A Time To Reflect
The Circle Closes
By Kinsfire
Disclaimer: Wolverines do not make good pets. Ferrets are ill-suited for flying. The characters contained within are the property of JK Rowling, with the rare exception.
Note: Yes, I did borrow his name. I thought that the name of the place was a good choice as well, because all of his stories are. If you know who I'm talking about, you'll likely agree. Also, I got the Voldemary name from a reviewer, and decided that it was something this Harry would say.
And if you've ever read Rorschach's Blot's "Lord of Caer Azkaban", then you'll recognise the tip of the hat to him in here.
The group headed down to Hogsmeade together, agreeing to meet in the Three Broomsticks later for their reunion. People split off into small groups and headed to various stores around the town. Harry watched in amusement as Luna broke into a dead run and suddenly leapt into the air and into the arms of Viktor Krum, wrapping her legs around his waist as they began to kiss. He smiled as it became so terribly obvious just how much in love they were. They must be breathing through their noses. No one has lung capacity like that.
He entered the local jewellers shop — Joy's Gems — and showed them the chain, and asked to speak with the owner, who exited a few moments later, brushing his hands on his apron. "I'm the owner, Tim Joy. How may I help you?" he asked.
"Well, I've got an odd request for you, sir. The chain repair should be easy, although I'm thinking that this time I should ask for an unbreakability charm on the chain," he said with a smile. "What I do want to know is if I might learn jewellery making from you. I am promised to two young ladies, and I wish to make their rings myself. I might well discover my calling in life. I'd take an oath, if necessary, not to make any effort to break into your business her in town. I'd likely be doing repairs at the school at the most."
Mr Joy smiled at him. "If you could manage to get down here once a week, I could start the process of seeing if you have the ability and drive, and training you if you do."
"I'm legally considered an adult, since I'm the last Potter. I can get down here more than once a week if it would be helpful."
"Excellent! If you've got the drive for it, then I'll likely start with teaching you the most common repair spells, and you can start repairing you classmates rings and necklaces."
"What would be your percentage of the monies I take in doing that?" Harry asked.
"We'll talk about that later, Mr Potter," was the grinned answer. "I'd imagine that your lady love will want that chain back, complete with the stone." He took the pieces of the chain and began what seemed like a ballet of wand work as he worked on the chain. Harry marvelled as he watched he links carefully rebuild themselves and connect to the chain before sealing once again as a whole chain. Mr Joy then murmured something that made the chain glow brighter for a moment, and then handed it to Harry. "Once you put the pendant back on the chain, it will be unbreakable. I look forward to seeing you for the first time as a student of mine. I saw the glow of interest in your eyes while I worked. I expect you'll make quite an artist, Mr Potter."
"Thank you," Harry replied in surprise.
"Now go and give that back to your lady," Mr Joy said with a smile.
Harry headed to the Three Broomsticks, looking forward to putting the Ravenclaw stone around Hermione's neck once more. As he approached the door to the place, he paused. Something was wrong. He Disillusioned himself and looked in through a window. Everyone inside was unconscious.
He ran to the back of the establishment and looked through the window to find it empty, with bottles of butterbeer tipped over, spilling onto the table and floor. He was inside in a moment, and saw some small bloodstains, but nothing that made him worry immediately for someone's life.
He ran out to the main room and threw some Floo powder into the fireplace, calling for the Aurors. He then called Professor Dumbledore and stepped outside the Three Broomsticks to wait for the Aurors.
He had been standing outside for about ten minutes when Draco Malfoy and his omnipresent goons chose to walk past, and Malfoy decided to stop. "What's wrong, Potty? Your so called friends stand you up for your reunion?"
The Aurors and Dumbledore both arrived in time to see Harry reach out suddenly with his left hand and yank Malfoy toward him while his right fist shot forward. The crack echoed through the town, and Draco Malfoy fell to the ground clutching his face. "You bashtard!" he slurred. "I'll shee you in Azhkabhan for thish!"
"You'll be dead first," Harry growled. "How would you know that they aren't there unless you had something to do with their disappearance?" He quickly dropped Crabbe and Goyle with Stunners.
"The Dhark Lordh will dheal wizh you!" Draco yelled.
Harry kicked Draco hard in the left shin, dropping the boy to his knees, but Harry brought his fist up as Draco dropped, breaking the other side of Draco's face as the boy lifted and fell on his back. "I'm going to kill you, Draco. There are Aurors standing over there watching us, and they've seen me hit you twice. They've also heard your claim that the Dork Lord will deal with me."
Draco's eyes went wide through the tears of pain that he felt, and he turned his head to look at the Aurors. Anything he tried to say at this point was unintelligible, since Harry had not only broken the bone on either side of Draco's nose, giving the blond boy's face a collapsed look, but he had also removed several teeth. Draco was spraying blood from his mouth as he tried to talk.
"We've got a pub full of unconscious people in there, and evidence of a struggle in the back room. I was supposed to be meeting with some friends, but Dick-boy over there decided to tell Voldemort, apparently, based on his taunting. Or he told Daddy, who told Voldie. Same thing, really."
Several Aurors stepped into the place and began to Ennervate the customers, asking them what happened. All told the same story — several Death Eaters entered the place simultaneously and simply Stunned everyone.
"That makes no sense," Kingsley Shacklebolt said. "They come into a room and kill, not stun."
"Voldie may have wanted everyone in and out," Harry said. "Killing takes too long, and leads to too much of a chance that someone might fight back or get a message out. In and stun; get your team to Portkey out the fifteen people, and be gone in less that a minute, I'll bet."
"You may be right, but we have no way of finding them now, dammit," Shacklebolt said. "We don't even know what he wants them for, although I'll bet that he's thinking hostages right now."
"Tom doesn't do hostages," Harry said. "He kills. He's got a use for those fifteen; otherwise we'd have found fifteen corpses." His voice was hard and merciless.
Albus Dumbledore watched the young man before him and began to worry. The loss of these people had broken him in the first run through, from what he could see in Harry's memories, and this Harry that had just literally broken young Malfoy's face was not a Harry he wished to see.
When Harry commented on the corpses, Albus stepped forward. "Perhaps we could move this conversation to the castle? It would certainly be more secure than anything currently available in Hogsmeade." Harry looked at him for a long moment and then nodded sharply.
The walk to the castle was tense, mostly because it was impossible to get Harry to speak. The way that Harry walked, Albus would not have been surprised to find the ground shaking with every step the young man took, but he found himself quite glad that it wasn't.
They met in the same room that Harry had met everyone after the first task a year earlier, but with a much smaller crew this time. Dumbledore watched as Harry sat at the head of the table, and sat next to him as the small detatchment of Aurors sat down as well. Harry warded the room once more, even stronger than a year before, and looked at the Auror team.
"Not to be insulting," a young woman with shocking pink hair said, "but why is a student at the table, and why is he apparently in charge?"
"Auror Tonks," Harry replied softly, but with no emotion in his voice, "I am uniquely suited to be in charge of this meeting." He looked around. "Save the Headmaster and Auror Shacklebolt, I am actually the oldest at this table." Several eyebrows rose in extreme disbelief.
"He is actually quite correct," Albus said. "I have seen the proof of his statement."
"Time traveller?" Tonks asked.
"Yes. Coming back destroyed the original time stream, according to the one who sent me back, and she's uniquely suited to know. I changed things the moment I arrived." He smiled very slightly. "For example, I did not say 'Oh fuck!' in the beginning of the first task the first time through. I also Summoned my broom and outflew the little lady that I rode this time."
"My hope was to utterly destroy Voldemort at the end of the third task, since I knew that it was a Portkey that would take me to the cemetery in Little Hangleton. Unfortunately, things had changed enough already that Lucius Malfoy became involved much earlier than he had last time." He looked to Shacklebolt. "The bled-out Auror was a spell component in the ancient ritual that brought Riddle back to a body. So was his mother's bone and Lucius Malfoy's right hand."
One of the other Aurors scoffed. "You're a fifteen year old boy, who hasn't left the school except during the summers. How would you know this? We've seen no proof of your passage back through time."
"What would help?" Harry asked back in a biting tone. "Memories from a time line that doesn't exist any longer? Maybe the memory of the murder of Albus Dumbledore?" At the group's startled reaction, he said, "Yeah. In the other time stream, I watched, unable to move, as Draco Malfoy tried to, but proved to be as ineffectual there as he is with everything else, and then the job was finished by Severus Snape."
"So, what can I do to prove it to you? I didn't exactly start paying attention to the stock market until I was in my late twenties, so we're talking about having to wait about ten years to tell on that. A lot of other things have changed too. After all, the first time around, I imitated a mushroom quite a bit because my keepers thought it was in my best interest. This led to someone dying over a damned prophecy that anyone with a brain can figure out."
"Mushroom?" Kingsley Shacklebolt asked, making Tonks giggle madly.
"I was kept in the dark and fed a lot of shit," Harry replied. "And they wondered why I spent the year angry." He shook his head. "This is getting us nowhere. Your boss knows and apparently believes, the Headmaster knows and believes, as do two of the instructors here at school." He paused. "Three. I told Professor McGonagall as well."
"I trust Mr Potter implicitly in this matter," Albus finally said. "I also apologise for the actions -"
"We've been here before sir. That was a different you. The situation is done, as far as I'm concerned," Harry said.
"So where do we go from here, sexy?" Tonks asked with a laugh.
"When we get 'em back, talk to Hermione and Daphne," he sighed. "We need to find out where they are being held, and then get there before he can do whatever he's going to. I have a suspicion, and if I'm right, I am going to stop it even if I have to blow up half of London to do it."
"Are you insane?!" Shacklebolt shouted, leaping to his feet.
"Probably. Would I even know if I was? But if I'm right about this, then you'll be happy about losing London. In the original time-line, he performed a ritual with twelve of those fifteen people, planning to siphon off their lives and use the remaining span himself. It failed because I got there, but they still died. I ended up with their lifespans. I do not want them. I will flatten London if I need to in order to prevent him from succeeding. The biggest problem is finding him."
"We can use the spy that I have in their ranks," Albus said softly, waiting for the explosion he was sure was coming.
Harry stared at the man for a long time before saying, "Snape. It has to be. Do you really have that much of a death wish, sir?"
"No, but I do not fear the next great adventure."
"I can't fault you for this, sir, because it's one of your greatest strengths. I just hope that it's not your greatest mistake as well."
"As do I, my boy," Dumbledore responded. "As do I." He was about to say more when Fawkes appeared in the room and dropped a note. "Ah, speaking of Severus, it seems that Fawkes has delivered a missive from him. He wishes to meet with me regarding the kidnapping of those from Hogsmeade."
Harry closed his eyes and thought for a long moment. "I'd recommend that he report his findings here. Makes it less likely that he'll try to kill you with Aurors here. It also makes me a little happier, because I'd imagine that he'd not be ready for the ritual after he's had them for less than an hour."
"Agreed," Dumbledore said. He wrote a response quickly and handed it to Fawkes, who flamed away from the room. "Severus will likely be here shortly. He did seem to believe that time was of the essence."
Time was apparently of so much essence that Fawkes reappeared only a minute later carrying the tall dark man. "Headmaster, I have -" he began, and then noticed that Harry was in the room. "Sir, I would ... 'request' that Potter not be here for my debriefing. There are things that are simply not for his ears."
"Severus, I believe -" Dumbledore began.
"No, Headmaster," Harry said, standing. "This is just the mark of a petty man doing what he sees as getting revenge on me for kicking him out of a meeting he wanted to be part of a year ago. He won't tell you anything of importance while I'm in the room, so I'll head out and see what else I can do."
"Finally, the Gryffindor Golden boy learns a lesson," Snape drawled. "Go back to Hogsmeade and have your butterbeer and leave your betters to solve this."
"So why are you here then?" Harry fired back at him.
"Insolent -"
"- brat!" Harry finished for him in a mocking tone. "Your insults are no better than ever, Snivellus. Know this, however, Death Eater — I don't care if you actually are working for the side of Light as you seem to have him convinced. The deaths of my parents can be traced directly back to you. In this life or the next, there will be a price for you to pay for that."
"How do you mean that their deaths can be traced to him?" Shacklebolt asked.
"There's a little prophecy that Snape heard the beginning of and went running to tell his lord and master at the time. He heard 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ...' which led to his people attacking both my parents and the Longbottoms. They were Aurors, weren't they?"
"Yes, but the Headmaster assured the Wizengamot -" Shacklebolt said with narrowed eyes.
"Remorse," Albus said. "When it struck him what he had wrought -"
Harry heard none of the rest as he left the room and walked down the hall. He had no destination in mind — he just needed to be away from Dumbledore and his excuses for Snape. Dumbledore truly believed them, and Harry wouldn't have the man any other way, but there was no reason for him to sit around and listen to the excuse while the greasy bastard smirked, knowing that the greatest wizard alive vouched for him.
He found himself in front of the Room of Requirement once more. What is it about this place that I always come here whenever I'm aimlessly meandering? He shrugged and opened the door.
He was surprised to find that this time, he was not in a replica of the Granger home. Glad of that. Then I'd have to figure out why I ran away this last summer. That made no sense at all. Was it the hormones of an almost fifteen year old overriding the intellect of a man in his thirties? For God's sake, Dan Granger was right! It's his house and his rules!
What he did find was the ritual room from the first time stream. The various tables, set up in a circular pattern with space at the centre for the caster of the spell that would absorb the life forces.
"Is he in the same place as last time, though?" Harry asked the room in general. "I can't just go running off to there under the assumption that he is, since we're years ahead of schedule. Hell, I can't even guarantee that he's trying the same damned ritual!"
"You have the means to find out within your grasp," a female voice said. He turned to find a woman dressed in an ancient style, wearing a deep blue dress with bronze coloured accents.
"I know you've been created by the Room, so you're really the castle, but might I ask who you are?" he asked her politely.
"You might call me the representation of one of your ladies' icons. You know my colours." The woman smiled in a manner very reminiscent of both Hermione and Daphne when they knew something that they wanted the questioner to discover for themselves.
"Lady Ravenclaw?" he asked a moment later as he realised that there was only one person whose colours matched that dress.
"Precisely. And with some thought, young man, you now have all the information you need to find where your loves and friends are, and what is being done to them." She faded gently from sight.
"I have all the information I need?" he asked irritably. "How the hell does knowing that the castle created Rowena Ravenclaw for me tell me how to find them? I'm not exactly able to think my way into finding them — they're probably not where they were last time!" He jammed his hands into his pockets, grumbling.
- and suddenly realised what the castle was trying to tell him as he pulled the chain out of his pocket, followed immediately by the scrying gem. He slid the gem onto the chain and grinned. The room morphed to become an intimate setting, one perfect for meditation. A small fire burned in a copper bowl in the centre of a small table, but other than that, the room was free of distractions. He took the gem into his hands and sat down in the comfortable chair and fell softly into an Occlumentic trance.
He looked at the sapphire for a long time, willing something to show up, practically begging the gem to show him where they all were. Nothing. C'mon, he thought. I'm trying to get you back home between those pretty breasts of hers. Help me out here!
He saw a sudden flash of ... something ... deep within the gem. It was no colour or anything that he could recognise, given how short a time it showed, but there was a flicker of change, and that was enough. Concentrate on one of them, he thought. With this in mind, he began to meditate on Hermione, since it was thinking about her — in a way — that had led him to the realisation of how to use the gem.
He thought about her from the first time through, the way that she'd looked when she first walked through the door of the compartment — all bushy hair and attitude. The look on her face when Ron made his insensitive comment that led to her needing saving from a troll. The look on her face when she lied through her teeth to save the boys who had just saved her.
... the terrifying look to her as she lay in the hospital wing after that damned basilisk petrified her. He shuddered slightly and the gem flickered once more, more solid in its imagery this time. He saw a flash of pink that just might have been her skin, but it was gone quickly.
Emotional load. His thoughts changed to images of her that carried a strong emotional component. The wing again. The look on her face when she reported that she had given the Firebolt to McGonagall to check over, for fear that Sirius Black might be trying to kill him with it. The underlying fear that he might hate her forever, but the deep and abiding friendship that he had realised that it required to do that, because she cared for ... no, she loved him enough to let him hate her.
The gem flickered more solidly this time, and remained a pinkish hue. He returned to his thoughts.
The way that she looked coming down the stairs at the Yule Ball the first time around.
The way that she looked the second time around, knowing that she was going with a man who loved her, rather than someone who liked her because she wasn't a fan-girl.
The way she had looked as she dropped her robe this time around, hoping that he found her pretty.
The way she had looked as he proved beyond any doubt that he found her far more than merely pretty.
The image of her on the slab in the first time stream, after Tom's ritual worked, but went into the wrong man.
"No!" he said, glaring at the gem. "I will not let that happen this time around! If it means my life, I will not let the women I love be killed this time!"
The gem literally jumped on the table and then projected a picture above it. The same layout of tables, with three more this time, although no one was on them yet. People moved in the background — Rookwood, both Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, the Lestranges (damn them to hell), and some that Harry didn't recognise. One that he did — Simon Grandmarch, the guy with Unspeakable contacts. Of course he does — Rookwood was an Unspeakable, he growled to himself.
So where the hell are they? The image slid backward away from the group, up and out of the room until he was looking down on a large manor house. I was right. He's not where he was the first time around. He's at Malfoy manor this time.
He pocketed the sapphire and exited the room with a smile and headed back to the room where Dumbledore and the Aurors had been. He knocked once on the door and then entered. "So, anything worth knowing come out of the conversation?" he asked brightly.
"Nothing you need to be involved with, child," answered Snape in his characteristic sneer.
"Ah, so I should mount the rescue mission myself while we wait for you to get around to telling everyone where they are?"
"And how would you know where they are being held?" Snape had gone from mere sneering to outright derision.
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the Ravenclaw gem. "I'd imagine that the professor recognises this. I figured out how to use it — at least as far as they're concerned — and recognised the place from my first time through the time stream."
"Are you actually going to listen to the ravings of an obviously insane child?" the Potions Master asked incredulously. "'First time through the time stream'? What did you do, Potter? Get a Time Turner that de-aged you at the same time?"
"No," was Harry's only response. "So, has he told you yet that they're at Malfoy Manor?"
Snape's look was one that Harry knew he'd never find the words for. There was no one single way to describe the look, which blended surprise, disgust, annoyance, and even being very slightly impressed, although that last would never be admitted to.
"He just had," Kingsley Shacklebolt said. "The ritual is apparently scheduled for some time this upcoming week. Apparently You Know Who wants to siphon off their life forces -"
Harry stood. "Not this time," he said coldly. "I will be damned if that's going to happen again. Nobody is using those lifespans but the people that they belong to. Now how do we get to Malfoy Manor without setting off alarms?"
"You don't," drawled Snape. "Unless you happen to be keyed into the wards surrounding the manor. None of you are."
"Then find a way to get us in," Harry growled. "Or maybe you can convince Simon Grandmarch to let us in?"
Snape started at that comment. "How did you know that he's a Death Eater?"
"Previous time line, and the fact that when I was scrying the place, he was in the room at the time, along with Mr and Mrs Malfoy and Augustus Rookwood. Since I've never met him this time around, that may well prove my story, eh?" he said, looking to the Auror that had questioned him earlier.
"The only one who can get you past the wards safely is Draco. He was made the secret keeper for the Fidelius Charm," Snape said. "Good luck getting him to tell you."
Harry looked to Dumbledore. "Is he still in the castle?" The Headmaster nodded. "Good. I can get him to tell the rest of you easily enough, then."
"How do you know it?" Tonks asked.
"Simple. He told me the first time around, when I was cleaning things out. Tried to get me arrested for it, but then I pointed out that I knew a bit more about him than he wanted, and had proof of what I knew. It appears that the secret being told to me stayed with me."
"How do you intend to get him to tell you?" Shacklebolt asked warily.
"Well, first I Stun Madam Pomfrey, since I think her Healer's Oath is just that — an Oath — and then I have another long talk with Draco Malfoy. He's seen I'm willing to break his face — literally — so if I threaten to kill him with Aurors and the Headmaster in the room, then I think he'll be willing to talk. More than anything else, he wants to stay alive. So if I threaten that ability to remain alive ..."
"You have no actual intention of killing him, do you?" Dumbledore asked with some worry.
"I have no intention of going into that room and killing him in cold blood, sir. If he attempts to kill me and there is no other way to stop him, then I will do what is necessary, but since he's supposed to be in a hospital bed, there's not much he can threaten me with. But I do need him to believe that I will kill him, and given what I did to him in Hogsmeade, I don't think he'll have much trouble believing that. You'll need everyone you want on the team in the room, unless I can get him to write it down."
Snape spoke up, a interesting look on his face. "Let me talk to him. I believe that i can get him to talk with minimal effort. The Aurors should be in hearing range of the bed, but I believe that I can get him to write it out as well." He looked to Harry. "Despite your best attempts otherwise, I truly do wish You Know Who to be eradicated."
"Given what I know from the first time line, I have no reason to believe that. I watched you cast the Killing Curse on Albus Dumbledore." Harry raised his eyebrows as he watched Snape go white at that pronouncement. "Add that to your absolutely wonderful treatment of me over my years here at school, and I can think even you can figure out why I had absolutely no problem thinking of you as an unrepentant Death Eater."
"Yes ... yes, I can understand that ..." the man replied absently, obviously still in shock at the news he had been given. He shook his head finally. "You have my Oath that if it comes to a choice between my life or Albus's, I will choose that Albus will live."
"No, my son!" Albus exclaimed. "You have such a long life ahead of you!"
"Headmaster, if I permit you to die when it is possible for me to prevent it, then my life will not be worth much for very long. My Oath does not prevent you from dying — it prevents me from sitting back and letting it happen, or from having a direct hand in it." He turned to Harry. "You may not wish to believe it, but I wish Albus dead as much as you wish Misses Granger and Greengrass dead, and will do as much to prevent his death as you would theirs. Up to and including dying in his place, if need be. I can only assume that I had been placed in an untenable position at some point, foolishly making an oath that led to his death."
Harry looked at Snape for a long moment. "I'll probably never trust you completely, but your reaction to the news that you killed him wasn't that of a man contemplating doing it — it was the look of a man who ... well, I assume that I'd have the same look if someone came from the future and told me that I was going to murder Hermione and Daphne and the rest in cold blood. You can't conceive of doing it, it's such an abhorrent thought. I'll trust you on this, and try to alter my perceptions about you. But I've had about twenty years to think of you as murdering scum, and as I've said, your treatment of me and my fellow Gryffindors didn't help me think of you as a nice guy either. The best you can hope for is that I won't sneer back at you when we meet on the streets."
"I can ask no more than that. Now, shall we go to Madam Pomfrey and see if we can convince her to let us talk to young Mr Malfoy?"
They entered the hospital wing and called Madam Pomfrey over. She was just exiting from behind a curtain. She was looking at Harry with an angry look in her eyes. "He's recovering, no thanks to your incessant beating upon him. Repairing the bone was easy, but now he needs to deal with the concussion."
"We need to speak to the young man," Albus said. "He has information that we desperately need."
"On one condition," she replied. "He leaves right now and returns to Hogsmeade," she said, pointing at Harry. "I don't want him anywhere near the hospital wing unless he's injured after the beating he gave young Malfoy."
"Is it your Healer's Oath that's making you act this way?" Harry asked. "Or do you not give a damn about extenuating circumstances?"
"There are no extenuating circumstances you could come up with that would forgive almost killing a fellow student!"
"Not even trying to save the lives of fifteen other people?" he asked as he turned to leave. "Nice to know that you care more about the ones you can see than the ones in real danger." He exited the room. "Contact me when you've got what you need," he said to the Headmaster.
Madam Pomfrey was incensed. "If I could give detentions -"
"I would overturn it," Albus replied. "While normally I would agree with you, in this case, Mr Malfoy may well have given Voldemort the very thing he has been searching for all these years. Immortality. He plans to siphon off the life force of the fifteen that he kidnapped from Hogsmeade, and Mr Malfoy was part of the kidnapping, from what we can tell."
"Oh good heavens," she gasped. "And I -"
"Precisely. Even an apology to him is not likely to make him trust you again," Albus said.
"Gryffindor," Snape growled at her. "You must have been a Gryffindor." He stalked over to the bed that Pomfrey had been tending, and verified that it was Draco's. Sitting down next to the bed, he waited for the boy to recognise him.
"Godfather," he slurred slightly. "Have you come to help me?"
"That depends upon your definition of the word 'help'," was the simple reply. At Draco's confused look, he continued. "Potter is -" Severus paused, looking ill at what he was about to say. "He is our best hope to keep a madman from immortality."
"You dare call our lord a madman?" Draco asked loudly.
"Which one of us has faced the Cruciatus from him for no apparent reason? Which of us has worked with him for years?" He moved in close. "Which of us knows that the stated head of the pure-blood movement is himself a half-blood named Tom Marvolo Riddle?" Before Draco could complain, he had shown him the fact that 'I am Lord Voldemort' could come from those letters. "He is a half-blood, Draco, and when he is through with the Muggleborns and the Muggle lovers, he will turn on the pure-bloods. And this ritual he will do will make him powerful beyond belief."
He snarled. "I detest the fact that I must support that spoiled little brat in his quest for further fame and fortune, but I must if I wish to make the world safe for real Slytherins. The Dark Lord has lost his mind somewhere along the way, and now seems to care more for pain and suffering than for making the world safe for those who know how to wield power properly."
"But Father -"
"I respect the man that your father once was, but he has sacrificed his right hand to bring back a man who treats him worse than you once treated that psychotic house elf Dobby." He locked eyes with Draco. "Is not the personal motto of the Malfoy family that 'a Malfoy bows to no one'? You father not only bows but kisses the robes of a creature that no longer even qualifies as a man. And he will be killed as worthless when the Dark Lord's quest for immortality is completed." He sighed. "There is a way to prevent this, but it will mean doing something Gryffindor for a very Slytherin reason."
"Act Gryffindor? Are you mad, Godfather?" Draco asked incredulously.
"And by acting that way, you prove your right to be Gryffindor better than anything else," Snape sighed. "A Slytherin does what is necessary, Draco. Would you rather be in Azkaban when this is done, or would you rather have a chance to gain power the way that a true Slytherin does? You have listened too much to the propaganda that others have espoused about the noble House of Slytherin. Learn the truth for yourself and you may yet prosper."
Draco looked at him for a long moment before saying, "You truly believe that Scarhead can beat the Dark Lord." It was not a question.
The ill look passed across Severus Snape's face again. "You know how much the concept pains me, but I have to say 'Yes'. I honestly believe that my best way to survive past this confrontation is to support the Golden Boy of Gryffindor."
"I refuse to be his friend," Draco said sharply.
"Did I ask you to be?" Snape asked equally as sharply. The way that Draco shrank told him that the rebuke had struck home as he wished.
Now to play with this little fool, he thought. Lowering his voice he said, "However, you know the way that these Gryffindors think. You might find it a way to get ahead in the world if you can find some way to befriend him. If he is going to be the saviour of the wizarding world, use that fame to ride to where you wish to be."
He stood and continued in a more normal voice. "What we need is the secret. We know that you are the secret keeper for Malfoy Manor's location. I saw the parchment that you wrote, and I think that I've graded enough of your papers to know that scrawl anywhere. Write it down for me and we can show it to Potter and whomever else will deal with the Dark Lord. You will be remembered as the one who helped us win the day. Imagine that, Draco — being hailed as a hero of the Light side."
Draco's eyes unfocused, and Snape laughed to himself. The fool can be played like a violin. And I am a maestro.
"I like that idea," Draco laughed. "Let the fools laud me." He looked at Severus. "Have you parchment and quill?" As he was handed them, he said, "It will be rough, but I think I can make nice to the Scarhead. And despite his belief at the moment, he'll never know that I'm the reason that those fifteen were kidnapped." He quickly scratched out the secret and handed it to Severus.
"Thank you, Draco. I promise you that you will be getting all the accolades that you deserve." With that he stood and left the curtained area, and motioned everyone outside. Once outside, he Silenced the doorway to the hospital wing and said, "The little moron forgot that he was in a large room. He assumed that because I spoke in a manner he considers to be normal that we were alone. You heard?"
"It is a shame," Dumbledore said. "He will be punished, having been overheard by multiple Aurors and myself admitting to the kidnapping."
Harry walked back up and looked at the group. "Did you get what you were after?" Albus handed him the parchment. "Excellent! So, how soon should we plan the assault?"
"We can have a team ready within an hour," Shacklebolt said.
"Should we get the Order involved?" Harry asked.
"I believe so. Perhaps Arthur might be a good choice to involve in this."
Harry snorted. "For multiple reasons, I agree completely."
An hour later, the team was ready. Shacklebolt, Tonks, Remus, Moody, Arthur, Bill and Charlie Weasley, as well as a handful of Aurors were preparing. Harry walked up to the group with another redhead in tow.
"Percy!" Bill cried. "What are you doing here?"
"Breaking cover," he said. "Under orders." He pulled a badge from his pocket and pinned it on his robes. "Unspeakable Percival Weasley reporting for duty," he said to Shacklebolt. At everyone's stunned looks he said, "I started out working for MOPS, the Ministry Office of Professional Standards. They placed me with Crouch Senior to check out some irregularities." He looked to Harry. "I appreciate what you were doing, Harry, but I had a job to do, and that required that I be a complete arse to everyone."
"And a marvellous job you did, too!" Harry laughed before pulling the tall redhead into a hug. "I know I'm not a Weasley -"
"Says who?" Percy asked with more heat than Harry would have expected, which actually brought a suspicious moisture to Harry's eyes, and his back straightened.
"Let's do this," Harry said. "We have people to rescue and a Dork Lard to humiliate before we destroy him." He paused. "Or we could just destroy him and leave the humiliation for his memory."
"I vote for the second choice," Tonks said.
"So say we all," Shacklebolt said. "I've programmed a series of Portkeys to take us there. They'll all go off at the same time. We've got about five minutes."
"We need to hit them hard and fast, and make sure that Portkey and Apparation wards go up simultaneously."
"Easy enough," Tonks said. "Knowing the parameters of the house once we had the secret keeper's secret, we set up two extra Portkeys specifically to Apparate directly into the manor by themselves, where they will set off their ward spells instantaneously. They are programmed to go off exactly one second behind us, and the wards will last for one hour."
"Not to be insulting," one of the Aurors asked, "but why is Mr Weasley here? I know that he heads the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts department, but is he really suited for fighting Death Eaters?"
Harry snorted. "You're talking about the Ghost, my friend," he said.
Eyes widened. "The most feared man in England, as far as Dark Forces were concerned?" the original questioner asked.
"Guilty as charged," Arthur said with a blush. "I was an angrier and younger man then." He thought about his two children in Voldemort's grasp and his gaze hardened. "But I remember how to break bones the way I used to."
The Portkeys kicked in, and they shot toward Malfoy Manor.
They landed with a thump in the main ballroom of the manor, where the tables were set up. To Harry's horror, the captives had been moved up to the tables and were all unconscious, apparently. The Death Eaters were surrounding the tables and had only a moment to realise that they were being invaded. A second that most of the incoming fighters didn't give them.
In a matter of seconds, half of the Death Eaters in the room were down, and the random Ennervate wasn't working on them. Usually because someone like Harry, and the Weasleys had cast such things as Blasting Curses at them. Crabbe and Goyle were bleeding to death before anyone knew to stop the attack.
Harry grinned as he saw Grandmarch and fired off a spell. Simon Grandmarch fell as if Hagrid had stepped up behind him and hit him with a tree.
"What did you do?" Tonks asked. "I hope you didn't kill him. We need him for questioning later."
"Unless someone steps on him, he'll be out cold until I wake him. And stepping on him would just hurt him or kill him if they stepped wrong. My own brand of Stupefy."
The Aurors and Order upended tables and the like — Harry took great pleasure in using family heirlooms to block spells — and in short order they were down to the very worst of the Death Eaters.
Dolohov fired off his favourite spell toward Tonks, and Harry grinned, throwing up a reflective shield. His aim was true, and Bellatrix Lestrange shrieked, "Watch where you're firing that thing, Dolohov!"
"Yeah, better luck hitting her next time!" Harry yelled.
"Oh, is ickle baby Harry here to fight for his friends and lovers?" She aimed at the tables and started to say something, but no one would ever know what it was, because Harry screamed "LASER!" as he pointed his wand in her direction. Her head disappeared in a puff of oily, smelly smoke, and the body simply fell forward.
All fighting stopped for a moment as everyone looked at the death of the second most difficult dueller in the world. "Bloody hell!" Rookwood breathed. "I've only ever seen the Dark Lord hit her before unless she was playing with you."
"That was my wife!" Rudolphus bellowed.
"'Was' being the operative word, dipshit," Harry said just before firing his special Stupefy.
"Oh, I don't think so," said a high sibilant voice that Harry knew all too well. "This simply will not do at all."
He raised his hands and began to say something, and Harry dove for cover just in time. A blast of energy enveloped the room, and he knew that he was now the only one conscious, save Voldemort.
"Now, which of them should I kill first?" Voldemort asked.
"I suggest Rookwood!" Harry yelled. "Or maybe Dolohov. He's a real pain in the arse."
"Come out from hiding, little boy, and face your maker. I'll even let you choose who dies first if you'll just come out."
Harry was currently behind a sofa and knew that Riddle was likely to figure that out shortly. He looked at the sofa and thought, Ah, the hell with it, and Banished it at Riddle at as high a speed as he could manage, rolling behind a wall as Voldemort blew the thing to smithereens. He sensed something was wrong, though, and kept rolling, proving that listening to his inner voice was a good idea as Lucius Malfoy embedded his silver hand in the wall right where Harry had been a second earlier. Lucius was also minus a hand a moment later as Harry brought his wand down and casting Reducto at the man's arm, removing it above the elbow.
"Oh, you're a good one, Potter, but what are you going to do as I slowly kill all your little friends? They're in here, and you're out there. Avada Kedavra!"
Harry heard the rushing noise and the impact as it struck someone or something, and moaned to himself. Who had just died?
"Avada Kedavra! I can always find more people for this ritual, but you can't find more friends like this. Avada Kedavra! Avada Kedavra! Avada Kedavra!" The dark lord began to cackle with glee as he fired the Killing Curse.
Harry stood and walked around the corner as Voldemort raised his wand again. "I'm here, you half-blooded little wanker," he growled. "You'd best make the next spell a good one, because it'll be your last."
"I'll be back, no matter what you think, Potter. I have ensured my longevity."
"Kinda hard when you've no more Horcruxes, Tom. And you can't make any more." With tears in his eyes, he fired his own Avada Kedavra at Tom Riddle, who jerked at the words coming from the boy's mouth and just barely yelled "Lumos!" in time to activate the Priori Incantatem.
The cage arrived as it had the last time, golden threads building a sphere around them. His wand was hot, but he was damned if the globe of energy that locked the wands together would reach him.
"No one else dies, Riddle! NO ONE, DO YOU HEAR ME? NO ONE BUT YOU AND ME!" With that, Harry pushed as hard as he could, putting every scrap of energy he had into the spell he'd fired Riddle's way. The globe, which had hovered between the two, shot into Voldemort's wand, which bucked in the creature's hand, but kept the connection. Harry ignored the ghosts of the prior spells until he saw Bertha Jorkins float from the wand and knew who was next.
Lily Potter's ghost came from the tip of Voldemort's wand, and slid over to him. "Oh, my baby boy, you're doing so well!" she said softly.
This was followed by James Potter sliding from Riddle's wand and gliding to his son. "We're proud of you, son. You've got him, and soon it'll all be over."
"You're right, Dad." he replied. "Riddle dies today, even if it kills me too."
"Voldemort was the Head Boy at Hogwarts in the 40's?" Lily asked softly.
"Yep," Harry replied with a grimace. "And he ends his reign today." With that, Harry did something that was supposed to be impossible. He screamed out another spell which went rocketing down the connection between the two wands and entered Riddle's. The yew and phoenix feather wand literally exploded in the Dark Lord's hand, taking pieces of the hand with it as it went away.
"We're proud of you, son," James whispered as he and Lily began to fade. "We don't want to see you for a very long time, however."
"You vile little boy!" Voldemort cried out as he cradled his wounded hand. "Look what you've done to me!"
"That's nothing," Harry said as he launched himself at the thing that had once been human. "You kill without thought or care," he yelled as his momentum carried the two of them to the floor, where Harry proceeded to pound forcefully on Voldemort's face and chest. "You kill because you enjoy it! Well no more, you bastard! No more!" He continued to beat upon the thing beneath him, losing himself — and in a way his mind — as he flailed at the man.
Finally someone drew him from the body beneath him. "It's over, son. He's dead," he heard, and placed the voice as Arthur Weasley's. Harry fell into the arms of the man who was like a father to him and began to sob as the emotion continued to fight for a way out. He couldn't fight Voldemort any longer, and he wasn't going to strike this man, so he simply cried, something he hadn't let himself do since these people had died the first time around.
He eventually came back to himself and looked around at the place. "I'd imagine that Draco and his mother will have some problems cleaning this place up," he said sadly. The tables were once again empty, and he could see craters around the room from spell damage.
"So who died?" he asked in a numb tone.
"Well, Bellatrix and Lucius are the most obvious ones, not to mention the remains of Voldemort, who you literally beat to death, Harry," Arthur said. "We've healed your hands, mind you."
"No, I mean from our side. I see that you've released the ones that Riddle didn't get around to killing," Harry replied, trying very hard not to let himself cry again. "Which ones did I fail again?"
Percy walked up and clapped him on the shoulder. "You'll be happy to know, Harry, that of the fifteen people on those tables, every single one of them survived the experience. "They're in St Mungo's right now being treated for the potions that had been poured down their throats to prepare them for this ritual that you prevented from happening."
Harry simply couldn't parse the statement. "But I heard Riddle casting the Killing Curse! He did it five times!"
Arthur turned him around and pointed at the wall near the tables. "One, two, three, four and five," he said simply, pointing to spots where chunks of wall were missing. "He fired at the walls, hoping you wouldn't realise what he was doing. He apparently had no intention of wasting any of the life force on those tables."
"Ron? Ginny? Hermione? Daphne? Cedric? They're all alive?" he asked, hope filling his chest for the first time since the battle began.
"You succeeded beyond any of our dreams, Harry," Shacklebolt interjected. "We expected to lose some of us on this trip, but we didn't. Every single one of us escaped alive, although Auror Tonks broke her arm tripping over the body of Vincent Crabbe Senior."
Harry couldn't help but snicker. "That's Tonks for you," he said. "Can we go to St Mungo's, please? I need to see them."
He waited impatiently for the Healers to say that he could visit them. Tonks joined him soon after he arrived, since it had been a very simply break. "So now you sit here nervously waiting to see them, huh?" she asked.
"They tell me that they're all alive, but ... I just ... I came back in time to keep them from dying, y'know? I need to see that I was successful. I need to know beyond any shadow of any doubt that it was worth it. Even if decide that what I did to Riddle was so disgusting that they want nothing to do with me ever again, as long as they're alive, it will be worth it."
A pair of arms came around his waist and someone nibbled on his ear. "I don't think that's a real worry, Harry," Daphne said softly.
"Habwah?" he asked as he turned, trying to get the blood flow back toward his brain after that greeting. He quickly grabbed her tightly and held her for a long moment. "I thought you were dead," was all he could say.
"Well, I'm not," she said. "None of us are. I expect that you'll see the rest of us out here shortly. The worst any of us has is some lingering dizziness."
"Amazing how all four of the ones who have lingering dizziness are female," Cedric said as he joined them, "and all are romantically linked to you."
"Is mark of intelligence," Viktor said. "Girls vish to have future husband know dey are still living and still love him."
"Why Viktor," Luna said, "that was remarkably profound. I'm proud of you."
"I am just dumb sports player. I borrow girlfriend's brain for intelligence." He grinned widely, showing almost every tooth he had.
Hermione stepped into the room next and into a deep hug from Harry. "Harry? Breathing ... is ... good ..." she finally gasped.
"Oh Gods, I'm so sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to -"
"It's okay. I heard what happened, and what you thought. How did you find us?"
"It was two-fold. Apparently Snape really was one of the good guys. Also, there was this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Ravenclaw stone and undid the chain. "I concentrated on you guys, and found you. I recognised it as Malfoy Manor. Now to give this stone its proper home once more." He clasped the chain around her next and let her slide the stone beneath her shirt. "I love you, you do know that?"
"Yes I do," she said. "I understand that Riddle isn't a problem anymore? A certain man beat him to death?"
"I'm not happy about that," he said. "I let my emotions get the best of me."
"Perhaps," the Headmaster said as he entered the room, "but it was also interesting seeing the look on young Malfoy's face when he was told that you had killed Voldemort with your bare hands. Do not be surprised if he decides that being friendly with you is in his best interests."
"If only to keep from a similar scenario," Daphne quipped.
"Again," Harry murmured. At her bright smile of surprise, he said, "Yeah, he bragged about you guys being missing — made it kinda obvious that he was the cause. So I broke his face. Literally. Made myself persona non grata with Madam Pomfrey."
"She feels quite badly about her outburst," Dumbledore said.
"I'd imagine. Like most of the wizarding world, she made her decision about my actions with too little information about what led to them. I'll end up forgiving her, but not immediately. Perhaps she'll think twice next time." He shook his head. "Are we all out of the woods now?" he asked, looking around.
At the affirmative, Dumbledore took a length of sash and held it out for everyone to grasp. A moment later, they all stood in Hogsmeade. Tonks laughed. "Hey Harry, what was that bit about talking to Hermione and Daphne about?"
"Are you asking her to join?" Daphne asked with an amused look. "Setting our sights high, aren't we?"
"Join what?" Tonks asked.
"You must have said something that led him to think you wanted to join our little harem," Hermione said with a laugh.
"Harem?" Tonks asked, her eyebrows rising skyward.
"I think she'd do better with a certain Defence teacher myself," Harry said quickly. "Besides, I've got two already with a possible two extra joining at some point. One is a blessing, two is riches beyond compare, and four would be greedy." He looked to Fleur and Ginny. "Greed has its good points, though," he said with a grin. "But five? Nice to think about, but one is too many, really, for the smart man."
He looked again at the women in his life. "And if it means I have them in my life, then I choose not to be smart." He thought for a second. "That has to be one of the lamest attempts at a compliment that I have ever delivered," he finished, drawing a laugh from everyone.
Epilogue:
With Voldemort well and truly dead, life went on in a much more peaceful manner. The wizarding world decided that Harry was to be lauded for the destruction of the Dark Lord You Know Who and gave him an Order of Merlin, First Class, with Starburst Cluster for Heroism. "Starburst for Heroic Stupidity is more like it," he was heard to say quite often.
Cedric Diggory went on to a successful career in Quidditch as a Seeker for the Tornadoes, with no louder fan at his games than the woman who became his wife, Cho Chang, who went on to her own career in Quidditch as Seeker for the Harpies. The games that the two played against each other during the season were often the most heavily watched games in the league, because their competition was nothing less than aerial seduction, no matter who caught the Snitch. Their children, Harry and Amos, born nine months after her last game for the Harpies, did seem to back up this thought. Other children followed.
After ending her career as a Seeker, Cho went on to become a spell researcher, and was eventually the co-developer of a cure for lycanthropy, which made her fabulously wealthy, along with her fellow researchers. Between that and a modelling career — Cho was aware that she was beautiful and figured that she could use it while it lasted — the Diggory family was never worried about money.
Luna Lovegood left school and eventually took over the running of The Quibbler from her father, who she hired on as a permanent consultant, an expert on the unusual beasts that continued to grace the pages of the magazine. People were often rather surprised when they would publish proof of the existence of several of them — such as the time that they found the Crumpled-Horned Snorkack living in Russia, on the Scandanavian border. She followed the Weasley creed, apparently, and gave Viktor enough children to field their own Quidditch team.
Viktor remained in Quidditch for several more years, becoming rather wealthy on his own purely from the sport. His wife's flights of fancy helped him afterwards as well, and he joined her and Cho Chang as part of the team that cured lycanthropy. He became most famous, however, for becoming an owner of the broom company that finally knocked the Firebolt from the top spot.
Fred and George Weasley found themselves funded by the end of their final year by Harry, who asked only that they enjoy themselves. They responded by making him one third owner of the business, which rapidly grew to the point that they put Gambol and Japes in jeopardy. Zonko's saw the handwriting on the wall and sold out to the twins, who became some of the most successful business people ever to leave Hogwarts in more than a century.
Padma and Parvati Patil didn't keep that last name for very long after they had finished with their Hogwarts educations. In fact, the Patil name lasted exactly one month and three days from their exit, when they exchanged it for one far more well known in the wizarding world by now — Weasley. They quickly took the Weasley Wizard Wheeze name from merely famous to astoundingly famous. They both had an eye for design, so while Fred and George tried to make the wheezes work, Padma and Parvati would make them look good afterwards. The mischievous streak they both had didn't hurt business either, nor did their ability to look good doing just about anything. Most of the sales to the young Hogwarts crowd could be placed quite honestly on the fact that they were the two best looking shop clerks in Diagon Alley.
Susan Bones and Ron Weasley married almost immediately out of Hogwarts, beating even the twins. Nine months to the day, Susan proved that there was magic in the Weasley genes as she gave birth to the first of what was to become the other family large enough to field their own Quidditch team. (Later years would actually have Weasley-Diggory Quidditch matches, once the children were old enough.) To everyone's surprise, it wasn't Susan who settled down, but Ron. He spent a short (but surprisingly lucrative) career as Keeper for the Chudley Cannons before settling down as a house husband, while his wife went on to be the true bread-winner of the family. She created the first real competition that Madame Malkin's ever had, which was quite successful since it was geared toward the younger crowd of witches and wizards.
Draco Malfoy, simply put, ended up in Azkaban for fifteen years — one year for each person kidnapped in Hogsmeade that fateful day. His role as a hero was quite quickly ignored, simply because no one could believe it, especially with him being the only one saying it. His attempts to make nice with Harry were seen as exactly what they were — simpering attempts to ride the coat-tails of a more famous person.
Severus Snape finally received the recognition that he felt that he deserved when he received the Order of Merlin, First Class for his efforts in the war against Voldemort. He calmed considerably and was even able to speak pleasantly to Harry when they ran into each other on the streets, occasionally even giving him a real smile. They would never be the best of friends, however, and both were happier that way.
Hannah Abbott married Neville Longbottom and the two of them went on to become masters of their fields; her in Potions and him in the field of Herbology. Several old Hogwarts students quietly laughed — although never in public — when Hannah's name eclipsed Severus Snape's as a Potion Master.
Nymphadora Tonks went on to marry Remus Lupin, even before he was cured of his lycanthropy. In the years that followed, she climbed the ranks of the Aurors, eventually becoming head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement after Kingsley Shacklebolt retired from the job. She bore two children for Remus — a son and a daughter. They were, of course, named James and Lily.
With the death of Voldemort, the curse on the Defence position died. Sirius and Remus continued to switch teaching positions every year though, since they said that it helped keep their teaching fresh and engaging. The fact that History of Magic soon became one of the student body's favourite classes tended to back up this feeling.
The remaining five ladies - Su Li, Ginny Weasley, Fleur Delacour, Hermione Granger and Daphne Greengrass — all gravitated toward Harry. He'd not ever really got to know Su Li in this time line, and not well enough in the previous one either, so he corrected that — and had been stunned to discover that she was as wonderful a woman as Hermione and Daphne. He'd never admitted it to anyone, but it became rather obvious to everyone — he was attracted to brilliant women. "I'm a dunce about relationships and the like," Ron told him once, "and I can see the kind of woman you're attracted to. I'm just glad that you don't appeal to all the ladies, or else there'd be no one for the rest of us blokes!" This had led to the standard male wrestling match that ended when they were both laughing too hard to do anything more than lay on the floor and gasp for breath.
The ladies banded together and formed a research company. The problem with the Ministry and the Unspeakables was that it was a bureaucracy, which mean that innovation was usually accidental, and often quashed immeditately. With Su, Daphne, Hermione, Ginny, Fleur, Viktor, Luna and Cho working together, the wizarding world quickly found themselves in the midst of a revolution. Cell phones quickly made an appearance in the wizarding scene, followed by any number of other electronic devices. The lycanthropy cure came about simply because someone commented on the fact of it being a curse and Harry asked somewhat naively, "Don't all curses have counter-curses?"
His next child was born due to the celebration from his putting them on a new track to study.
As for Harry? He settled down with the five most important women in his life, once they had convinced him that they all wanted him and were willing to share. There were tight moments, and moments for tears, and moments for joy. As should be in everyone's life, the moments of joy outweighed the moments for tears, although the two were known to blend, such as when a child was born. He left the spell creation and world rebuilding to his family and friends, while he settled down and became a broom manufacturer and designer, working with Viktor to revolutionise that field.
A safe (and quite true) ending for this tale would be: And they all lived happily ever after.