Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it, blah blah blah.
A/N – This is just a one shot that came to me, and was stuck bouncing around inside my head.
The Long Day
Head Auror Harry Potter and just seen his youngest child off to Hogwarts for her first year, he sighed in remembrance before he kissed his wife on the cheek and said "See you later Gin." before he absently apparated from the platform to the ministry.
He appeared at the Ministry apparition point with barely a sound announcing his presence, he received a greeting from one of two auror's stationed there.
"Morning Boss. How was Lily?"
Harry nodded to them both, "She was alright, excited to finally be going." Both the auror's picked up on the note of sadness in their bosses tone, but with a quick side glance to each other decided not to mention it, and nodded in return, before letting Harry through the security checkpoint and into the atrium.
Harry was halfway across the atrium when he started feeling a little strange, he frowned in concentration as he tried to focus on what he was feeling, whilst he kept walking towards the lifts, the feeling started getting worse, as Harry got closer to the lifts, he felt a tendril of magic seemingly come out of nowhere and probe his core, he quickly snapped his wand out before jumping into the lift.
Only to be blinded and deafened by an almighty roar of magic that seemed to surge all around him for the briefest of moments, before he found himself face down on a cold floor, a floor that had a sense of familiarity about it.
Harry groaned as he shook himself to clear his head he vaguely heard voices in the background, some sounding excited others confused a few even had a tinge of fear to them, suddenly one voice spoke over all of them, "SILENCE!"
That voice instantly cleared Harry's head, he would recognise that voice anywhere, he slowly looked up from his position on the floor and saw the owner of the voice looking younger than Harry had ever seen him, in all his purple robed, twinkly blue-eyed glory, Albus Dumbledore.
"Oh crap." Harry muttered under his breath, before speaking in a louder voice, "Dumbledore, you had best have a damn good explanation for this!"
"Oh you know who I am?" When Harry answered that question with a glare, the old wizard cleared his throat becoming a little uncomfortable by the glare Harry was still sending him, and the wand that Harry still had out, a wand the headmaster noticed was identical to his own.
"Well then, you are in the Hogwarts Great Hall, obviously. We have summoned you here to help our world." The headmaster finished with an air of great importance.
The wheels were slowly starting to turn in Harry's head, and he wasn't liking the conclusion, "Exactly where am I? Because as far as I'm concerned you've been dead for over 20 years."
"Oh, I have? Well then that is unfortunate, but as to the where; we brought you here from an alternate universe."
Harry closed his eyes, Hermione had done a little research on the possibility of other universes so Harry knew their existence was possible, Harry managed to keep his voice steady as he replied, "Send me home."
There were cries of outrage from the people gathered around, Harry looked around the circle and saw the runic markings on the ground 'that must be what brought me here' he saw several familiar faces among the crowd all of them looking far younger than he had ever seen them, there was a group of people on the left hand edge that drew Harry's eyes.
After staring at his parents for what seemed like days, Dumbledore spoke up over the shouts of everyone, "I'm afraid we can't send you back." Upon seeing Harry's eyes take on a glow and his wand hand twitch, Dumbledore quickly raised his hands in surrender, "What I mean is we are unable to send you back yet, we brought you here using a purpose as the basis for the ritual, until that purpose is completed we can't send you back without risking your life."
Harry growled out between his teeth, "What is this purpose?"
Dumbledore slowly lowered his arms and spoke in a solemn voice, "To defeat the dark wizard calling himself-"
"Voldemort."
Most of the circle made noises of alarm and shuddered at the mention of his name, but Harry's eyes were locked with the headmasters, as he asked his next question "What is the date?"
Dumbledore blinked a few times before answering, "It is Halloween 1971."
Harry closed his eyes and swore silently, before he opening his eyes and stared coldly at Dumbledore, "Tell me, my dear Headmaster, why you simply don't go and kill him yourself?" Before Dumbledore could answer Harry spoke again, "BECAUSE YOU ARE A COWARD!"
"You could have stopped him years ago! Hell you could have stopped him whilst he was still a student here! But you stood by and did nothing, you sent him back to a muggle hell every summer, you never once checked up on him. You and you alone are to blame for his rise to power."
Everyone was silent in the hall as they digested what the stranger before them had said, one of them spoke up before the headmaster had recovered, Harry instantly recognised his mother-in-law's voice, "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO THE HEADMASTER LIKE THAT! HE IS A GREAT MAN, HE-"
"HE WAS LOVERS WITH GELLERT GRINDIWALD! HE WAS COMPLICIT IN THE DEATH OF HIS OWN SISTER! HE KNEW THAT VOLDEMORT WAS BEHIND THE MURDER OF MYRTLE WHEN HE WAS A STUDENT HERE. BUT HE WON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT HIM, BECAUSE OF HIS IDIOTIC MISGUIDED APPROACH THAT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE, AND A THIRD AND A FOURTH, AND SO ON." Harry took a deep breath, and continued in a normal level voice, "Those who commit the greatest evil, are not those that murder and pillage, but those that have the power to stop those that do, and stand by and do nothing. You Albus Dumbledore are a far greater evil to this world then Voldemort ever was, or could be. And to think I once looked up to you. You disgust me."
With that said Harry turned round and headed for the entrance hall, most of the halls occupants were too shocked to stop him, only one managed to regain the ability for speech, "Where are you going?"
Harry froze mid-stride as he recognised the voice, he slowly turned round and stared into the face of a man he had watched die, the undercurrent of venom in Harry's voice was there for everyone to hear, "Peter Petigrew."
Peter registered the venom in the strangers voice and realised that the strangers eyes had taken on an eerie glow that reminded him far too much of his master's favourite curse, 'he knows' was the panicked thought running through the death eaters head.
Before anyone else could speak, Peter ran for the door transforming after two strides, Harry though was expecting this and the Rat was soon stunned and hoisted into the air, the halls occupants were once again shocked into silence as Harry transformed him back and ripped off his left sleeve. There stood the dark mark clear as day against his skin, Harry snapped the traitors wand, and then threw him back to the floor next to his soon to be former friends.
"A word of caution, if I see that thing again; I will kill it on sight." With those words Harry left the great hall, he ducked into an unused classroom off the corridor, and closed his eyes to try and gather himself together. "They want me to kill Voldy. Again. I have to believe him about not being able to go home till he's dead, I recognized enough of those runes to know he spoke the truth about that."
Harry stood up to his full height and started to quickly form a plan in his head about how he was going to do this. "Right first off, Horcruxes. The diary, the ring, the diadem, the locket and the cup, I'm not one yet, and Nagini probably hasn't even been born yet."
Harry nodded to himself, and started marching off to the seventh floor, he met no one on the way figuring that the students must already be in their common rooms. He reached the room pretty quickly, though finding the diadem took some time, but eventually he found it, he closed his eyes and focused on his magic, after a second Harry brought his wand forth the tip glowing orange; crimson flames burst forth from his wand, taking on the form of a spectral stag, he directed it to the diadem which screamed before being vaporised into a cloud of ash.
Harry dispelled his stag, and left the room, "One down four to go."
With that done, Harry made his way to the entrance hall planning on heading out the main gates to apparate, he stopped short when he saw a squad of Aurors levitating a bound, unconscious and bloody Petigrew, 'I wonder who gave him the black eye.'
He ducked into an alcove and waited a few minutes for the Aurors to leave, before he set off after them towards the main gates. On his way down the gates, Harry removed his rather easily identifiable Auror robe, and conjured a plain blue one.
Once outside the gates, Harry apparated straight to the steps of Gringotts, startling the two goblin guards, who withdrew their hands from their blades when Harry gave them a courteous nod, before he walked into the lobby and right up to an available teller.
"I need to see the director."
The goblin teller merely glared down at him, before he could speak, Harry spoke in the goblin's own tongue, "It concerns a valuable item that has been sullied by the darkest of wizard magic."
The goblin startled violently at being spoken to in his own tongue, and about the subject mentioned.
"Follow me." The goblin replied, before he jumped down from his seat and started walking towards the large door at the end of the hall.
Harry surrendered both his wands to the guards outside the directors office, surprising them when he willingly handed over his second, before he was lead in by the teller who brought him.
Harry gave the director a bow before standing a respectable distance from the table at ease. As the teller and the director had a frantic and whispered discussion, eventually the director shoo-ed the teller away.
"What exactly is this darkest of magic you speak of, human?"
Harry silently braced himself before answering, "A horcrux."
Harry was most impressed with how the director reacted, he could pick up on the tensed muscles, the grinding teeth and the suppressed rage in the eyes, but his voice was steady and level as he spoke.
"Where is this abomination? And how do you know about it?"
Harry gave a gracious nod, "It is the cup of Helga Hufflepuff, and I believe it to be in the vault of Bellatrix Lestrange. As for how I know... Extensive research."
The goblin nodded accepting that he wasn't going to get any more info out of the wizard in front of him.
"Though you have not said, am I to assume that the item belongs to the dark lord who styles himself Voldemort?"
Harry gave a curt nod, "Yes, it is his."
The director nodded again, "You may leave us human. This abomination will be destroyed within the hour, and the resultant fees deducted from madam Lestranges vault."
Harry squirmed for a moment, "Forgive me for asking, but are you prepared to swear in blood that it will be destroyed within the hour?"
The director practically jumped out of his seat at those words and drew a dagger from his waistband, he sliced his palm open and then walked round the desk to stand in front of Harry, and offered him the blade, handle first.
Harry shook his head, and have the goblin leader a deep respectful bow, "An Oath will not be necessary, thank you. I shall take my leave. Good hunting."
The goblin leader gave a short nod back, "To you as well."
On leaving the bank Harry apparated about a mile south of Malfoy Manor, "Hmm, if I was a psychotic fanatic where would I hide a prized possession of my masters..."
Harry poked a hole through the wards with the elder wand, before he became fully invisible and silent, he also masked his scent and his magical aura. Sneaking through the ostentatious corridors, he only encountered an older wizard he didn't recognise, staying to one side the man he assumed to be Lucius's father walked straight past him, none the wiser to his presence.
Harry was getting frustrated as he searched the main study again, still not finding the diary. He stopped and took a deep breath to clear his mind, with his mind clear he looked around the study again, before hitting himself in the head for being so stupid.
Twenty minutes later Harry was closing the hole he had made in the wards, the diary secure in his pocket, he didn't want to risk casting fiendfyre in the manor for fear of tripping an alarm; now safely outside though he quickly turned the diary to ash.
Harry was just about to apparate when he heard a twig snap behind him, not having felt anybody approach he assumed it was an animal, and spun round low and fired an area stunner. It only took a moment of searching for him to find his would be stalker.
Harry stumbled on landing as the rock wasn't as weather worn as it was when he last apparated here, he could just make out the entrance to the cave at the bottom of the cliff. Bracing himself he dove into the sea and started swimming.
Harry was making his way around the edge of the lake as he ran his wand over the small cut he had made on his finger. Harry found the boat and climbed aboard, hoping now that he had his timings right, and that the real locket was still here.
Harry gave a small sigh in regret as he was forced to kill the bunny rabbit he had captured outside Malfoy manor, to prevent it from disturbing the surface of the water after drinking the potion. As Harry really didn't want to face the army of inferi; 'honestly why Dumbledore didn't think of using an animal I've no idea.'
When Harry looked down into the now potion-free basin he heaved a sigh of relief as he saw Slytherin's locket and not the fake left by Regulus at the bottom, he snatched it up and prepared himself, but no inferi came. With another sigh of relief he climbed back into the boat and left, destroying the locket as soon as he left the underground lake.
Harry decided to be extra cautious about getting the ring as he had no idea what protections were around it, nor did he have any idea if Tom was using his old family manor just down the road. Harry apparated to the town of Great Hangleton, he appeared silently and quickly scanned around for anyone magical or muggle that might have spotted him, seeing no one. He set off at a brisk walk towards the outskirts of the town, and the road he remembered from his memories of memories.
Harry found the old cottage easily enough as he could feel the muggle repelling wards around it, he approached cautiously. He stopped about twenty yards out from the cottage where he felt the rest of the wards start. Deciding to try something different Harry conjured a python, before hitting it immediately with an imperio.
The snake instantly set off towards the cottage, Harry could see its progress in his minds eye, he gave a growl in frustration as the snake was vaporised by the protections.
"Fine!"
Harry whipped out the elder wand, and started chanting whilst waving the wand around in a complex pattern, the ward's flared to life around the cottage. Harry's chanting got louder as the words got harsher, the ward dome started to pulse different colours as it resisted the attack. But, the ward was no match for the Elder wand with the power of a Mage behind it. The dome collapsed in on itself and leveled the cottage with a small explosion. Harry gave two careless waves of the wand to clear the debris and the dust out of the way as his shimmering red shield faded out of view.
A quick scan of the area and he found the hidden floor panel; a single well placed reductor curse, and the ring was visible, Harry felt the subconscious desire to put the ring on, but managed to ignore it, just. He conjured his fiendfyre stag and sent it down into the hole.
He gave a satisfied nod to himself as he heard the horcruxes death scream.
Harry made his way back to the path, he was about to apparate to start searching the death eater manors that he knew about, when his instincts kicked in and he dived to the right, missing the killing curse that flew through the space where his head was.
Harry spun as he got up from his dive come roll, and fired off a bone-breaking curse knowing it would most likely be deflected he just used it as a distraction to get his bearings and identify his attacker.
"Huh" Harry muttered to himself as he watched the Dark Lord Voldemort bat his grey bone breaker aside, "Well I guess this saves me searching." Harry spoke under his breath before addressing the reason for his presence.
"Is a killing curse the usual way you greet guests, Tom?"
The dark lord gave a twitch at being called by his given name, "Who are you?!"
Harry gave a dark chuckle as he cricked his neck readying himself for combat, "Oh Tommy boy..." Harry's eyes started to glow, "I am your worst nightmare!"
With his declaration made, Harry showed why he was the only wizard since Merlin to be given the title of Mage. He unleashed a torrent of magic against the dark lord, whose eyes barely had time to widen in shock before he was forced to defend for his life.
Harry's body was singing to him, as he let his magic fully flow through him for the first time in years. The Elder wand humming in sync with him as he let loose spell after spell, some of them shooting out so fast they combined before they left the wand. His backup wand in his other sleeve ready with a maxima shield should the dark lord manage to get a spell off; but that wasn't going to be likely.
In the end it was a simple cutting charm that ended the fight as it took Voldemort's wand hand clean off, slicing through his Yew wand on its way. The dark lord dropped to his knees in a combination of shock, pain, and exhaustion.
Harry centered himself as he calmed his singing magic, the glow in his eyes faded as his robes settled around him, no longer being buffeted by invisible power. He approached the downed dark lord, absently summoning the two parts of his wand and burning the severed hand to a crisp.
Harry decided to have a little fun before putting the monster down. "Honestly, is that all you've got!"
"You... You can not kill me... I am imm-"
"I am immortal. Blah blah blah, honestly Tom, did you really think no one would figure out your little secretssssssss?"
Harry smirked in satisfaction as he saw the raw emotion in the dark lords eyes before it was quickly masked, "What's wrong Tom? Not afraid of little old me, and what I have found and destroyed are you?"
Harry felt the desperate legilimency probe, and ruthlessly crushed it, sending a white hot lance of pain through the dark lords head in retaliation.
The kneeling monster gave a scream of agony as Harry's counter probe ripped through Voldemorts failing occlumency shields.
Harry just stood staring down at the Dark lord as he slowly regained his wits from Harry's brutal mental attack.
"Now Tom, we really need to do something about your manners. First you fling a killing curse at the back of my head, then you try and rip my mind open whilst we are having a pleasant chat. Honestly, did your parents teach you nothing? Oh right yeah, your squib mother died in childbirth, and your love potion fed muggle father never had anything to do with you, till you murdered him. Using his murder to create your second horcrux was a foolish move, hiding said ring horcrux in your family's old dilapidated shack was just plain stupid. Ah, I know what you're thinking now, 'He can't have found them all, I shall be able to be reborn.' Actually Tom, I'm afraid I did get them all... The Diary you gave to Lucius, the locket you hid in that inferi infested cave, the cup you gave dear Bella, and of course, Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem, hiding right under the old mans crooked nose."
Harry gave a small smile as the Dark Lords eyes showed the pure terror he felt at hearing all his anchors destroyed. Nodding to himself satisfied with the fun he had had, and the proof that the Dark Lord could still actually feel fear, Harry raised his wand again to point at the dark lords chest.
"Goodbye Tom." A dull white beam of magic shot from Harry's wand into the Dark Lords chest, stopping his heart instantly.
Harry held his breath as the dark lord keeled over in death, after several minutes and no sign of a spectre, Harry gave a big sigh as he calmly removed the dark lords head from his body, before burning the body to ash with his Fiendfyre stag. He bagged the head and put the wand parts in the bag as well, before he disapparated to the Hogwarts main gates.
Harry smirked as he thought what the reactions would be to his return, he bumped into no-one as he strode through the castle, absently realising that it was 2 am and that the students would all be in bed. Shaking his head at the massive lack of security, 'I just waltzed right in!', he made his way purposefully to the headmasters office.
The gargoyle refused to let him up, until Harry started carving a rude word into it with the Elder wand.
Harry took great satisfaction in banging on the door as loud as he could, he was only a little disappointed to hear Dumbledore answer straight away with his customary, "Enter."
He took notice that most of the order members were still here, 'probably debating what to do about me.'
"Ah, Mr, erm, it seems we didn't get your name earlier, my apologies for that, what shall we call you?"
Harry just shrugged his shoulders, "My name is irrelevant as I won't be staying for much longer."
"Oh, you have decided to help us in our quest then?" Albus replied with a hopeful voice. Only to sag his shoulders when Harry shook his head in denial.
"No I won't help you in your quest... Because said quest is already over." Harry finished in a normal voice, as he casually threw the bag onto the headmasters desk, the top coming open as it landed.
Harry, gave a small sigh of disappointment as no-one threw up at the sight of the dark lords severed head, his eyes forever frozen open in an expression of terror, the two parts of his wand, shoved in his ears.
"After all that effort for presentation, and no one throws up." Harry mumbled to himself.
He coughed loudly as most of the rooms occupants were still staring at the head.
"Now then, I believe you have a ritual to complete." Harry stated in a cold tone, as his magic gave a subtle pulse in response to his words.
Harry picked himself up off the floor of the elevator, only to find himself staring down the pointy end of four wands.
"Not exactly the welcome back I was hoping for."
"Boss."
"Mate!"
"Harry!"
"Head-Auror Potter."
"Ernie, Ron, Hermione, Kingsley, nice to see you all again. Now then, erm, right I need to prove who I am... er... whats todays passphrase... Erm... AH! Purple Unicorns eat sad grass. No wait, thats not right, its the other way around, Sad unicorns eat purple grass! Right?"
Ron was the first to crack, as he broke down laughing, "Yeah thats him."
Everyone relaxed their wands, as they all started asking him questions at once, eventually Kingsley exercised his authority and shut them all up. "Harry, where the hell have you been!?"
"That King, is a long story! One that I will write up a report about you can be sure, but right now, I just want to get home to my wife and a nice warm bath."
Harry sighed as he stretched himself out in the cramped elevator.
"Its been long day."
la fin
A/N - Well what did you think of my first canon one shot?
