TOO LATE FOR SECOND THOUGHTS
A/N: This story is a one shot about Harry's thoughts after the war. Not very original, I know, but it's also put to the song "Hero of War" by Rise Against. Enjoy and please review.
************************************************
Harry Potter stood alone in the battlefield after the great Battle of Hogwarts was over. He looked over the scarred fields, the now-crumbling castle, the blood soaked soil and the smoke from endless firing spells that drifted over the grounds like fog. And he wondered.
Was this it?
When Harry was younger, he had dreamed of nothing but escaping the Dursley's and finding his true family. When the wonders of the wizarding world had been shown to him, he had no time for dreams or aspirations. Everyone knew that his goal in life, his purpose in life, was to defeat them all from the Dark Lord. And they made sure he had known it too.
But what now? The deed was done. He had accomplished what had been expected from him for all seventeen years of his life. And now he was left in the ruins of the only place he had ever considered home.
And he was alone.
As soon as the battle was over, his friends, his teachers, and those that had fought valiantly beside him were gone. Off to tend their wounds, to cry over lost loved ones. Or just to be with other survivors and relish in the miracle that was their life.
But what about him? No one turned to him, either to offer comfort or to seek it. Those that had looked up to him, those that had idolized him, they were gone. Worse, so were the ones who had seemed to like him for who he actually was.
As he stood there, and Harry realized that he had an entire life of freedom ahead of him now, he recalled the words to an old song. And as the lyrics came into his mind, he stood and moved to the edge of the castle wall. As he spoke and as he sang, all of the survivors, from both sides, looked up to him, frozen in their movements as if stopped in time.
"He said, Son have you seen the world?
Well what would you say if I said that you could?
Just carry this gun and you'll even get paid,
And I said, 'That sounds pretty good.'"
Harry's voice echoed across the empty grounds where the proud and majestic Hogwarts had once stood untarnished. The notes were clear and pure, and even as he stopped singing and began to speak, his words sounded musical, powerful.
"I have been your savior for almost seventeen years now. Since the moment Lord Voldemort tried to kill me, and could not, when I was barely a year old, I was your chosen one. Your golden boy. The boy who had lived the first ten years of his life with Muggles who hated him. Who made him work like a house elf and eat like a bird, and survive without the slightest crumb of human affection.
That boy was naive. Heartbroken by life and all that it had brought him. Then that boy learned a marvelous thing. He learned that he was a hero in a magical world of spells and dragons and Dark Lords and magic. A world he knew nothing about.
Luckily, his friends were there to help him. Ronald Weasley taught him about Slytherins. How they were to be hated and feared and detested. Hermione Granger taught him that school work was to be placed about all else, even above loyalty and honour and human lives.
Most important of all, however, was the great Albus Dumbledore. Revered and flawless headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He taught this boy to be a soldier. To fight, and to never stop fighting. He taught him the sole purpose of his existence: War.
Black Leather Boots, Shined so Bright,
They Cut Off My Hair but it Looks Alright
We Marched and We Sang
We Became Friends As We Learned How To Fight
A Hero of War, Yeah That's What I'll Be
And When I come Home They'll Be Damn Proud of Me
I'll Carry This Flag to the Grave if I Must
Cause its Flag that I Love and Flag that I Trust"
By now tears were pouring down Harry's cheeks, and his words were choked as he forced himself to continue.
"What flag did I carry? What was I fighting for? For you? For the "Light"? Against all darkness and evil in the world? What loyalty did I have to this world? To the world that threw an eleven year old boy against the greatest dark wizard of all time, before he barely even knew what a wand was? To a world that taught me only sacrifice, pain, and endurance? To a world that riddled me with dementors, baskalisks, werewolves, Death Eaters and more? This world wrongly accused by Godfather and took my only real family away from me! This world put me in a competition against my will for students far older then me and nearly got me killed! This world lied to me, and refused to tell me what the Hell I was fighting for! And this world turned its back on me, time and time again, when I needed the support the most, when I was the most alone.
I kicked in the Door I Yelled my Commands
The Children They Cried but I Got My Man
We Took Him Away, A Bag Over His Face
From His Family and Friends
They Took his Clothes, They Pissed in His Hands,
I Told Them To Stop, But Then I Joined In
We Beat Him With Guns and Batons
Not Just Once But Again and Again!"
Harry took a deep shuddering breath and pointed to the small gathering of Dark side survivors, who huddled together on the edge of the field. They were not attacking, or being attacked, merely recovering from battle just as all the others were doing.
"Do you see those people there?" He cried. "Draco, Narcisa and Lucius Malfoy are the only three people who have not been killed or captured from the side of the Dark. Look at them! Look at them! They are the same as us! They are doing the same we are now, tending to the wounded, mourning our dead. Did we ever think, did any of us ever stop and think, that there was a reason the Death Eaters joined Tom Riddle? The reason he created his Death Eater group in the first place?
We have been so pathetically close minded. We have four separate tables, where we separate people based on the personality calculations made by a hat. These separations ask for discrimination and distrust among the houses, and do not allow for students to grow and discover who they are! Were any of you, if your seventh year of Hogwarts, the same person you were in your first?
You have trained a boy - from the time he was 11 years old, to completely destroy a
problem that you all brought upon yourselves!"
Harry was full out sobbing now, and he stumbled and dropped to his knees, unable to stand another second. Still he kept his back straight, his blurry eyes aimed towards the people before him. And then he felt a presence at his side. It was Draco Malfoy, kneeling next to him and extending one pale, shaking hand.
"Draco Malfoy. And you are?"
Harry managed the smallest of smiles as he linked his fingers with the other boy's. "Harry Potter."
Both their voices rose into the song.
"A Hero of War, Yeah That's What I'll Be
And When I come Home They'll Be Damn Proud of Me
I'll Carry This Flag to the Grave if I Must
Cause its Flag that I Love and Flag that I Trust
She walked through the bullets and haze
I asked her to stop, I begged her to stay
But she pressed on
So I lifted my gun and fired away
And the shells jumped through the smoke
And into the sand that the blood now had soaked
She collapsed with the flag in her hand
A flag white as snow."
Harry spoke again.
"Just as the Slytherins, like Draco, have always been seen as the sons and daughters of Death Eaters, I have always been seen as a weapon against the 'darkness' you feared so much. Perhaps Voldemort did need to be defeated. But not like this!" His hand waved out to the destruction around him. "Never like this!
A Hero of War is that what they see me
Just Medals and Scars, so Damn Proud of Me
And I Brought Home That Flag, Now It Gathers Dust
But It's a flag that I love, it's the Only Flag I Trust
He Said, Son Have You Seen the World?
Well What Would You Say If I Said That You Could?"
Harry and Draco's voices joined together once more for the last two lines of the song, and the notes hung in the air for a moment, holding the audience below mystified.
Draco turned and helped Harry to his feet, and both staggered together to look over all that the war had destroyed.
"It's too late for second thoughts. Too late for second chances. This damage has been done and can never be undone. But I ask you now, any that remain not just here but all across the wizarding world, to unite and prevent such a horror from ever happening again. You wanted me to be your savior? That role has not changed with the death of the dark lord! There will be no more sorting at Hogwarts, no more stereotypes and misconceptions. All are equal, from Slytherins to Griffindors and from werewolves to centaurs, all are equal. I'm tired of being a weapon. Of being told what to do and what to say. From this day onward, no matter what power I may or may not hold over this world, I will never stop fighting to keep this from happening again! It may have destroyed my home, but this can never destroy me!"
The speech sounded cheesy, even to Harry's own ears, but to his amazement, Draco beside him smiled, even through blood and tears and dirt, and lifted their joined hands high in the air. To his further shock, down below people were standing, even the wounded, no matter what their stature or their alliance or even their species, and lifting their fists up into the air.
This was the true dawn of the Light.