, they finally caught on. '' Pythea reached forward and tilted Harry 's chin up. `` Do n't sense guilty, not even for a moment. I was miserable there, almost a prisoner. I 'm happy to be gone. ``

'' You do n't have to narrate me that just to- ''

'' It is the true statement. ``

'' But it was your home. '' Harry sighed. `` I 'm going to feel guilty whatever you say, you ca n't stop me. ``

'' Stubborn. ``

'' Brat. ``

'' I am not. '' Pythea smiled warmly. `` Do you have any idea what you will do now ? After you are released from hospital I mean. ``

'' I ... I have somewhere I want to go. ``

'' The orphanage ? ``

'' Hey, you reading my mind again ? '' Harry smiled mysteriously. `` Do n't I get any enigma ? ``

'' I can not record head anymore Harry. '' Theia shook her mind. `` That came with being the prophet remember. I just know you. ``

'' But you 're still a seer, right ? '' Harry hesitated to ask.

'' Oh yes, there are some affair they can not take away. '' Pythea nodded. `` I am still a seer, and a very powerful one. ``

'' Can you ... can you say me my time to come ? '' Harry asked suddenly.

'' No. I ca n't. '' Pythea smiled and stood. `` Do you want to go to the orphans' asylum now ? ``

'' Now ? '' Harry scratched his straits. `` Are n't I in infirmary ? ``

'' A myopic walk will not inconvenience a mighty hero like you too much. '' Pythea crooked an brow mockingly.

'' A brusk walk ? We have to get to Ireland ya know. ``

'' Then it is favourable that another thing they can not take away is my international specter licence. '' Pythea held out her hand. `` Just tell me where Harry. And we can go. ``

Harry reached out and took her hand.
*


'' Ow. '' Harry 's hand went to his stomach as hurting flared there through the hospital sheets. `` That really hurts. ``

'' I told you it would. '' Pythea was sitting exactly where she said she was, at the side of meat of his bed. `` The tongue was made with dark magic so the wound ca n't be magically healed. You 'll accept to let it crumple together the old fashion way. Is it too much ? Do you wish to wait trough tomorrow ? ``

'' No no. It just surprised me is all. '' Harry slowly lowered his groundwork to the floor and gingerly stood. He had to hunch just a niggling to stop the skin of his tum stretching painfully, but he could walk. No he could n't. His leg was mangled too. Maybe he could hop ... `` Do you have my apparel somewhere ? Oh wait my bag 's rightfulness here. Can you plough so I can- ''

Pythea cut him off with a wave of her helping hand. His infirmary gown changed into a simple flannel tee shirt and trousers. Muggle adequate to be getting on with. With another wafture a carved wooden cane appeared in his hand. Obviously she did not think he was as healthy as said he was. damn her for being right.

'' Thank you. '' Harry smiled and picked up his bag from beside the bed. `` Shall we go then ? ``

Pythea stepped up to him and wrapped her munition around his tender eye. This cheeseparing Harry could smack her hair, like green supergrass and the sea. He was breathing faster, probably because of all the potions they had him on.

'' Are you ready ? '' She asked.

'' Yes. '' Harry shut his eyes and waited. And waited ... He opened them again and cocked his head to one side. `` Is there a job ? ``

'' You still have n't told me where we 're going. '' Pythea clicked her tongue irritably. `` Not being able-bodied to register peoples thoughts is going to charter some getting used to. ``

'' I 'm sorry. I really am. '' Harry apologized again, earning him a grade stare from the little seer, and told her their destination.

For the first clock time in his life Harry enjoyed an phantasma. The bulwark of the void pressed him into Pythea, forcing them closer together. He could sense her breathing space on his nerve. He was almost defeated when they dropped onto a small road in the countryside.

Harry stepped back and glanced around. There was no mistaking the orphanage, it was the only building there. At the center of it was a stately-home eccentric of thing. He could n't put a date to it, old was the expert he could do. That was clearly the center of the complex but at some full point the possessor had felt a want to expand. The two cube to either incline of the main edifice took after the put-some-rectangular-concrete-blocks-in-a-vaguely-building-shape style of computer architecture. Around the whole place there was a high wall with biting wire looped at the top.

Harry tried not to think that made it look like a prison. All schools had that these days.

With a careful hand on his stomach Harry walked up to the main receipt. Pythea stopped there and sat down quietly on a bench.

'' You 're not coming in ? '' Harry asked.

'' You go on ahead. '' Theia looked out over the countryside. `` You should probably do this yourself. ``

'' I can still do it myself with you there. ``

'' Go inside Harry. ``

Harry grinned and turned towards the doorway. He took a thick breath, then winced at what that did to his stomach. He tried to calm the raging butterflies inside but could n't. The only matter that gave him the will to push open the door was piranha rules. Follow through. No fear.

As he stepped into the ho-hum entrance hall a secretarial assistant looked up from her desk, eying him quizzically.

'' Is there a criminal record section ? '' Harry asked uncertainly.

'' Up the stairs first door on the left hand. '' The secretary looked back down at her papers.

Up the stair. Of course. Harry labored up the stair, having to rest More than once before he reached the top. Out the window he could see the playground, full of children running about wildly. From inside the rampart the blank space looked a lot nicer. All around the bound of the rampart there were a series of tiddler 's house painting. Long running murals and swirls of color. It was almost pleasant, it looked like a formula school.

Harry managed to reach the first floor and took a few tired breather. She wanted to let me to this by myself. Probably just did n't want to carry me up the all-fired steps. Harry then realized that hunching over and breathing heavily in a building full-of-the-moon of children could possibly be misinterpreted. He stood and walked forward towards the first door, his walking stick to clattering against the base. He knocked, politely.

'' Come in. ``

Harry pushed the threshold overt to see an elderly peeress sitting in battlefront of a computer, looking at him questioningly over her glasses.

"Hi, I used to live here. At the orphanhood I mean."Harry stepped inside.

"Oh,"The woman smiled."Please have a seat."Harry gratefully sat, hung his stick over the spinal column of the chair and worked out how to continue.

"I was wondering if I could get any records you have of me ?"

"Do you have any identification ?"

"Eh ?"

"Passport ? number one wood license, no you ‘ re too young for that. Your adoption certificate perhaps."

"Do I need one ?"Harry's hand moved to his pocket and mercifully found that Draco 's wand was still there.

"We can ‘ t give records out to just anyone dear."

"Confundus."Harry whispered, then."Can you clear an exception ?"

"Of ... of course deary."The woman shook her head like she was trying to reposition gossamer then turned to her computer."What figure is it ?"

"I don ‘ t have my epithet. Long narration, but it happened on January twentieth, nine eld ago."Harry wondered whether he would need another Confundus to blow past the ‘ no name'matter, but the fair sex seemed to take it in her stride.

"Everything ‘ s on computers now. It ‘ s very high tech."The woman pursed her lip as she clacked away at her keyboard."When I started here we had rooms and elbow room of file loge. Would have taken ages to discover a record like yours."

When would she have started here ? Harry wondered. Was it possible she might have been there back when he was ?

"Here we are."The woman squinted at the record for a instant then let out a throaty chuckle."Oh yes, I remember."

"You ... you do ?"Harry felt his breathing space quicken."You remember me ?"

"How could I draw a blank ?"She turned to him with a motherly smile."Everyone here has a never-ending monitor of your hitch with us."

"Wh ... what ?"

"See the rampart over there ?"She gestured out the windowpane."See the barbed wire ? You may think it ‘ s to keep family line out, but it was originally put up to observe you in. You kept clambering over the wall."

"Really."Harry didn't daring feel. Didn't dare Bob Hope. A living connection to his stolen past like this had been too much to ask."I must have caused you all a lot of trouble."

"Oh you were a scamp you were."The old adult female smiled fondly."I still remember what you said to me the day the wire went up."

"What ?"Harry swallowed."What did I say ?"

"Well I said to you ‘ You know that conducting wire ‘ s been put up just to keep you in.'And you turned to me, cheeky as a monkey, and told me ‘ That ‘ s skilful Miss, ‘ cos the wall wasn ‘ t much of a challenge anymore.'”

Harry's core broke and he fell into his hands. He felt bout blooming in his eye. He hadn't known what to expect when he'd come here, but he had never expected this. He had never expected test copy. cogent evidence that he wasn't some Frankenstein's monster monster, test copy that he wasn't a bad copy of James ceramist. He was, and had always been, him. Arrogant, cocky, unrespectful of authorization and filled with wanderlust. He. Was. Him.

"honey are you alright ?"The old woman sounded implicated."Do you want a tissue paper ?"

"And you tell me ..."Harry swallowed and tried again."Can you tell me my name ?"

"Oh, I ‘ m afraid you came to us without a name."She looked back at her electronic computer screen."We gave you the cognomen Malyn, after the orphans' asylum. Which is a traditional here. And for the first name we had to make that up. So we called you Jack."

gob ...

Jack-tar Match.

Jack Baltzegaurd.

diddley Shakey.

Jack Caiman.

All those people, all those mass he'd disguised himself as ... Jack.

His invariant alias. The public figure that had always come to his lip when he knew he couldn't say ‘ Harry ’. It had been a memory, a memory of the foremost existent gens he had. Not given to him by his parents sure, and apparently not magically binding. But a name. He still felt more like Harry, it was still the name that came first to his lips but ... it was like that hole core inside him was filling. Filling with piece of a life he had though he had no store of. It felt so good.

"I suppose you ‘ ll lack to go down and see it."The old woman was handing him a printed copy in a folder. Harry assumed it was his file cabinet. She nodded towards the back of the orphanage.

"See it ?"

"It was always your preferent place."The old fair sex smiled."It was where we usually found you when you managed to sneak off."

Suddenly Harry knew, and with the knowledge came the unbearable pauperization to see if it was true. Harry stood suddenly.

"Yes, I do desire to see it. Thank you."Harry smiled thorough teary eyes."Thank you. Thank you so much."

"My pleasure Jack."

Harry turned and hobbled from the room, it was only his aching wound and walking joint that stopped him from running. He reached the bottom of the stairs and pushed out the room access. Pythea was already standing, like she'd known he was coming.

"We need to go that ... that way."Harry was breathing so hard all he could do was designate vaguely.

"lead the way."

Harry set off, taking them round of golf to the back of the building. He could see it now, down the incline a little. He stumbled down and stopped just before he reached it, just before he went beneath the shade of the apple tree diagram. The footling labialise orchard of orchard apple tree trees.

"My god."Pythea had her paw to her mouth in electrical shock."It ‘ s real."

"It was a memory."Harry breathed, reaching out a handwriting to adjoin a branch."It was a retentiveness. I kept having this dream where I was stuck in Godrics hole. But that shoes felt all Weird, but if I could break out and reach the grove I felt safe. Felt real."

"I though it was a introduction of your head, I never thought ..."

"Neither did I."Harry stepped beneath the subdivision and walked into the center of the grove. He set his rachis against the Tree and slid down, resting on the priming coat. Pythea sat down next to him, resting her shoulder against his.

"It ‘ s very peaceful here."Was all she said.

Harry didn't faith himself to address. Couldn't speak. There were no words. They sat there for the longest clock time, the last summer zephyr filling running past them and rustling the leaves above their heads. Eventually, after who knew how long, Harry spoke.

"Thea ?"

"Hm ?"She murmured. Had she almost fallen asleep. Harry looked over into her beautiful uneven eyes.

"Why did you entrust me ? Right at the outset ?"

"I told you, because you are skillful and-"

"But right at the first you couldn ‘ t have known all that."Harry pointed out."vertebral column then I was a stranger."

"You were never a stranger."Thea smiled sadly."Do you know how they choose the following prophet Harry ? They go around to all the magic households in Hellenic Republic, looking for youngster with the intimate eye. If they find one with enough business leader, with power sufficiency to be Pythea, they take them back to the temple."

"Take them from their parents ?"Harry asked, shocked.

"The parents have a choice of course, but who would dare say no."Pythea huddled up against Harry's side."I was three, but I remember it well, another curse word my gift gives me. My name wasn ‘ t Pythea then, but I was told that I could never use my old public figure, never speak it ever again. One day in art class I signed one of my painting with the old name, just a minuscule fault. The fury they had at me that day ... they burnt my picture, in front line of my middle. I never used the old name again. After I finished my training I was allowed to go back and visit my parents. I went back to my old family. They were very ... polite. They acted exactly the way I would look someone to act towards The Pythea. When I tried to act like their daughter, they looked at me like I had done something damage. Even to them I was supposed to be The Pythea ... even to them."

"Thea I never knew."Harry put an arm around her ( What the hell do I do ? She's not crying, do I offer her a tissue anyway ? Oh god what do I say ? )"It must consume been heart-wrenching. I can ‘ t imagine-"

"You can imagine. Not that you have to."Pythea smiled up at him."That ‘ s why we were never strangers. Because we ‘ re the same, both orphaned. Both with our on-key identities taken from us. Both shoved into pealing and name we never wanted."

"Both forced to take on them."Harry nodded."Yeah, we were never alien. We're the Saame, we ‘ re like ... rootless. We have no tooth root. No past."

"Did you find out your epithet ?"Pythea asked suddenly.

"I found out a name."Harry shrugged."But I think I ‘ ll keep going with Harry, I ‘ ve carried it longer than the other now anyway."

"They took away who we are."She murmured.

"They took away our names."Harry corrected, brushing his hired man against Pythea's side."They can ‘ t assume away who we are. The gens don ‘ t matter so much, you can holler me Harry or Jack or Bob it doesn't matter. I know who I am."

"I wish I had your certainty."

"You do have it."Harry smiled."Because I know who you are. It ‘ s got nothing to do with your name. You ‘ re just you. Any you ‘ re perfect."

"Harry ..."Pythea lifted up, niggling glistening tears in the corners of her heart, and kissed him lightly on the impudence."Thank you."

Harry didn't really recognise what to do, other than to blush. A mo later Pythea seemed to realize something.

"Harry, did you just ticktack me at being profound ?"

"Had to pass eventually."Harry grinned cheekily.

"I ‘ ll get you next time."

"You ‘ re on."

Pythea smiled, lighting up her facial expression. Harry bit his lip and asked.

"So, you ‘ re going to be staying in Britain then ? For now ?"

"I think so. Are you ?"

"Yeah, probably."Harry rested his hands behind his head."Go back to Hogwarts maybe. I don ‘ t know if I missed the O.W.L.S."

"They begin next week if I remember correctly."

"A hebdomad, think that ‘ s decent prison term ?"Harry scratched his head.

"Since it ‘ s all the alteration you would do anyway, I ‘ d say, yes. And after that ?"

"Dunno ... Stay in the body politic probably. I could do with a nice peaceable holiday."

"Harry you wouldn ‘ t know what to do with a peaceable holiday."

"I ‘ d know exactly what to do."Harry winked."As soon as I got there it would get a lot less peaceful, but a lot more fun."

crystallization laughter filled the grove, and lit up the farewell with light.
*


Bellatrix Lestrange bowed over her sea captain's bed and cried, heedless of her tears staining the sheets. She had done all she could, used every facet of her art, but her lord still barely breathed. His skin was deadened white and only the darkness legerdemain she had woven in his chest kept him live. He was so weak, not even conscious. It was unspeakable to see him like this, terrible to see him brought so low. Better if he had truly died, then he could have risen up again in glory. Instead he was trapped in this prison house of chassis. Better dead than to lie on this narrow cot in a tiny room, not even fit for a hiding place. But she had to do what she could. She was the lastly, the final stage fast decease eater.

"I am all he has."Bellatrix whimpered.

"That is not the case."

Bella whirled, her wand snaking out. When she saw who it was she barely relaxed.

"You !"She spat with venom."Barty Crouch, you dare slink back after abandoning our noble !"

"I did not empty him."The unflurried boy stepped from the shadows, carrying a package under his arm."I was doing our noble honest work."

"For a full phase of the moon year ?"

"It did take longer than foretell ... but it has been done. And in the nick of metre too."The pale wizard strode over to the nighttime lord's sickbed and knelt beside it."I am your servant, skipper, and I have done your bidding. Do not vex Jehovah, I can attain you strong again. Stronger than ever. With this ... we can arise again, the destruction eaters can rise again. The earth will tremble master, tremble in fear."

Barty Crouch reached into his software package and pulled something out. Bellatrix felt her jaw drop.

"We can be stronger than ever master."Barty's face in the shadows was terrifying."Stronger than ever."





Ye god that was hard to publish mightily. Or ... mightily write. Write write ... some combination of those give-and-take anyway. It 's been a roller coaster I think you 'll gibe, and the single most massive wind of the entire fic was finally revealed. promise you liked it. People who were waiting to the end of this Word to review ... your meter has come.

I 've already started writing the next Bible and It ai n't going well. I did n't do my usual affair of writing myself into a nook. Instead I plotted the book out in advance and wrote to it. Unfortunately I got a few chapters in and realized that it sucked. The game made logical sense and all, no plot-holes, there was nothing tripping me up, no writers block, I just realized that the plot I had mapped out was a bit [ Bible I ca n't add without mature military rank ] really. I had to go back and rework the thing. Positive issue : The story is a lot stronger now I think. Negative upshot : I have to throw away a significant part of what I 've already written. Ah well, such is life.

Anyway *clears throat* the next report is on it 's way. Our Harry has finally found out who he really is and begins walking his own way of life. Too bad that path is as deadly as the last. A new enemy rises, an old one lingers and a mysterious assassinator is out for Harry 's blood. With Harry still injured from his encounter in the department of mysteries he ca n't face these challenges head on. He may even own to start using his brain ...

Mysteries abound in the adjacent Word of God of the series Harry potter, The Stone and The Scorpion !