God, I hope this works. Anyways.
Disclaimer - I don't get why people always complain about writing these. If it keeps you from getting sued it's a good thing, right? Anyways, don't own Harry Potter or anything connected to it except for several copies of the books, a stuffed Hedwig and Pigwidgeon and Mrs. Norris, (which doesn't have the right eyes) a stuffed Hagrid, a snitch lamp, a Harry Potter trivia game, and a few bookmarks.
Once and for All Time - chapter 1
'Not Harry!'
'Lily, take Harry and go!'
'A girl has been taken by the monster,'
'Who?'
'Ginny Weasley,'
'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...'
'How could you Harry?'
'We trusted you!'
'Get away from me! I don't ever want to see you again!'
'You piece of slime! How could you? You are no son of Lily and James!'
'I didn't do it! Please! You have to believe me, I didn't do it! I swear! Just give me Veritaserum, then you'll see! Please!'
Harry woke with a strangled yelp, thrashing around for a moment, before remembering where he was.
Harry shivered, curling up into a ball in the corner of the small stone cell. The Dementors were getting closer. He could tell, because he was starting to remember the day he was accused of murder. The murder of his only living relatives, the Dursley's.
Vernon, Petunia and Dudley Dursley had been found dead in their homes on July 31st 1997, Harry unconscious beside them, holding the wand that had killed them.
No one had believed he was innocent. Not even Ginny Weasley, who had been his girlfriend since the start of his sixth year. Ron and Hermione wouldn't even come to see him for a last time, not even to tell Harry how much they hated him. Three days after he was found with the Dursley's, the minister for magic found him guilty of murder, and threw him in Azkaban, saying 'hopefully we stopped him before he could become worse than You-Know-Who himself'.
Harry shivered again, more violently this time, as the Dementors came even closer and he was forced to remember every horrible memory he had.
So caught up in terrifying memories, he didn't notice when the Dementors passed his cell. He noticed when they were gone though, as the memories weren't as clear.
Wiping away the tears that had started with the memories, Harry shivered again and curled into a tighter ball. He closed his eyes, trying to get to sleep. The dreams he had weren't as bad as the Dementor induced memories, so he slept as often as he could.
He was just drifting off to sleep when a bright light made him open his eyes. He immediately shut them again, wishing he hadn't opened them. His eyes, so used to darkness, were almost blinded by the light.
The light dimmed, and Harry blinked, trying to make the black spots dancing in his eyes go away. Slowly they disappeared, and he opened his eyes fully to see what the light was. His eyes widened in shock when he saw what was in the middle of his cell.
It was Voldemort.
Voldemort smiled at Harry, his red eyes glinting maliciously.
"Hello Harry. Have you enjoyed your stay?" Harry just looked at the creature, unable to get up the energy to do anything else.
"Shall I take your silence as a yes? Well, that is too bad. You see, you are coming with me." with that, Voldemort snapped his fingers and the cell was engulfed in a bright light. When the light faded, the cell was empty.
Harry and Voldemort appeared on a hill in a flash of light. Harry blinked and looked around bemusedly, unaccustomed to the daylight that bathed everything in a soft yellow glow. When he was finally able to see, as well as he could without glasses, his eyes widened.
All around the hill a battle was raging. Aurors, members of the Order of the Phoenix, students from Hogwarts, regular, ordinary witches and wizards, all were fighting Voldemort's army of Death Eaters. Harry stared around in horror, and Voldemort laughed. The high-pitched sound carried over the battlefield, and all fighting ceased.
All the Death Eaters apparated to their Lord's side, and the people fighting for the light side frantically tried to regroup while they had the time. Voldemort laughed again.
"It is no use to try and fight me!" Voldemort called. "For I have with me the one thing that will destroy you all!" as he spoke, Voldemort shoved Harry in front of him. Not expecting the sudden movement, Harry fell to all fours.
"It's Potter!" a wizard on the light side shouted. Harry clenched his eyes shut. Even now, after all this time, their hate still hurt. Voldemort laughed.
"You see, Dumbledore? You couldn't keep him from me! Harry, join me! I can give you power you never dreamed possible, you will be able to take your revenge on the people who betrayed you!" Harry slowly pushed himself to his feet and turned to face Voldemort.
"Come Harry!" Voldemort urged. "Join me! I will not turn on you as they did. Betraying you on circumstantial evidence! And they called themselves your friends! The people who should have known you the best, who should have known that you would never kill except for a good reason, they turned their backs on you! They will do it again in a heartbeat." even from the distance the light army was from the hill, Harry could hear them mumbling. Voldemort laughed.
"Yes! You hear that Dumbledore? Your beloved saviour was innocent! It was my Death Eaters who killed those muggles, not your precious Harry Potter!" gasps broke out all over the light army, and Voldemort cackled insanely.
"So, Harry," Voldemort turned back to Harry, "take my hand. Join me. I can give you what you want!" Voldemort held out his hand. Harry stared at it, then looked up at Voldemort.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches..." he said slowly. His hoarse voice carried over the entire gathering, light and dark alike. "Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies..." Harry wondered how his voice was so steady and clear. He hadn't used it in seven years, except to scream. "And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches..." Harry stopped speaking and stared at Voldemort. Voldemort stared back at Harry, his eyes wide.
"I won't join you." Harry said, slowly. "You've ruined my entire life. The only thing that could possibly make anything better would be your death. So die." with his last words, Harry forced himself to think of everything Voldemort had ever done. Every time the creature had caused him pain, every time the monster killed and, through their connection, forced Harry to watch, every time anything good in Harry's life was destroyed because of the inhuman thing in front of him... Harry forced himself to remember everything. And with the memories came anger. Fury. Hate. Harry took those emotions, and turned them into power.
Harry's eyes started glowing, and Voldemort were bathed in a radiant emerald green light. A wind started, Harry at the centre. His long, greasy, white-streaked black hair whipped around his face. Slowly, Harry was raised off the ground. He lifted his arms up, and the ground shook restlessly before settling. Voldemort's eyes were wide with terror. Dark, angry, yellowish black clouds filled the sky, making it look like an infected wound. Jagged streaks of lightning shot across the sky, followed immediately by roaring, crashing, deafening thunder so loud the ground shook. Then, above Harry, ten bolts of lightning suddenly stopped mid-streak, before entwining. Large drops of rain started pouring down, making the lightning appear even brighter, the only spot of light other than Voldemort, and Harry, who was surrounded by bright green light. The wind became stronger, making the already stinging rain pelt into anything and everything like bullets shot from a muggle gun. Then wind, made visible by all kinds of debris, started circling the pillar of stationary lightning, twisting into an eerily glowing tornado that seemed to float in mid-air. The green light surrounding Harry shot up and wound around the tornado, making it all the more terrifying. Then, with a deafening crack of thunder, the tornado shot down towards Voldemort. Voldemort's eyes widened and he screamed, a sound filled with shock, horror, and dread. Then the glowing pillar hit him, and Voldemort let loose one last, agony-filled scream. The scream was drowned out by another resonating boom of thunder. As the thunder died away, the wind slowed, then stopped, the rain died away, the clouds cleared, and the sun shone down with a strangely white glow. Harry continued to glow for a moment, then the green light died and he slowly dropped until his feet rested on the ground once again.
Most of the people had been knocked to the ground by the wind, the few that remained standing able to do so only by the magic shields they had managed to keep up. Slowly, the people stood up, staring at Harry, mouths gaping and eyes wide.
Harry stood on the hill, breathing heavily, staring at the place Voldemort had been standing. There was nothing there. Not a blade of grass was out of place. It was like Voldemort had never existed.
Slowly, still staring at the spot where Voldemort had been standing, Harry laughed. It was a laugh of pure, unadulterated joy. Harry threw his head back, his arms raised in triumph, and laughed. Slowly, his laugh died away and he stared up at the sky, smiling, arms still raised as though to hold it up. Then, still smiling, he fell backwards, continuing to stare at the sky.
Lying on the ground, Harry closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, running his hands through the grass. He opened his eyes and smiled again, a small, happy smile of contentment.
He didn't know how long he lie there, hands feeling the grass, staring at the sky, breathing in the fresh air, but he came to his senses when he heard someone walking up to him. He blinked, wondering when the sky had gotten so dark. Then his attention went back to the person coming up to him.
"Go away." he said quietly, not moving from his position. The person stopped walking for a moment, then continued towards Harry.
"Go away." Harry repeated, and the person sighed heavily.
"Harry," the person started, and Harry's eyes hardened. He knew that voice. It belonged to the man he had once though was the greatest person and wizard on Earth. Albus Dumbledore.
"I said," Harry said slowly, his voice filled with venom, "to go away."
"You know I can't do that Harry." Dumbledore said. Harry didn't answer. He didn't move, just continued to look at the sky, now dotted with fluffy pinkish orange clouds. Dumbledore sighed again, and Harry heard the man sit down beside him.
"Harry, you are going to have to come to Hogwarts with me." Dumbledore stopped, waiting for Harry to answer. Harry ignored him. "Madam Pomfrey will have to look you over. You could have hurt yourself with all that magic." Harry didn't say anything. Dumbledore sighed and stood up. He reached down to lift Harry to his feet, but was thrown back by an iridescent green dome that slowly faded back into nothingness. Harry heard some gasps of horror, but ignored them, opting instead to close his eyes and breathe in the fresh spring night air. He heard people rushing to Dumbledore's side, asking if he was all right, and 'what had Harry done to him?'. He heard Dumbledore stand up and say he was fine and that Harry hadn't done anything to him. Harry suppressed a snort. Good Lord was that man daft.
Dumbledore walked back over to Harry, and Harry opened his eyes. Dumbledore's head was bent over Harry's own.
"Would you mind moving?" Harry asked. "You're blocking my view of the sky. Normally that wouldn't be such a bad thing, but when you haven't seen it for seven years you kind of like to look at it." Harry smirked slightly when Dumbledore flinched.
"My dear boy, words can't express how sorry I am -"
"Then don't talk." Harry interrupted, closing his eyes again. Dumbledore sighed sadly.
"Harry, my boy, you have to come with me. Will you let me help you up? With all that magic you used, you are no doubt exhausted." Harry rolled his eyes, not opening them.
"Actually, I feel quite good. Better than I have in seven years, in fact."
"Harry, you must come with me." Dumbledore said in a tone that implied he was talking to a spoilt child. Harry mentally grimaced. Couldn't this guy take a hint?
"I'm not going anywhere. I rather like it here." Harry said, opening his eyes for a moment to look at Dumbledore, before closing them again.
"Harry -"
"Look, I just saved your life, why don't you repay the favour and leave me alone?"
"Harry, you need help! You need to learn how to control your power!" Harry opened his eyes.
"I bloody well know how to control my power you God damned imbecile. Leave me the hell alone," he growled, glaring at Dumbledore. Dumbledore looked taken aback. Harry smirked, then sat up quickly. Dumbledore barely moved his head out of the way fast enough.
Harry stretched his arms above his head, then jumped to his feet. He smiled sweetly at a stunned Dumbledore.
"Well, it hasn't been nice talking to you, so I'm leaving now. Hopefully I won't see you around." and with that, Harry turned away and walked calmly down the hill, and through all the staring people gathered at the bottom.
"Harry! Harry, please, wait!" Harry flinched at the voice. He stopped and let the girl come up to him.
"Oh Harry, Harry, I'm so sorry! Harry, please don't be angry at me, please," Ginny Weasley begged, hanging onto his arm. Harry looked at her with cold eyes, then slowly, calmly, pulled her hands off his arm. He started walking again, not giving the redheaded girl a second glance.
"Harry! I love you!" Ginny screamed after him.
"No you don't." Harry said, not looking back. Then, to everyone's shock, he simply disappeared.
Harry looked around dazedly, wondering where he was. He wasn't even sure how he got to wherever it was he was. He had just wanted to get away from Ginny, and the pain she brought. Harry shook his head to clear it, immediately wishing he hadn't when it started pounding. He put his arm out and leant against a tree, holding his head with his other hand.
Contrary to what he had told Dumbledore, he felt completely drained. He wasn't even sure how he had made it off the ground and down the hill without collapsing he felt so weak.
His head stopped pounding eventually, though it still ached, and he started walking. As he stumbled through the trees, he fell a great many times, getting a great many cuts and scratches each time he did. By the time he found the place, he was so tired and weak he wasn't even sure if he was actually seeing it.
'It' was a huge castle in the middle of a huge forest. There were quite a few crumbling grey bricks along the top of the outside wall, and it was covered in moss. It had obviously been uninhabited for some time.
Deciding that he didn't care if it was a figment of his imagination, and just wanting a place where it was safe to lie down, comfortably or not, Harry slowly made his way to the huge, amazingly well preserved wooden door.
Once at the doors, Harry grasped the handle of one of them and pulled. The door didn't budge. Harry pulled harder, but nothing happened.
"Oh, come on! Open up!" Harry cried softly, weakly hitting the door with his fist. To his amazement, the door opened inwards soundlessly. Harry blinked at the door, then shrugged and made his way inside.
It was dark inside the castle, the only light coming from the open door. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, muting any sound made. From what Harry could see, he was in a large entrance hall. In front of him, in the middle of the hall, was a huge staircase. There were doorways leading off the entrance hall, and Harry moved to the closest one, not willing to try and make his way up the stairs.
The room on the other side of the doorway was some kind of sitting room, with a huge fireplace on one wall, with several chairs, a couch and a table in front of it. Harry sighed gratefully made his way over to them.
Reaching the couch he dropped down onto it, making a huge cloud of dust rise up. He sneezed four times successively, then slowly lay down, careful to not disturb any more dust. Once lying down, he had only to close his eyes before falling asleep.
Harry woke slowly, feeling more refreshed than he had in years. Sighing contentedly, he stretched his arms and sat up, running a tired hand over his face. Blinking, Harry looked around, taking a moment to process the realisation that he could see perfectly well. Frowning, Harry brought a hand up to see if he was wearing glasses. He almost hit himself. Of course he wasn't wearing glasses! But if he wasn't wearing glasses, how could he see? Harry frowned, then shrugged, deciding he'd find out later. Right now he was starving.
He stood up and left the room and started looking for a kitchen, hoping that whoever the castle had belonged to had been a wizard and had charmed the kitchen to always have food.
After five minutes of searching and constant growling from a stomach Harry was certain was trying to eat itself, he finally found the kitchen. It seemed as though the castle had belonged to a magical person, as the kitchen was full of fresh food. It was all rather medieval, but at the time Harry didn't care about anything other than getting food into his stomach.
Once he finished eating all that he possibly could, Harry headed back to the room with the couch. For feeling so refreshed not long ago, he was exhausted.
When he got to the couch, he dropped down on it, falling asleep before he could even see the dust cloud that rose around him.
When Harry woke the second time, he was hungry again, though nowhere near as hungry as he had been. Getting up from the couch, Harry made his way back to the kitchen and ate what he decided to call lunch.
'What to do now?' Harry asked himself once he finished lunch. Sitting back in his chair for a moment, Harry shrugged. He might as well explore, now that he wasn't tired.
Deciding to start at the front doors, Harry left the kitchen and walked to said doors. When he reached them, he frowned. They were both closed tight, but he could have sworn he hadn't closed the door last night, or whenever it was he came in. Shrugging and chalking it up to magic, Harry started to explore.
The first place he went was the room where he had slept. It was obviously day out, as the stained-glass windows above the fireplace were letting in quite a bit of light.
The fireplace dominated the wall to the left of the doorway, and the stained-glass gave the room a kind of dappled rainbow effect. On the three other walls there were huge tapestries, each depicting a different scene. The one straight across from the door showed two wizards fighting each other, one with black hair and blue eyes, and the other with blonde hair and green eyes. What Harry thought was rather interesting was that the tapestry didn't move. There hadn't been many tapestries in Hogwarts, but the ones that were there moved just like the portraits. It didn't make sense that the tapestries in this castle didn't move, since it had obviously belonged to a witch or wizard. The kitchen was proof. Unless, of course, the castle had originally been owned by muggles. But no, that couldn't be it, because of what the tapestry depicted.
Harry shook his head. This was giving him a headache. He'd worry about it after he finished exploring.
The other two tapestries in the room depicted the outcome of the two wizards' duel. The wizard with blonde hair and green eyes had apparently won. The couch, chairs and table in front of the fireplace were the only other things in the room, besides the dust.
Another doorway off the entrance hall led to another huge room, almost as big as the hall itself. This room was a dining hall, bigger than the Great Hall at Hogwarts. And instead of four house tables and one head table, there was only one table. It sat in the middle of the room, and stretched almost the entire length of the room. It would have seated at least two hundred people Harry was certain. Probably more.
Across the hall from the Duel Room and Dining Room, as Harry later decided to call them to keep himself from going mad with trying to remember everything, was one other doorway. It was closed off by a pair of wooden doors almost as big as the doors that led into the castle. These ones, though, were carved with beautiful flowers, trees and birds. Harry opened one of the doors with difficulty, then stared around the room, mouth open slightly.
The room was ten times bigger than the Entrance Hall and the Great Hall at Hogwarts combined, and lit brightly by the sun. There was more window than wall on the two walls to the right and front of the doors. There were huge glass doors in the windowed wall across from the entrance doors, that led out to what would have been a beautiful garden at one time. Harry wondered how the owners of the castle had managed enough glass to make a wall. There weren't even visible seams in the glass. Even with magic, it was quite a feat.
To the left of the entrance doors was a platform that took up about a quarter of the length of the room, raised twenty steps above the main floor. Two staircases led up to the platform, one on either side. A latticework railing went across the otherwise open end of the platform.
Hanging from the ceiling, which was so high Harry almost couldn't see it, were huge crystal chandeliers. There were thirty all together. Shaking his head bemusedly, Harry left the room slowly, carefully closing the door behind him. Glancing up and down the hallway, Harry shrugged to himself, bored with the main floor. He glanced around again, then started walking up the staircase.
Looking up as he walked up the stairs, Harry was just beginning to realise how huge the castle actually was. He couldn't even see up to the top of the castle from his place on the stairs.
Getting off the stairs at the first landing, Harry explored all the rooms on that level.
There was a room filled with every kind of musical instrument ever made or invented, along with two walls full of music books. There was a room that seemed to be a type of game room, though Harry couldn't figure out how you would play anything in it. There was a library, almost as big as the Ball Room, (Harry couldn't think of anything else the room with the two window walls would be) filled to the brim with books. Every room had a huge fireplace. The library had two that Harry could see.
'Hermione would love this place,' Harry caught himself thinking as he poked around the library. He shoved those thoughts ruthlessly from his mind before he could get depressed. He had been rather happy exploring until he thought of his one time friend.
There were several other rooms on the level that Harry didn't go into. He was beginning to get tired again, and he wanted to see if he could find a bed, instead of going back to sleep on the couch.
He went back to the staircase and went up another level. It was a floor devoted to baths. Harry lingered there for a moment, thinking about how nice a hot bath would be after being constantly cold for seven years, but a wave of tiredness washed over him and he continued his search for a bed.
The next floor up was the one with the bedrooms. Harry stuck his head into a few that he thought were probably originally for guests, before finding what he figured to be the master bedroom.
It was enormous. The bed itself, which only took up a tiny, insignificant part of the room, was at least ten feet square.
The sight of the bed, which was covered in dust just like everything else in the castle, made Harry's eyes droop tiredly. He shuffled his way over to the bed, waving his hand as he went. When he reached the bed, all the dust had been cleared away.
Harry slipped under the heavy comforter, and gave a contented sigh as he sank into the mattress. He was asleep within seconds.
End of chapter
I always told myself I wouldn't do this, but what the heck. Read and review please!
Hero