Fate's Irony

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Chapter 1

Harry stared at Hermione, not comprehending what she was saying. Not dead? It was not possible. They were here, on the other side of the Veil, known also as the Veil of Death. How could they not be dead?

"We're alive," his friend continued, quickly catching he had not understood her meaning. "We were never murdered. You never murdered us."

Harry shook his head. "That's impossible. I watched it happen! I saw your bodies! I saw you die!" His voice rose as he spoke, emotion clearly seeping through. The other three could practically feel the heartache.

"A fragment," Ginny countered, "a piece of what really happened." She shuddered as she drew a deep breath. "We had to make it believable."

Harry blinked at her words. Make it believable? It sounded as if they had planned what had transpired from the beginning: the farce of a trial, and the conviction.

"Make what believable?"

His tone was harsh, yet soft. They could tell he wanted the truth, but at the same time, he was begging them not to tell him that what he was starting to believe was what had really gone on. It was something they couldn't do.

"We had to make the world believe you had killed us in a fit of rage, so they would send you through the Veil," Hermione whispered. She prayed to every god available that Harry would eventually learn to forgive them. "So you could train and return strong enough to take on Voldemort."

She hoped he would focus on the last thing she said, that he would understand her meaning, her explanation, but his mind never processed the second part of her speech. He focused on one thing only.

"So, you wanted everyone to ridicule me, to hate me, for me to hate myself? You wanted me to want to die, to contemplate suicide every single day I was in custody, to almost try to kill myself every week? You wanted me to become terrified of your family, to fear everyone except Remus, to stare at the Veil and be thankful that after the entire circus, I was finally getting the release I'd so desperately wanted? You wanted me to beg God, Merlin, Allah, or any other god out there to reassure me that this wasn't really happening, that you weren't really dead, that I hadn't had to watch as the life fled from your eyes, unable to do anything but scream, rant, and weep in silence?"

The young man stared at her, and as she watched, something dark, something furious, overcame the light in his eyes. She shivered at the sarcasm and, Merlin forbid, hate dripping from his words. It was the worst case scenario she had thought of, and it was going to get worse.

Much worse.

"There's more," Hermione finally said.

"More?" Harry laughed, his dark humor sparking. "Bring it on. What could be worse than this? My own best friends, my girlfriend decided to destroy my life – and what for? A gimmick? A laugh? Or is it for a more completely selfish reason than that?" He glared at them, daring them to destroy the last shreds of respect he held for them.

They had no choice.

"You are here for five years. There's no way out."

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Silence dragged on for several seconds after Hermione's quiet declaration, before Harry's dark laugh returned.

"So, you not only destroyed my life, you had to make sure everyone else I even remotely loved will be destroyed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters before I even get a chance to try to take him down again?" His voice dropped several octaves, and he growled out, "Five years? You might as well declare the war over. He's already won."

Ginny finally lost the battle with the tears that had been pooling behind her eyes. She silently shook with sorrow as the drops slowly rolled down her cheeks. He was beyond furious with them. She could tell by the tone of his voice, he wouldn't want anything to do with them anymore. In their zeal to save his life, they had eradicated his trust and friendship. And now, they would get their just reward.

Hermione, unfortunately, did not realize that, and the younger girl could only watch in horror as she made the situation even more volatile. "We had to, Harry! It was the only way!"

Fury flashed in his eyes, as he clenched his fists. "The only way!" His tone warned against angering him further.

Hermione did not listen. "We had to find a way to keep you alive! You needed time!" she protested, before saying the worst possible thing. "I won't apologize for trying to keep you alive!"

Ginny's heart stopped as she saw her worst nightmare come to life. The sanity in Harry's eyes, however thinly held it was, snapped completely. In an instant, he was standing in front of her, his arm back, swinging forward to strike. The others tried to move to stop him, but the sound of flesh on flesh, and seeing Hermione's head snap back surprised them all.

Even in the most pessimistic parts of her mind, Ginny never believed Harry would actually attack any of them, even after what they had done. But, watching as Hermione flew backwards, landing on her rear and holding a hand to her cheek, Ginny finally realized all bets were now off. She could no longer predict how Harry would react, for their actions had changed him too much.

The odds of Harry completely hating them were now so high, she would not even entertain the thought of ever getting back what they once had.

"Never say that again," Harry growled, his arm still extended. "You have no right."

Ginny began to pray, hoping someone would help fix the mess they had made; help Harry, for she feared they no longer could.

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Harry glared down at his former friend, his ears and head ringing with the blood lust flowing through his veins. One very small part of his mind wondered if he had finally escaped into insanity, like he had so devoutly wished during the trial, but it was lost amongst all the other internal voices demanding he make them pay for their actions.

He drew his arm back, noticing a white glow around his fist, but not worrying about it. He had no room for any emotion other than total and complete fury, he saw everything around him except the white light through a red cloud. The light forced his hand open slightly, and when it vanished, he found himself holding a knife with a blade about two inches long.

He smirked. Somehow, and he did not care how, this place they were in knew he wanted to hurt Hermione, to hurt them all, and had given him the means to do so in a more effective manner. The added bonus, as he saw it, was unless he was careless, he wouldn't kill her. Not for a very long time.

They deserve this, he thought as he swung his arm down, the knife angling for her left leg.

Out of the corner of his blood-lusted eyes, he could see the two Weasley siblings move towards him, but knew they would never make it in time to stop him. He smirked as he watched Hermione's eyes grow large with the understanding he was going to purposely try to hurt her.

The sound of flesh striking flesh broke the silence that had reigned for the short time.

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Ginny and Ron stopped moving, staring in surprise at the spectacle in front of them. This was not even close to how they had first believed the "reunion" would go, and Harry's reactions earlier only made it worse. They thought they had hit the strangest outcome possible, but what stood before them, shocked them to their core.

Sirius Black, escaped convict, was gripping Harry arm, stopping the blade just inches away from entering Hermione.

"This isn't the right way to do things, Harry," he admonished, looking at the surprised young man.

Harry growled and tried to rip his arm out of the man's grip, succeeding in only causing Sirius to take a step closer. "You have no idea what they did to me," he sneered.

"What they did? I know. How you now feel? I can't even begin to imagine, though I'd like to believe I can get close."

"No one can," Harry muttered, not looking at the others. "No one can compare their life to the hell my 'friends' gave me for the last three months."

"Maybe, maybe not," Sirius countered. "We'll never know. But, you can't go on like this."

"Like what? Hating my friends for the pain they caused? Hating my mentor for forgetting about me? Hating the government for giving me a farce of a trial? Hating myself for not having the courage to have killed myself before? For still wanting to be with them? For WANTING TO FORGIVE THEM, DESPITE WHAT THEY'VE DONE?!" As his rant went on, everyone there could see he was slowly coming apart. His emotions were leaking out faster than anyone believed, and by the end, he'd raised his voice to the point of shouting.

Sirius sighed, knowing he had a long path ahead of him. He knew itwould take a lot of work to get Harry to trust the other three again, and itwould have to come from all of them, not just one or two.

I'm sure glad the others gave me a crash course in training and dealing with intense when I got here, he thought. Thank Merlin, we had over two years to prepare for this. I just wish they could be here too.

This was going to take some work, he knew, looking back at the disturbed young man.

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Harry's wild eyes looked around at everyone, not seeing what was there anymore. His fractured mind was coming up with different images to torment him with, mostly from the dream that had started all of the past events, as he saw it. No matter how many times he would shake his head, the image of a bloodied Hermione on the floor, wide unfocused eyes staring back, would not stop replacing the one in front of him. And whenever he looked sideways, images would replace the other two.

No, Harry thought forcefully. That didn't happen. They're not dead. They weren't hurt…

He could not explain, not even to himself, why he was so focused on reminding himself that they weren't dead, like he had seen every night he had closed his eyes for the past two and a half months. That they weren't covered in blood, and forced to suffer in progressively more horrific ways as time went on.

He wondered if his sanity had not already snapped, and it was just taking this long for the rest of his mind to catch on.

"Harry," Sirius continued. "I know it hurts, and I don't expect you to forgive them immediately. All I'm asking, all they're asking, is that you give all of us a chance to show you how sorry we all are."

Even with his mind going several different ways at once, Harry frowned at Sirius' comment. "You're sorry? You didn't do this. You had no part of this."

Sirius nodded. "I may not have done anything to get you into the current situation, but I did help it come about. I was too reckless, back in the Department of Mysteries. I wasn't paying any attention to the battle, and ended up losing my life because of it."

"Then how are you sorry?" Harry could not understand the older man's feelings. If he had not contributed to hurting him, how was he at fault?

"Because I started this chain of events and then left you alone, when you needed me the most."

Sirius's simple comment rocked Harry's world. It was true, during the last two months he had complained and blamed, in his head, to and about Sirius, but he didn't expect the man to understand what he'd been thinking, nor apologize for it. Then again, he didn't even think hewould get a chance to see him again.

Harry shook his head as most of his anger left him. "You had no idea what would happen. How can you be responsible for what has occurred since?"

"Still, I do have some fault. I don't know why, but when I arrived here, back in June, I learned several things. Within one year, the war would be over, and you would be dead. I was shown this by the Fates, who aren't very happy with Tom Riddle. Apparently, he was supposed to have died back when he attacked your parents, but through forbidden and perverse magic, he cheated death.

"In one year, he'd have killed Dumbledore, thinking the Headmaster was training you to be able to fight him. One month later, the day before your birthday,. He would kill you before your powers matured.

"The Fates didn't want this to happen, for Riddle was sending them too many souls before their time, so they allowed me to come up with a way to change what was coming. There was only two restrictions: I couldn't tell you, and Voldemort wasn't allowed to find out you were being changed by my hand."

"So what did you do?" Harry was curious. With the rules Sirius had told him, it didn't sound like anything could be done.

"I sent dreams to your three friends."

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Ron, Ginny, and Hermione looked at each other in surprise. They hadn't expected Sirius to be the cause of the strange dreams they'd had that had made them consider what was going to happen in the future. Hermione had guessed that it was their brains' way of deciphering the possibilities of their lives, and what choices they'd possibly make. Ron and Ginny thought it was a higher being's way of warning them of the consequences of certain actions.

When all three had talked about the dreams, they had come to the conclusion something had needed to be done, and from then on, they had searched for a plan. One, the start of which, Hermione had found just days before they'd returned to Hogwarts. It took them another almost month to iron out the details of it, before 'letting' Voldemort know his part.

And Voldemort had surprised them all.

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Sirius wondered what effect his next words would have on the fracturing young man looking at him. He knew, contrary to the harsh mask the boy was showing, that Harry was very fragile right now, and anything could set him off, possibly for good. Yet, at the same time, he knew he needed to tell him about his prior actions, so Harry would finally get the full picture of what had happened.

"Dreams? What dreams?' Harry asked, confusion evident in his eyes.

"I 'showed' them what the future could possibly look like, if things didn't change. I'd hoped they'd find a way to be able to get you the training you needed, without anyone else being the wiser. And though it hurts to say, I also have to admit, they did succeed beyond my imagination. I know they really hurt you with their actions, but at the same time, they were trying to help you. I just think none of us expected it to go this far."

Harry frowned. "Go this far? What do you mean? Is this not what they planned?" He spat out the words, fury still dripping from his voice.

Silence lasted several minutes, before Ron answered.

"No, mate. This isn't what we had planned. It's what we were forced to do."

"We wanted to find a way to allow you to have access to the Veil sometime in the near future," Hermione went on to explain. "For we knew once we got you near it, we could activate our original plan and have you come here to train, with everyone else thinking you were just another, helpless victim sent to an early demise.

"We even let V-v-voldemort know you were still obsessing about the Veil in hopes he'd try to lure you to the DoM again. We'd set it up to go with you when you did, and to 'accidentally' fall into the Veil with you, so you would have company to train with. We didn't expect Sirius to be here…

"We most especially didn't expect Voldemort to try something different."

Her words gave him pause, and he was quiet while he processed the information he'd received. In the end, he had to admit, their 'original' plan, if that is what it really was, was a much easier way to assure he got to the Veil, and sent inside. One that had a lot less heartache attached to it, as well.

"So, what went wrong?"

Ginny sniffled, before she answered, "He killed us."

Harry blinked. "You mean, that part is true?" After everything he had just found out, he thought they were still alive. "But, Hermione... you said you weren't dead!" He started hyperventilating, not able to withstand the thought of him having to leave without out them after the five years.

Hermione shook her head. "Thankfully, he didn't succeeded, though he believes he did. Wormtail was sent to kill us, and Crookshanks caught him before he got a chance to complete his mission. A bit of Veritaserum, and we found out what V-voldemort was up to. We knew, then, we had to act quickly. Nagini was to arrive later that night to verify he'd done his job. So, with a memory charm, and some magic, we made the snake think we were dead. We didn't realize, until it was too late, that you were seeing through the snake's eyes. By then, it was too late to do anything. If we had, V-v-... Tom would've known we were up to something."

"We couldn't take that chance," Ron added. "Not just for our safety,. But for yours as well. For, he'd have come after you in another way, one you might not have been prepared for."

Ginny stood up, from where she'd collapsed when Sirius had stopped Harry's mad rant. "I'm so, so sorry we hurt you, Harry. If there had been any other way, any way to let you know at all, without compromising everyone, I would've. In a heartbeat."

Harry remained silent, slowly going through everything he'd learned, and everything not said, but still relayed through body-language. He could tell Ginny, at least, was hurting for hurting him. She had genuinely tried to help him, and in the end, had been forced into a situation that had grown worse by the day.

"We were lucky we were able to convince Fudge to sentence you to the Veil, as opposed to Azkaban," Hermione quietly added. "If that'd happened, all would've been for not."

"How'd you do that?" Sirius questioned, curious.

Ron snorted. "That was probably the simplest part of all of this. All we had to do was send him a bunch of mail from his 'supporters' and those who were 'considering' changing allegiances asking for it instead of Azkaban, because of the... how'd it go? Oh yeah, 'seriousness of the crime, and previously documented instability'. I think that's how Hermione had us put it down."

Sirius laughed quietly. "That'd do it. Fudge would do anything for more votes. I always knew he was a political whore."

Harry agreed, shocked that, for once, his notorious fifth year, with all the slandering, had actually worked in his favor, even when he didn't know it at the time. And though it wasn't a situation he wanted, he was starting to see his friends had no choice in their actions. They had made their decisions based on what they thought and knew at that moment. He could not fault them for that.

"So, where does that leave us?" Harry asked, unsure. "I understand why you did what you did, but it doesn't make the hurt go away, Or the feelings of betrayal and helplessness vanish. I don't know how long it'll be before I can trust you again."

"Take you time, Harry," Ginny responded. "We can wait. We destroyed your life and trust in a matter of minutes. We don't expect to be able to rebuild that just as quick. We have five years here to show you we're sorry, and for you to learn to trust us once more."

Sirius smirked. "You may have five years, but the rest of the world only has one." He laughed as he watched their jaws hit the floor.

"Wait! I thought you said the end came around when I died in a year!" Harry protested. "How can I die, when I'm stuck in here?"

The laughter that came from the older man surprised the teens. "I never said it was for the end of the world."

"What?" Ron questioned.

"I mean, in one year, you four will be back out there, kicking some serious DE butt."

"That's not possible," Hermione immediately protested. "The book said, explicitly, we would be here for five years, and there was no way around it."

"You will be here for five years," Sirius agreed.

"But, you just said..."

"You will be here for five years. To the rest of the world, you'll only be here for one. It's a little quirk that wasn't written down, for the spells you used were done so rarely, it wasn't though to be important," Sirius added, before Hermione could interrupt.

"So, we're here for five years..." Ron began, trying to understand. "But, to the others, outside of here, it'll only be a year?"

"Yup. Cool, huh?"

"That's still not possible!" Hermione argued. "You can't distort time!"

"So, says the girl who went back several hours to save me with her best friend," Sirius countered.

"Yes, well, that was only a small amount. Everyone knows you can't distort time by the factor you're claiming. It'd destabilize the entire space-time continuum."

"Not to mention, desecrate her precious books," Ron muttered, surprising everyone with both his comment, and use of a three syllable word.

Hermione glared at him, having heard every word.

"No, it won't. For we aren't trying to go backwards. There hasn't been much research into traveling into the future, mainly because the Ministry and everyone else wanted to 'fix mistakes' made before. It's where almost all laws governing time were created. This isn't about going back, but going forward. We don't have the same restrictions," Sirius explained.

"But, we're going to age five years, right?" Ginny questioned. "Will we look five years older, or one?"

"Five. Your physical bodies are here, unlike me. You'll take them with you when you leave."

"So, how do we train then?" Harry asked, finally warming up to the idea. If only one year was going to pass, it wasn't so bad. Voldemort wouldn't be able to do that much, with Dumbledore still fighting him.

Hermione moved to the side, a bit from where they'd all been talking, and grabbed a bag, one Harry hadn't even noticed when he first arrived. His attention had been on other things.

"I've brought different areas to study while we're here," she explained, as she lifted what appeared to be a really heavy container.

"You can put that back down," Sirius told her. "You might need it later on, but for now, I'll be training you."

Everyone looked at him in shock. They were not for sure how well he could do at teaching. He had been stuck in Azkaban for thirteen years, after all.

"I know, you don't think I can," Sirius said. "But, ever since I've gotten here, I've been training with Merlin, the four founders, and even your parents, Harry."

"My... parents?" Harry whispered. If Sirius saw his parents, then surely they could see him, right?

"Yes, and they said to tell you they're proud of how you've grown. I'm sorry, but they can't come here to see you themselves. The only reason I can see you is because I fell through the Veil. Because of that, I'm almost stuck halfway between life and death. Thus I can visit both, to a certain extent."

Harry nodded. It'd been a nice dream/wish/whatever, while it had lasted all of three seconds.

"Are you sure you could train us? You only had six months to be trained in," Hermione asked. "Is that really long enough?"

"Hermione, remember what I said about it lasting five years in here for every year out there? Well, I was affected by the same. I had almost two and a half years of lessons crammed down my throat by the greatest wizards to ever live. All to teach you four, though I didn't even know it at the time. Now, I get a chance to train you to change the world, and I believe I can."

Harry nodded. "Then, let's begin."

Sirius grinned, his face reflecting what Harry imagined it must have looked like during Sirus's pranking days, as he pulled out a wand. "Very well, your trip through hell begins right now."

A/N: Many thanks to my beta, for without who, this story would not be as good.