Title: The Boys Who Lived
Author: Shara Lunison
Beta: Batsutousai
Rating for this Chapter: M
Pairings: Harry/Henry (OMC), several others—none of them canon
Warnings: SLASH, twincest, slightly manipulative!Dumbledore, grey Harry/Henry, OoC-ness, major character death
Summary: The Potter twins are attacked by Voldemort and somehow defeat him. Now the Dark Lord has returned and they have to choose between light and dark. SLASH, Twincest, rated M for later chapters.
Disclaim Her: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Chapter Thirty-Eight—The Last Chapter
Severus and Barty found themselves in a bright white room lined with neatly made-up beds. It had the familiar antiseptic smell of a hospital. As the last vestiges of the portkey faded away, the familiar form of Poppy Pomfrey approached them out of an office in the middle of the ward and briskly motioned them to two of the beds.
"Don't just stand there," she said sharply. "Into bed, both of you."
Years of being treated by the brisk woman as students meant obedience was absolute. Severus sat back on one of the beds with some difficulty, and Barty reclined on the one opposite with a bit more ease.
Poppy ran her diagnostics on Severus first, as he was the more obviously injured. She tisked at whatever she saw in her readouts and summoned half a dozen potions vials from the stores in her office.
Severus sniffed each bottle before drinking and said, begrudgingly, "Almost as good as mine."
"You have Ms. Granger to thank for that," Poppy said primly. "Lie down before those kick in. I've no mind for manhandling you into place after you've been knocked out."
He complied, and was soon fast asleep.
She turned to Barty, then, and cast the same diagnostics on him. "Well, there's nothing wrong with you. Off with you."
"With all due respect," Barty said, hopping off the bed. "I think I'll stay and help Severus get better." He waved his wand over Severus' bed, expanding it to a size that would comfortably fit two adults. Another short wave and both of their clothes were transformed into pajamas.
Poppy sniffed, but didn't stop him from climbing in beside the dark-haired man. "He ought to wake in about six hours," she offered. "There are a number of people who would like to speak to you then. In the meantime, rest. I will make sure you're not disturbed."
Barty curled up against Severus' side and resolved to get some sleep.
-o-0-o-
Six hours passed in a flash, it seemed. Before too long, Severus was stirring and Barty was awakened from his light slumber. Leaning up on one elbow, he gently brushed several strands of hair out of Severus' face as the man awakened.
"How do you feel?" Barty asked quietly.
"Better," Severus answered. He had shifted in his sleep so that they were lying on their sides facing one another. One hand reached up and captured the hand Barty had left resting on his cheek, bringing it to his lips. "Much better."
Barty sighed half with relief and half with emotion. It was the first acknowledgement Severus had made of their new relationship. "I still love you," he whispered.
"And I am coming to understand that I love you as well," Severus breathed. "After all…we seem to be soul bound."
Barty's breath left him in a rush and he leaned forward to press his lips against Severus'. It was warm and bright and perfect for a long moment, and then someone else in the room rudely cleared their throat to interrupt them.
Turning to look over his shoulder, Barty saw a small gathering of people who appeared to be waiting for them. Among them were the Potter twins, Sirius Black, Amelia Bones, and his old Potions teacher, Horace Slughorn. There was another man he knew only because of his werewolf affliction, Remus Lupin. Several other children around the same age as the Potters were present as well, one of which was clearly Lucius Malfoy's son.
"Hi," Barty said, nonplussed. This garnered a few chuckles from those present.
"If you're feeling up to it, we'd like to have a bit of an informal meeting with you, Professor." This from a bushy-haired brunette who was clearly addressing Severus.
"I think I will manage," Severus said drily.
They sat up in the bed, using the pillows as a backrest as the rest of the group pulled up chairs to sit in a half-circle around the bed.
"I hope you're here to tell us why you were watching the house, and why you rescued us," Severus said, leaning heavily against the head of the bed as he studied his former colleagues and students in the room.
"Amongst other things," said one of the twins. This one was wearing Gryffindor colors, so it must be Harry Potter. "We need to tell you the prophecy, Professor. I think that will answer most of your questions."
Severus' brow furrowed. "I thought it was broken. That was why the Dark Lord marked you."
"That one was, but it seems it was just rewritten so another could take the job from us," Henry Potter said.
The twins exchanged a glance before speaking in unison, "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who have thrice denied him, born as the new year dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal and he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the new year dies."
Severus stared at them all for a long moment. "You think this means me?"
They all nodded.
Barty licked his lips before speaking, "But…why?"
"Professor Snape's birthday is 9 January, which is close to the New Year. And we're presuming that his family denied the Dark Lord three times. He was also marked as an equal to Voldemort when the crown was added to his dark mark," said Harry.
Severus reached over to subconsciously rub the mark on his left forearm. Barty took his hand in his own and rubbed soothing circles on the back.
"My family…" Severus murmured. "The Dark Lord had no interest in them that I ever knew of. My father was a Muggle, and my mother a disowned Pureblood witch."
The assembled group traded frowns.
"There's also the 'power the Dark Lord knows not'," Henry said insistently. "We think it's the symbiotic spells. You saw firsthand that he can't cast them, Professor. And Harry and I can cast all of them, together."
Severus glanced at Barty, a strange look on his face. "The soul bond…"
Barty's eyes widened. They would presumably have a good chance of casting them since they were soul-bound.
"Professor?" Harry asked cautiously. "Are you and Barty soul bonded?"
They both nodded shyly.
"But how?" Harry asked.
"It is not something done lightly, for many reasons," Severus spoke. "It is not just for one lifetime, but for all lifetimes. It would seem Barty and I made a commitment to one another in a previous life, and now that we have found one another again in this one, the bond has been awakening with a vengeance."
Harry and Henry looked at one another in surprise. They had never heard that before.
"Regardless of the prophecy, I will kill the Dark Lord," Severus said firmly. A bit of fire returned to his demeanor, and Barty shivered to see him full of life once more. "After being forced to witness that massacre at Hogsmeade…" he swallowed heavily.
"We can teach you the spells," Harry offered. "Me and Henry, and Sirius and Remus. When you're ready, we can call out the Dark Lord on our own terms."
"I will need more rest before I can attempt any kind of magic," Severus admitted self-deprecatingly. "Being forced to join with the Dark Lord took more out of me that I had thought. Even with Barty and Poppy's care, I am still a shadow of what I once was. And Barty and I will need time to strengthen our bond before we can attempt the first spell."
"Of course. Please get well, Professor," Henry said.
With the impromptu meeting over, they all stood and returned their chairs, leaving Severus and Barty in peace. Poppy reappeared at that point, another collection of potions on a tray in her hands.
"A bit more rest, then we'll relocate you to your own rooms in the Academy," she said gently.
"Where are we?" Barty finally asked the question that had been niggling at him.
"This is Black Academy, a temporary school to replace Hogwarts until the war is over. The children will be kept safe here, where they can learn, and where Voldemort cannot use them against their parents."
Severus drank the potions just as readily as the last time, and settled down to sleep again.
Poppy presented Barty with a potion of his own as he scooted down under the covers beside Severus again. "A sleeping draught," she told him with a smile. "This time when you wake, I promise a meal and your own bed."
He drank, and sank into oblivion.
-o-0-o-
October bled into November. November turned to December. By the time Severus' magic had recovered enough to attempt magic as draining as the symbiotic spells, it was nearly Christmas. The time lost was not wasted, however. He and Barty deepened their bond to the point that they could talk mind to mind from across the Academy. All of the members of the Potter Brigade trained daily, learning offensive and defensive spells and how to work together as a team. Severus also spent a great deal of time training Hermione and Draco in Potions. Under his tutelage, they both went far along the path to Mastery.
Harry and Henry trained hard under Sirius and Remus, both as a separate team and as Lylas. By Christmas their bond was just as strong as that between Severus and Barty. Hermione, Draco, and Ron had also worked out the kinks in their own odd relationship and became a formidable team on the battlefield.
Ron became the source of many of their plans for the upcoming battle. He had a keen mind for strategy and created a plan for every contingency.
Draco had secreted his mother and father into the Academy, and with his wife nearby Lucius finally began to recover some of himself. It helped that Severus had experience in what Lucius was facing in his own mind. He had only escaped madness due to his Occlumency shields.
Everyone agreed to take a break over Christmas, and that the first attempt at the spells would be on New Year's Day.
The fact that Severus' magic was recovered enough just at the New Year had not escaped anyone's notice. Severus himself had suggested a new interpretation of the prophecy.
"When Barty and I are successful for the first time, we will essentially be a new person. If we do this on the New Year, at the stroke of midnight, we will be 'born' as the New Year dies. The ones who have thrice denied the Dark Lord are you. Once as children, a second time when he offered to let you join him, and a third when he marked you and you refused to serve him."
There was some concern over whether Severus and Barty would need a new wand, as the twins had done when combined into Lylas. In the end, they decided not to worry until the event came to pass. Diagon Alley was not a safe place by any means, but they ought to be able to sneak in one unknown man to get a wand from Ollivander.
Finally the night arrived. Barty and Severus stood alone in a darkened classroom, with only Harry and Henry as their witnesses. Midnight approached, and they joined hands, both raising their wands as they let the barrier between their minds fall. Joined, heart, mind, and soul, they cast the spell, "Duo universus!" The familiar sight of magic lit up the room. From Severus came a silvery orb of power. From Barty, a slightly smudged copper sphere. The magic met at their joined hands and exploded into a golden shower around them before snapping inward with a blinding flash.
By the time Harry and Henry could see again, Severus and Barty were gone. In their place, similar to Lylas, was one new person. He had shoulder length black hair with lighter brown streaks throughout. His eyes were similarly dual-toned, with a darker outer circle and a brown middle around the pupil. In facial appearance, he had Barty's sharp cheekbones, Severus' chin, and a mix of every other feature each man had.
"What should we call you?" Harry asked.
The man shrugged, then paused to think for a moment. "Just call us Snape, or Crouch. Or even Professor, though I wouldn't shout that across the battlefield. It might cause some confusion," he said drily.
"Right," Harry said with a grin. The grandfather clock in the foyer of the old house struck midnight, and they heard the students all over the school celebrating as the New Year began.
"Happy New Year, Professor," Henry said warmly.
"Happy New Year," he returned.
-o-0-o-
The Professor was able to use either of Snape or Crouch's wands when dueling, so they didn't have to go to Ollivander after all. In fact, the Professor developed a rather wicked dueling technique that involved wielding one wand in each hand.
Every spare moment of the next few weeks was spent teaching Snape and Crouch the rest of the symbiotic spells. They learned them much more quickly than the twins had, and to better effect. Harry and Henry chalked that up to experience.
Finally, the time came when they had done everything they could and it was time to confront the Dark Lord once and for all. They decided on the public square of Diagon Alley, just below the steps to Gringotts Bank, as the meeting place.
"How will we lure him in?" Hermione asked, wringing her hands.
"It'll be easy," Harry assured her. "Henry and I will send him a letter, telling him the date and time that we will be there. We'll say that we want to meet with him to discuss terms of us joining him. He won't say no."
The letter was written, the date set for 5 February at 12 noon.
On the morning of the battle, Harry and Henry approached Professor Snape alone.
"We have a request," Harry told him.
Snape was sitting in his rooms, alone, reading a book and trying to think about anything but the fight that was coming. "I think I know," he told them softly.
Henry nodded. "I'm still a horcrux. The last horcrux. Harry and I will be there, as Lylas. We want you to use pax pacis caedo on us just before you face the Dark Lord."
Snape drew in a slow, deep breath. He studied them for a long moment, then nodded almost imperceptibly.
"Thank you, Professor," Harry said with feeling.
"I would do the same in your shoes," Snape answered.
At noon exactly, Harry and Henry stood at the base of the steps leading into Gringotts. The rest of the Brigade was hiding in various positions around the square, waiting for Voldemort to make his appearance. They didn't have to wait long.
-o-0-o-
When Voldemort received the letter from the Potter twins, he knew immediately that it was a trap. That mattered little at the prospect of getting his horcrux under his thumb again. After regaining the piece of his soul from the cup, he had been able to hold the symbiotic spell for a little bit longer with Bellatrix. He planned to take back the piece from Henry Potter on that day and then keep the locket and the ring in their hiding places to maintain his immortality.
He had prepared his followers for the upcoming battle with special instructions. No one was to hurt the Potters under pain of death. Anyone else who interfered was fair game. Any witnesses were to be spared. He would kill the Potters publicly and remove the last shred of hope from the Wizarding world.
He combined with Bellatrix for the fight, and tried something he had been suspecting would work for some time. He summoned four of the lesser Death Eaters to him privately, and used duo universus to combine with each of them as well. With the magic of five people coursing through him in addition to his own, he was invincible! Those brats wouldn't know what hit them.
He apparated directly into the square in Diagon Alley, his followers popping in behind him one after another. The twins appeared to be alone, but he was not fool enough to believe that to be true.
"Well, well," he mused, fingering his thin white wand as he paced slowly back and forth across the middle of the square. "Two ickle Potters ripe for the plucking."
A movement at the doors of the bank caught his attention, and he hissed like the snake he was at the sight of Severus and Crouch approaching behind the Potters with their hands joined.
"Ssseverusss!" he snarled. "What is the meaning of this!?"
The answer shocked him.
"Duo universus!" was the spell spoken by his former lover and the Crouch boy. It took seconds for their magic to surge forward and coalesce into their new form, so well matched were they. In moments, a different man stood before Voldemort on those steps. A perfectly executed symbiotic pairing, something the Dark Lord had been unsuccessful doing so far.
He snarled and raised his wand at them.
"Duo universus!" This time it was the Potter twins. Though he had known they were capable, having heard it from his own Death Eaters before the end of the last school year, it was still shocking to realize that there were now two symbiotic wizards standing before him.
"You can't win, Voldemort," the Potter brat told him. "Do you want to know why?"
Voldemort moved his wand, a spell ready to form on his lips. Their next words stilled him.
"It's because we destroyed your horcruxes. All of them. You absorbed the diary, the diadem, and the cup. We destroyed the locket and the ring. All that's left is us. And now we're going to take that away from you as well."
With horror, Voldemort watched as the form of Severus and Crouch raised his wand and cast the last of the symbiotic spells at the boy. "Pax pacis caedo!"
Screams were heard from other points around the square, letting him know that there were others hidden there, waiting to fight his Death Eaters. Voldemort ignored everything but the spell flying towards the Potter boy. His horcruxes, gone!? He couldn't let the boy die! He threw a desperate shield towards Potter, but the symbiotic spell passed right through it like smoke.
Potter took the spell with a smile on his face, and his form seemed to fall in slow motion to the ground.
"NO!" Voldemort screamed, flinging an avada kedavra at Severus and Crouch. The final battle began with a bang.
-o-0-o-
It was extraordinarily bright around Harry and Henry as they walked. They had arrived at this place with their hands joined, and they remained with them clutched together as they entered the large misty space ahead of them.
As they parted the mist, the place where they had found themselves started to become clear.
"Is this…King's Cross?" Harry whispered.
Henry chuckled. "So it would seem. Do you think we're meant to catch a train to whatever the afterlife looks like?"
Harry just squeezed his hand. "I'm just glad we're together."
"So are we." The voice floated out of the mist in the distance, and the twins turned to look at who had spoken. The first thing they could make out was red hair, and then the radiant form of their mother approached them with her arms open in invitation.
"Mum," they whispered. It seemed to them that they must have run to her, but at the same time it felt like one second they were standing still and the next they were in her arms.
"My boys," she said warmly.
Another pair of arms wrapped around them and the twins looked up to see James had enveloped all three of them in his warm embrace as well.
"Is this Heaven?" Henry asked.
"No," Lily laughed. "This is a gateway to many other places. Now that you are here, we can finally say hello." She pulled away a little and cupped one of their cheeks in each of her hands. "I'm so proud of you, Harry, Henry. You've grown up so well."
"Though I do wish you'd pull more pranks," James said with mock chiding in his voice. Lily smacked him on the arm, and he pretended to be pained even while laughing.
Lily returned her attention to the twins, and took their hands. She led them to a bench in the middle of the station that they could have sworn wasn't there before. "I suppose you must realize you're here for a reason," she told them gently. James seemed content to let his wife do the talking, sitting on the other side of the twins and simply wrapping an arm around both of their shoulders.
"Is it because of the soul bond?" Harry asked, voice trembling. "We can't go to Heaven because we're so unnatural?"
"No!" Lily exclaimed, cupping Harry's cheek in her hand again. "No, you are not unnatural. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. You seem to have gotten some of the events mixed up."
The twins looked at her with confusion, and she looked at James entreatingly.
Their father sighed and spoke, "When Voldemort attacked when you were children, he accidentally turned Henry into a horcrux. But the soul bond between you two was already there. It didn't come about simply because of the spell he cast. If anything, the soul bond is what kept you both alive and caused the spell to rebound onto the Dark Lord."
"Then…did you soul bind us, mum?" Harry asked their mother with confusion.
"No, Harry," she told him gently. "You were born that way. In another life, you two were probably not siblings at all. Fate is a tricky thing. Being soul bound is for eternity. Every time you choose to be reborn, you run the risk of being reborn as enemies, or siblings, or as two people who will never meet. There is no guarantee that you will meet and fall in love in every life. That's the risk you take to live again. Just look at poor Severus and Barty. It took them twice as long as it should have to find one another, and they were right under each other's noses!"
"You mean, we were meant to be like this?" Henry asked incredulously. "Twins, soul bound and in love!?"
"Fate's a bitch, huh?" James laughed.
Lily smacked him again, making the twins chuckle.
"The reason I'm telling you this is because you have a choice again," Lily told them gently. "You can come with us now, and live here in peace for a time. Or you can catch a train and take your chances with fate."
Harry and Henry looked at one another, considering. "We didn't really get a chance to enjoy life this time around," Harry admitted. "I think we should go back out there."
"I understand," Lily told them, though there were tears in her eyes. "James and I will be waiting when you're ready to come home."
Their parents stood then, and pointed to a train that had appeared in the station behind them. "That's your ride. Be safe, my sons."
They waved to Lily and James, who faded away from existence, then turned to the train behind them. Joining hands, they took one step that seemed like ten, and entered the bright white car of the train.
-o-0-o-
"Pax pacis caedo!" Severus and Barty cast together as they faced the disarmed Dark Lord. Voldemort watched the spell coming for him in terror, raising his hands as though to ward it off. It struck with anticlimactic finality, and his form slumped to the ground, empty of life. Just another empty corpse for the burial mound. Around him were splayed the bodies of Bellatrix and four other unknown Death Eaters. The last experiment, defeated.
The fighting around the square stopped. The Brigade had lost several members, mostly Aurors. The children were all safe, as were Remus and Sirius. Severus had seen Amelia cut down late in the fighting, and Horace had been gravely injured and portkeyed back to the Academy.
The cheers started outside the square at first, and before long all of the remaining Death Eaters had surrendered their wands in defeat as the public itself swarmed the area to finish the battle.
Severus and Barty cast duo abscido and slumped to the ground in exhaustion. It was over.
Behind them, they could hear the sobs from Hermione, Ron, and Draco as they approached the bodies of the Potter twins. Lylas had separated when struck with the spell, much as the Dark Lord had. Severus felt a flash of guilt for the boys' deaths before he pushed it aside. It had been their wish, and it had been necessary.
Hermione's sudden scream made him turn, wand raised, as quick as a flash. Barty was less than a second behind him.
There on the steps of Gringotts, the Potter twins were slowly sitting up and blinking owlishly at the people arrayed around them.
"Who died?" Harry joked.
Hermione smothered him in a tearful embrace, and boy collapsed back to the ground with an 'oomph'.
Severus lowered his wand and, inexplicably, started to laugh.
"Sev?" Barty asked.
Severus waved his hand at his lover. "Damned Potter luck. They couldn't just die, could they?"
Barty smiled and took his hand. "Can you blame them?"
Severus looked up into Barty's eyes and smiled back at him. "No. I can't."
-o-0-o-
A/N: That's it. It's over. T_T There will be an epilogue posted tomorrow, and a heartfelt author's note for anyone who made it this far with me. Thanks for reading, and please review!