Harry was immediately put on the defensive as the other two soldiers turned their wands on him. He shielded himself as he fell back toward one of the numerous long, wooden planters that dotted the shopping center. Two spells, Harry figured them to be reductos, impacted the side of the planter and sent wood and soil everywhere and completely ruined Harry's cover. He cursed at himself for choosing something so flimsy to hide behind.
As the splinters of wood and dirt clots rained down, the shoppers in the alley took it as a signal to panic. Harry realized that his initial estimate of fifty to a few hundred shoppers was horridly off. Wizard and witches poured out of the shops, too many to count, and began to run about screaming and flailing like chickens without their heads. The woman he had come to the rescue for was huddled right where she had fallen and was clutching her daughter to her chest. Harry really wished she would get out of here, but didn't want to turn the soldier's attention back on her by trying to tell her as much. He was brought forcefully back to the fight when the ground directly in front of him exploded, peppering him with bits of cobblestone and hurling him to the ground.
He rolled to his feet and fired a barrage of his modified stunners at the two guards, both of whom had been trained well enough not to stand there and shield, but instead, dived out of the way. Harry used the opportunity to take cover behind a substantially more secure stone partition wall in front of the apothecary. He had a clear view of Ollivander's shop from where he was hiding and could clearly see Hedwig clutching her wand tightly in her slight fist. She looked terrified, but determined, as if she were debating on whether or not to help with the fight. Arms waving frantically to get her attention, Harry desperately wanted her to remain safe in the shop.
Hedwig finally looked his way, her yellow eyes wide and questioning. Harry motioned for her to stay put. Or what he thought meant 'stay put'. Fortunately for them both, Hedwig understood his wild gesticulations and hunkered down behind the shop counter again. Unfortunately for Harry, the two soldiers had discovered his hiding spot. However, they didn't immediately start throwing spells.
"Unknown wizard," one of them called. "Drop your wand and surrender yourself. Step out with your hands where we can see them."
By now the alley was mostly deserted. The woman whom Harry had rescued had the good sense to at least scoot further away, though she made no move to get up and run, and a few others had hidden in various shops to watch the confrontation. Hedwig still looked torn between hiding in Ollivander's shop and trying to help. Harry peered further around his cover and saw clearly that one of the wizards had his wand trained directly at the wall while the other seemed to be talking into his lapel pin. It reminded him a bit of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
"Why don't you make me, you steaming piles of thestral shite?" he shouted back. He winced almost as soon as the words had left his mouth wondering if he could be any less mature.
Harry could almost hear the anger emit from the soldiers. He definitely heard the tell tale pops of people apparating in, and the thuds and booms of bludgeoning and blasting hexes impact against his cover. Deciding that a little stealth was in order, Harry tapped himself on the head twice with his wand; once for a normal disillusionment charm and once for his modified one. Without his invisibility cloak, it was the next best thing. He then had the odd sensation of having not one, but two eggs crack over his head and run down his body but frowned when the charms mimicked the eggs and just flowed to his feet and away. The soldiers must have erected wards. That meant not only was invisibility out of the question, but also apparation and portkeys. He wouldn't have run anyway. It wasn't in him to flee and leave not only the person he set out to rescue, but his best friend in danger.
The bludgeoning and blasting hexes continued to pound on the wall, spreading cracks and bringing the structure perilously close to collapsing. "Take him dead or alive," one of the soldiers said. Harry paled nervously. It looked like direct force was the only way to go.
One of the biggest benefits to Harry's custom spells was the lack of a need to vocalize the spell. Since he never intended to teach anyone his spells, he never needed to supply the spell with an incantation. He merely needed to wave his wand and concentrate on casting the spell. This brought the advantage of being able to rapidly fire most of his custom spells without any space between them. He put this to good use as he rolled out from behind his cover and fired a barrage of modified stunners at the soldiers.
This time, not all of them managed to evade the red-violet light. One of them was hit in the thigh as he rolled out of the way and another stupidly put up a simple protego shield. Now, Harry had named his modified stunner the 'Shield Eater' because all but the most powerful of defensive shields (yes there are offensive shields, but Harry didn't know any) would not only break when struck, but increase the speed and power of the spell. The shielded soldier only had a moment to widen his eyes in a panic before his shield shattered like so much glass and blasted him into a storefront. As the glass from the ruined window rained down on the man, Harry could only wince in sympathy that the man was already unconscious.
"Ha!" Harry shouted, pumping his fist in the air in triumph. His victory celebration was cut short however, as jets of multi-colored light shot out from where the other soldiers had taken cover. As Harry dived back behind his ailing partition, he panicked slightly. His opponent's spells had increased in nastiness if the yellow of that bone breaker was any indication. A particularly powerful blasting curse took a good section out of his wall and Harry decided to up his offensive.
Deciding to mix things up again, Harry popped up in the new hole and fired another of his modified spells along with his stunner. This spell was a modification of the reducto hex. Harry was inspired to create this spell while watching a telly show about muggle weaponry. Evidently the muggles had created an explosive shell they dubbed the 'smart shell'. This shell had a small heat sensor in it and would detonate when it got close enough to whatever the gunner had set it to sense for. For example, if the shell detected a roughly human heat source it would then immediately detonate. Harry's modified reducto did much the same thing, only the spell would detonate in the direction of the heat source Harry wanted to blow up.
Most of the soldiers were able to take cover again, but one unfortunate man caught a stunner to the face and collapsed bonelessly to the cobblestones. Two of the soldiers were unlucky enough to be caught in the reducto explosions. One was pounded into the ground while the other was flung bodily from his cover to roll limply across the alley. His uniform was tattered and smoking and Harry could tell by the blood that the man was most dead. The others were smart enough erect shields to protect themselves from the explosions.
As Harry quickly took cover again, he heard something that both filled him with pride and sent a fearful chill down his spine.
"Merlin's beard, is that Potter?" one man shouted fearfully. "I thought he was dead!"
Dead? Harry wondered. I'm not dead.
A woman answered the man. "He's supposed to be! Lord Malfoy killed Potter himself!"
Fortunately, since this revelation brought with it a slight lull in the fighting, Harry had a little time to think. First, the soldier's exclamation told him two things. First was that the spell had worked, though not in the way Harry thought it would have. He wasn't on another planet per-se, but he was in another world. Second was that, evidently, Harry was dead in this world. One of the Malfoy's had somehow killed him. As he pondered what this meant, he saw that the alley looked like a war zone, which, technically, it was. Craters from missed or deflected spells littered the street and store fronts, and there was a still smoking corpse of one of the casualties in the fight.
"Christ, we need the commander," the first soldier shouted. Harry then heard one of the other soldiers talk into his lapel again followed shortly by five other apparation cracks. He sighed and shook his head dejectedly. It looked like he wouldn't be getting away at all easily.
Then, Harry heard a familiar voice that caused him to see red. The woman the voice belonged to conversed in hushed tones with her troops, which Harry only vaguely counted at around eight to ten soldiers. "Potter?!" the woman shouted. "Bullshit!"
"No, Bellatrix," Harry spat from behind the wall. "It's most definitely me." Harry never had the pleasure of apprehending or killing Bella. The slippery woman had all but vanished from the face of wizarding Britain the day Harry had floated Voldemort into the stratosphere. In this world, it seemed that she had reemerged once Malfoy had killed him. His hand gripped his wand tightly as he anticipated finishing things here.
"Wee, baby Potty?" Bellatrix exclaimed almost excitedly. "It really is you, from beyond the grave even?" Harry could hear her clap her hands happily. "Oh goody! I get to kill you this time. I'm sure my wonderful cousin would just love to get together with you."
"Actually, how about I kill you instead?" Harry suggested back in a confrontational tone of voice. He jumped out from behind his cover and began to fire a spray of curses, some very dark, at the soldiers and Bellatrix. Bellatrix was wearing a variation on the soldier's uniforms that the other two female soldiers were wearing; basically a black mini-skirt instead of slacks. One of his entrails-expelling curses messily took out an unfortunate soldier and another of the soldiers went down in a screaming spray of blood as his shoulder was decimated by Harry's modified blasting curse before Harry took cover again.
Bellatrix herself had to dodge behind cover since most of the spells were aimed at her. Harry did notice, much to his dismay, that the soldiers worked well together. They paired off; one soldier would focus on casting offensive spells while their partner would shield them. There were four remaining groups, with Bellatrix being the odd-woman-out.
From behind her, Bellatrix taunted Harry. "Oooh," she squealed insanely. "Ickle-baby-Potty finally grew some balls!"
Harry threw himself back behind his wall as his opponents returned fire. This time, Harry could clearly her some of them incant, "Avada Kedavra," and Harry had to abandon his wall as it exploded in a shower of brick and mortar fragments. He sprinted into the apothecary this time, the cashier hiding behind the counter squeaking in fright at his presence. Harry ignored her in favor of planning his next move. It was time to break out the 'big guns' so to speak.
Harry had a spell that he had created, but never used outside of its creation. He called it the 'Holy Lance'. It was a deceptively simple spell that amounted to a thin beam of pure, white magic fired from the end of his wand that would burn through almost anything – or anyone in its way. When Harry had first test cast the spell, it had burned a quaffle sized hole through a line of trees behind his house for a good kilometer before losing power and igniting the last tree it struck. He just hoped that no innocent bystanders got in the way.
Leaning slightly out of his cover, Harry sighted a spot on an overturned vendor cart that he knew one of the soldiers was hiding behind. He gripped his wand tightly in both hands and aimed at the cart, focusing his magic into the spell. His wand began to emit a white light and a high pitched whine for a moment before there was a deafening boom and the white energy lanced from the tip of his wand. The cart, being significantly less sturdy than a hundred year old tree, disintegrated into a shower of splinters, while the wizard behind it was all but splattered against the owl shop behind him. The spell was definitely effective on a living target.
Harry forced the queasiness away. It was unfortunately necessary to kill at least a few of them. Harry hoped that they would retreat so he could get the witch and her daughter to safety. She still hadn't gotten up and moved away to Harry's worry.
"What in god's name was that?" one of the soldiers shouted. Harry could hear the panic in the man's voice.
"Take that shop apart!" Bellatrix ordered. Immediately, the apothecary was awash in colored lights and explosions as the soldier's spells smashed into the wooden building. The cashier behind the counter screamed loudly as the store shook and rumbled with the force of the spells. Harry grumbled realizing that he had a fourth person to save now; the woman and her daughter, Hedwig and now the cashier girl.
Spotting a lull in the spell barrage, Harry leaned out into the doorway to fire a barrage of his modified blasting curses to pin the soldiers down so he could fire another 'Holy Lance'. One of the soldiers was taken down by a blasting hex and the rest of them took cover again, giving Harry the time he needed to fire the lance. A short whine and another boom later, another of the soldiers was dead, a quaffle sized hole blown through her chest. Almost immediately the spell fire started up again and Harry had to shield his head from the debris. Then there was silence.
It was eerie how quiet everything became. Beyond the ticking of cooling stone, or the creaking of ruined timbers in the building, no other sound was uttered. That is, until Bellatrix broke it. Her voice was changed from how Harry usually heard it. This time, instead of it being mocking and insane, it was angry and demanding. "Drop your wand, Potter, or we'll kill the woman!" she shouted.
Harry only debated with himself for a fraction of a second before stepping out of the ruined apothecary with his hands in the air. He couldn't let that woman, despite how stupid she had been for remaining on her bum the entire fight, to suffer for what he had done. Bellatrix had the whimpering young mother clutched tightly to her, her wand pressed harshly against one of the woman's jugular veins. The woman's daughter lay still in the shadow of the wand shop, but Harry was relieved to see that the girl still breathed. She must have been stunned.
The remaining five soldiers trained their wands on him as he stepped onto the ruined cobblestones. "Alright, Bellatrix, you win," Harry said dejectedly. He looked defeated but inwardly Harry was doing his best to come up with some way to salvage the situation. He glanced around the alley to find something, anything he could use to his advantage when he spied Hedwig still in Ollivander's.
Hedwig was crouched behind the front counter, her head sticking up enough so that just her eyes were above the edge. But those eyes held both fear and the willingness to fight. Harry loathed putting her in danger but realized that he didn't have much choice left. It wouldn't have been the first time his longest friend had come to his aid. He nodded slightly to let her know that it was okay to help in any way possible. Then, he knelt down to place his wand on the street as Hedwig disappeared fully behind the counter, only to reappear creeping toward the slightly ajar door.
Once Harry had placed his wand on the ground, Bellatrix commanded him to kick it toward her. Harry knew that this was suicide. He needed it to be within reach so that once Hedwig had started her attack he could start slinging spells again. But seeing himself once again without much choice, he kicked it lightly away from himself, but also away from the soldiers. The carved holly stick clattered noisily down the alley. "Oops," Harry said as the wand rolled under a planter.
It seemed that Bellatrix was content to ignore the wand so long as Harry didn't have it. A cruel smile played over her lips and she threw the young woman to one of her soldiers who mimicked Bellatrix's position. Bella herself took two steps forward. "I'm so going to enjoy this," she breathed. "Crucio!"
Blinding pain seared through every one of Harry's cells. But Harry had had enough experience with this curse to know that the pain wasn't real; it was all in ones mind. The victim's body's reaction to the phantom pain was what caused the damage, as muscles contracted and spasmed, and joints hyper-extended during the agony. Harry gritted his teeth and forced the pain away, though he still fell to one knee. "Is that all you've got," he hissed.
Bellatrix was so surprised that she stopped the curse. Her shocked expression melted into one of pure joy, and Harry became worried. "Oh goody!" Bellatrix shouted gleefully. "Finally, someone who won't go completely insane right away."
Where the bloody hell was Hedwig, Harry thought. Another cruciatus slammed into his midsection, this one almost twice the intensity. Harry hissed through his clenched jaw and tasted something coppery in his mouth. He realized that he had bitten his tongue, but he wasn't about to give the psychotic woman torturing himself the satisfaction of a scream. "Pathetic," he managed to grunt.
It seemed that Bellatrix didn't have the patience to carry out a torture session like her former master did. She reacted to defiance with violence, immediately casting a bludgeoning hex point blank into the side of Harry's head. The spell sent him sprawling, stars and colors dancing in his vision. Once he skidded to a stop, Harry tried to get back to his feet as his head throbbed but he found he couldn't. Beyond some of his molars on the right side of his mouth being loose, he couldn't get his legs to move the way he wanted them to. His right leg simply twitched. Where the hell was Hedwig?
Looking up from his prone position as Bellatrix approached him again, Harry could see what was keeping his friend. She hadn't made it very far, having been restrained by one of the soldiers almost as soon as she had emerged from the shop. The girl thrashed and fought her captor and reached out for Harry, but she simply didn't have the strength for it. Harry was sure that Hedwig was screaming his name, but all he could hear was a loud, high pitched whine.
Suddenly, one of the planters shifted and unfolded like a Transformer into a huge wooden golem. The construct waded into the soldiers, pummeling and crushing them as the very cobblestones of the street morphed into hands to hold the people in place. Only two of them, including Bellatrix managed to escape a messy death before the construct's rampage ended. Then Harry was briefly aware of a soft touch on his neck, and Hedwig's near bone crushing hug before unconsciousness mercifully claimed him.
Harry wasn't sure exactly how long he had been out when he came to, but judging by the dim light filtering in through the window in the room; it was either early morning or late evening. But he was aware of his splitting headache and the soft bed he was lying in. He didn't know where he was, but the way the room was sparsely decorated struck a bell within him. The cream colored walls were bare save for a few landscape paintings while the rest of the room was decorated in a deep red and gold theme. It reminded him of a Gryffindor themed bedroom. Tentatively, Harry swung his feet over the edge of the bed, noticing vaguely that he had been dressed in a pair of white cotton pajamas.
His glasses and, thankfully his wand, had been placed on the cherry wood night stand by the bed. Harry put his glasses on and, being unable to locate his clothes anywhere in the room, transfigured his pajamas into the ensemble he had been wearing before. Then he was aware of some muffled voices outside his door, followed by what sounded like someone running. Before he could prepare himself, the bedroom door burst open and he was assaulted by a silver haired missile that peppered his face with quick kisses.
"Hedwig," Harry protested weakly. "Gerroff."
She ignored Harry, instead sobbing quietly on his shoulder. "Hedwig so sorry," she said between hiccups. "Hedwig could not do anything to help Harry."
Not knowing what else to do, Harry simply held her and stroked the back of her head until she calmed a bit. "It's okay, it's okay," he soothed. "You tried, and I'm very proud of you for that." Hedwig wiped her eyes and smiled wetly up at him before making himself more comfortable in his lap. When she sighed contentedly, Harry realized that he would be on the floor for a while. In an unfamiliar, if rather comfortable room.
"Where are we anyway?" he asked no one in particular.
"You are in my home, Harry," someone said from the doorway.
Harry looked up at his savior and smiled at her. Minerva McGonagall stood in the door frame, dressed in a tartan night gown and slippers with her graying hair let loose down her back. She smiled back at him. "Professor McGonagall," Harry acknowledged her.
"Please Harry, it is Minerva in private," she said fondly. With a wave of her wand, she conjured two cushy chairs, and then levitated both Harry and Hedwig into one. Hedwig giggled softly and started playing with Harry's hair. "How are you feeling?"
"A bit woozy," Harry answered. "How long was I out?"
"Almost three days," McGonagall said. "Fortunately I was able to contact Poppy Pomfrey to take care of your concussion. I have to say," she elaborated. "Hedwig there was most worried about you."
Harry reeled slightly. He had been unconscious for three days? That meant that the eclipse was five days away. Luckily he didn't have anything important to accomplish here. That, and now that he was most likely a wanted criminal here, it would be best to lay low for a few days. He hoped that McGonagall would let him hide out here, in her home, but didn't want to hinge all his plans on that. Still, she had rescued him from Bellatrix. He figured that he owed the professor a life debt if anything. His eyebrows pinched together as he pondered just how the life debt would work once he had left this world.
McGonagall clearing her throat pulled Harry from his thoughts. "I must say, turning your owl human is a remarkable bit of transfiguration," she said. "Though I am a bit disappointed that you would have even attempted it. Is that why you faked your death?"
Harry glanced up at his former teacher and could only see a bit of reproach mixed with an honest curiosity. Flushing slightly, and a bit distracted while Hedwig played with his fringe, Harry tried how best to explain things. "Well," he began quietly. "I guess the first think I should say is…I didn't fake my death."
Hedwig was shaking her head in confirmation.
"What?" McGonagall asked. "You…you mean that it really was you in the coffin?" Her eyes widened and Harry could only imagine just what was going through her mind right now.
He hastened to explain. "No! No…It wasn't me," he started. McGonagall's eyes widened even further and she placed a hand over her hear.
"Oh for Merlin's sake," she gasped. "We buried someone else in your stead!?"
"No, Minerva!" Harry shouted. Damn, wizards and witches had no common sense… He reached up to rub his temple to ward off an impending headache, but Hedwig beat him to it and gently massaged his scalp. "You buried Harry Potter for sure. But I am Harry Potter. I didn't come back from the grave, but I am from another world."
"Explain…"
Harry relaxed for a moment, letting Hedwig's soft 'coos' and ministrations relax him. He sighed. "Remember when Albus died; we willed me his library?" he asked. McGonagall nodded. "There was a book in the collection that detailed a spell to open a portal to other worlds. And I…well…tried it."
A look of understanding dawned on McGonagall's face. "And you didn't exactly read the instructions." She really knew her former student well.
Harry nodded. "Well, I thought what it meant by other worlds was other planets. I didn't think it meant alternate realities," he explained. "So, I gathered anything I might need, prepared the ritual and cast the spell." Hedwig whimpered softly as Harry shooed her from his lap. He got up and fished his shrunken trunk from his pocket before enlarging it. He then dug through his trunk emerging a few seconds later with the book. Opening it to the page with the transit spell he handed it to McGonagall before taking his seat again. Hedwig immediately took her place in his lap again.
While she read the description of the spell, Harry went on. "As far as I can tell, the only real difference here is that I died by a Malfoy's hands some time ago during one of my visits to Diagon Alley. I'm guessing that it was six months ago?" he asked. McGonagall nodded. "Where I come from, I killed Malfoy instead. By the way, how exactly did he end up in power here?"
McGonagall marked her place in the book and looked at Harry solemnly. "He was already well entrenched in the ministry. After killing you, it was a simple matter of a coup and organizing his followers," she said.
Harry frowned. "That…sucks," he said simply. "Is it as bad as Diagon Alley everywhere?"
"Only to muggleborns," McGonagall said sadly. Harry's frown deepened. "I can't help my curiosity, Harry, but why exactly did you change Hedwig into a human?"
To his credit, Harry flushed with embarrassment. "Well, it was an accident actually," he explained. "Something happened to her in the portal, and when we woke up here, she was human."
McGonagall held the book up and pointed to the bold printed line that advised against taking anything alive.
"I know that now," Harry groused. "But it's a bit late to do anything about it, isn't it?"
McGonagall nodded and went back to reading the spell. An uncomfortable silence fell over the room like a wet blanket before Hedwig broke it.
She repositioned herself on Harry's lap and brought her face so close to his that their noses were touching. Harry noted vaguely that Hedwig's breath was minty fresh. "Harry okay?" Hedwig asked in her sing-song voice.
Harry smiled at her. "Harry okay," he parroted. "Hedwig okay?"
Hedwig paused and looked thoughtful, glancing at the ceiling as if looking for something in the air. "Hedwig was worried about Harry," she said. "Hedwig always worries for Harry."
Harry wrapped his friend in a hug. "Thank you, Hedwig," he said thickly. When he let her go, she, on an impulse, gave Harry a kiss on the cheek before settling back in his lap more comfortably. Harry couldn't help the blush that colored his cheeks. He just got kissed, though chastely, by his former owl. Only him…
"So, the spell will reactivate come the solar eclipse in five days then?" McGonagall asked.
Harry ruthlessly stuffed his thoughts about Hedwig away for another time to answer. "Uh…yeah. As far as I can tell it'll just pull me home when the time comes," he said. He paused, frowning with worry. "I'm more worried about Hedwig. I know she wasn't supposed to come in the first place, but will the spell take her back with me?"
"I would assume so," McGonagall said. "But I can't say for certain. I had never heard about this spell before now."
There were times that Harry swore he had a sixth sense for when situations would grow out of his control. It had started in his fourth year, right before his name had been spit from the goblet of fire. Then again, before the incident with the Dementors before fifteenth birthday, though it could have just been the Dementors themselves. Regardless, both times, and again just before he had 'defeated' Voldemort, Harry had a prickling feeling at the base of his neck. All three times, things rapidly became FUBAR. Thinking back to what McGonagall had said about 'the eclipse in five days', he had the feeling again.
"No." He said bluntly.
McGonagall blinked bemusedly. "Pardon me, Harry?"
"I said, no," Harry repeated.
"No what?"
"No I won't take Malfoy down," Harry said stubbornly.
The confused and startled expression on McGonagall's face was almost priceless. "How- how did you know what I was going to ask?"
Harry sighed and gritted his teeth. "I just knew somehow," he growled. Hedwig picked up on his distress and began to kiss his neck and jaw softly in an attempt to calm him down. It really wasn't helping; only getting him agitated in a different, but better way.
McGonagall spluttered for a moment before regaining her composure. "But Harry, you have to," she protested. "You're the only one who can!"
"Bullshit!" Harry argued back. "That right there is part of the reason I went into seclusion; people always wanting me to solve their problems for them. This isn't even my world!"
"Please Harry," McGonagall begged. "Malfoy has everyone but the purebloods so brow-beaten that no one will even consider fighting back. With your unique situation-"
Harry abruptly stood and snatched his book from the startled woman's hands. "I said no, and I meant no," he seethed, putting the book back in his trunk and shrinking it again. He put it back in his pocket then walked over and took Hedwig's hand before dragging her out of the room. "Thank you for saving us," he said curtly.
He ignored McGonagall's feeble attempts to call him back before exiting the wards of the house and apparating back to his home.
It wasn't a day later before Harry apparated back to Minerva's house, a resigned scowl on his face and Hedwig in tow.
"Fine," he bit out, when McGonagall answered the door. "But you owe me one."
Damn his 'saving people thing'…
