Chapter 7

It was a quiet crowd that had assembled in the Department of Mysteries ritual room. All of them people who knew Harry personally, at least a little bit. They didn't want to accidentally summon the wrong person because someone was thinking too much about Harry's legend and too little about Harry the person. Hermione had felt the need to check obsessively that they were arranged in perfect concentric circles, the entire time calming herself by keeping up a commentary on how muggles thought that arrangement would protect them. What nonsense. It was next to impossible to control a summoned being using the summoning ritual itself. That was why there were so many cautionary tales about people thinking they outwitted the summonee only to be stabbed in the back.

Ron stood at his position in the central circle across from Hermione, who was going to lead the ritual. With them in the central circle were his brothers and parents, Fleur, Luna, Neville, Harry's auror partner Terrence and Harry's ex-girlfriend Rhona. The more central the circle you were located in the better you knew Harry – roughly speaking. Ron knew quite a few people disagreed with having Terrence and Rhona in the central circle, but they knew parts of Harry the rest of them didn't know nearly as well. If Ginny was still around she would have been a better choice than Rhona, but she wasn't. Ron would defend Hermione's choice of organizing the people close to Harry to anyone who challenged her. He had spent every evening since last Wednesday discussing options with her. The last thing she needed now, just before the ritual, was uncertainty. Luckily, people seemed to understand that, so everyone was waiting quietly.

"I'm ready," his brilliant wife declared.

The already quiet atmosphere tensed to a single minded focus directed at the salt circle. Hermione nodded to herself at their determination.

"Start," she said.

Ron immediately pointed his wand at the salt circle directing his magic into it while thinking hard about Harry. Harry who had been his best friend since they were first years together. Harry who had always forgiven his stupid moments. Harry who always did the right thing in the end. Harry who always found a reason to keep on going. But also Harry who could blow up spectacularly. Harry who was still not convinced that a lot of his actions were unusual. Harry who had grown hard and unyielding to pleas for second chances since Ginny's death. Harry in all his facets, Ron's best friend.

Ron couldn't tell if the ritual was in a foreign language or if he was too focused to understand what Hermione was saying. But he could tell that the magic around him was reacting, resonating with a feel of Harry Ron couldn't put in words, building stronger and stronger, focused on the salt circle until it disappeared with a whoosh. Silence filled the room as every single person there waited to see if they had succeed.


Harry was torn. They were finally attacking the Order in their strong hold. While he had no love left for the local Order and was really looking forward to getting a shot at Molly Weasley, he still hadn't quite processed the fact that he was fighting for Voldemort. Well, it was too late to back out now. Voldemort had had a basic plan of action for a very long time, the only thing it had been missing was for a way past the wards to send an infiltration team into the castle, while the main force attacked from the front. With Snape having found and fixed the vanishing cabinet at Hogwarts and it's counterpart moved to an unused safe house in the middle of a forest, they were all ready to go. That was where Harry was now with the rest of the infiltration team: Three marked Death Eaters and five unmarked aurors.

"Everyone aware of the plan?" Rookwood asked. As one of the senior Death Eaters and a scary fighter he was in charge of this team.

"Yes," was chorused back at him.

"Very well," Rookwood said, "Potter don't forget to send the signal when you reach the entrance hall."

Harry who had long entered work mode to push aside his mixed feelings nodded sharply, tapping a bracelet with the Dark Mark, just as it heated up – the signal to go. Immediately all nine of them were on alert, the Death Eaters notified through their marks and the aurors through their bracelets like Harry's. As one they turned to the vanishing cabinet while applying a not-here-tag to themselves. The woman closest to the cabinet stepped through first. Silently the rest of the team followed. They arrived in a modified toilet stall, meaning the toilet had been removed and the vanishing cabinet placed there instead. Stepping out of the stall Harry recognized the bathroom as Moaning Myrtle's with the ghost girl tethered to the toilet in the stall across from the cabinet. She was staring at them in horror attempting to shout but no sound came out. Silenced, too, then. As Voldemort had organized a very convenient entry location for them, Harry stepped over to the broken sink.

°Open,° he hissed making the aurors jump and the Death Eaters look at him as the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets rumbled open.

"No time to stare," Rookwood growled at them quietly, "we need to get going."

This time there was no chorus of "yes" but only sharp nods all around.

Harry ignored them and jumped down the pipe hissing a °close° as he went. This way into the Chamber of Secrets definitely did not improve over time, the pipe was still as slimy as ever. Harry hurried past the cave in and into the main chamber.

°Angel, are you around?° he shouted.

°Harry!° came the overjoyed voice of the basilisk, °You came back.°

°I did,° Harry agreed, °I need your help. I want to attack those that poisoned me. Voldemort already is helping me with his people but if you could help as well that would be great. I've also found a place for you to stay outside Hogwarts if you want.°

°You did? I knew it was a good idea to trust you. Of course I'll help,° Angel said in delight and continued without pause, °Why do you smell a bit like Voldemort? You didn't when you came here last.°

Giving her question a moment of thought he held out his bracelet to her, °Is this where Voldemort's scent is coming from?°

°Yes,° Angel bobbed her head excitedly.

'That makes things so much easier,' Harry thought.

°Angel, I will need to blindfold you once we leave the Chamber of Secrets, so you don't kill any of our allies accidentally. You can tell them from the people that poisoned me by scent. If they don't smell a bit like Voldemort they are poisoners, OK?° he instructed the snake.

°Okay,° Angel agreed cheerfully.

°Good, now can you take me to the exit closest to the great hall?°

°Great hall?°

°Where the humans eat.°

°Oh! The feeding room. Follow me,° Angel said slithering off leaving Harry to hurry after her.

°Here it is,° Angel announced after a few minutes of navigating the twists and turns of Hogwarts plumbing. Thank goodness the section Angel used was very high and not used for its intended purpose. Harry carefully squeezed past her to the exit.

°I'm going to cover your eyes now,° he told Angel conjuring a large piece of black cloth. Obediently Angel brought her head closer to Harry allowing him to tie the improvised blindfold around her head. Once he convinced himself it was secure he made an educated guess as to the password of the exit.

°Open,° Harry watched satisfied, wand ready, as the wall in front of him moved to the side. Taking a few steps forward he peered out of he exit to see where they were. It took him a moment, but then he recognized the little antechamber where McGonagall had made the first years wait before the sorting.

°Follow me, and don't attack until I tell you to,° he told Angel quietly. Picking up on the importance of stealth Angel's hissed answer of °yes° was even quieter. As silently as possible Harry walked through the room Angel following exactly in his footsteps thus cleverly avoiding hitting any furniture. Just as Harry reached the door that should lead to the entrance hall he remembered the open passageway.

°Wait a moment,° he told Angel and walking back to the passageway exit hissed, °close.° With a rumble of stone the exit did exactly that.

°Angel, when I call you, follow me and attack anyone that doesn't smell like Voldemort, okay?°

°Yesss!° came the excited reply.

Soundlessly, Harry stepped up to the door again and traced the frame with his wand. The spell he cast modified the door so that it would open both ways. Handy for situations exactly like this one where one group was wanting to ambush those on the other side and didn't want to loose precious seconds pulling open the door. Conveniently, it would also allow Angel to just push the door open when he called for her. Tapping his Dark Mark bracelet three times in rapid succession he sent a signal to his team informing them that he had arrived at the entrance hall with Angel.

Disillusioning and silencing himself he cautiously poked his head and wand hand out the door. A quick "homenum revelio" told him the entrance hall didn't only look empty but was empty. Good. If they were lucky that meant that the rest of the infiltration team hadn't been discovered yet. Either way it meant that Harry could safely slide out of the room and position himself across the hall where he would have a good view of both the grand staircase, entrance doors and corridors leading to the entrance hall. A perfect position to ambush any Order members crossing the hall. Harry was hoping to pick off as many as he could before they arrived in a group large enough that he would be spotted and forced to call Angel for help. He had no illusions that he could adhere to an incapacitate-only policy and survive.

He was in position for a few minutes when "GONG!" the sound of the advance forces attacking Hogwarts' wards resonated through the castle.

"Attention!" boomed Dumbledore's voice barely a second after the after the noise had died down. "Report to your defensive," "GONG!" "posts. We are under attack!"

Harry could hear foot steps running towards the entrance hall. McGonagall and Flitwick coming down the grand staircase he easily recognized, the thin, dark haired man arriving from the dungeons not so much. With patience won from years of practice he bid his time. "GONG!" The trio hurried faster. The moment their backs were turned on him he fired.

"Avada kedavra," he thought hard three times in rapid succession. So fast in fact that before the first curse had hit it's target, Flitwick who was slower due to his short legs, the second and third curse were already on their way. "GONG!" Covered the sound of Flitwick's body hitting the floor. But it didn't matter. The other two were hit before the thump could have been heard.

Not wasting any time Harry summoned Flitwick's body to himself, disillusioned it and banished it to a corner. He managed to do the same to McGonagall and was about to get to the unknown man when "GONG!" the noise of the wards being attacked obscured the sound of the newest arrival – Moody.

Lightning fast he pointed his wand at Moody and shot another acid green killing curse at the ex-auror. Having seen the corpse Moody was not taken by surprise and evaded the curse by a hair's breadth. Immediately he fired a bright yellow curse back at Harry, his magical eye not fooled by Harry's disillusionment. Suppressing the urge to curse Harry jumped out of the way of the malicious spell while shooting a rotting curse at Moody's wooden leg.

"Attacking from the shadows, eh?" Moody shouted over another earsplitting "GONG!" while dodging. "That might have gotten Lewis but not me!"

An orange streak of light speed towards Harry from his right, a couple more spells cast by the arriving Order members missed him by a wide margin. Hastily he summoned McGonagall's corpse into the path of the orange spell. She exploded in a shower of gore, the disillusionment failing under the strain of the spell. Moody startled at the violent impact of the curse allowing Harry to "GONG!" sneak in a bone breaker. Seeing the spell coming Moody dove out of the line of fire but he wasn't fast enough, the spell hit his good leg. To buy himself some time to get off the floor Moody cast a shield spell and several of the new arrivals sent spells in the general direction of Harry's last known position, who had long since moved. In full sprint he cast a killing curse at Moody this time hitting him full on shield or no shield.

Harry did not stop running until he was halfway around the hall, disillusionment and silencing spells hiding his position. Taking a moment to catch his breath he evaluated the situation. As soon as he cast a spell the defenders would know where he was and fire at him. If he waited too long someone would cast a "homenum revelio", find out where he was and fire at him. Or worst case "GONG!" they would form a team to seal the doors and a team to defend as they were doing now. A small group had turned towards the doors and the rest had formed an outward facing circle to defend them.

Thinking quickly Harry summoned Flitwick's corpse. It's flight path made it crash into the sealing team from the left disrupting their spell. As Harry had hoped the defenders all turned towards the invisible obstacle allowing Harry to shoot a blasting curse at the floor beneath the sealing teams feet, throwing them into further disarray.

Unfortunately, more people were arriving in the entrance hall by the minute, one of whom had seen from where the spell came. Again Harry had to run from his position to ensure that he didn't get hit by enemy fire. He was aided by the loud "GONG!" followed by an ominous "KRIK!" sound signifying the wards straining under the Death Eater's attack. A "BANG!" loud like a gun firing echoed through all of Hogwarts as the wards fell.

The Order refocused on securing the doors, with a large group shooting spells into Harry's general vicinity meaning he had to focus on evading the spells and random debris caused by explosions and didn't have time to attack the sealing team.

°Angel, now!° Harry called his voice amplified by a "sonorus" instead of silenced.

A gigantic basilisk bursting out of the side chamber certainly provided a great distraction but wasn't enough to stop the sealing team.

°Straight ahead of you. Get them,° Harry directed her towards the sealing team. The spells shot at her by the defenders did little to deter her. Especially since they were careful not to accidentally disintegrate her blindfold. It did mean that the sealing team was out of the way by the time Harry directed her to bite down. However, the sealing of the doors was disrupted and that was all he needed. With the attention on Angel he snuck closer to the sealing team. Taking careful aim he shot a killing curse at one of the members. His target evaded the spell but the defender behind her was not so lucky. His position given away again Harry had to avoid several incoming spells, finally having to shield against one. The caster of that spell quickly followed up catching Harry with a flaying spell. Luckily, the spell wasn't very powerful only removing the skin in the immediate vicinity of where it hit his leg, but it broke his disillusionment.

°Angel, follow me!° Harry shouted buying himself the moment he needed to get into the great hall while his attackers tried to fend her off. His job in the entrance hall was done anyway, Harry thought with a self satisfied smirk as he heard the entrance doors being blown open.


Molly arrived in the entrance hall just in time for her to see that man, the man who had killed her Bill, run into the great hall a gigantic basilisk guarding his retreat. Resolutely, she tightened her grip on her wand, disillusioned herself and ran after him. Now she would finally have the chance to rectify her earlier mistake. The basilisk was thoroughly distracted by the other Order members firing spell after spell at it so Molly could slip into the great hall unnoticed. Upon seeing the scene that greeted her she almost faltered in her determination to kill her Bill's murderer. Only a small number of people had made it past the basilisk, but the hand full that had made it were all engaging the murderer. Said murderer was demonstrating why the ritual had deemed him capable of killing Voldemort. Despite being outnumbered the murderer was holding his own. By deflecting spells and keeping close to one of of his attackers at all times he was making it supremely difficult to get in a shot that did not risk hitting an ally. In contrast the murderer's offensive spells were primarily wide area spells that damaged the surroundings as much as they did his attackers. Stepping out of the path of a stray spell, Molly took careful aim, it wouldn't do to hit one of her allies.

Due to her focus on the fight in front of her she failed to notice the basilisk. With Voldemort's main forces streaming into the entrance hall the defenders had been momentarily distracted allowing Angel to follow Harry. She now surveyed the scene before her. Flicking her tongue she could smell Harry and a few poisoners surrounding him. If she attacked those she risked biting Harry instead, since being blind messed up her aim. But luck was on her side. Right in front of her was another poisoner. With a hiss of delight she snapped forward biting down on the poisoner. Molly was dead so fast she never knew what hit her.


Voldemort entered the castle with the main body of his forces. So far his plan of attack was working out well. Harry and the astronomy tower team had prevented the entrance doors from being sealed and greatly reduced the number of attacks on his army while they were outside and without cover. Inside Harry was no where to be seen, but his next job was to secure the great hall with Angel. Considering she was headed there that part of the plan was looking good. At least right up until the moment the back line defenders managed to send stunners at her simultaneously. Angel collapsed with a thud, blocking the way into the great hall in the process.

Nonetheless, Harry and Angel had done a lot of damage to the Order's line of defense. Individual Order members were holding up well against the assault, but most of the defenders were civilians trained by civilians. In contrast, his army was primarily made up of aurors with those of his Death Eaters truly gifted at fighting thrown in. Whatever kind of defense the Order could form was quickly crumbling beneath the coordinated assault.

"Tom!"

Voldemort glanced up the grand stair case.

"Dumbledore," he replied evenly. They had been at this for way too long for him to be easily riled by Dumbledore's mind games.

"Is this really necessary, Tom?"

"I could ask you the same. Attacking innocent by-standers? Risking the lives of children? Ripping someone from their home dimension and then poisoning them when they don't appreciate it? I think this is necessary."

A pained look flashed across Dumbledore's face, but he caught himself quickly and joined the fray. It was no use though. Dumbledore was only one man, and he couldn't turn the tide of the battle on his own. His larger than life reputation ensured that every one of the invaders that could spare a moment shot a killing curse at the Headmaster. He couldn't defend against all of them. In short order the invading force either incapacitated or killed all the Order members in the entrance hall. From there they spread out in teams of six to track down anyone elsewhere in the castle and dismantle any traps. Voldemort waved over a few of his people helping with securing the prisoners.

"On my count of three shoot an 'rennervate' at the basilisk," he ordered.

The men and women exchanged uneasy glances but pointed their wands at the serpent.

"One, two, three – rennervate!"

The red bolts hit Angel simultaneously jolting her out of her enforced unconsciousness. She immediately reared up and lunged for something in the great hall.

"Return to your previous tasks," Voldemort dismissed his helpers. In a few quick strides he entered the great hall behind Angel. He found Harry battling two witches and a wizard lying on the ground just returning to consciousness. Voldemort killed the man before he could interfere with the fight drawing attention to himself. The shorter of the two witches immediately sent a purple curse his way. Voldemort easily side stepped the curse and sent a curse of his own at her. He had as little luck as the witch had had, but Harry had used the short distraction to finish off his opponent and continue on to curse the one focused on Voldemort in the back.

°Excellent work, Harry,° Voldemort told him, °all that is left is clean-up.° He took a moment to look around. There were a few more bodies, two with obvious bite marks one of which had a head full of red hair. Flicking his wand, Voldemort levitated the body up to see the face.

°It looks like Angel got to Mrs. Weasley before you could,° he mused.

°Ah, too bad,° Harry replied then turned to Angel, °Thank you.°

The basilisk hissed in pleasure.

°Now we round up the remaining Order members?°

°Yes. Hopefully this will be the last we see of this resistance.°

°That's way too optimistic.°

°I shall hope for the best and plan for the worst, like always.°


Harry was not involved in the clean up after the attack on Hogwarts. Molly Weasley was dead and the Order defeated, that was enough for him. Instead he was getting Angel comfortable in her new home in the forest near where Voldemort lived. A win-win situation. Angel could finally explore a new area and not hide under the school and Voldemort got an extra dangerous guard pet. Harry wondered how long Voldemort would put up with him in his house. At some point he had to get fed up with Harry living off him, but for now Voldemort didn't bring it up so Harry stayed silent.

Idly, Harry watched Angel slither across the forest floor studying her new home. It was surprisingly peaceful, far away from people that reminded him of how he couldn't speak to anyone but snakes and Voldemort. Angel was much less demanding now she was convinced he wouldn't leave her all alone under the school.

°They don't all run away from me!° Angel exclaimed excitedly curling around Harry.

°Who is they?° Harry asked amused.

°The animals. At Hogwarts the animals in the forbidden forest always hid the moment they realized I was out hunting.°

°I'm sure you can scare this forest into submission, too,° he replied.

°Yes! But hunting is much harder then,° she agreed.

°You are up to the task, I'm sure.°

°Of course I am!°

A familiar tug around Harry's mid section interrupted them. It felt like a port key but went on forever.

'Please let it be Ron and Hermione. Please let it be Ron and Hermione. Please let it be home. Please let it be them,' Harry thought fervently as the tug went on and on. Finally, he slammed onto hard ground, still in the same sitting position he had been summoned from. Many familiar faces stared at him, none more so than Hermione who was right in front of him.

"Harry?" she asked.

Harry nodded.

"Our Harry?"

Harry shrugged. He hoped this was his Hermione but didn't know yet. At least this time there were no people around that were supposed to be dead. Slowly, to not startle anyone he pulled his wand out and pointed it at the floor. A practiced swishing motion and a piece of parchment, a quill and some ink appeared. He wrote out: "If you were trying to summon a Harry Potter back then I might be."

Hermione read the parchment, then looked at him critically.

"Did Dolohov manage to injure you after all?"

Harry shook his head and wrote some more: "I was in battle mode from chasing Dolohov when I left. Got hit by a cutting curse to the throat on the other side. The Healer said it can be fixed soon."

"Good," Hermione said, then she repeated, "it really is you? The Harry that was summoned away?"

"Date I left?" Harry wrote out. He paused a moment, then added, "and today?"

"You disappeared on the 12.07.2004. Today is two weeks later so 31.07.2004," Hermione answered promptly.

The 12th was the day he had left his home dimension. And he had been chasing down Dolohov. Slowly Harry began to smile.

"Oh, Harry. I'm so glad that worked," Hermione knelt down and hugged him, "I was so worried that you might not want to come back because of Ginny." Harry snorted. Nothing could have made him stay in that dimension. No matter how reasonable the local Voldemort was.

"That's what I told her," Ron joined them from behind. "Anyway, how do you get yourself into these kind of things?"

Harry shrugged. It did little to dislodge the two, but it wasn't meant to either. For the moment he just wanted to bask in the presence of the two best friends he could wish for, in any dimension.


AN: Thats it. Harry is home now so the rest is up to your imagination .

Thank you to everyone who showed their appreciation, especially those of you that reviewed.

And once again thanks to my betas Slytherclaw and KaGoGoGadgetMe for helping me improve this story.