Hi :/

Uh yeah, I know. These last few weeks have just disappeared, all my friends are turning 18 and I'm getting loads of work at A2 and I'm a professional procrastinator so... yeah. Will try and get the next chapter up sooner. Sorry.

Anyway, fight scene (don't think it's very good, I've never really written one before) so I hope you enjoy (even if it is really short, but I kinda had to stop it there, you'll see what I mean)

Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Harry Potter's breath stuttered in his chest as he looked blearily up at the Death Muncher standing over him. The look of anger on his face sent horror rippling through Harry's body as he tried to remember how to understand the words they were saying to him.

Regret was one of them. Lies was another. Death made his whole body shudder, but for some reason he couldn't remember why.

Was this what it was like to lose your mind?

Harry felt pushed to try to remember a time where he hadn't been lying naked, tied in coarse ropes which had rubbed his wrists raw, on an uncomfortable bed of sticks and mud.

When he strained, he remembered red hair and green eyes, accompanied by a large feeling in his chest. He didn't know why it hurt to remember this.

Another memory, this time of round glasses and a smile, and a feeling of being protected. He knew this feeling was wrong – he would never be safe again.

The memories hurt, so much... So Harry closed his eyes against the crucio, forgetting how to scream, and gave in to the familiar blackness...

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

James Potter pushed his round glasses further up his nose, his smile non-existent. He looked around at the determined faces of his companions, as they listened to his son's impostor.

How dare he look so comfortable in a place his son never would... How dare he look so much like him that he sometimes forgot that he wasn't. How dare he stand there while his son was being tortured – maybe even killed.

James Potter could not look the other Harry in the eye, but stared at the floor as they were informed of the plan – Step 1: Apparate into the clearing; a complete image of which would be given to them by Draco Malfoy in a pensieve. Step 2: Find Harry, and get him out of there (this would be Lily's job). Step 3: Capture the Death Eaters present.

Simple enough, James thought, but what if it isn't? What if Harry isn't there? What if he's- He couldn't even bring himself to think of the possibility of his son's death. And if it is so bloody simple, why haven't we done it yet?!

Scowling, he gripped his wand tighter, and waited impatiently to act.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Nott kicked the unresponsive body of the Potter boy, a deep scowl on his face. He was sick of not receiving any answers except ridiculous lies about alternative universes from the brat. The boy's scar had not returned, even after he had scrubbed at his forehead with a stick. Why wouldn't Potter just tell the truth?!

He needed veritaserum.

Conjouring a patronus, he sent a message to another Death Eater hideaway, where Snape had stayed for a while. They probably had some of the truth serum.

I have Potter. He has no scar, and is telling me nothing but lies. Need some veritaserum to make him tell the truth. Nott.

His message was received quickly by another hideaway, by a large group of approximately fifteen of the remaining Death Eaters.

"Nott has the Potter boy?" one of the Death Eaters hissed. "That useless pile of mould managed to capture the Potter boy? I don't believe it. I have to see this."

With a scornful snort, the man disapperated, quickly followed by the remaining Death Eaters in the hideaway, who wouldn't let them have all the fun...

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"Finally!" James Potter breathed, twisting his body as several others around him did the same, disappearing into the void and reappearing quickly in an irritatingly familiar circle of trees – The other Harry had made them rewatch the memory seven times to make sure the place was firmly in their minds. As if they could forget somewhere which felt so evil, even just in a memory.

Looking around, he noticed the hut from the memory, pulling out his wand as he saw someone come out of it...

Pop

Pop

Pop

Suddenly, they were surrounded. There were Death Eaters everywhere, all around them. Many appeared suddenly in the clearing as if they had been informed of their arrival, or had been anticipating them. Another load of them began running out of the hut, bringing their numbers up further until they were easily outnumbered, twelve of them to at least twenty of the enemy.

And James spied at the edge of the clearing, a small curled up body, whose hair was all over the place, and whose wrists were tied together. And who didn't seem to be moving, had not noticed their sudden appearance...

A jolt of terror ran through him at the sight, and the thought that accompanied it. He took a step forward and was suddenly surrounded by fighting – apparently the Death Eaters and the 'order' had noticed each other. James could not take another step towards his son, but was forced to turn his back on the prone figure and block a nasty spell aiming for him.

The battle was brutal.

Time almost seemed to slow as they fought in the dim light of the woods. The flashes of spells seemed to glow even brighter, embedding themselves onto the fighter's irises as they fought for their lives.

Flashes of green light began to join the fray and the fighters ducked and dodged them, their adrenaline spiking as they realised the extremity of the situation.

Harry's prone figure began to stir, his eyes fluttering as he took in the sounds of fighting around him.

He cracked his eyes open, and was instantly wide awake. He saw red hair and green eyes, ducking as a green light flashed over her head, whirling around and sending a red stunner, causing her attacker to drop to the floor. His heart froze in his chest and he remembered.

"Mum." His voice was cracked and almost silent, but it was there. Prone as he was, he could only lie there and watch the fighting.

Neville bore no resemblance to the Neville he knew, his jaw clenched, his fighting skills better than he could ever have expected, the strange Ravenclaw girl he remembered calling 'loony loon' by his side.

But the one who drew the attention most from the group had to be his doppelganger – the other Harry.

Barking out orders left, right and centre, the other Harry span in the middle of battle, his wand firing out spells faster than he could think. Death Munchers fell like flies around him, and at one point, he was battling three of them at once (Hermione taking one of them down while he took care of the other two). It was surreal, but Harry saw what was real in the situation.

The other Harry was a soldier.

A war-hardened hero, who had been fighting battles since he could talk – his home life from a young age had been terrible, and it had only escalated as he joined Hogwarts.

And this is what it all came down to; a young man, still a teenager, the same age as he was, in fact... the leader of a war? And at what price?

As Harry lay there, knowing he would probably be having nightmares about his kidnap for a long time to come, he knew that he might heal.

He knew the other Harry could not.

He remembered walking through the battlefield when they had first arrived in this reality, the bodies strewn all around him, the sobs of tormented family members surrounding him. He remembered learning of Fred's death, and his heart broke for the George of this world. He remembered seeing Moony and Tonks lain next to each other, their hands almost touching, their son left to the other Harry's care.

He knew these scars could not heal.

You could not spend your childhood learning to be a hero without leaving something behind, and the other Harry did not have a proper childhood in his memory. He would wake, in the future, from nightmares from Dementors to Voldemort and from being abused by the Dursleys.

And Harry knew, as he watched the other Harry ducking green lights, his eyes flashing, as he threw a spell to defend who could have been his mother, he knew that even though they were parallels, they could not be alike. The other Harry was too damaged, and he too spoiled to achieve anything like that.

And suddenly, Harry was surrounded by screams and it seemed like someone had turned the volume up because he could hear everything amplified, the shouts of the death munchers, the screams of his saviours as the battle boiled to a close.

Wrapped in his father's familiar arms, feeling himself being hoisted off the ground, his mother stroking his hair, Harry looked back as they disapperated, just in time to see the flash of green and the scream as one of his saviours fell at last, never to breathe again...

So?

Any comments? Any of you going to kill me? XD

Reviews are love!

Oreal