The Paths We Take
By Ged
Disclaimer: I know most of you aren't going to read this anyway so I'll make it brief; I do not own Harry Potter or any of its astounding characters. They and everything else in the HP universe are owned by J. K. Rowling. Just about everything in existence is copyrighted these days so really nothing here is mine.
Full Summary: Harry refuses to believe that the results of the previous two years are not his fault, and despite his friends' best efforts he continues to shoulder all responsibility. Even worse is the discovery of the prophecy in his fifth year, which does nothing to help matters. Dumbledore understands the situation at hand, and decides that if Harry must face the Dark Lord Voldemort in the end, then he had best be prepared. Harry goes for training over the summer, and things go from there. Harry/Ginny with light Ron/Hermione.
A/N: This is my first official fanfic. Let me know what you think. Constructive criticisms are welcome, but flamers had best turn back now.
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Chapter 1: Nightmares
"We'll take it together"
"But Harry, you know what is going to happen. You-know-who will kill me." Cedric looked back at Harry and saw the look in his eyes. He became scared, unable to respond.
"Good; I wanted to see you to
die. I hate you; it seemed that every
time I wanted to do something you were there to beat me at it. You beat me at quiddich. Then you dared to make a move on the girl I
like and got to her first. You deserve everything
you get." Harry's voice held a strange
tone to it, a steely calm with an undertone of pure hatred. And with that...
"IMPERIO!" Suddenly, Cedric's eyes went blank, a clear reflection of what happened to his mind. "You will do as I say. Now, take the cup with me!" Without a word, Cedric obeyed and grabbed the tri-wizard tournament cup with Harry.
***
"Kill the spare." A flash of green light followed by a muffled scream broke the silence of the once-peaceful graveyard. As the glow faded, Harry could see Cedric lying spread-eagled on the ground, his eyes blank once more. This time it was not the effect of the imperius curse, but something else entirely. There was no avoiding it, Cedric Diggory had been murdered.
***
"Expeilliarmus!"
"Avada Kedavra!" The beams of red and green met in midair and formed a strand of gold-colored magic. Harry focused with all of his might, trying to force his spell upon his opponent Lord Voldemort. Soon, ghostly images began to appear from Voldemort's wand, in the forms of his friends and family. Cedric was there, telling all the other shadowy forms about how Harry caused his death. More and more people began to appear. Sirius and Remus blamed him for the loss of their best friend; James blamed him for the death of his wife; Lily blamed him for the death of her husband. It was getting to be too much to handle. Everywhere Harry looked, people were yelling at him for killing their loved ones. It was all his fault...
There was a flash and a swirl of color, and he was back in the Department of Mysteries, flying again towards that simple black door at the end of the hallway. Instead of entering the same room as before, he turned to the left and went into a different room, this one with an ancient-looking archway on a simple dais in the center. The black veil that Harry remembered so well still fluttered from some unknown force, and whispers could be heard from the behind it. From the center emerged none other than Sirius Black, Harry Potter's convicted "murderer" of a godfather.
"You killed me Potter. You let me die"
"But there was nothing I could have done!"
"All you had to do was reach out and grab me. It would have been nothing. Was I that bad of a godfather to you Harry? Did I deserve to die? You think I did don't you. It's all your fault."
Harry Potter awoke with a start and a scream that echoed from one end of Privet Drive to another. He had just come home from his fifth year of wizard training at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and boy was it one to remember. The resurrection of the Dark Lord Voldemort plagued Harry's mind constantly, and he had himself convinced that it was all his fault. He was sure that millions of lives would end because he was too blind to see the plan that was forming behind his back the whole time. Then in his fifth year he discovered the prophecy stating that either he would die or kill Lord Voldemort. Sirius was dead, Cedric was dead, and there would be so many more to come. Harry couldn't take it anymore and let his head drop in his hands and cried himself back to sleep.
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A/N: Well what do you all think for an opening chapter? I promise this will start moving faster once I get around to it. I'll have longer chapters too. Finals are finally over and I just got back from vacation so I should have about a chapter every so often. Reviews, especially constructive criticisms, are most welcome; seeing as how this is my first attempt at fan fiction. Also this is a repost of a story I had originally done as a fifth year fic, but when I realized that nobody was going to read it now that OotP is out, I made it a sixth year. Thankfully the idea I had can be carried over quite nicely, and the discovery of that prophecy only makes things easier for me.