Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not the characters and not the song or the song lyrics.
Bold = Song lyrics
Italics = Flashbacks
Bold and Italics = Writing in stone
The great hall was filled with both students and teachers. The students had just returned for their next year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And the teachers had just returned from a summer without teaching or their students.
But there was one student missing, that one student was one that everybody knew was missing. But nobody knew why that student was missing. That student was Harry Potter and he should have been reporting for his fifth year, but he had not shown up at the platform, or the train. Some thought he was doing this to get attention, but most did not care, not even his so called friends.
All of the sudden the ceiling of the great hall started to thunder and a bolt of lightning struck the center of the great hall. When the dust cleared there was a scorch mark on the floor, and what looked like something to be similar to a howler, only this was white with a black ribbon around it.
After a few minutes it started to glow, and then it expanded. When it finally stopped what looked like a giant grey/white misty screen stood where the howler look-alike had been.
Just as the students started to get fidgety, the screen darkened and the students could faintly hear the sound of someone singing was heard. As they listened harder the singing became clearer, and this is what they heard.
Drop that
Get up
Take to the streets
Better lock that kid up
Face full of teeth
when he hock that spit up
Pacing the beat like a beast
Rocking the block on repeat
Speak from the cut like a rush of blood
Paint red on the sleeves of the ones you love
Lay the sick ones down and the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes let the dead men sing
Then an image started to appear, it was of a fifteen year old boy. There was something familiar about this boy, but no one could put their finger on it.
The boy had hair as dark as a blackbird, and emerald green eyes. The eyes would have been beautiful, but they were as empty as the void and cold as space.
And the image then faded into black.
I shiver and shake the warm air cold
I'm alone on my own
In every mistake I dig this hole
Through my skin and bones
As the image reappeared, they could see the boy shivering. The strange thing was that it looked to be a warm summer day. It looked like he was in the middle of the woods digging what appeared to be a grave with his bare hands.
As the image moved to cover a larger area. They could see a whale like man in the background. He seemed to be shouting at the boy, but the boy looked to be unaffected.
The image faded to black again.
But nobody could get out of their minds the image of that lone teenager digging what looked like a grave in the forest.
It's harder starting over
Than never to have changed
When the image reappeared it began by showing 4 years earlier. Then it showed what appeared to be the same boy only younger.
But what was happening to that boy shocked everybody in that hall. He was being beaten by the whale like man they had just saw.
But there was something even stranger and more heartbreaking in this image. And that was that the boy was not making a sound, he had no expression on his face, and he was not even flinching.
"He must be beaten quite often, to be able to give no reaction to this level of abuse." Said Professor Snape.
As he finished saying that everybody looked sick, as they realized what he meant.
The image faded to black again the last they saw of that image was the boy falling unconscious, and being thrown into what looked like a cupboard under the stairs.
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in, swallowing me
The pain, it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
The image reappeared and showed the forest and the boy digging a grave.
Then bursts of images flashed by, they seemed to be flashbacks. At least that is what everybody assumed, because of the varying ages of the same boy.
A baby being denied food.
A toddler with his hands being held onto a hot stove.
A young child being beaten for getting a better grade then what looked like the whale-like man's son.
A pre-teen being forced outside during the middle of winter.
And finally a teenager digging a grave in the middle of the forest, with his abuser in the background.
The image faded out again.
I sweat through the sheet as daylight fades
As I waste away
It traps me inside mistakes I've made
That's the price I pay
As the image reappeared it showed the aforementioned teen in bed. It looked like he was having a nightmare, as he was twisting and turning.
He suddenly started awake, his mouth opened in a silent scream and his eyes filled with so much terror.
The image faded to black again.
It's harder starting over
Than never to have changed
When the image reappeared it showed the boy.
He was singing, and they realized that he was the voice they heard singing.
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in, swallowing me
The pain, it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
The image faded in and out.
And it showed the boy in the forest, still digging what appeared to be a grave.
But he was different than before, he was covered in bruises and looked like he was bleeding from his head.
And if they were being honest with themselves, they could admit that he looked like hell.
The image faded out.
I drop to the floor like I did before
Stop watching
I'm coughing
I can't be more
What I want and what I need are at constant war
Like a well full of poison
A rotten core
The blood goes thin
The fever stings
And I shake from the hell that the habits bring
Let the sick ones down
The bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes
Let the dead men sing
As the image faded in, the people in the great hall (student and teacher alike) sat in silent horror. As they saw the whale like man holding a limp figure in the forest. They then saw the grave that the boy had been digging out, but they could not see the boy anywhere.
Before they could question it, they saw the whale like man throw the figure into the grave and walk away. He did not look back, not even once.
The image then fixed itself right over the grave, as soon as they could see inside the grave.
Students screamed and started crying along with some teachers.
For in that grave was the teenage boy that the images had been about. But he looked like he had been beaten within an inch of his life, it looked like he was in agony.
But by the looks of it that was not what killed him, no what killed him was that somebody slit his throat.
Blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in, swallowing me
The pain, it comes in waves
As they continued to watch that grave, they saw a man walk up beside it and look down.
"I am sorry Hadrian. I am sorry I could not save you in time." They heard the man say.
Then the man made some movements with his hands and earth started to fill the grave. When that was done the man made one more movement with his hands, and then he walked away.
Unlike the whale-like man, this man looked back once, then he was gone.
I'm getting back what I gave
I'm getting back what I gave
The singing and the music stopped, and the image froze.
When the students and teachers in the great hall saw what the image froze on they were shocked.
It had frozen on a headstone. A headstone that had not been there before the man had left, but that was not what shocked them, no it was what was on the head stone that did.
The headstone read:
Harry Potter
July 31st 1981 – September 1st 1996
A lost soul that will never truly be forgotten.
They could not believe it their savior had been abused by his family, and he was eventually killed by his family.
"Oh my god, what have we done?" cried Ginny as she buried her head in one of her brothers shoulders.
Everybody else appeared too shocked to speak. But more than that everybody felt guilty, because they could all clearly remember the signs that Harry had shown when he had been alive.
And they all wondered if one of them, only one of them had tried to help Harry, would he have been alive and there with them at that moment.
They also wondered who that man was, the one who had properly buried the fifteen year old boy. They had a feeling that they would never find out.
The song was by Linkin Park, it was called Blackbirds.
The man was Voldemort. This story is different than the original books, in this plot Harry had been abused much worse than in the books.
And he had taken to writing Voldemort the summer of his first year. And eventually they became as close as brothers. That summer of Harry's fourth year, Voldemort had finally found out where Harry had lived, and was going to take him far away.
Voldemort was apologizing for being too late to save his brother.
So I would appreciate any and all constructive criticism you have to offer, to help improve my writing.