Title: Falling into Dissonance
Author: Junpei
Warnings: Swearing, Slash, Child Abuse
Notes: This story is AU. The events of the books are the same, except that it wasn't Harry Potter. You'll understand after this chapter.
Pairings: To be announced
They call me Harry Potter. It's not my name. It never was. Six years ago, on my eleventh birthday, they found me. I was homeless. Living on the streets. Doing what I could to earn money. I think... I think I might have propositioned the older one. 'Hey, twenty for a suck.." I knew what it meant. I had been selling my body since a year ago, when a man forced himself on me. I realized quickly that it was better to sell my body, then let them just take it. I couldn't stop them, after all. I was just ten.
Anyway, I asked him if he wanted a suck, and I remember those cold blue eyes filled with sadness as he looked down at me. I had never felt ashamed before, but I did when he looked at me. He crouched down slowly, reaching out and running his thin, boney hand through my hair. I don't remember our conversation, I just remember feeling safe. For the first time in my life. He took me back with him, to a place called Hogwarts.
When he asked me if I knew a boy named Harry Potter, I didn't have any idea what he was talking about. I was wizard born, yes, but my parents were killed by Voldemort early in my life and I ended up on the streets in muggle London, far away from the wizarding world.
I think he struggled when he decided to ask me to protect this Potter boy. He certainly took a long time to ask. When he did ask I didn't hesitate, and I didn't ask questions. I owed him. I owed him so much. I simply agreed to bear the name Harry Potter and make myself a target to the Dark Lord. I didn't mind. I wasn't afraid of death, or pain. I knew both too intimately for fear.
Chapter One : The Death of Harry Potter
The hall was dimly lit, the only light was from flickering lanterns that were hesitant to stay lighted as irritated paintings grumbled at them. Up against one wall a sixteen year old boy with messy black hair and shining green eyes crouched, muttering nonsensically to himself. The paintings had long ago stopped trying to speak to him. He had ignored them since arriving.
Suddenly, after an hour of muttering and rocking, the boy got to his feet. He moved stiffly, like a very old man. The paintings ceased their irritated grumblings, watching curiously. What had roused him? And then... they heard it. Footsteps down the hall.
In the flickering light from the reluctant lanterns, a man in long black robes slowly took form as he steadily walked towards the boy.
"You're late." The boy said tersely.
"It's not often I get called out of bed in the middle of the night, Potter. What is it you want?" The man was Professor Severus Snape, one of the rudest professor's in the castle. The paintings were not exceptionally fond of him.
"Why are you avoiding me?"
"Could it be, perhaps, that you are as stupid as I imagined, Potter?"
"I was joking!"
"Were you? You weren't laughing then and you aren't laughing now."
"Please... please don't tell Professor Dumbledore."
"Headmaster." Snape studied the boy before him closely, "And I will be telling him, the moment he returns."
"No! Please!"
"It's too late, Potter, you should have thought about the consequences when you offered your body for better grades." Snape whirled, robes snapping the air as he began to walk away.
The boy, Potter, stared morosely after him. "Dumbledore will be so disappointed." he whispered, sliding back down into a crouch.
Earlier in the day, desperate because of his poor Potions marks, he had offered his 'services' to Professor Snape in return for good grades. He had been too shocked by the Professor's scalding rejection to think about if Snape would tell or not. And then, as he lay in bed, it had hit him like a ton of bricks and he'd desperately called Snape to meet him here, using the fireplace.
Snape had come... but his decision was no comfort. The last thing Potter wanted to do was disappoint Albus Dumbledore. The man had saved him... had promised Potter that he would never have to use his body like that again. And here... in an act of ultimate stupidity, he had tried to use body as barter once again.
He groaned, burying his head in his hands.
Dumbledore would be so disappointed.
Snape never had a chance to tell Dumbledore about Potter's 'offer'. That night, while the students slept soundly in their beds, Voldemort and his Death Eaters gathered, and being a double agent Snape was forced to leave the castle.
It was a surprise attack. One no one had been warned about. Hogwarts was thought to be safe... but in the end it's defenses were all breached. One by one the Death Eaters filed inside, followed closely by Dementors.
Before anything could be done, the Professor's were one by one incapacitated. And finally it was only Dumbledore and Voldemort. Face to face. "Tom," Dumbledore murmured, wearing nothing but night robes, wand held before him. Even like this he was still tall, proud and very dignified, "Of all the places,"
"Tonight," Voldemort responded calmly, "Tonight I pay you back."
"My Lord, we have the Potter boy."
"Bring him to me. Dumbledore, I think I shall let you live for this. To see your precious golden boy fall. Aah... but that will be a crushing blow to your precious Order." Voldemort's voice was silky smooth.
After everything, after all they had gone through, would this be the end? Dumbledore was weakened, though he was far from showing it. He knew he had no chance of defeating Voldemort AND his Death Eaters. He was simply outnumbered.
He looked up as two Death Eaters arrived at the top of the stairs, a boy with messy black hair held between them.
'My dear boy...' He sucked in his breath. This had been his plan from the start though. To have a double so that if this did happen, and he knew it would it was only a matter of time, they wouldn't lose all hope. But he had hoped it wouldn't come to this. He had grown to love the abused child he'd found on the street all those years ago.
To his credit, Potter didn't look scared, simply resigned. "Voldemort," He said clearly as the Death Eaters led him down the stairs and pushed him towards Voldemort's tall, thin form.
"Mr. Potter, we meet again." With a wave of his wand Potter was forced to his knees, "This time I won't miss."
There was a moment as red eyes met green that Voldemort had the slight sensation that he was making a mistake. It was so small, and so distant, that he simply shrugged it off before waving his wand, "Avra Kedavra!"
"I'm sorry Professor." Potter whispered as the trail of green light hit his body.
Years later people would speak of Dumbledore. They would remember he had been the greatest wizard to ever live. And they would mourn the loss of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. Never did they know that the Harry Potter who died that night was an imposter.
It was sound he became aware of first. Distant, muffled, far away sounds. At first he thought it was just noise but then he realized that noise was forming into words. Softly whispered words. Feeling came next, tingling in his toes, his fingers, his stomach. And then finally, his head stopped spinning and he was able to open his eyes and stare blindly up at the grey, moldy ceiling over his head.
"Things are bad." A voice groaned, a strangely familiar voice, "He's defeated all the major wizarding schools, and he's set his eyes on muggles now. He plans to kill them all I think."
"If we don't figure something out soon, we're all dead."
"That's a rather defeatist attitude."
"Can you blame me? He's killed our two last chances... what do we have left?"
"We still have breath, and while I draw breath I will not sit back and watch him kill another soul!"
"Shh! You'll wake him up."
"I don't know why you bothered bringing the prat back, he's bloody useless..."
Sirius Black turned his head, eyes slowly focusing on the black robed figures scattered about the room. He was lying on the only bed and the room was ill lit. It had a dank smell to it, like an abandoned and wet house had. He crinkled his nose. Hadn't he died? What was he doing here? Was this hell or what?
As he watched another form suddenly apparated near the door. White blond hair, piercing ice blue eyes. Sirius let out a shout, "Behind you!" his voice was weaker than he would have liked, but it had the right effect.
The other five in the room whirled, wands flashing and pointing at the newcomer.
Draco Malfoy was not impressed. He crossed his arms, eyes narrowing in a scowl, "What the fuck is wrong with you people? Hello Black. Nice to see you too!"
Sirius blinked. He watched as the other five lowered their wands and turned back to him. "Sirius."
He knew these five. Remus Lupin, who was now hurrying towards him, Ron Weasley, Harry's best friend from school, Alastor Moody, Hermoine Granger, and Severus Snape. Remus knelt beside him, reaching out to touch his forehead, "How do you feel? Do you know who I am?"
"There is a Malfoy in the room," Sirius responded, pushing Remus' hand away and sitting up. The room spun but not so much he couldn't stay upright, "WHY aren't you hexing him?"
Remus smiled a little, "Because Draco is with us, Sirius." he said softly.
"You've got a lot of explaining to do." Sirius recognized immediately that they were all older than when he fell into the mirror. Years older by the look of things.
"Well, first, you probably feel a bit weak. Death will do that to a person."
"Death? Oh yeah, I fell into that mirror. So how did I end up here?"
"We found a spell to bring you back." Remus said reluctantly, "It was... a bit complicated."
"And WHY exactly did you bring me back?"
"Sirius! You're my best friend, of course I would want you back."
"PFT."
Remus lowered his head with a sigh, "We're being defeated Sirius... one by one... almost all the good wizards are dead or imprisoned in Azkaban."
"Good wizards imprisoned in Azkaban?"
"Voldemort overtook Azkaban months ago."
"Shit."
"We know the feeling. It was a last ditch effort... reviving you-"
"Pointless." Snape muttered darkly.
""Shut up, Snape." Weasley snapped in response.
"We just thought... we needed as many wizards as we could, and as you weren't technically dead, just misplaced, we decided to at least try getting you here. An extra wand... it means a lot now a days." Remus finished softly.
"One extra wand will not win this battle." Snape snorted derisively.
"At least we're doing something Snape!
"How long?"
"Hm?" Remus glanced at Sirius with confusion.
"How long has it been? Since I fell in? When I fell... no one knew how to bring people back."
"From the mirror you mean? It's been... it's been about... five years."
"It took five years for you to figure out how to drag my ass out of that place!?" Sirius snorted, "You people are hopeless."
"Shut up, Black." Weasley muttered, "Just be grateful you're alive."
"I suppose..." Sirius rubbed his eyes with a sigh, "Where's Harry?"
The silence that followed his question was uncomfortable for everyone involved. "Where's Harry?" he repeated, a sick feeling gripping him.
"I'm sorry, Sirius." Remus whispered, "A year after you fell..."
He couldn't continue. "What happened?!" Sirius snapped, grabbing Remus by the arms and shaking him lightly.
"He's dead, Black." Snape said shortly, "Killed by Voldemort a year after you fell into that blasted mirror."
"Shit!"
Sirius gripped the arms of Remus' robe tightly, bowing his head, clenching his teeth. Dead? Harry... dead. "How?"
"Voldemort took Hogwarts. Dumbledore was killed the same night." Remus said softly, looking at Sirius with pity. They had all had time to adjust to the tragedy, but for Sirius this was new.
"The same night? He took Hogwarts? How is that possible?"
"Voldemort had the Dementors on his side." Snape was the one who decided to explain, "With them and his Death Eater's, it wasn't hard."
"Somehow he managed to destroy the wards that had protected Hogwarts for years."
"Since then he's destroyed all the wizarding schools." Weasley said gruffly, "There are no safe places left."
"God..." Sirius whispered.
"There is no god here, Black." Snape said quietly, "Just death."
"CHARLIE!" The scream came a second too late. Charlie had just a second to turn and see the spell that slammed into him and sent him flying through the air. He saw it... but he had no time to dodge. The world tilted dangerously and then he landed hard on the ground, for the moment too breathless to do anything.
In the distance he heard yelling. Someone was yelling curses. And then suddenly someone was by his side, grabbing his arm. "Charlie! Charlie!"
"Stop yelling, Bill." Charlie groaned, his breath coming back in pained gasps.
"Come on. Move!" Bill grasped his arm tightly and pulled him up.
Together they stumbled through the trees, running as fast as they could. "How did they find us?"
"Probably from you yelling." Charlie wrapped his arm tightly around Bill's neck. He'd been hit with a particularly painful curse. Normally he wouldn't have been able to move, but fear and the desire to live made it possible for him to ignore the pain. For now, at least.
"We're almost there."
There being the current safehouse set up by the Order. The Order still existed, though it had few members left. It was somewhat safe from Death Eaters, Dementors and Voldemort. Though, just barely. They ran straight into the city, earning more than a few curious glances. They stumbled into an alley, sliding to the ground, since Charlie couldn't stay on his feet any longer, and listened.
The ones who had been chasing them had backed off as they ran into the city, which Bill had been expecting. "Come on, Charlie." He whispered, "Hang on just a minute more."
A fine sheen of sweat was beading on Charlie's brow. He nodded, "Yeah."
Bill helped Charlie back up, leading him to the back of the alley and pressing his wand against the appropriate places on the brick wall. The wall slid aside, and they hurried through, into the wizard village hidden within a muggle city.
Here they earned even more curious glances. Diagon Alley was overrun with Voldemort supporters these days, and they kept a sharp eye out for anyone who might be 'impure'. Impurity of thought, impurity of blood. These two things were punishable by death.
Charlie let out a ragged gasp, "I can't.."
"Hang on!" Bill snapped, moving faster, practically dragging Charlie behind him.
Gringotts. The last safe place in the wizarding world. They hurried inside and Charlie hit the floor, sliding out of Bill's shaking grasp. "Charlie!"
They filled him in on everything he had missed. Telling him details of Voldemort's current reign. His head was spinning when they finished. He sipped the tea Remus had given him. Ron, Moody, Draco and Snape had left the room awhile back, to discuss business no doubt. Only Hermoine and Remus remained behind.
Hermoine was a medic witch, or so it appeared. She kept checking him and running light spells on him that a nurse would run. "I figured you more for the detection of ancient runes or deciphering of muggle artifacts type of girl..." Sirius explained when she noticed him staring.
She shook her head grimly, "In war.. You don't get a choice what job you take. You just what needs to be done."
"Not that it matters... but what would you be doing now, if Voldemort wasn't around?"
She smiled sadly, "... I'd be... I'd be having tea with Harry." She whispered, lowering her head quickly to hide the tears that sprang into her eyes. Even after all this time, losing Harry hurt.
Remus suddenly snapped his head towards the door, "Something's happening." He looked back at Hermoine, "Stay with Sirius."
"Hey, wait a mi-" But Remus was gone.
Sirius swore under his breath, and Hermoine just patted him on the arm, "He'll explain, when he gets back."
"They're completely taken France, and Germany." Bill said between panted breaths as he watched the medic witch tend to Charlie, "Romania as well..."
Snape swore under his breath, pacing to the window. Ron slumped into a nearby chair, head dropping into his hands. How could this be happening? How had things gotten this bad?
"Even the muggle sections?" Moody asked, his voice abnormally quiet.
Bill's silence was too long, and finally he sucked in his breath and spoke, "They're all dead."
"What?" Ron gasped, raising his head, "Dead?"
"Every last muggle... every last one is dead. Most of the wizards as well. A few... like Charlie... managed to escape."
"Every day he grows in strength." Snape said quietly, resting his hands on the window sill and staring out, "Every moment another joins him..."
"How did you find Charlie?" Ron whispered, his chest was painfully tight and he felt... as if he couldn't breath... so he focused on the facts. Focused on speaking.. To stop himself from crying.
So many people dead. Muggle or not... they'd had souls, hadn't they? They deserved to live, just as much as any wizard.
Bill raised his arm, pulling his robe up to reveal the phoenix tattooed into his arm. "It was burning..."
Each member of the Order had it. It was the only way they could tell who was on their side. The only way, in this time, to tell who was loyal, and especially the only way to stay in contact without owls. "He had a few Death Eaters on his back... I found just outside the city... they almost had him."
"BILL!" Charlie sat up with a shout, "Bill!"
"It's all right Charlie, we're in the Ord-"
Charlie grabbed the front of Bill's robes, "I found it."
His eyes were too bright. Ron and Snape watched closely. Ron with worry, Snape with narrowed eyes.
"Found what?"
"Dumbledore's... Dumbledore's will..."
It was a magical will, when Bill unfolded the parchment Dumbledore's face appeared it. Hovering in the air. He smiled, a sad... regretful smile. The room fell silent. All of the Order was gathered in the room. The injured wizards even. The only ones who were not in the room were the ones who had to remain in their stations or risk someone dying.
Not one person breathed.
Then the face of Dumbledore began to speak.
"Years ago, I asked a friend to hide this for me. I feared it might fall into the wrong hands. Only a wizard with a kind heart, and only after I have died, will this parchment be ... findable..."
There was a soft, nervous chuckle from some. Only Dumbledore would use a word like; findable.
The smile disappeared from the face floating above the parchment and Dumbledore's face grew very grave. "I won't waste your time. All hope is not yet lost. Harry Potter is still safe, and so long as he draws breath we have hope yet."
There was an uneasy shifting, the members of the Order growing restless at these words.
"Ah! But he's dead, you say." Silence fell once more, "Nonsense." The face of Dumbledore smiled indulgently, "I was a foolish old man, but I have never been a foolish wizard. I placed a decoy in Hogwarts. He goes by the name of Harry Potter. I regret doing this but the young man who played the part of Harry Potter these last two years... he was willing. He is willing. And if he has died, then the way to the real Harry Potter is now open." Dumbledore's face disappeared and a map appeared in it's place, "Find him."
There were no more words, and the map did not flicker. "A decoy..." Bill whispered.
"It makes sense..." Hermoine said softly, "Dumbledore knew Voldemort would stop at nothing to kill Harry once he found out about the prophecy... So he... so he took precautions."
"But what place is safer than Hogwarts?"
"Death obviously." Moody responded dryly before he started to laugh.
The room was silent except for Moody's eerie laughter.