Albus Perceval Wulfic Brian Dumbledore was known as many things. The greatest wizard of his time, the one who defeated Grindelwald, the only one he-who-must-not-be-named feared, and also eccentric and mad. One word the wizarding world never really used for him was mortal. Yet there Albus sat looking at his blackened hand where Severus managed to temporarily contain the curse slowly killing him. He had maybe a few weeks before he would succumb to the curse, but he knew tonight was the night he would die, if Severus' reports were anything to go by.
And Harry is so unprepared for the task at hand. Albus only knew the location of one other horcrux, the locket, so how was Harry supposed to hunt the remaining three without him around to help him.
Albus took out his wand, the elder wand, his faithful companion since 1945. What will become of the most powerful wand in existence with his death? If Severus or even Draco were to kill him, surely Voldemort would kill them to win over the wand's loyalty. Even if all the horcruxes were destroyed, Voldemort would be unstoppable. The wand must be destroyed, but that would mean that Harry wouldn't survive against Voldemort's attack.
Fawkes flew over to Albus' side and nudged at his beard. "Oh fawkes, what a conundrum we are in."
Harry and Dumbledore walked into the cave where it seemed they reached a dead end. Harry looked to Dumbledore, who held out a knife. "Blood ward, Harry. Blood must be drawn to advance." Harry held out his hand, expecting his blood to be used, but Dumbledore pushed it away. "Oh no my boy, your blood is much more precious than mine." With his blade, Dumbledore made an incision in his palm, and let the blood run. He then rubbed his bloody hand along the rocks, revealing a path to what seemed like a lake with a small island in the center. On that island is what appears to be a water basin.
Harry walked towards the lake and looked into the abyss below. "Don't touch the water, whatever you do," warned Dumbledore. "We must sail across, but before we do..." Dumbledore reached into his robes, and pulled out a vial of golden liquid. "I believe you're familiar with this particular brew."
Harry looked at the vial. "Liquid Luck." It was about half the size of the bottle Slughorn gave him.
"Indeed. I asked Horace to brew a small vial about a month ago, in case of circumstances like this. There's about enough in here for six hours." Dumbledore places the vial into Harry's hands. "I want you to drink it."
"Sir, I think we would be able to share it," Harry pointed out. He recalled taking it to weasel Slughorn out of his untainted memory, and it was half if the amount in his hand.
"I will not need it, Harry. Please, if anything just as a precaution." Harry sighs as he uncorks the bottle. It frustrated Harry that Dumbledore was still giving him vague explanations, but at least he was kept in the loop this time around. As he let the Felix Felicis slide down his throat, Dumbledore gave him a reassuring smile. "Excellent. I believe the rest will be, how the muggles these days say, cakewalk."
The rest was not cakewalk. After drinking from the basin to get to the locket, Dumbledore grew incredibly weak and, even suicidal. Harry tried to give him water he conjured into the basin, but the basin cursed the water. After trying to gather water from the lake, an army of zombie-like corpses known as infiri attacked the duo.
Then in what seemed to be the mother of all wizarding adrenaline rushes, Dumbledore fought off all of the infiri and disapparated the two of them back to the astronomy tower. He was still weak though. Maybe not as bad as when he drank the potion, but he definitely wasn't this weak 2 hours ago. Dumbledore stumbled to keep his footing, before looking at Harry deeply. There was no twinkle in his eye. "Someone is coming. I need you to get out of here and get Severus. No one else. Severus." Harry nodded, and put on his cloak.
Harry walked down the stairs of the astronomy tower, but stopped in a room just below Dumbledore's feet. He could see him wait, and then turning to face... Draco Malfoy. "Good Evening, Draco."
Ron and Hermione practically dragged Ginny through the corridors of the seventh floor. She waited in the common room for what seemed like hours for him to return from his private lessons, but he hasn't returned even past midnight. So she decided to snoop. Unfortunately, snooping was more Fred and George's talent, not hers. Fortunately, it was only Ron and Hermione who caught her. "This isn't fair," she complained. "You wouldn't do this with Harry."
"Harry is with faculty," Hermione reminded her. "You're not."
"Just be glad we aren't taking away points," Ron added.
"Just because I'm a Gryffindor." Ginny grumbled.
"Not true. I'd probably wouldn't take points away if you were a Hufflepuff, or a Ravenclaw, maybe even a Slytherin if I was in a good enough mood."
"Ronald!" Hermione scolded.
"Only joking."
Out of nowhere, they heard loud footsteps on hollow and squeaky wood. "What was that?" Ginny asked.
"Didn't hear anything." Ron replied before Ginny shushed him. There were voices just around the corner that sounded eerily familiar. It was the voices of Draco Malfoy and one Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Last I've heard, he was with Potter in the Astronomy Tower," said Draco.
"You've done well, nephew." Bellatrix cackled softly as they walked towards the tower. The three Gryffindors held their breaths until they were out of earshot, and rushed to the common room.
"Death Eaters?" Ron whined. "How the bloody hell did Malfoy get them in the castle?"
"He's probably been planning this all year. It would explain all the times we caught him after curfew."
"Well we gotta do something!" Ginny shouted.
"What do you mean we? You're not doing anything!" Ron scolded. "You're too young!"
"I'm as old as you Harry was during the department of mysteries battle!"
"And look how well that turned out!"
"Yes, Ron. The youngest two ended up getting out with minor injuries. What does that say about us."
"Ronald!" Hermione interrupted the bickering, and began whispering in his ear. Ron ran into the dormitory, and came down only a minute later.
"You really want to fight, huh?" Ginny gave a determined nod. "Fine, but we are all going to take a sip of this." Ron takes a glass vial out filled 3/4 of the way with a golden liquid. Felix Felicis.
"Who were you talking to?!" Draco warned shakily, his wand trembling in his hand. "I heard you talking."
"I often talk to myself," Dumbledore parried. "I find it incredibly useful. You'd be surprised how sane some things sound in..."
"Shut up!" Draco aimed his wand again.
"You are not an assassin, Draco. You don't want this anymore than I do."
"You don't know what I am! He chose me! I have to do this!"
Dumbledore closed his eyes. 'I have to do this now, or never. Goodbye old friend.' Dumbledore raised his wand and began to speak, "Infanitum Exhauro." The wand began to wither. The thestral hair core was only barely covered by the elder wood.
But Draco didn't notice. He only was concerned about leaving Dumbledore defenseless. "Expelliarmus!" While the spell would normally simply disarm the target, Dumbledore's wand was so fragile that it snapped upon impact with the spell. Dumbledore stared at the remains of the elder wand. "You're defenseless now!"
"What have we done?" Dumbledore murmured to himself as he watched a thick dark smoke escape from the wand. The castle began to shake.
Harry watched in terror as Malfoy disarmed his headmaster. Well... more like destroy his wand, but that didn't seem to be the intent. Harry wanted to run up and stop Malfoy from finishing the job, but something was stopping him. He couldn't move, almost like he was petrified. Was this the Felix Felicis, or was something else happening. Then the castle began to shake, and a shockwave came from above.
"He said the astronomy tower, right?" Ron said still uneasy about the situation.
"For the hundredth time, yes!" Ginny answered disgruntledly.
"I just don't want to go up there, only to find out they're in Flitwick's office and for it to be too late."
"The Felix Felicis makes our intuition the right choice according to circumstance. If we feel like it's the astronomy tower, then it is," Hermione said in a matter-of-fact way.
They continue up the stairway until Hermione bumped into a frozen Ron, who didn't even budge after bumping into him. "Ronald, what are you doing?"
Ron let out a forced, "I cnt muv." Hermione tried to push him, but he was cemented to the floor.
"Ginny," Hermione turned around, "Help me with your broth-." But Ginny was also frozen. Hermione tried to shake her, but she wouldn't move. Then, the ground began to shake. Hermione tried to turn around to see what was happening, but she felt frozen, petrified, similar to year 2, but more aware.
A shockwave went through her body, followed by another, and another. With each shockwave, tears in the air formed, leaving nothing but white where there should be a castle. And there the three were, stuck in a white plane of nothingness, until Ron seemingly exploded into a million particles after another shockwave. Hermione wanted to look and see what happened to one of her best friends, but was stuck looking at Ginny, whose eyes went wide at the sight of Ron.
Another shockwave hit, and Hermione heard from Ginny what sounded like, "help me." The next second, Ginny met a similar fate as Ron. Hermione wanted to cry, but nothing would come out. She didn't even have the strength to blink. Another shockwave would hit, and Hermione felt every fiber of her being vibrate violently, trying to pull away from each other. Pain. It was unlike anything she had ever felt. Worse than the whomping willow, worse than Dolohov's curse. Then the next moment, she felt nothing, saw nothing, was nothing.
A/N: I got this concept from another fanfic where Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemingly travel through time, but there is a ripple effect. I want to do something similar, with some of my own ideas mixed in. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Read and Review!