Chapter 3 The Only Difference between Martyrdom and Suicide is…

A word on Travel: Just as a precaution, I'm not a big fan of long chapters talking about people running through forests. I got an Anonymous Reviewer who heavily criticized me for not writing those scenes in, instead just filling in the gaps with other character POVs and scene changes. As a reader's preference, I personally would prefer to know what's going on somewhere else rather than watch a guy walk through a forest. I mean, this isn't Golden Sun or Pokemon, so Harry isn't going to get the message " Wild Death Eater Appears!" while walking in the woods.

Harry grunted as he extracted his own blood with syringe end of the calligraphic rune pen. It hurt more than Dumbledore said it would. A LOT more. He watched as his own blood dripped from the pen, before flipping through the book, Rune Reader.

Rune Reader basically a starter's guide to crafting your own runes. But it was also a good translating tool for runes that most people don't know. Although Rune Readers can understand runes, they can't always write them without knowing what they mean.

Dumbledore guided Harry, " Now, you can write runes on any surface. If they are written in blood, they will hold their power, no matter the medium used. Certain types of elemental runes can be made using the wand. For example, one can use a modified version of the Flamethrower curse to craft runes in the air of fire. But those elemental runes can only be used for certain purposes."

Harry nodded, and put the calligraphy pen on a piece of parchment. The book was much larger after you became a Reader, as it contained nearly every known type of rune. He decided to write one using the Japanese runes, better known as Kanji. He wrote fire blast on the parchment, and walked outside. He wrote a triggering rune on his finger, and threw the parchment on the ground next to a stack of wood he had prepared specially for this purpose. He pressed the trigger rune, and waited.

Instantaneously, a large blast of fire burst forth in a miniature mushroom cloud, lighting the wet wood on fire, and it was burning quite hotly. He smiled as he thought of the many ways this could be used. Traps in particular.

Dumbledore called to him, " Harry! Since you are now a Rune Reader, I can call Severus, and tell him to go to you and help you with the ritual. The ritual is a two man operation, so it is imperative that he help you."

Harry didn't like the idea, but supposed that he was stuck with it. Dumbledore continued, " Severus says that he's bringing a little company. Female company."

" It better not be Hermione. If it is, I'll kill her right in front of his face. I'm not afraid to do it Dumbledore."

Dumbledore chuckled, " Rest assured, Severus said that the two girls are from your year, but not your house. So, maybe things will be a little better for you?"

Harry frowned as Dumbledore left to tell Snape to get ready. Who were these two girls? Oh well, as long as it isn't those two, I don't care. Better get back to those runes. Harry spent the next hour using combinations of runes to silence explosions.

( Spinner's End)

Snape hustled quickly into the house, announcing his presence, and shouting, " Tracey! Daphne! Get down here now!"

Daphne came down first, her normally sleek and shiny blonde hair in tangles, " What are you doing here at eight in the morning?"

Snape scowled, " If you were still at Hogwarts, it wouldn't be so hard on you."

" If we were still at Hogwarts, we may as well be dead."

Unfortunately, Severus agreed. The Carrows had taken over two positions at Hogwarts, and they loved to give detentions. Those detentions involved torture, and some students, mostly muggle-born, had gone 'missing' after detentions with them. Purebloods who supported Potter, or were neutral, were known to disappear as well. Snape shuddered a little.

" Get ready you two. We're going to go meet Potter today. I've heard he's been pretty moody, but in a very different way than he used to be. Be careful. Especially you Daphne, I am your Godfather, and I wouldn't want your father's trust in me to go to waste because of Potter."

Tracy laughed, " I agree with Severus. Wouldn't want Potter blowing your head off because he thinks you're Granger like he tried to do with Lestrange."

Daphne scowled, " I would be more worried about you, Tracy, than me. Your hair is straight, and darker, but if he could confuse Lestrange for Granger, then I shudder to think what he would do to someone who actually looks anything close to her."

Snape finished gathering some potions, and his own Rune Reader and Calligraphy pen, shouting, " Come on girls! We have a meeting in the Forest of Dean."

( Harry)

Alarms went off as he heard three small pops outside of his tent, and Snape muttering, " Dumbledore said the tent was right here. No way the boy could cast a Fidelus on his own tent, by himself, and I don't think he would have the patience to do it either."

Harry burst out of the tent, " Concealment Runes. Can't have an encounter like the one I had with Bella again now can I?"

He gestured at the two girls, " Who are these two? I kind of recognize them, but not really."

Snape cut off a hasty remark from Daphne, " This is Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis. You probably recognize them from being Slytherins in your year. There is a background story to me taking them in, so…"

The blonde said in a cheerful voice, " I'm Daphne, and yes, there are people in Slytherin other than Malfoy and his cronies. "

Harry shrugged, " I do kind of remember you now. Ice Queen right?"

Daphne giggled, " He remembers! So clever for a Gryffindor!"

Harry hissed, " Hey, if it hadn't been for Hagrid and Weasley telling me only dark wizards came from Slytherin, I would have been one, so. …"

Snape cut in, " Yes….I recall having that conversation with Albus. He was pleased that his little plan for you to end up in Gryffindor worked, but he wasn't pleased about how your talents were being squandered by the end of the year. He was considering changing you to Slytherin, but by then, you had made enemies with Draco, and your life would have been complete misery if he had. More than it already is, I should say."

Harry nodded, " The Hat stands by what he said. I could have been great in Slytherin, but I ended up in Gryffindor instead."

Snape suddenly spoke up, " Alright, enough of the chit-chat! We have business to attend to. Where is Slytherin's Locket?"

Harry pulled the locket off, " Right here. Ever since I got rid of those fools, the effects of wearing it are gone. Like I'm immune to it now."

Snape sneered, " Interesting, but only someone like you would do that. By the way, don't say the Dark Lord's name. It's been Tabooed. It wouldn't do for DEs to show up in the middle of the ritual."

Harry laughed, " I know! The Dark Lord knew about Dumbledore's whole ' Fear of the name only increases the fear of the object' speech and was trying to capitalize on both mine and his efforts to convince people not to use the epithets. Amazing what you can learn when you have a Portrait of one of the most prestigious liars in the universe, and he can't lie because he's dead."

Snape shrugged, " I can see how that can be useful."

Harry saw Snape pull out his copy of Rune Reader, and just like the Half-Blood Prince's book ( considering they were the same person), it had hundreds of little annotations written in it. Snape pulled out a pamphlet of papers, laid them out, and order Harry, Daphne, and Tracy to memorize it. Snape got his Calligraphy pen, and began to draw runes akin to the ones Harry had seen in the back of the book, in a section called Fictional Runes.

Harry saw Snape inscribing the runes for Truth, Revelation, Seeking, and Purging. He was making about the first of what Harry knew was going to be seven circles. One for each of the Horcruxes, even the ones that were already destroyed.

Harry heard Snape order him to start writing the circles for destruction. It was painstaking, labor intensive, and mind consuming. Each symbol, especially the ones that he had to combine to make work, had to be drawn exactly right. Not exactly the way a novice would want to start their career is it? A ritual that might kill you if the symbol for destruction ( the planetary symbol of Saturn) was slightly more curvy than it should be, in one of hundreds of repetitions.

Snape took back over after Harry had finished the fourteenth circle of Destruction. He was writing the Runes for Restoration. The ritual was to be two-fold. All the horcruxes would be destroyed, but all the soul pieces would be returned to Voldemort. In the process, his humanity would be restored, as well as his original body. That was the downside. The upside was that Harry didn't have to be a martyr for a cause he really didn't want any part of. The Greater Good no longer held much taste in his mouth. His Own Good tasted much better.

Snape motioned for Harry to place the Locket in the center of the Circles. Harry walked over, careful not to touch any of the now glowing runes of drying blood. Harry drew the connection star in the middle to connect each circle to the Locket. This part was extremely delicate, because Harry couldn't disturb the circles by walking on them or touching them.

He was beginning to sweat as he drew the twentieth connector. He was sweating profusely by the time he finished the twenty first. Snape took over, beginning to wire the circles together into the same trigger. This process alone took an entire hour.

Harry frowned as he helped Snape finish the last trigger, which they then drew on a piece of charred wood from one of Harry's earlier experimentations. Snape said, " Harry. I think you should be the one to trigger the circles."

Harry noticed that this was the first time he had ever heard Snape say his first name, and not immediately following it with his last name. Harry drew the last rune, and pressed it with the golden wand.

The first sign it was working was the gathering of clouds above them. A dry thunderstorm. Thunder boomed in the distance as the winds began to pick up.

The winds blew forcefully, sweeping the leaves and grass up into a mini-tornado around them. All around Britain, these winds were blowing. They were the portents of coming disaster. A more fitting name, was the Winds of Fate.

The Lightning came. It wasn't purple like normal lightning. It was blood red. It struck at the circles haphazardly, but did not damage to them. A howling came with the next gust of wind. Harry saw a small cloud of black enter the Locket of Slytherin. Then another, and another. Two more came after that, when Harry fell to the ground, clenching his scar in pain.

His entire life flashed before his eyes. Every memory, from his earliest, to his most recent. He saw his parents die again. He saw Sirius falling through the Arch. He saw Ron and Hermione turning on him. His anger erupted, forcing a cloud of black smoke out of his scar. Then, there was silence.

The Locket seemed to draw in energy, before exploding spectacularly. The wisps of smoke gathered into a large clump, and disappeared. Harry was gasping for air. Dumbledore said it would be a painful experience, but not this damn painful! What part of he didn't want to relive some of those memories doesn't anyone seem to understand damn it?

Snape pulled out a potion, forced him to drink it, and he immediately felt better. Snape cursed, " Damn, Potter! I didn't think it would be that bad."

" Me either, Snape."

Snape clenched his left arm, cursing again, " Fuck, the Dark Lord must already have felt the after effects of the ritual. Read this, memorize it, and then Apparate with Daphne and Tracey to it,", he instructed, handing Harry a small slip of paper. It said, "Severus Snape's safehouse can be found at 13 Spinner's End."

The place began to take formation in Harry's mind. He shrunk the tent, put it in his pocket, and shouted at Daphne, " Greengrass! Get Davis, and come over here! We're getting out of this place!"

Harry roughly grabbed them just in time for them to Disapparate. They appeared outside of a small, but certainly livable house in a small town Muggle backwater burg. He exhaustedly twisted the handle, stalked in, held the door for the two girls, and closed the door. He felt the wards reform, and that the house was once again completely hidden to anyone. He passed out on the couch in the living room.

( The Dark Lord)

Voldemort was looking at his body. Suddenly, he no longer had the snake like aperture that his conjured body was. Instead, he looked like his twenty-five year old self from before he made the Hufflepuff Horcrux. He summoned his DEs, and the effect was noticeable. Loyal Bellatrix even attacked him. He was inclined to let the infraction slide, because most of them hadn't heard of him when he made that Horcrux.

Snape commented, " You look smashing, milord."

Voldemort answered, " Why thank you Severus. I've been parading around in that monstrosity of a body for so long, I forgot what it was like to look good."

Narcissa muttered nervously, causing Lucius to cut a glare at the beautiful woman. Voldemort laughed, " It is ok, Narcissa. Many of the females I went to school with were of the same opinion you are. Lucius, if I could borrow your wife tonight, would you mind?"

Lucius did indeed mind, but he knew better than to deny his lord anything, even his own wife. Voldemort smiled, " Good. I feel like a teen again, as much as I loathe to say it."

Snape heard that, and thought, Doesn't sound like he loathes it. Sounds like he can't wait to have a go at a woman I would chop my nuts off to have a chance with. But he kept that thought to himself, instead asking if that was all. Voldemort answered, " Yes. I think it is."

Just before he Apparated out, Snape heard the Dark Lord mutter to Narcissa, " Tonight, you can call me Tom."

( Harry)

Harry instantly woke up to the sound of the wards, and had both his wands out, ready to attack, when Snape came walking in. Snape shouted, " I'm back!"

" I know, you greasy bat. What happened?"

Snape frowned, " Call me Severus while we are here, and I'll call you Harry, though I much prefer Potter."

" Alright Severus. What happened?"

" Well, looks like Dumbledore was right. The Dark Lord now has the body of a twenty five year old Tom Riddle. I think Narcissa Malfoy is finding out right now just how handsome Tom was back then,", Snape commented. Harry knew what he was talking about. The memories had shown him, and Tom was indeed a man blessed by good looks, better than Sirius had been.

Severus broke his thoughts, " Remus wants to see you. Something about becoming the new leader of the Order."

Harry sighed, " Great. Like I really wanted to lead the order of the Grilled Chicken."

Severus laughed, " That assessment is correct, though some of the vengeful members were particularly pleased with your edicts. "

Harry chuckled. Of course they were! Dumbledore had them doing absolutely nothing while people were being killed. Snape pulled out a bone white wand, " Potter. This is called the Elder wand. Are you familiar with its origins?"

" The Three Brothers Peverell? From Beedle's tales? Death forged a wand out of a stick of wood in the River Styx?"

" Sounds about right. Well, Dumbledore intended for it to either die with me, or for you to have it. He recently came to the conclusion that it would be best that you have it, since your Invisibility Cloak is one of the Hallows as well. That ring that cursed Dumbledore is one. Give me that Snitch Dumbledore gave you,", Severus demanded.

Harry pulled it out of his pocket, along with the instructions, " I open at the fall."

Severus sneered, " How cunning. Dumbledore really thought that someone couldn't get this open before?"

" Well, at first, I didn't even know that they could store things. But then, me and the other two tried all that we could to open it, but it wouldn't."

Snape laughed, " Well, we are Rune Readers, and we both know Runes for opening. Give it a try, do you see anything around the snitch?"

Harry looked closely, and noticed a small locking rune, and a small time rune that was keyed to his sense of desperation rotating around it. Harry pulled out his pen, and wrote two breaking runes. The first destroyed the locking rune, and the second disabled the time rune. The snitch cracked open.

In his palm, was the Resurrection Stone, split completely in half. Harry pulled his cloak out, and saw it begin to shimmer when placed next to the stone. It began to turn black when Snape placed the Elder Wand next to it. The Resurrection Stone began to mend together as well. Snape commented, " Well, this is interesting. All three Hallows in this room together. Well, Harry. Dumbledore intended for you to become the Master of Death. To do so, you would have to best me in a duel. I won't hold back."

Harry laughed, " Well, I'm going to hold off on that for a little while. I don't think I'm good enough to take you down yet."

A tinkling voice laughed from the stairs, and they both turned to see Daphne and Tracy watching them. Tracy yelled, " You can take him Potter! We know you can."

Snape joked, " I'm sure he could. His mother could take me, I can tell you that."

Daphne quipped, " I'm sure she could."

Harry was lost, " What?"

Severus turned back, " I will show you the memories later, but for now, we need to get to Grimmauld Place. Remus and the others who remain will be waiting for us."

" So I go from martyrdom to suicide?"

Snape smiled, " I don't think there's much of a difference do you? Other than press coverage that is."

" I totally agree. The only difference between martyrdom and suicide is press coverage."

A/N: Alright, up next is Harry's first confrontation with his old friends, and he finally takes up the mantle as leader of the Light.