AN: Enjoy!


Chapter 17 - Gaunt

Harry was not frozen in surprise for long. The sight of bleeding wounds and dead bodies had been the norm during the war, he was accustomed to it. He quickly knelt over the unconscious girl and cut off the lower half of her top with a Severing Charm. Then, a thin stream of water was conjured from his palm as he washed away all the clotted blood and the dirt, cleaning her wound.

'She lucky she's unconscious. This would've hurt like a bitch if she had been awake,' he thought and furrowed his brows when he saw the messy cut in her stomach extending towards the ribs on the right side of her torso. 'Whoever attacked her tried to disembowel her. But I can't feel any magic residue so it wasn't due to a curse. They must've used a knife or something... what did you get yourself into, you dumb girl?'

A sudden vibration on his body startled Harry quite badly. He cussed under his breath when he realized that the vibration was coming from the wand holster strapped at his waist.

"Not now, I'm busy!" he snapped at the feisty wand. He was not in the mood for it, he had a bleeding girl on his hands to deal with.

But the wand started vibrating even harder than before. It was strange for himself as well but, for some reason, he felt like he understood the wand's intentions.

"You want to help? You want me to use you?"

The wand vibrated twice as if to answer his question.

"Someone's life is at stake. What if you fuck up my spells again?"

The wand's next vibration was mild. Almost like it was apologising. He took it out from its holster and look at it silently for a second.

"This is your chance to redeem yourself and wash off your sins. Don't make me regret trusting you," he said.

The only answer he received was a wave of warmth that travelled from his hand through his arm and then spread all over his body. It was all the answer he needed.

In truth, Harry wasted half a minute talking to his wand because he actually needed a wand to cast the following spells. Most charms - Healing Charms even more than so - were rather difficult to cast properly without a wand. And Fleur's wound could very well lead to her death if left untreated. It was not something that he could fix just by muttering Episkey and be done with it. Furthermore, Healing Charms had never been his speciality. He was good at killing, not healing.

He pointed his wand at the wound and cast a charm that would temporarily stop the blood loss. Then, he hovered the tip of the wand along the deep gash in her stomach while chanting an incantation that sounded almost like a quiet song.

"Vulnera Sanetur."

It was a remarkable healing spell that could close deep wounds. It was also one of the very few healing spells that could serve as a counter-curse to Sectumsempra, the dark Cutting Curse created by Severus Snape. As he chanted the song-like incantation three times, the wound in her stomach closed bit by bit. At last, a thin but long and bright red scar was the only thing betraying what had happened to her.

Harry stood up and exhaled loudly. He Vanished Fleur's blood from the stone floor with a flick of his wand and then looked around some more for other signs that would tip someone off in regards to what had transpired.

Now that she was no longer in danger of dying, he pointed his wand at her and whispered:

"Legilimens!"

Eye contact was essential for most Legilimency practitioners but the more skilful ones could cast it without it too, especially on the defenceless mind of an unconscious person.

He was flying at several hundred feet in the air; or, more accurately, his mental projection was watching the outside world from within the body of a snowy owl Animagus as it flew over a forest. Currently, Harry was experiencing the last memory of Fleur Delacour before she had fallen unconscious.

Not long after that, the North Sea's shore appeared at the horizon. An incredulous thought came to his mind.

'By Merlin, don't tell me that she...'

His suspicions were confirmed when the snowy owl continued to fly straight over the sea, maintaining an unchanged flight course. Half an hour later, a triangular fortress appeared in the middle of the sea in all its grim glory. It was Azkaban.

A pair of blue eyes opened with a start. Her first intention was to jump up from the bed but her body was not listening to her. The moment she tried to sit up, her sight turned white and her head fell back on the pillow. She almost fainted again.

The familiar voice of a young boy entered her ears:

"Don't strain yourself. You lost too much blood. Relax. You are fine. Everything is fine."

However, instead of calming her, his words did the complete opposite. She pushed with her hands feebly against the mattress and tried to kick off the blanket with her legs. But after a few seconds, she became still again because that slight effort had already exhausted her.

He took her hand in his and said:

"It's me, Harry. Your Memory Charm last year didn't work on me. I've never forgotten anything. So don't worry. You don't have to explain yourself. Just...rest. Just rest. You don't need to go to classes either. It's Saturday. Nobody knows you were hurt. Your secret is safe."

She was floored by the revelation. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him! Things like why did he pretend he had forgotten everything, how come he had still kept her secret, how did he heal her wound and so on. However, she was truly too weakened. Unknowingly, she fell asleep once again.

When she woke up, she was still weak but she felt slightly better than before. The first thing she did was to look around to see if Harry was still there. And he was. Harry was right next to her bed, sitting on a stool while his arms and head were on the bed. He had fallen asleep while watching over her.

An unknown emotion appeared in her heart when she saw his sleeping form. She did not know what to classify it as. She raised her hand and tried to touch his cheek but he suddenly opened his eyes, startling her.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" he said and then covered his mouth to mask a yawn.

"Better..." she said hesitatingly. She pushed off her blanket and looked at her stomach through her ripped top. Whereas there had been a mortal wound a few hours ago, there was only a thin red scar now. "Where are we?" she asked when she looked around and failed to recognize the room.

"House Elves call this room the Come-and-Go room. A secret, magical room in Hogwarts that can become whatever you wish as long as the things you need exist in the castle."

As curious as she was about the magical room there were other, more pressing matters on her mind.

"What did you tell Madam Pomfrey about my wound?"

"Nothing," he said.

"Nothing? I almost died, no way she did not ask any questions at all," she said sceptically.

"Madam Pomfrey doesn't know you were hurt. I told you, nobody knows. I healed your wound."

She looked at him mute with surprise. People faint from blood loss after losing about 30% or 40% of their blood. She could have died in a matter of minutes if her wound had not been treated. It was hard to believe that a 12-year-old boy was capable of healing such a grievous wound.

"'ow-?" she asked.

"You have your secrets and I have mine too. Neither of us is as simple as others think, are we? After all, what other 15-year-old girl can transform into an Owl and then infiltrate Azkaban to kill about a dozen Death Eaters and then escape without being detected by the Aurors?"

"How do you know that?" she said in a whisper.

"Legilimency. I had to know what happened to you, to see if I had to clean up after you. I didn't peek into any other memories. Luckily, you've killed everyone who has seen you. Even Dolohov who tried to gut you like a fish...I tip my hat to you for killing that piece of shite."

The girl did not know how to react for a while. What kind of second-year boy knows Legilimency and Healing Spells? None of these was taught at Hogwarts, especially the practice of the Mind Arts which were restricted by the Ministry of Magic.

"Clean up after me?" she asked eventually.

Harry patted her hand and squeezed it a bit.

"You are my friend. I don't have many friends. I take good care of those few."

Fleur started to blink rapidly and looked to the other side briefly. She hoped that Harry had not realized how much his words had actually touched her.

"Thank you, Harry," she said and then she rubbed her eyes as if to wipe some eye buggers from having just woken up.

If it was another day he would have probably poked fun at her but now he pretended not to notice that she had actually teared up. There were times for joking around and teasing and there were times when one had to show some tact and consideration for their friends' feelings.

She recollected herself quickly and dressed her voice.

"I want you to be 'onest with me, 'Arry." Fleur suddenly said, her countenance very serious. "Are you from the future?"

He could have laughed her question off. Or just flat out pretend he had no idea what she was talking about. However, he decided to not lie to her this time.

"Yes...and no."

But that kind of vague answer greatly annoyed the girl. Before she could blow up at him the alarm of a clock started to ring.

"Would you look at that, it's been six hours since you took your potion last time!" he said, shamelessly changing the subject.

"Potion? What potion? I didn't take anything!"

"Blood-Replenishing Potion. I nicked it from Madam Pomfrey's stash last night and then I fed it to you while you were asleep. Mouth to mouth."

Seeing that a hint of red started to appear in her pale cheeks, he burst into laughter.

"I'm kidding. I woke you up but you must've been too tired to remember. You just drank what I gave you and then fell back asleep right away. Oh, by the way, there's also some Dittany ointment. Rub it over your scar and it should fade after one or two days. I stole this one too." he added at the end with a chuckle.

They became silent once again but the tension from before was broken by his little joke.

"I'm a time-traveller. I'm from the future." Fleur blurted out all of a sudden.

Harry looked at her in surprise, not having expected her to come out like that with her secret, out of the blue. Her eyes met his as she looked at him too, anxiously trying to gauge his reaction to what she had said.

"You've got nothing to say? Not even one of your poor-taste jokes? Say something!" she burst impatiently when he did not show any outward reaction.

"I suspected as much from the very beginning," he said. "Especially since I knew someone like you before."

"Someone like me? Another time-traveller?" she asked wide-eyed.

He smiled and shook his head.

"No. Another you. Another Fleur Delacour. That girl that I used to know hated Scotland. The weather, the food, Hogwarts, everything. She always found something to complain about," he said and smiled. "That Fleur would have no reason to leave France and come to the UK to study. That Fleur would have never killed anyone in cold blood, let alone become a serial killer. She would have done none of these things...unless it was for the sake of preventing a terrible future. The fact that you've only been killing Death Eaters and scumbags was proof enough for me of who you were."

Meanwhile, Fleur's mind was racing with thoughts.

'Another me? What does he mean? When I asked him if he's from the future, he said "yes...and no". What did he mean by that? What is going on?'

She could not quite wrap her mind around his identity.

"Who are you, exactly? What you're saying makes no sense, unless you're from the future!"

"I'm coming from the year 2020... ...of another world. I may be from the future but it's the future of a different world, not yours."

A torrent of questions was going to burst from her mouth at any moment. However, before she could say anything else, he said:

"I want to ask you something too. Remus Lupin, are you the one who killed him?"

Fleur nodded without hesitation.

"Yes, I did."

"Why? Can you tell me more about him?"

"I am not very familiar with 'im. There were rumours that 'e 'ad once studied at 'Ogwarts but 'e was expelled before 'e could graduate when the secret that 'e was a Werewolf came to light. After that, Grayback adopted him into his pack. The two of them recruited Werewolves from all over Europe and expanded their pack to nearly 500 before they joined Gaunt. Many of the students that stayed behind to fight in the final battle at 'Ogwarts were killed by the Werewolves... But why do you ask?"

Harry let out a long sigh.

"This world is so different from my own. So many changes. Remus Lupin was one of the kindest men I've ever met. He was also one of my father's best friends in school...to think that he'd become a mass murderer in this world... wait a minute, Gaunt? You mean Voldemort, right?"

"Yes. Thomas Gaunt. Also known as Voldemort. Nevermind that, what else is changed compared to your world? 'ow was I there?" she changed the subject. She was deeply intrigued. She had already accepted the fact that he was from another world without doubting the validity of his words. After coming back from the future, nothing was too hard to believe anymore. Furthermore, Harry's maturity and skill with magic could be explained this way.

"Quite snobbish," he said and started to chuckle at her glare. "You were an ordinary girl. Mostly. We weren't that close at first. You were three years older, from a different country, an attractive Veela and the Triwizard Champion of Beauxbatons. Meanwhile, I was just trying my hardest to train in order to not die in the Triwizard Tournament..."

"Triwizard Tournament? What's that?" she asked filled with curiosity.

"You mean you didn't have the Triwizard Tournament over here?" he asked, very surprised.

"Not that I know of. I didn't come to the UK until after I graduated from Beauxbatons, for my wedding..." she trailed off and a grimace appeared on her face. However, Harry did not notice the way her face changed when she spoke about her wedding. He was more preoccupied with other thoughts.

"Then how did Voldemort come back to life? More importantly, when exactly did he start his campaign again?" he asked urgently.

"I don't know 'ow he resurrected. But, looking back, I think it all started in 1995 when Thomas Gaunt, the last living descendant of Salazar Slytherin appeared out of nowhere and claimed 'is seat in the Wizengamot. But acts of terror and violence didn't start until 1998. The public at large 'ad no idea who 'e really was until it was too late...At least I, who was in France until '97, didn't know."

Harry frowned in thought.

"Did Dumbledore not do anything? Did he just watch him do whatever he pleased?"

"Dumbledore did try to warn everyone but Fudge was too deep into Lucius Malfoy's pockets. The Daily Prophet was slandering him on a daily basis. Besides, Gaunt appeared as a respectable wizard, the 'ead of a millennia-old family. Nobody believed Dumbledore except for 'is friends from the Order of Phoenix. Gaunt even sued him for defaming his name."

A far look appeared in her eyes.

"It was too late by the time people realized who Thomas Gaunt really was... Thomas Gaunt, Voldemort, became the Minister of Magic in 1997; 'e consolidated 'is power for one year and then 'e attacked 'Ogwarts in 1998 under the pretext that Dumbledore was planning a coup d'etat. Gaunt killed Dumbledore directly, in a one on one duel and his army consisting of both werewolves and Aurors decimated the Order of Phoenix's members. After that, nobody could stop 'is momentum anymore..."

Harry involuntarily shivered when he heard Fleur's tale of her future. This Voldemort was completely unlike the one from his past life! He was not a raving lunatic who acted like a terrorist.

Swallowing a node in his neck, he asked: "What about Neville Longbottom?"

"What about 'im?"

"Did he not try to do anything to stop it? He's the Chosen One, isn't he?"

"Chosen One?" She rolled her eyes at him. "Don't tell me you believe all that drivel about the Boy-Who-Lived being a formidable wizard too."

"But the Prophecy..."

"-only said he had the potential to kill him, not that he would become stronger. They would be equal. But how can a 17-year-old boy be equal to someone with decades of experience and knowledge? Look at Neville's performance in school: he is just a slightly above-average boy. What could 'e 'ave done against Gaunt when Dumbledore 'imself lost? Besides, Neville was killed by Draco Malfoy during the Battle of 'Ogwarts in 1998 too."

A rare expression of graveness appeared on Harry's face at her words. In some way, this world's future was even worse than his world's.

'At least, in my past life, Kingsley purged the Ministry of all Death Eaters and the pro-pureblood shite after I killed Voldemort in '98. When war knocked on the door again in 2005, we had a clear enemy to fight against. Dealing with an insane tyrant and a terrorist like the Voldemort of my past life would not be all that hard as long as you are more powerful than him. All you'd have to do is kill him. But a cunning and calculating person, an intelligent wolf wearing sheep clothing like in this world...Voldemort legitimately became the Ministry of Magic, chosen by people... Merlin... what a tragedy.'

What he heard about this world's Voldemort was giving him the chills.