Reaching the Crossfire
Harry Potter © J.K. Rowling
Chapter o1
Summary: She didn't get the chances to savor the defeat of one Lord Voldemort before she is at want point being cast a spell she didn't recognize by the man she thought as a grandfather. Waking up in the past, she flounders what to do before she ultimately decides to put her luck with the enemy. Fem! Harry Potter, Time-travel.
Rate: T
May contain Cursing, child abuse, and bullying.
Author's Note: Just keep an eye out for many stories to be updated or be a new idea I am toying with... please do enjoy.
She feels the drop of rain fall on her shoulders, her hair sticking against her skin as she let out a long sigh. The man that has hunted her all this time lays on the dirty floor, wand out of reach, chest not moving at all.
The Dark Lord known as Lord Voldemort is dead by her hand, The-Girl-Who-Lived, Aster Verbena Potter, but somehow the defeat of the so-called Dark Lord doesn't sit right with the raven-haired woman.
She has learned to trust her gut feeling, though sometimes she had ignored them because even if she was weary – she had to follow through because it was what it was expected of her to do. What people who weren't the Chosen Ones, the Savior, the bloody Girl-Who-Lived, expected from her to do.
But the feeling of dread, the feeling of weariness around her surroundings started to nag in the back of her mind as she held tightly onto her wand.
"Aster," It the familiar voice that brought her to pinpoint the location of all the weariness she felt. Professor Dumbledore stood in all his glory, wearing a light blue cloak, shimmering under the small number of light beams falling through the broken ceiling. "My dear girl," He continued in his grandfatherly tone Aster remembers.
"Professor Dumbledore," She whispers, as she stares at the man who she thought had died. The man she watched get killed by the unforgivable and fell down the astronomy tower. "But… but how?" She asked weakly. Tears building up behind her glasses as she watched the man approach her, ignore the dead man.
"There are many things that you don't know my child," The elderly man began, his blue eyes glittered behind his half-moon specs as he reached a stop in front of the nineteen-year-old. "I do admit, the war took far much longer than necessary, but it has finally come to an end, a rather quiet end if I do say so myself."
Aster swallowed nervously as she stared at the man she thought to be dead since she was sixteen-years-old. The weariness and danger sense ringing rather loudly as she only stood frozen, unable to move or make a twitch.
"However, no matter how much I would like to thank you for saving the Wizarding World from the clutches of a madman, I do have to apologize for what will be happening next," Dumbledore continued, as he twisted around to stare at the body of Voldemort, stroking his long beard.
"Sir?" She softly questions, watching the man hummed to himself.
"Vita ante acta," Dumbledore began, flicking out the wand and pointing it to Aster, "tiempus volat, hora fugit," A soft light began to glow and Aster tried to move, but something held her back, held her in place at wand point. "Professor, what's going on?" She asked, her voice breaking as the tears leaked down her face. "Vive memor leti."
It's the final words that Aster began to feel a pull, feeling cold rush her body as her green eyes stared at Dumbledore with hurt and betrayed.
"I'm sorry my dear girl, but for the greater good, you must disappear. To die in the great battle between yourself and the Dark Lord." The elderly man stated, placing the wand away as he smiled at her, his blue eyes glittered with something else besides the grandfatherly twinkling he usually holds. "The Girl-Who-Lived dies fighting the Dark Lord, for only to have the great Albus Dumbledore come out from his hiding behind the ranks of the Order of Phoenix to help rebuild the Wizarding World. I dare say, that is a wonderful way to end a war, don't you say my dear girl?"
Aster couldn't respond, only letting soft whimpers of pain escape her dry lips as she fell to her knees. Her body becoming heavy and cold.
"A great spell I found in one of the old tomes back in my earlier days, a spell that causes the person to slowly have its body disappear in a day – slowly dying but also they are alive to hear that everything is going on around them, or so what it is supposed to do, but it still ends with you dying. So, don't worry Aster, everybody will be able to say goodbye before you totally die."
'Why?' Aster thinks, her thoughts muddled with heavy pain and betrayal as she tries to speak, but she's too tired, filled with pain and the fog slowly began to consume her mind as she laid in the floor, her eyesight slowly fading away.
"Dumbledore! You're alive!"
"Aster! Wake up! Don't you be dead!"
"Hermione, she isn't going to be waking up anytime soon."
"No! You can't die, not after you promise to come back alive!"
"My dear girl, Aster died fighting strong, she died protecting all of the Wizarding World. There is nothing we can do but rebuild our broken world back to the way it should be."
"Aster Verbena Potter, The- Girl- Who- Lived, The Savior, the Chosen One, died while she fought and killed the Dark Lord. We all have her to thank as we build our lives back, we will remember her for the person who saves us all and helped me behind the scenes to defeat the madman we hid from. It is a sad day as we all stand here to mourn for all those who we lost. But fret not, for they will always have a place in our hearts."
Aster blinked her eyes as she stared at the patch of dirt that surrounded her before she slowly sat up. She could hear loud explosion all around her, screams of desperate women, children's cries for help.
The raven-haired female sat on the ground as she allowed her senses to come back. Her green eyes drank her surroundings as she watched men throw curses back forth, women ran away from the scenes as they held tightly onto the crying children. Fires roared loudly as the building was set on fire, smoke rising into the sky, covering the already dark sky. The smell of burnt flesh filled Aster's nostrils as she slowly got up.
Stumbling around, lost and filled with confusion, disoriented, the girl screamed loudly before she took out her wand and began fighting against the men that started attacking unarmed women in children.
It isn't until the screams slowly die off, the shouts of retreat from the enemy side, that Aster struggles to continue to stand. Her sight slowly fading as she could feel exhaustion settle in her bones.
She blacks out when her body hits the floor, ignoring the cries to hang in there. That everything will be okay. In the back of her mind, Aster knows, that nothing is okay.
She wakes up once more to the smell of antiseptic and sweet flowers. The bed under her is thin and uncomfortable, the sheet covering her feels heavy, but holds no warmth to it.
Groaning at a headache pounding against her skull, Aster tries to move but gets tutted and pushed back down. "Now where are you going, little girl? You took a lot of damage and inhale a tone of smoke, you should be resting up." The curt voice of woman stated as she messed around the room.
"What's going on?" Aster slurred, trying to blink away the sleepiness away from her sight and tried to take in the room around her. "Where am I?" She asked.
The voice came from an elderly lady dressed in the mediwitch uniform she got used to seeing throughout the war.
"What's going on young lady, is that you will be giving me your name so I can put it on the list of survivors that got found in the village that got attacked," The mediwitch stated, looking through the clipboard in her hands.
"Village? Survivors?" Aster asked in confusion. Unsure what was going on, why she was lying in a hospital bed when she was… when she was talking to Dumbledore.
"Don't you remember dearie? Your village got attacked by Grindelwald's men or believer's, whatever they are called now these days."
Aster blinked her eyes, she has heard about Grindelwald, one of the Dark Lords that began to start power in Germany before he began spreading all over Europe. His propaganda of killing off all muggles, history theorized that the man controlled one of the dictators that began World War Two.
But that was impossible.
Aster wasn't even alive at the time, she shouldn't be exiting at all because her parents aren't even born yet.
"Dearie?" The nurse questioned as she came to look at Aster with concern, shaking her head she stuttered that her head was hurting more and she was feeling nauseous.
"I'll go search for some potions to help alleviate that, then we will begin out questioning and check-up." The mediwitch stated, placing the clipboard on the head of her bed, moving around the curtains that separated her from the other patients.
Aster sat there before she moved to grab the clipboard.
Date: June 20, 1941
Name: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Birthdate: Unknown
Injury: Magical exhaustion, malnutrition, dehydrated, several wounds on patient's body
Causes of injuries: Patient was rescued by Aurors who got sent to protect a small village that was under attack by Grindelwald's followers. The patient got found falling to the ground, exhausted with a wand held tightly as she guarded a small child against an adult wizard.
Aster was even more confused.
The last bits of memories were of her and Dumbledore, the man who she thought to be dead, was alive and had killed her off by chanting a spell she didn't know. She knew she was supposed to be dead, she heard the speeches of victory, speeches of mourning, heard the cries of her friends and the shouts of celebrations, of victory.
However, the fury she held for the man she considered as a grandfather boiled hot in her stomach as tears gathered, but refused to fall.
"Fool, following Dumbledore like a little soldier you are, that'll be your death, Potter." She can remember Riddle's words ringing as the events continued to repeat themselves in her mind.
Riddle was right, the man she followed was her death.
Aster is a no one in this timeline. She's no longer in her nineteen-year-old body, but instead of a fourteen soon to be fifteen-year-old.
Recently released from St. Mungos, Aster sat outside the hospital, watching the muggles walk through their everyday lives. Trying to live their lives as normal as they could with the war waging miles away from them.
Tired and weary, she tried to think of anything that she could possibly do, however; her thoughts returned to the man that betrayed her. Back to the home, she misses, along with the people that didn't question the man that apparently wasn't dead. That seemed to be happy to move on with their lives as she heard them mourn for all that died in the war, that all thought she had died at the end of the war.
But she isn't dead.
And her only home, the only home she could return is Hogwarts.
With only her wand the shrunken trunk she carried with her at her death, Aster's only hope of trying to figure out what to do is to return to Hogwarts and face her betrayer.
It's on their third day of classes that Tom gets pulled called to go to the office of Professor Dippet. Unsure why he was being called, the boy made his way out of charms class, packing his belongings and apologizing to the professor. He made his way to see why he was being called for.
When he reached the office, he knocked on the door and opened it when a voice called him to enter. Sitting at his table, Dippet welcomed him with a smile.
"Mr. Riddle, just the person I was waiting for," The man stated, motioning for him to come in. Tom entered the room, moving towards the empty chair. The chair beside him already occupied.
"Miss. Evans, I would like to introduce you, Mr. Riddle, he's this fifth-year prefect for the house you'll be joining," Professor Dippet informed, looking at the girl, Evans, as he introduced him.
"Mr. Riddle, this here is Aster Evans, she wasn't able to make it to the opening ceremony; however, she'll be joining you in the house of Slytherin, I do hope you'll make her feel welcome."
Tom nodded his head and put a welcoming smile he gave the first-years.
"Welcome, Miss. Evans, a pleasure to meet you," Tom said as he twisted to see the female sitting beside him.
Evans stared at him with bright green eyes hidden behind round specs, her hair pulled into a messy ponytail before she nodded her head. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Riddle," She stated, her voice low and husky. Nothing compared to the silky and soothing voices of the pureblood girls he knows.
"Well then, I'll let Mr. Riddle get you all settle and if you need anything, Miss. Evans, please find me or our Deputy Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore." Professor Dippet stated, smiling at the girl. Evans nodded her hid, trying to anger at the mention of Dumbledore's name and that gain Tom's interest.
"Now then," Tom began as he walked next to the female who was shorter than he was, "Welcome to Hogwarts, hopefully, we can be friends." He stated, staring into the bright green eyes that only harden as she stared at him with weariness before she allowed a small nod. 'Oh, what interesting year it'll be.' Tom thought as he leads the girl to their common room.