Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Chapter 35: King's Cross
Harry fell out of the fireplace of the headmaster's office and for a moment felt a wave of joy ... and then disappointment and loneliness when he realised that while the familiar portraits of the former headmasters were still on the walls of the circular room, the rest of the décor had been changed almost beyond recognition.
Gone were all the little whirling and spinning magical tools that Professor Dumbledore had apparently collected. In their place were spell books, a worktable with a bubbling cauldron and a few jars of potions ingredients on it.
"Do you have your cloak with you?" Severus Snape demanded harshly instead of a greeting.
"My invisibility cloak? Yes, Sir!"
"And the snitch Professor Dumbledore left you?"
Harry held it up in his fist, though it was much too old to even twitch anymore. "Yes, Sir!"
"And your wand?"
Harry shook his head. "No, Sir. No wand. Professor Flittwick took it before we were taken to Smeltings."
"Smeltings?" Professor Snape asked clearly not recognising the word a all.
"My secondary institute. It ..."
"Never mind," the Professor snapped at him. "We do not have much time. If we do not hand you over to the Dark Lord within the next fifteen minutes the Death Eaters will renew their attack. You will have to fight him with what weapons you have. I have no wand but my own to give you and I need that myself."
"But ..." Harry started.
"Put on the cloak and follow me quickly!" Professor Snape ordered. "I will lead you to him under pretence of parley. No need that he should see you coming. I can at least give you the element of surprise though I cannot give you a wand. Hurry!"
Harry hurried. He really had no other choice if he wanted to keep up with Snape's fast strides as they passed through the debris-strewn halls of Hogwarts.
Between worrying how to keep up with his former teacher and trying to think of a way he might be able to fight an experienced and highly powerful dark wizard without a wand he caught glimpses of places he thought he recognised. Wasn't this the corridor with the statue of the one-eyed witch? Harry couldn't make sure since the very spot where the statue should have stood was nothing but rubble.
A dark, scorched hole in the wall might once have been Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and the great moving staircase hung askew and motionless in the air. For a moment Harry worried that it might not carry their weight, but Professor Snape jumped onto it without hesitation and there was a row of students on it levitating buckets of water upwards. Harry recognised Luna, Ginevra and Ron among them, but they all looked grimy and shocked and there was no time to stop and ask whether they were okay. Most likely they didn't have time either anyway.
In the entrance hall they almost collided with another group of children, this one including Neville whose face was blood-stained and bruised and Draco with tears washing white streaks into his mask of ash. Harry almost didn't recognise his friends.
The body they were levitating on the other hand was only too recognisable. Vincent!
Next in line followed the remains of Colin who had once been so eager to photograph Harry and after him one so tiny it had to be a first year.
Oh no! Where was Mafalda?
He almost stopped to look, but he had no idea where the surviving first and second years might be and Professor Snape had hurried on without a pause.
Harry ran to catch up, through the badly dented and cracked main door, down the blood-stained and charred stairs, across the battlefield into the forest and finally out into a clearing.
Several Death Eaters were waiting there alongside their master.
Just what did Professor Snape expect Harry to do? There was no way that two of them could defeat them all with a single wand!
"Severus!" You-Know-Who hissed. "Where is Harry Potter!"
"Forgive me, my Lord," Professor Snape replied with a deep bow. "He is not to be found anywhere in the castle."
"Then what are you doing here?" Bellatrix Black Lestrange demanded. "You should be searching for him!"
"He is not in the castle," Professor Snape repeated. "I do not have anywhere left to look and our time is running out. I came to humbly beg our lord and master to change his mind about renewing the attack. Harry Potter is not here and several of our fine young pure-blood students have already been killed in the crossfire. Mylord, you can achieve nothing by attacking the institute again. All you can achieve is the destruction of our kind. The children are our future, our ..."
"Silence!" You-Know-Who roared. "Who are you to presume to tell me what I should and shouldn't do?"
"Not tell, Mylord," Professor Snape amended. "Humbly beg. I ..."
Impossibly fast, or so it appeared to Harry, You-Know-Who whipped out his wand.
"Crucio!"
"Noooo!" Harry yelled over Professor Snape's scream of pain and threw himself between the only friend he had in this clearing and the Dark Lord. The cloak slid off him and he stumbled over a root and tumbled to the ground beside the one he'd sought to protect so impulsively.
"Traitor!" You-Know-Who roared. "I will kill you both!"
"Harry! The snake!" Professor Snape seemed to put all his remaining strength into the words while his wand, their only defence, twitched uselessly in his trembling hand. "Kill the snake."
"No!" Harry yelled again and in despair grabbed for the wand and tore it from the man's hand to point it at the Dark Lord.
And unbelievably, completely incongruously Snape smiled through his pain.
"Avada Kedavra!"
And Harry Potter died.
The world disappeared and then Harry was standing in an empty street wearing white transfer clothes instead of his Muggle overall.
"Well done, Harry," the voice of Albus Dumbledore greeted him. "It is almost done."