Disclaimer: The World of Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Warning: This story is violent and not for young audiences. Reader discretion is advised.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
Alexander Dantes walked through King's Cross Station, London, with great purpose. The non-magicals scurried about their business, trying to evade the chill that had descended upon the city, despite it being the middle of summer. They were completely unaware that the young man walking next to them was magical or that he, like hundreds of other students on the platform that day, were on their way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
But there were a number of differences between him and the other students, things that set him apart. The scars that crisscrossed his face were the most obvious, the long healed wounds looking as though someone had sliced violently into his flesh, tearing at the skin. They had been healed with stitches, but Alexander had refused all treatments offering to reduce the scarring. He wanted to keep the reminder of his family's murder until the day he died.
The next difference was less obvious, but even more significant. He carried no wand. As far as the rest of the wizarding world was concerned, you needed a focus of some sort to cast magic, and each culture had its own interpretation of what that could mean. But Alexander had discovered true magic, wandless magic, and had instead hidden his wand, long broken and mended, with the rest of his belongings in a safe place.
But chief among the differences was the fact that Alexander wasn't there to go to school at all, but to remove Muggle-born and Half-blood students from the danger they were in. With the death of Albus Dumbledore at the end of his sixth year, the school would not be safe for much longer, and collecting the students off the train would be far easier to do than having to do it at Hogwarts.
Alexander had spent his summer preparing for it. Careful trial and error allowed him to figure out the limitations of Portkeys, such as how many people they could safely move, or figuring out why they could move people but not inanimate objects. It had to do with the source of magic, he found, which could only be drawn from living creatures. Still, he had a dozen thin ropes tied around his waist like a belt, specifically enchanted to help get the students off the Hogwarts Express.
Each Portkey led to a different location, safe houses that he had prepared all over London. The destinations were far enough apart that a cluster of magicals appearing shouldn't draw anyone's eye, not in a city with tens of thousands of wizards, and all were warded to the best of Alexander's ability. He'd help them reconnect with their families and then, ideally, move them all out of the country.
He knew many would not want to leave, would not believe the danger they were in, but Alexander had spent the past two months preparing himself emotionally for having to talk about how his family died. Each location had a pensieve, and he was prepared to share with them the memories of how his family died, as well as snippets of the Death Eaters invading Hogwarts at the end of last year. It was necessary.
He knew it was a ridiculous amount of effort to go through, but Alexander also knew that if he could spare one family the pain of being tortured and murdered, or worse, then he'd do it. He had a choice, and he was making the one that he could live with.
Alexander stood in front of the entrance to the platform. On the other side of this barrier would be a scarlet-colored train, gleaming in all its glory. The platform would be filled with families sharing their goodbyes, students greeting one another after months apart, owls and cats and toads. The whistle would blow in five minutes, signaling the departure of the train to Hogwarts, and everyone would board in a frenzied mass.
He took in a deep breath and let it out a moment later. He strode through the disguised barrier as if it were made of water; sounds become muted as darkness enveloped him before the moment passed, and it all returned to him at once. And Alexander was stunned by what he saw.
The Hogwarts Express was scarlet no more. Its crimson exterior was now green, the piping and trim colored silver as if it were a mechanical snake laid out for the world to see. Even the smoke it billowed seemed to have changed color, becoming darker and lessening the visibility on the platform, but not enough to hide it completely.
Alexander had been partially correct on what he expected to see on the platform that day. Off to the side, there was a small crowd of families and students, calmly exchanging goodbyes and well-wishes with one another. But it was the larger crowd, nearly three times the size of the other, that made Alexander's heartbeat stutter.
Students that Alexander knew to be Half-blood or Muggleborn stood there, clumped together uneasily with their families as witches and wizards in red robes, Aurors, stood guard around them. One by one, they were pulled away and questioned at wand point before they'd be allowed onto the Hogwarts Express or escorted out of sight.
"Oi, why you standing around like a tosser?" a man behind him asked. Alexander turned to see an unkempt wizard glaring at him. "Can't be a Pure-blood with a face like that, so get in line!"
Alexander slowly turned back to the crowd and began to walk slowly forward. Everything seemed wrong about this situation. Why was everyone so calm, so quiet? There were a number of fearful whispers, but nobody seemed panicked at being boxed in by what Alexander knew to be Aurors. Alexander slowed to a stop several feet away from the group of Half-bloods and Muggle-borns and their families.
His gaze drifted over to what he recognized as the Pure-bloods of Hogwarts. Their faces all blended together; smug, stuck up, but Alexander was looking for one face in particular. It wasn't until movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, that he saw her.
Daphne Greengrass was standing in a window of the Hogwarts Express, looking at Alexander. He had tried talking to her the entire summer through the enchanted tablets he had created, but she had never responded. He had even attempted to send her an owl, but no answer ever returned. Alexander was heartbroken but didn't hold it against her. He had killed her father, after all.
Still, looking at her now, alive and healthy and beautiful, made his heart skip a beat. She made his whole experience at Hogwarts worth it, and he regretted not telling her that. It took Alexander a moment to realize her mouth was moving, miming words.
"Go," Daphne's mouth said. "Run!"
Alexander's trust in Daphne was still so strong that he found himself moving further away from the group he was now a part of, heading to the line of red-robed Aurors. A whispered conversation reached his ears.
"Sarah, you need to be good this year. Don't do anything to draw Headmaster Snape's attention to you, okay?" a man whispered to his daughter. She wore Hufflepuff robes and couldn't be older than twelve.
"Yes, papa," Sarah said, hugging her father one last time before walking to the Hogwarts Express. She was allowed to pass the line.
Alexander had reached the Aurors. "Excuse me, I need to fetch my trunk from the car," Alexander said. The two men glared at him.
"You shouldn't have forgotten it. Get back in line!" one of them ordered.
"But I need it for class."
"Not my problem, have your family owl it to you."
"My family is dead, and besides, they're non-magical. They couldn't owl it to me anyway," Alexander said. Instantly he knew he made a mistake as the two men focused much more intently on him, raising their wands in a threatening manner.
"Well, that changes things, doesn't it? You're coming with us," the Auror ordered. Alexander considered that for less than a heartbeat.
"No."
Alexander stepped closer, slamming his open hand into the Auror's throat, causing him to choke. His companion was a bit quicker on the uptake, silently casting an oddly vicious pink spell into the air above them. There was no second spell as Alexander slammed into him, sending them both to the ground and drawing the rest of the platform's attention.
Knowing he had only a second, Alexander tried to twist, Apparating from the ground. He discovered what the pink spell was a moment later as he bounced off an Apparation Ward, feeling as though someone had knocked the air from him. He rolled, trying to get to his feet when a Bludgeoning Spell hit him from the side, throwing him through the air.
The last thing he saw before he impacted the wall was Daphne's horrified face.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
"Hem, hem."
Alexander groaned as awareness, returned to him painfully. He was bound, upright, to a chair with metal chains that dug painfully into his body. However, they were not nearly as unpleasant as the sound that hounded his ears.
"Hem, hem."
"I heard you, Umbridge," he growled. "Just give me a minute."
"Crucio."
Vicious pain dug into Alexander's nerves as the curse hit him. Each beat of his heart sent fresh waves of pain, compounding off itself. And then it stopped. Alexander finally managed to open his eyes to see his surroundings, finding himself in a windowless courtroom with two stonefaced Aurors standing behind him. The pink monstrosity sat on a bench, smiling down at him, her wand twirling in her fingers.
"You will address me as Madame Umbridge, Mr. Dantes. I haven't forgotten you from my time at Hogwarts. Such a filthy, lying boy."
Despite the pain it caused him, Alexander rolled his eyes. "Madame Umbridge. I had heard you ran afoul a centaur herd. Shame that wasn't true."
Madame Umbridge's race twisted unpleasantly, and she jabbed her wand at Alexander once more. The pain came sharp and quick but lacked the earlier bite, as Umbridge lacked the focus to maintain the spell. It fizzled out but still left Alexander gasping for breath.
"The trial has now begun. Mr. Dantes, how did you steal your magic?" Madame Umbridge asked, her voice sickly sweet. Alexander's gaze was slightly unfocused, but he could see how tight her face was.
"You can't steal magic, it's integral to life," Alexander said. It was the truth; every living being had magic in it to some degree, it's what accounted for the soul.
Madame Umbridge tutted. "We both know that's not true, Mr. Dantes. You stole your magic. Now tell the truth."
Alexander was prepared, as much as anybody could be, for the curse. It still hurt, but Alexander ground his teeth together to prevent himself from crying out. It stopped a heartbeat later.
"The truth," Alexander rasped, "is that you're a shit witch and an idiot Pure-blood. Even a child could tell you that you can't steal magic, but then again, even a child is smarter than you."
"You will cease your insults!" Madame Umbridge warned. "I will not tolerate your disrespect!"
"No, you'll just tolerate stupidity, hypocrisy, and ineptitude. Guess that explains why you don't like me anyway." Was that a trick of the ear, or did one of the Aurors just snort?
"Mr. Dantes! I had expected better of you after your lessons with Ms. Greengrass!"
Alexander fell silent at that, for reasons that Umbridge could not possibly understand. Daphne Greengrass was tied to a complicated mess of thoughts and feelings within him, tangled upon one another. His many attempts with speaking with her this summer had fallen through, not that he could blame her after he killed her father. Still, to have her brought up by Umbridge of all people was extremely unpleasant.
Madame Umbridge took his silence for contrition. "Now, since the defendant is unwilling to cooperate with this court, and the Ministry of Magic, I'll have to pass judgement." She took a moment to look off fondly into the distance, at what Alexander knew not. "Guilty."
"Hooray," Alexander deadpanned. Umbridge gave him a dirty look.
"I sentence you to Azkaban! For a term of, well, let's just say you won't have to worry about that," Umbridge finished with a sweet smile. The chains fell away from Alexander's body, and the two Aurors immediately laid hands upon him. They dragged Alexander out the door and away from Umbridge's hideously smiling face.
Magic Break Can't Be Seen
AN: And here it is, Year Seven, finally! If it wasn't obvious, Alexander isn't going to Hogwarts, which means I have a much greater range of creative direction. Canon events will still be happening of course, for example, from what I can tell Harry, Hermione, and Ron break into the Ministry of Magic on the second of September. Which means Alexander was one of the unlucky Muggle-borns who was caught and arrested prior to that.
No, Alexander won't be getting revenge on Umbridge during this story. Apparently she survives the war to be imprisoned in Azkaban for the rest of her life.
Alexander and Daphne's relationship: It's complicated. It's not permanently broken, but you'll see soon by what I mean. You don't just kill someone's father and get forgiven without reason, after all. To be honest, I really needed them broken up so Alexander wouldn't keep trying to go to Hogwarts to keep her safe there. He has a higher purpose.
Continuing the story past Year Seven/crossovers: Alexander's story will not end with this book. I have much planned for him. As for crossovers, there are a few I'm playing with, but MCU will not be one. It lacks an appropriate opposing force for Alexander in my opinion. That being said, I might be open to others pursuing their own crossovers using Alexander, but I would request you hold off on writing them for a while. You'll understand why, eventually.
Fair warning: Year Seven is much more violent than the rest of Alexander's journey thus far. Don't read if you're squeamish.
I hope you all enjoy the story, and thank you to everyone who has been reading since Year One.