The Only Way Out Chapter 1: The Shrine of Death, a harry potter fanfic

A/N – Before you read this, here are a few things you might want to know. Then again, this is long already, so if you don't have much time, skip this part...

This story was originally posted around the time HBP was released, maybe one or two days afterward. I had posted some examples of it before, but nothing that had incorporated HBP into the plot. This was originally a challenge to myself to use the dialogue from the ending of Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (an excellent video game for the Super Nintendo) to create an ending to Harry Potter. It worked, and it actually received 16 reviews, shocking your author, who thought that three would have been excellent for a oneshot. But a few months later I read this and thought that it was better taken down, and then I deleted it and lost all the work that I had done. When I realized that I really loved this story and wanted to post it again, I had to rewrite it from scratch, taking up a great deal of time and still not living up to the original.

This is now serving as the prologue to my His Dark Materials/Harry Potter crossover, although with a different ending. But I liked the original ending, and so I decided to repost this oneshot one last time, for those who didn't get to read Unto Dust Shalt Thou Return, and because I like reviews and a few more are never bad. XD

Update 6/3/2007: Edited...this is officially version 1.1. (Hooray!)

- Split into chapters for easier and better reading
- Corrected a few plot holes
- Added to parts of the narration I found lacking

Enjoy!

The Only Way Out

It was dark.

That was the first thing that Harry Potter noticed about the structure that he was currently in. The darkness overwhelmed him, folding over and over within him so that it overcame every facet of him and he became the darkness, and the very air was tainted with something inexplicably evil.

In Harry's mind, he could still see one of his closest friends, Remus Lupin, leaping in front of him and taking a Cruciatus Curse meant for him, giving Harry time to stun its caster, none other than Bellatrix Lestrange. Unfortunately, Fenrir Greyback had been lurking nearby, and Lupin's act of sacrifice gave Greyback the opening he needed to cast a Killing Curse at Harry's surrogate father, ending Lupin's life instantly.

Harry shook the thoughts out of his head. Now was not the time to mourn for the lost. There would be plenty of time after the battle. "Is everyone okay?" he asked the friends surrounding him, gasping for breath after the effort he had put into their final run into the shrine where Harry now stood.

"Yeah, I'm fine," came the voice of his best friend, Ronald Weasley, from his left side, although Harry could see nothing save the horrible darkness that engulfed everything around him.

"Me, too," came the voice of Hermione Granger, his other best friend, and Harry could tell that she was shaking with fear. "I'm alright too."

"We finally got here, huh?" asked Ron rhetorically.

"Is this the Shrine of Voldemort?" asked Harry, straining to see anything around him—the darkness did not yield.

"It's so dark..." whispered Hermione, her voice trailing off as she, too, tried to see through the darkness, to no avail.

"I feel the energy," said Harry slowly, the very wrongness of the place that he now stood in unable to deny.

There was a pause, after which Ron added, "Evil energy. Watch out. It's pretty strong!"

"Everyone, Lumos on three," said Harry quietly, taking control. "One, two..."

"Lumos," whispered three voices at once, and all of a sudden the darkness immediately surrounding the three friends was dispelled by the light charm.

"So this is the Shrine of Voldemort," said Harry, looking at what little of the shrine that he could see. To his left and right were stone walls—the place seemed to have been built of the same materials of Hogwarts, although with none of the good intentions. Ahead of him, at a point which Harry had to strain his eyes to see, the walls around them spread further out—they must have currently been in an entryway, being that they had only just made their way into the building.

Harry felt Hermione shiver next to him. "It's so cold," she said, her voice shaking as though to intensify her point. "It's so cold it chills my heart."

A sudden voice came from above, echoing through the shrine and striking fear into the hearts of each of the threesome. "You have made it to my ssshrine at last..."

Harry looked around warily. "Voldemort? Voldemort? Is that you? Show yourself!" he shouted, wand drawn and ready, voice disciplined and prepared for a battle.

"Come!" shouted Voldemort, as though they were playing a game. "Come before me. I am right above you."

Harry stood still for several moments before finally moving forward, his lit wand lighting the way ahead of him. After a brief instant, he was joined by Ron and Hermione, one at each side, flanking him faithfully. Together they made their way through the mysterious shrine very slowly, on constant lookout for Voldemort or any of his Death Eaters. The hallway that they walked through seemed endless, but finally it narrowed greatly and led to a set of stairs, twisting ominous above them and leading to the next floor. "I'll go first," said Harry determinedly. "Keep a lookout for any Death Eaters—shout if you see anything." And with that, Harry held his wand in front of him and cautiously walked up the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible. As soon as Harry had ascended the first few steps, Ron followed him, imitating his friend as best as possible. The staircase wound its way in a circle twice before finally leveling out and depositing the three friends on another floor of the shrine.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued to walk forward, their footsteps echoing off the cold stone floor. Everywhere around him was the darkness, darkness so great that it seemed almost as if he was surrounded by dementors...

Harry stopped abruptly, Ron almost walking into him before taking Harry's hint and looking around, frightened. "What is it, Harry?" asked Hermione, who had come to a stop behind Ron. "Did you see something?"

"I thought I heard a noise," replied Harry, his hands shaking. Could it be a Death Eater? Harry was sure that he had heard something—and there it was again! This time Ron and Hermione heard too, and both drew their wands, pointing them in the general direction from which the noise came.

"That—that sounded like a squeak," said Ron uncertainly. "Could it be—"

"Pettigrew," said Harry flatly, and was about to command the Animagus to show himself when suddenly something ran into Harry's feet, and he looked down to see not the fully clad Death Eater he expected, but instead a fairly common brown mouse. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"What—what the bloody hell was that, Harry?" asked his best friend, apparently seeing the mouse too, although not as well as Harry had.

"Just a mouse, mate," said Harry, and for a moment Ron's countenance, illuminated in the glow of the wand lights, broke into a smile.

"Not—not Pettigrew, then?" asked Ron, and Harry nodded reassuringly.

"No. Nothing dangerous," said Harry to his friend, trying desperately to keep his voice calm. "No Death Eaters."

The three friends quieted eventually, and Harry resumed his trek forward and deeper into the shrine, his friends following behind him. The three separate Lumos spells provided barely enough light to see by, even combined, and so it was with a great deal of paranoia that the Golden Trio continued on their way to defeat Voldemot and rid the world of darkness.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had barely walked forward ten feet before there was a sudden bang and the three were strung up by their ankles. Harry tried fruitlessly to free himself from the Levicorpus hex, but didn't get the countercurse off in time, as there was a loud, "Expelliarmus!" and Harry's wand flew out of his hand and into the hand of a masked Death Eater, who pocketed it and did the same to Ron and Hermione.

Finally the Death Eater waved his or her wand again, and Harry felt himself fly into the wall behind him, staying frozen to it in a manner that, ironically, Harry found very similar to the way Dumbledore had hidden him that night on the Astronomy Tower.

And then the Death Eater removed his mask, and Harry felt himself almost angry enough to perform the Killing Curse. It was Peter Pettigrew.