Harmony: Part I, the Answer

By Morpher

The title is "The Answer" but the question is, "How could we lose?" Seventh year was starting to look up. Harry had been accepted into the Order and Auror training. His best friends were engaged. However, these are dark times.

A some what long A/N: This was very hard to write. I don't normally go in for depressing fics but this idea popped into my head and I had to write it down.

Let's see, it's the end of 7th year, R/Hr (although it sickens me… : P ) but later it will be H/Hr and not under happy circumstances. Oh, and "spoiled" is a euphemism for pre-marital sex…

And finally, I have the first three chapters written plus several later chapters. I will not bother posting them if no one reviews. This story is intended to a sort of Star Wars-esque story. However, unlike Star Wars, I will start at the very beginning. If Part I is successful, then I will write Part II which will be called "A New Question". All this is entirely dependent on the reader's reviewing skills… Now, on with the show!

The daughter of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger lives!

This forsaken child,

Conceived in brief moments of passion between these two lovely people,

Would not know the love her parents had to give.

She is a child of enormous power.

She is a child of enormous intellect and logic.

She is a follower of the last remnants of the dark.

She is…

Harmony

Prologue

The defeat of Voldemort is just about a non-event in what is left of the wizarding world. Where his first defeat failed, his second defeat prevailed. The world is now surrounded in a mysterious energy with the soul of Voldemort at its head. It is no doubt a product of the Dark Arts.

Early on, the people looked to one Harry Potter. At the age of eighteen, he was fully trained to defeat the Dark Arts. It was well known that he had the personal tutelage of Albus Dumbledore. It was also known that the smartest witch that Hogwarts had ever seen was in the same class as, and best friends with, Harry. How could we lose?, the people asked themselves. This question was answered.

Chapter 1

Outside the world that The Trio inhabited in their last days of school, Harry's class, now seventh year and senior, was all abuzz about new relationships and other gossip. Draco and Pansy was the hot couple within Slytherin. In Gryffindor, it was Ron and Hermione.

The big rumor at the end of that year was that they were already married, having arranged a secret ceremony during Christmas. Everybody knew the rumor was silly but they could see real love between the two. Well, the truth was that Ron had indeed proposed on Christmas Day and Hermione lovingly, and rather tearfully, accepted. It was a relief to everybody when they announced, through the various social channels, that they had set a date in mid-summer. Even Hagrid, Dumbledore, McGonagall and various other faculty members had publicly offered their congratulations.

There were also more vicious rumors, from the Slytherin side of course, of Hermione being pregnant or having "been spoiled" as the reason for a wedding so quickly after school. Harry tried to stay close to his friends during this time of ups and downs. However, Harry was absent a lot because of his private lessons and even some missions for the Order.

Harry was supportive of Ron and Hermione's relationship. However, it was only because he thought he didn't deserve Hermione. What could he give her? More pain, more sorrow? She would undoubtedly become a target if they were to announce wedding plans. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Ron's humor and more down-to-earth outlook on life was the perfect compliment to Hermione's seriousness and "all-the-answers-are-in-a-book" outlook. The more Harry thought about it though, the more he realized that he needed her more and more.

Because he cared a lot for his two best friends, the rumors surrounding their upcoming nuptial were not the least of Harry's worries. Harry could see that most of the rumors concerned Hermione and hurt her the most. And so, it hurt him as well. There was no doubt in his mind that it was Draco that had started the rumors. Well, he did say something to the effect of, "It figures that the only wizard willing to look at that rotten little mudblood would be a Weasley. She's probably serviced the whole clan by now…" Harry often dreamed of performing an Avada Kedavra curse on Draco. He could probably do it too. Dumbledore had shown him all manner of wizardry in the last two years and they had delved pretty deeply into the Dark Arts. He could easily imagine Malfoy dead and he could easily imagine himself doing it.

Harry wanted so much to be near when Hermione cried and Ron raged about the hurtful stories. But there was work to be done. Much of what Harry, Dumbledore, and the Order had been doing the past few weeks involved setting up a defense plan for Hogwarts. There were many wards and shields on the school but they needed to be tested. It was a good idea too. Some were obsolete and were replaced with newer and stronger ones. Some were only meant to detract Muggles and would be no match for a powerful Death Eater. Some had simply worn down over time and needed to be renewed. The second step was to secure an evacuation plan. The Marauder's Map helped with that. With the reluctant help of Filch, the secret tunnels were cleared of debris, widened, and strengthened with wards and shields of their own.

There was talk of removing the Whomping Willow and cleaning out that passage. But that would be too obvious. Pettigrew, alive and well, knew what that tree was guarding. If word got to Pettigrew that the tree was torn down, then that might provide a clue that Hogwarts was preparing to do battle. If Voldemort figured that out, then he would most certainly want to test their preparations.

The next question was what to do with the students when they were in the tunnels. The proximity of Hogsmeade to Hogwarts more than certainly precluded a mutual attack. So, traveling all the way through the tunnels would be risky. Harry suggested portkeys to out of the way places. Dumbledore came up with a brilliant spell concoction for long range, password protected, 1 hour time-out portkeys. He mentioned that there were several old manors in various parts of France that would fit the student body for a short time. So each tunnel now led to a different part of France in case of attack. It was better than nothing since Voldemort couldn't be at Hogwarts and six different manors in France at the same time.

The plan was brilliant. All it needed was a test run to work out the unforeseen kinks. With a thousand students and roughly one-hundred-and-fifty staff, that made about 192 people per opening. It was tough but doable. That was precluding any possibility of some of those who might not make it to their escape routes. And by the way, as Harry once explained to a disturbed Hermione, house elves can Apparate from within Hogwarts so they didn't need help escaping.

All this planning had come about because of a dream Harry had. In the beginning of sixth year, Harry had resumed his Occlumency lessons, this time from Dumbledore. For a while, Voldemort was weakened by some of the measures the Order had taken in various parts of Europe. Harry was never exactly sure what happened because the Order still had trouble confiding in him then. However, at the end of sixth year, Voldemort had sent one last mental vision before the link was closed forever. It was a horrific battle. It was on Hogwarts soil. There were bodies everywhere, bodies of students and bodies of Hogsmeade citizens. Voldemort had created the images from Harry's own mind, that's how he knew. At the forefront were the severed heads of Albus Dumbledore and the recipient of the message, Harry Potter.

All through seventh year, Harry and Dumbledore focused on protecting the school. Harry provided a lot of input. Dumbledore provided several ideas of his own. Dumbledore also marveled at the marauder's map. Harry had never truly revealed it's presence to the headmaster before. The headmaster found it could prove very priceless and very dangerous. At least it would help in case of evacuation and to detect any intruders.

Dumbledore also took up the responsibility of teaching him Defense Against the Dark Arts. Dumbledore explained that the Dark Arts should not be automatically equated with evil. The effects of such magic could be quite helpful. The malevolent part is that it takes a part of yourself to cast such magic. One ultimately goes insane from prolonged exposure and eventually becomes evil. In this age of wands and other power-focusing and power-amplifying devices, it was no longer required to sacrifice yourself for your magic. In fact, a lot of Dark magic has been converted to the Light.

The secret to defense, Dumbledore had explained, was to make sure that you didn't absorb the sacrificial parts of Dark Wizards. The simplest defense against Dark Arts is to dodge spells cast by Dark Wizards. If you cannot dodge, then you try to throw them off. However, such things as the Avada Kedavra curse cannot be thrown off. These things are why Neville's parents are in the condition they are. They not only suffered unimaginable horrors, they had absorbed the parts that the offending wizards had sacrificed. Without a wand or a shield to protect them, they absorbed the brunt of it. As Harry had seen, it drove them into insanity.