Misconception

Written by: HoshiHikari

Disclaimer: I do not own HP

Summary: Tom Riddle regained his body at the end of Harry's second year. Sirius escaped Azkaban a month before the wizardry world realized it. When the past begins to resurface and the dead begin to reappear, Harry begins to realize that nothing is as it appears. Sirius struggles to prove his innocence to Harry while trying to save all the innocence that the boy has lost.

Author Notes: "…." talk Italic thoughts/dreams /…/ Parseltongue Snake language I'm going to update my bio often so please check it out. In addition, the timeline of the Rowling's book have been altered to fit the premises of this fanfic.

For Remus John Lupin…

Chapter 14 Worth Fighting For

Stunned silence erupted after Harry's revelation. Harry was angry, he was frustrated. Both his emotions and magic were flaring uncontrollably. He barely registered the fact that Dumbledore was by his side, and completely didn't realize that his magic was causing shards of silver to appear from thin air.

"Harry! Harry, snap out of this. Please! Listen to reason." Remus pleaded. By now Remus was desperate to get out from beneath Harry. He didn't want to die, he didn't deserve to die but something about Harry's strength and magic had changed so that it kept the older man in place. There was something in Harry's eyes that disturbed him the most, they were darker and less green, slowly changing from tear stricken angry red to blood shot.

Bang! The door swung open again, this time revealing the reason for Remus' pleas. Sirius Black stepped in, leaning heavily on the door frame. He looked around the room, taking everything in. When he saw Harry on top of his best friend with all intention of murdering the latter, Sirius leapt into action. With disregard to himself and his well being, he charged at his godson. As he charged pass a red head, he stole the boy's wand and swished it at Harry. Instantly the silver turned into water, soaking all those who were within range of the silver shards. Then he leapt at his godson, changing into Padfoot in midair and tackled the boy off his friend. When Padfoot was sure he had Harry pinned down, he growled and bared his teeth once before changing back to Sirius.

"Moony, you should have waited for me." Sirius said, turning his head to face his best friend though he didn't let Harry go. "This stunt you pulled could have ended up quite nastily, let alone deadly. After all, you did manage to fool me, the Dark Lord and whoever else you had to pass to get here, there is no reason Harry would have thought otherwise."

"I did what I had to do." Remus forced a smile as he stepped next to Sirius. "I'm not a Mauarder for nothing." He paused as he kneeled down next to Sirius. "Besides knowing the possibility that Harry saw, I had to come and clarify what happened."

"Being late never killed anyone, being early almost did." Sirius said with a soft chuckle.

"Sirius, now is not the time." Remus interrupted.

"The point is Harry," Sirius turned back to Harry, staring into his eyes, misreading the blood shot orbs as the results of tears and anger. "You made a small misconception. Now that the misconception has been clarified, I'm going to let you go. Remember murdering Moony is strictly prohibited." Sirius continued, earning himself a slap from the werewolf. He gave a grunt at Remus' antics before giving a smile to Harry. "Understood?"

For the longest time Harry made no response. He merely stared at Sirius with his blood shot eyes. At last the boy smirked at him.

"I'm sorry Black, but Potter's not here." Harry said, his face suddenly turning quite sinister. The words were spoken so softly and quickly that Remus was the only one who heard. Instantly he realized what was happening, but he was too late. Magic surged from Harry, knocking both himself and Sirius backwards. Sirius being in a worst condition then Remus to begin with, fell unconscious the moment he hit the ground.

"Voldemort, get out of my cub's head!" Remus roared as he struggled to stand, but found that he was unable to do so. Dumbledore was by his side now, standing protectively before him. Remus couldn't see the man's face, but he knew by the magic that was radiating from the older man that Dumbledore was furious.

"No werewolf, I like it here." Harry smirked. "You were right with one thing. Potter became very vulnerable when he discovered what you had done, though it's obvious that you didn't do it. The point is, he doesn't know that for I gained control before Black's appearance. I almost killed you which after all would have been for the better as all Potter knows is that Black's dead and you murdered him. He would have thought he had done it out of revenge…"

"Poppy…" Dumbledore interrupted. "Please go revive and stabilize Sirius. I need him recovered as soon as possible. You may find the Room of Requirements useful for this task. Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger go inform Professor McGonagall of the situation and have her alert the Order." For a minute, no one moved. "Now!" The tone in Dumbledore's voice shocked everyone into their senses. There was some shuffling and in no time Ron and Hermione were gone with Poppy levitating Sirius behind her. When the door shut, Dumbledore began strengthening the wards of the room to protect the rest of the occupants in the school from this unannounced invasion.

"It was foolish of you to come Tom." Dumbledore said, lashing his magic out at the man, as though unconcerned that he might harm the real owner of the body. "Hogwarts does not welcome you."

"You have no fear of destroying the boy!" Tom laughed through the use of Harry. "If death means nothing, then kill the boy!"

"Harry's stronger then you claim Tom." Dumbledore corrected. "After this, he shall be the one who prevails, and you shall be the one destroyed. He has the support of all his fiends, the backing of myself, Hogwarts, the Order, and most importantly he has the love, trust and loyalty of his family. This is what you can never understand Tom, this incomprehension will be your downfall."

Tom hissed in anger as he began firing curses at Dumbledore. Dumbledore blocked all of them, taking the defense in the battle. Remus watched on, not quite understanding why he was here to bear witness, when everyone else had been excused. There must have been a reason why he was here.

"Remus," Dumbledore cried out suddenly. "Be prepared to intrude. When you are ready…"

Remus had no idea what Dumbledore was speaking of. The man made little sense. He did understand that by being here, he had to help the headmaster, but in what ways could he intrude? How could he intrude without being a hinder, without being another nameless statistic? If he was reckless and threw himself at a curse and died, then he wouldn't be able to help at all.

"At whatever cost, you must help Harry. Do you understand?" The headmaster continued, interrupting his thoughts.

Harry, Remus was supposed to help Harry and not Dumbledore. But how, what could he do? Harry was being possessed by Voldemort, the Dark Lord was in his cub's mind. Then it clicked, and he understood.

"Headmaster, I'm ready whenever you are." Remus sat up straighter, so that he was more comfortable. He raised his wand and trained it at Harry, shifting his wand as the target kept moving.

"Good luck my boy," Dumbledore replied. Suddenly he was no longer defensive. He constantly attacked Harry, giving the boy no time to breath. If it wasn't Tom who was controlling Harry, the boy would have been long dead. Then again, if Voldemort wasn't possessing Harry, Dumbledore wouldn't be attacking at all. "Now!"

Remus concentrated on his task at hand, before silently casting a spell. The last thing that he saw was Dumbledore forcing Harry backwards with a fiery whip.

"Fool, if I left this body at any time, Potter would be dead!" Voldemort growled out, sending a shield to protect himself from the whip.

"If I merely wanted to force you out, Tom, then I wouldn't have kept Remus here." Dumbledore countered calmly. "And just in case you did decide to flee unexpectedly, I need someone who could protect the boy. Besides, Harry seems to need help regaining control. Remus being a part of his family, will be able to help him do that."

Tom, in Harry's body took a brief glance at the unmoving werewolf before concentrating on the task at hand.

"What do you mean?" the voice of the possessed Harry questioned. "The werewolf looks as dead as his godfather. Besides, once Potter sees the werewolf, he'll kill Lupin."

"Once again Tom, you have underestimated Harry." Dumbledore then sent more spells. He didn't bother to explain to Voldemort what was happening. The less the Dark Lord knew, the better it would be for Remus.

Remus found himself surrounded by darkness. Even after straining his werewolf senses, he still saw nothing, still could not hear anything. Training his wand in front of him, Remus took a cautious step forward.

"Harry?" the man called out, careful to only attract the attention to one he wanted and not the one he didn't want. "Harry? Where are you? Please, I know you're here Harry. Please, let me help you."

Remus stood still as he strained his ears to hear better, only to find himself disappointed. There was no one here, nothing here except for the unsettling silence and the darkness that surrounded him.

"Harry, if this is about Sirius, then I'll have you know that he's alive and back at Hogwarts." Here the man stopped and strained to hear for any sounds. He found none. However before he could speak again, an enormous wave of magic came out of nowhere and slammed into his back. He was spent flying into nothing.

"Werewolf" a voice hissed angrily. Though Remus couldn't see, he recognized the voice. Straining he tried to stand up, his kneecaps, which he had landed upon ached with pain and he knew he had cracked them.

"Voldemort! Get out of my cub's head!" Remus cried out, ignoring the pain that was rising from his lower body. This time, even though he saw, and felt the surge of magic that was directed towards him, he could not doge as his body refused to move. There was a hollow laugh that came from the Dark Lord.

"Why should I?" Voldemort was saying. "Didn't you intrude into Potter's mind? I'm sure he was quite unwilling." The Dark Lord continued to speak, but Remus ignored him. His eyes were closed now as he accepted the storm of magic that the invisible Dark Lord threw at him.

"Harry!" Remus said at last. "Harry, I know you are in here! Harry please. Take control! Harry! You're strong Harry!"

Voldemort's laughter was echoing louder and louder, as though he was coming closer and closer.

"Occlude your mind Harry! Throw both of us out! I know you can do it Harry! Trust in yourself as I trust in you! Harry! Take control!"

As Dumbledore attacked, he noticed how Harry became distracted. Tom was not attacking and his defenses were slowly becoming weaker. For a minute he thought Remus was succeeding, but when he took a chance to glance at his young friend, he was started to find blood gushing out of Remus' head, staining his clothes and forming a puddle beneath him. It was then that Dumbledore knew Tom hadn't retreated, but had focused his attention back into Harry's mind to fight the mental battle. For a brief moment Dumbledore wanted to join the mental battle, but he knew that he could not, just like he knew he could not teach Harry Occlumency without suffering damages and just like why he had chosen Lupin to teach the boy in that subject matter.

"Harry," Dumbledore spoke softly, turning back to the boy. "Fight him, fight Tom." The headmaster was looking into the boy's eyes, noting how it flicked unsteadily between ruby and emerald. "Harry!"

Then without warning, Harry dropped his wand as did his body. This caught Dumbledore off guard, but he acted immediately, sending one of the hospital wing beds up to block a spell that he knew the boy would not have been able to block himself.

"Harry?" Dumbledore asked. He didn't get a response. Instead he watched as Harry's hands flung onto his head, pulling his hair while rolling and twitching the ground in agony. "Harry!"

At last the involuntary movements of the boy ended and slowly the hands moved away from his hair. Finally when Harry looked up, Dumbledore saw that the boy's eyes were pure emerald. Without hesitation, he had rushed forward, bent down and picked up Harry.

"Harry…" Dumbledore tried to smooth the boy, but that proved to be unnecessary. Harry had whispered one word which had effectively drawn the headmaster's eyes onto the person the boy had stated. When he looked back at Harry, he found that the boy had fallen into oblivion.

Oh dear…Remus…..but we all know deep down, that to him, this is what's worth fighting for….raises goblet to Remus, may he live on forever….