One-Shot: Harry Turns to the Dark Side
Hermione Granger's face was contorted in pain. She was weeping and screaming out. "AH! Oh, Harry! Ron! Please! Help me!" Her screams were joined by the wails of an infant. An unfamiliar voice was speaking soothing words to her.
"Don't give up now, Hermione…"
Harry Potter sat bolt upright in bed, panting, his bare chest covered in sweat. He swung his legs out of the bed he shared with his wife Hermione and his husband Ron, before burying his head in his hands. At last, he stood and slipped on a bathrobe. Unnoticed by him, his wife stirred awake and watched as Harry pattered down the hall.
A few minutes later, Hermione entered the kitchen to find Harry leaning against the window, staring stoically outside.
"Aren't you coming to bed?" she whispered. No answer. She approached her one husband and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Harry, what's wrong?" she said gently. Still nothing. She sighed. "Harry, how can you or Ron or I be married if we can't be honest with each other?"
Harry finally spoke. "I had a nightmare."
"Again?"
"Like the ones I used to have about Sirius, just after he died."
"What was it about?"
Harry swallowed hard. "It was about you."
Me? Hermione thought, bewildered. But Harry was speaking again.
"You…you die in childbirth."
Hermione gasped and drew a protective hand over her pregnant abdomen. She did not know whether Ron or Harry was the father (though she had guessed the latter). "And the baby?"
Harry was silent for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't know."
Hermione came up behind Harry and wrapped her arms around his waist. She nibbled and kissed at his neck and earlobes lovingly.
"Hush, now, my love. It was only a dream. Come back to bed and sleep with me." Her hands roamed.
Harry dared to smile now. "As much as I like…your proposed menu…Gah, you're not making this easy…" He hissed as Hermione seized his member through his pants and squeezed it. "Oh, bloody hell!" Harry growled. He took Hermione in his arms and kissed her desperately, before scooping her up off her feet. She now dramatically pretended to lie limp, like a rag doll, like an unconscious damsel in distress, and Harry grandly carried her back to their bed.
A few weeks later, Harry was taking to the clandestine duty assigned to him by the Auror Department. He was to spy on the Minister of Magic. Harry personally did not like the idea. The Minister was a close friend, and over the last few years had become a confidant on the caliber of Ron and Hermione. Harry had even told the Minister of the spying mission.
"The Aurors don't trust you, Harry," the Minister explained one day as the pair was leaving his office. "They fear your power." He paused, and then said something entirely unexpected. "You don't need them. Learn from me and I can teach how to keep your wife and husband from dying."
Harry stopped dead and almost betrayed everything on his face. The Minister couldn't know of his real relationship to Ron and Hermione, no one did – the Golden Trio had married in secret.
"What…what are you talking about?"
"I know what's been troubling you. I can teach you the secret magic to conquer death – a secret even greater than those pitiful Deathly Hallows or Horcruxes. My Master taught me everything I knew about the Dark Arts."
"You know the Dark Arts?" Harry asked. Then, realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "You're the new Dark Lord - Voldemort, risen again!" and he whipped out his wand.
The Minister - no, Voldemort - eyed Harry with an unnerving calm. "Harry…you pretend you don't want power, but when it comes to helping the ones you love, you feel it's worth the risk. And love is everything. Dumbledore said it himself. Is love not a wonderful motivator for seeking power, seeking knowledge? I am sure your wife would say knowledge is power, and she would be right. Use my knowledge, I beg you!"
"I won't become a Death Eater!" Harry growled. But confusion was already building inside of him. Love was a great power…could he use it to find this knowledge to save Ron and Hermione…?
"Are you going to kill me…again?" Voldemort asked.
"I would certainly like to, all over again" Harry growled.
But you haven't yet; have you, my fine young Chosen One? Voldemort thought. "I will let you go to think." He said. And to think about my offer, he added in thought. "Harry- only through me can you learn the power over death. The power to save Hermione and Ron."
Harry left the Ministry in a daze.
That evening, Harry and Hermione were cooking dinner; Ron was watching TV in the next room. Unexpectedly, Hermione wanted a hug from her one husband, "just because." She leaned into Harry and smiled. Harry adored when she was in his arms like this – and that reminded him of the dizzying day he had just had. He pulled out of the embrace.
"I have found a way to save you," he told her eagerly.
"Save me?"
"From my nightmares." Surely she hasn't forgotten!
Hermione eyed him knowingly. "Is that what's bothering you?"
"I won't lose you, Hermione. Or Ron."
Hermione smiled. "I'm not going to die in childbirth, Harry. I promise you."
"No, I promise you!" Recklessly, he made the vow, though he knew he didn't yet have the power to fulfill it. "I will be able to protect you and Ron from anything."
Hermione caught his eyes and held them. "You're only human, Harry." She leaned back into his arms and smiled. "I believe that you can protect Ron and me, just as you are."
And I'll do just that, Harry vowed as he rested his chin on her head. I will protect you. No matter what it takes…
Meanwhile, the Aurors had discovered the Minister of Magic was the resurrected Dark Lord they had been looking for - Voldemort. A team was deployed to arrest him. Harry was ordered to stay at the Auror offices. As he watched the view of the sun setting over London, Harry's thoughts reached out to one of the two people he loved. To Hermione.
Across town, Hermione was at home, reading a book. Suddenly, she felt a presence. Harry? But he's never home this early…she thought. Then, suddenly, she felt anguish rip through his magical presence. Concern for her. She reached back out to him, saying the words she had told him and Ron when she had first confessed her love for them both, when they had almost been executed in an arena full of Death Eaters: I truly, deeply love you, and before we die I want you to know…
I truly, deeply love you, Harry heard Hermione's voice in his head. Before I die, I want you to know. Their magical connection faded, but her words echoed. Before I die, before I die, before I die… Harry shuddered.
Hermione, no!
"NO!" Harry spoke and he was on his feet now, panting, as if he had been running. I can't do this! I can't let her or Ron die! And then, he was running, out of the Auror offices and down through the halls to the Minister's office.
Quite a sight greeted him when he got there. Three Aurors lay crumpled on the ground. A fourth - Kingsley Shacklebolt - had his wand pointed to a weakened Voldemort, even as he resisted non-verbal magic from the evil dark wizard. Both called for Harry to help.
"I have the power to save the ones you love," Voldemort entreated, even as Dark magic he was shooting at Kingsley engulfed him as well, slowing changing his normally-shaped face into the snake-like one Harry remembered from his youth: the slits for nostrils, the reptilian ears, the beady eyes. "Shackleblolt is a traitor! The Aurors are all traitors!"
"Harry! Don't listen to him! He's the traitor!" Kingsley called even as he groaned with the effort to block Voldemort's Dark magic. "Stop him!"
Harry looked back and forth between Voldemort and Kingsley. He saw Kingsley wave his wand over his head, as Voldemort's attack seemed to give out at last.
And in that moment, Harry finally made his decision. He needed Voldemort. To save his loved ones. He attacked his Auror colleague, As soon as Kingsley was disarmed, Voldemort's relentless magical assault began anew. He was faking his surrender; he pretended to be weak! Harry realized in shock.
"Power! Unlimited power!" Voldemort shrieked in triumph as he now lifted Kingsley and battered him against the office windows again and again until the glass shattered. Then, he flung Kingsley's body through a gaping hole in the windowpane before dropping the Auror to his death, thus finishing him off.
Harry now stared, shocked at what had just transpired. "What have I done?" he said in anguish.
"You are fulfilling your destiny," Voldemort replied. Harry knelt at his feet.
"I will do…anything you ask. Just help me save Ron and Hermione's lives," he moaned. "I can't live without them." Harry's voice now turned into a growl of anger. "I won't let them die!"
Voldemort placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Harry James Potter, you are more powerful than any Dark Wizard who has come before you. Henceforth, you shall be known as Lord…. Pryjaro, the Master."
"Thank you, my Lord."
Voldemort instructed his new pupil to go to the Auror offices and kill everyone inside. Aurors abroad were murdered through an explicit order, where old Death Eaters came out of hiding and killed the good wizards. Only two survived: Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody and Remus Lupin. These two broke into the Ministry of Magic and discovered Harry's betrayal. Both decided to hunt Voldemort and Lord Pryjaro, the Master down. Mad-Eye went after the former, while Remus started looking for the latter.
The first place Remus checked was Harry, Ron and Hermione's apartment. Both of them refused to believe that Harry had turned to evil. Then, Remus noticed an odd feature about Hermione. She pulled back her robe to hide her pregnancy too late. "I can't…"
"Harry's the father, isn't he? And all three of you living together…you're all married." When neither Ron nor Hermione answered to refute him, Remus simply murmured, "I'm so sorry." And he left.
Remus' hunch proved to be correct on many levels. Soon after he left, he followed Ron and Hermione to a remote part of England. From afar, he saw Harry run to them and into their arms; he could barely make out what they were saying.
"It's all right," Harry soothed Hermione. "You're safe now."
Ron let his wife do most of the talking. "I hope so," she said. "Remus told us terrible things."
Harry stiffened and frowned. "What things?"
"That you turned to the dark side, mate. That you killed Aurors!" Ron explained.
"Remus is trying to turn you both against me," Harry deflected gently, almost hypnotically. "He's already turned against me – don't either of you turn against me too!"
"We're not against you!" Hermione protested as tears began to fall. "We're against what you've done and what you're planning to do." She placed a hand on her swelling stomach. "Come away with us," she pleaded. "Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can!"
Harry smiled at her almost disturbingly. "Don't you see, Hermione? We don't have to run away anymore. Vol...The Minister – I can overthrow him! And together, the three of us can rule the wizarding world! Make things the way we want them to be!"
Ron and Hermione backed away from him, shaking their heads; Hermione crying, Ron looking pained.
"We don't know you anymore!" Ron told his husband. "Remus was right! You've changed."
"I don't want to hear anymore about Remus!" Harry lashed out angrily.
Hermione reached out to him. "Stop now!" she pleaded in one final attempt to reach the Harry who was her husband, her lover, the father of her child. "Come back! I love you! We love you!" she sobbed.
For a moment – for the briefest instant – she thought she would succeed. Then, Harry suddenly roared, "LIAR!"
Hermione and Ron looked back to see Remus standing a few feet behind them. He tricked us!
"No!" Hermione cried, realizing this new Harry would never listen to her or Ron now.
"You're with him! You two brought him here to kill me! You've betrayed me!" Harry's face contorted in rage, and he waved his wand. "No!" Hermione protested desperately, but that was all she could say before she whimpered, as she suddenly felt her air cut off due to Harry's non-verbal spell. Her hands went to her throat seemingly of their own accord. She looked over at Ron; he was in the same position, and his face was already turning blue. Don't! she desperately tried to cry out to her one deranged husband. Don't kill our child!
"Let them go, Harry!" Remus roared as he rushed forward. Harry did not even turn his head in Remus' direction. Both Ron and Hermione were trying desperately to speak, barely forming words.
"Harry…."
"Harry, mate…please…"
"Let. Them. Go." Remus commanded sharply. Amazingly, Harry now obeyed.
An airy gasp left Hermione, and she felt herself falling. She decided that she would rather die, right then and there, then live and watch to see what her Harry had become.
Remus stared at the crumpled forms of Ron and Hermione in shock.
"You turned them against me!" Harry moaned at him. Remus met Harry's eyes, appalled.
"You have done that yourself!" he spat. Auror and Dark Lord circled one another like tigers in a cage.
"YOU WILL NOT TAKE THEM FROM ME!" Harry hurled in rage at his adversary.
"Your blind anger and lust for power have already done that," Remus jabbed with an odd sense of calm. "You have allowed this new version of the Dark Lord Voldemort to twist your mind until now…now you have become the very thing you destroyed as a young man!"
"Don't make me kill you! If you're not with me, then you're my enemy!" Harry growled, his back now to Remus.
Remus sighed in resignation. "Only Dark Lords deal in absolutes." He pulled out his wand. "I will do what I must." Harry's face twisted in fury as he drew his own weapon and the battle began.
Remus defeated Harry- no, Lord Pryjaro, the Master – and left him for dead. The surviving Auror took Ron and Hermione to a remote wizarding hospital, where he met up with Mad-Eye Moody, who had failed in his own assassination attempt on the Minister. Healers finally approached the two Aurors with the sad news that Ron had passed away, but the rest of their explanation was even more devastating.
"Medically, Hermione is completely healthy. For reasons that we cannot explain, we are losing her."
"She's DYING?!" cried Remus, horrified. No…No! He couldn't take another loss like this.
"We don't know why. She has lost the will to live."
I know why, Remus thought bitterly. Harry has broken her heart.
"We have to operate quickly if we are to save the baby. She seems to be carrying a child that possesses both the genes of Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley. It's a rare, but possible outcome in magic for two sperm to join with the same egg when dealing with a polygamous marriage and multi-partner fertility."
The Healers went to work. Remus joined them. This was the Golden Trio's child, so the Auror just sat there, holding Hermione's hand and looking grim.
When the Healers delivered the baby, Hermione at last stirred. She seemed to sense what was happening. "Is it a girl?" she whispered.
"We don't know," Remus explained gently. "We'll see in a minute."
"It's a boy," the Healer announced, holding a black-haired, blue-eyed creature to the light. Hermione stared at her child in absolute captivation.
"Harry Ronald," she sighed, reaching a hand out to stroke her son's forehead before the Healers whisked him away to be cleaned.
"You're a mother, Hermione!" Remus told her. "Little Harry needs you. Hang on!"
But Hermione shook her head in defeat. She reached out a hand to Remus – she seemed to be holding something in it.
"Remus…there is good in him. I know there…is…still…" Her head lolled gently to one side of the pillow and she moved no more.
Hermione believed in Harry until the end, Remus thought sadly. He squeezed her hand in goodbye and left the room. Alastor and the little baby - who had been christened with its mother's maiden name, Granger – met him. The two Aurors then split up to go into hiding. Remus took the infant to his surviving set of paternal grandparents, who were hiding in Ireland. Remus would live here too, and watch over the boy from afar. In his knapsack were three wands. Remus would keep the wands of the Golden Trio there – until the future day when he would give them to the Trio's son, Harry Ronald Granger.