Disclaimer: Harry Potter does NOT belong to me. If it did, would I be writing a fan fiction?
Title: Holocaust
Rating: M (NOT A PRECAUTION!)
Genres: Angst/Drama
Summary: (HBP spoilers!) In a world where Voldemort is a second Hitler, the Death Eaters are his Nazis, concentration camps are everywhere and all who oppose this are hunted, beaten, killed and raped, a small band of teenagers have to cope with their own problems as well as the suffering around them.
Warnings: Character death, torture, child abuse, molesting, self mutilation, rape (not as graphic as I'd like because I want this to stay on the site), angst, angst, angst!
Harry POV
And it goes on. Hide, sleep, wake up, hide, scrounge for food, hide, cover some ground, hide, sleep. We've been living like this for at least a month. Two? I don't know. It's just me, Hedwig, Arnold the Pygmy Puff and Ginny. I've told Ginny a million times she and Arnold would be safer without me. She won't listen.
I'm being hunted. Harry Potter, the most wanted person in the world. That's why Ginny and I are hiding.
I know that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Charlie and Percy are gone. Bill, Fleur and the twins we can only pray are all right. Ron was taken to a camp, where the Death Eaters force Muggles, wizards and Muggleborns alike to raise crops and livestock. Hermione was taken to Voldemort's fortress. God only knows what she's going through. She and Ron were captured together, separated because the bastard who captured them knew they were friends. I don't know about Ron's girlfriend, Hannah Abbott, who returned to school during seventh year. I hope she's all right. Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini are on His side. Draco Malfoy is as well, but he's a spy for our side. Or he was, before we lost the war.
Every day, Ginny and I get closer to the fortress, with only Draco's map to guide us. Every day, I tell Ginny to leave me so she could have a chance. Every day she ignores me.
"Wake up, Harry," said Ginny, shaking my shoulders. I reluctantly sat up from the ground and automatically ran my hands through my hair, which had now grown past my ears, to get the dirt, grass, leaves and occasional beetle out. Luckily for us, the map given by Draco had our route to Voldemort's fortress right along a stream. We were able to get water whenever we needed it, and bathe as well. Even though the water is freezing cold, it was nice to be clean.
"I just fell asleep, Gin," I groaned.
"No, you've been asleep for at least five hours, probably more. I fell asleep a few minutes after you did and I just woke up." Leave it to Ginny. "Now come on, if we're going to save Hermione and take out You-Know-Who, we'd better get a little closer to that castle."
"We're not going to do them any good if we die halfway there," I mentioned. She scowled playfully and threw a clump of dirt at me.
"Well, it's like what George said before me and you went into hiding, isn't it?" Ginny said, dusting off her hands. "We've got to save Ron and Hermione or die trying."
"Yeah," I agreed, the memory standing out vividly. The twins had wanted to help rescue our friends, but I had slipped away in the dead of the night with a note on my pillow and nothing but my snowy owl and a sack of food I had bought in preparation so I wouldn't bring harm to any of my friends. Ginny, of course, had discovered me and come with me, even though I had protested. "You're right."
"I know," she said, reading my mind as usual. "It's hard for me too. But we've got to have hope. If they're not dead already, we will save Ron and Hermione."
"I still have to know how you do that," I muttered.
"It's a gift," shrugged Ginny. "Do we still have any of that yummy stale bread?"
"We ran out yesterday," I said, sighing. "We'll have to kill another rabbit."
"Don't say it like that! All we're doing is staying alive for our friends. If we have to kill a few rabbits, we will."
Ginny loves rabbits and hates eating them. I like to save her the horror of killing them herself, but I feel like a murderer. But it's either a few rabbits or my friends, and the choice is obvious.
"I know, Gin."
Ginny built a fire while I set up the makeshift rabbit trap. It payed having read many books about Native Americans while in Muggle school, and Ginny and Mr. Weasley were interested in them as well. We both pooled our knowledge of the Native Americans and managed to make a few clay pots and spoons (very clumsy ones, but they served their purposes) and our rabbit trap. The water for rabbit stew was boiling by the time two rabbits sniffed into our trap. I always try to make the killing blow to their head as hard and fast as possible, since it puts them in less pain than having to crack open their skulls again and again. Grimacing, I skinned them as quickly as I could while Ginny spiced the water with edible herbs she remembered from Herbology. In about a half hour, we were both choking down rabbit stew.
"I always hate doing that," sighed Ginny, raising another spoonful of rabbit to her pale pink lips. Her eyes screwed up as she swallowed. "It's one thing when you don't see the food alive before you eat it..."
"I know what you mean," I agreed, scraping up the last of the spiced water and finishing off my own portion. I wasn't going to complain that I'm the one killing the rabbits, and I'm not going to ask Ginny to do it.
Breakfast over, we packed up the rabbit trap, pots and spoons, doused and covered up the fire until there was no evidence of us ever being there and walked on along the stream. I looked at Draco's map. The tiny dot that was Ginny and myself had only a few miles to go before we sneaked into the fortress - Draco's said it is a big castle - and made our attempt to rescue Hermione. Once Hermione was safe, we'd snoop around until we found out which camp Ron was being held in.
My thoughts traveled to Dumbledore. He had been our only hope of winning the war, and when that traitorous bastard killed him, my hopes had died. I do know that only I can kill Voldemort, but I can't even begin to think of how. With his cronies swarming around him and our blasted wands refusing to fight each other? I have no idea how I'm going to do this.
"Harry?" asked Ginny in the silence, as we walked.
"Hm?"
"We're almost there." She held out the map and I took it. Indeed, we were only about a half mile away from the castle. Midday at most. Then what?
How would we get in? How would we not be caught? How would we even find Hermione?
Ginny knew what I was thinking.
"Stop worrying about it now," she said. "When we get there, we'll figure out how to sneak in. When we're in, we'll figure out how to avoid guards. When we're don't with that, we'll snoop around until we find out where Hermione is."
How did she do it?
"Ginny," I said, "are you a Legilimens?"
A coy grin was my only answer.