Chapter 1: Blood Does Not Belong On A Prince
Harry Potter was no fan of blood, even less so of muggle blood. Yet, it was today, of all days, in which his robe would be covered in it. Blood did not belong to a prince, or so he thought. His brother seemed to have made it a permanent fixture of his attire, and Neville wouldn't have it any other way. It was another thing, among many, ruined by Neville's brutish behavior.
Harry turned his gaze away from his robe toward the bodies that lay before him. A muggle woman and a child lay still on the pavement of the street. The frail woman had a deep gash across her torso that had coated her and the child she was covering with blood. The child was simply lifeless; the mark of the killing curse.
"Ahh shit. I know that look."
Harry spun from the view of the corpses, to look at his brother, who was beaming gleefully. His robe was a nice shade of crimson rather than the original grey it had been in the early morning. He held his hands up, playfully.
"How was I supposed to know you'd be right behind me? You're usually too busy nitpicking, but I know you've had a busy week right? ."
Harry folded his arms. "You and your crew don't seem to understand why we're here."
"Oh," Neville said, coming closer. If possible, his grin had grown even wider as he towered over Harry. "Please enlighten me as to why we are here?"
Harry knelt down toward the body of the women that lay before him."Four uprisings in the last month. Muggles with enhancer potions." Harry said, raising the woman's tiny arm, "How many times do I have to clean up your mess?"
Neville's smile died. "Shit."
On her arm, was the very recognizable tattoo of a phoenix, a sign of the resistance. A sign that had haunted them fiercely in the past few years. Harry didn't mind being pulled from the war across the pond to deal with this, but he did mind that they had no leads yet.
"Look, we're handling it now. I have a patrol running through each of these outside zones every hour!"
Harry lowered the arm, carefully, as to not splatter the pool of blood before picking himself up to look at Neville.
"Here's the part that you don't get. Letting your crew kill, plunder, and rape every muggle means that we can't get information from them."
"A muggle lover in his truest form,"Neville scoffed. He placed his hands on Harry's shoulder, squeezing slightly. Harry's cold eyes bore into Neville, who removed his hand just as quickly. "I'm enlightened! Trust me, we'll get the job done, and everyone will have fun in the process. Besides, there's hardly anyone here, I doubt the resistance is even here. "
Harry stepped away from Neville, eyeing the ruins around them. Rusted and torn cars were scattered around the streets around them, houses with roofs that had been torn apart or had coverings over them to provide shelter. Overgrown hedges and weeds had overtaken the pavement they stood on. From the look of it, this place must have been a nice neighborhood for muggles once.
"Why don't you admit what this is really about?" Neville said from behind him.
Harry ignored him as he looked up at the street sign that was under the wheel of a car. 'Privet' was the only thing visible. Harry bent down to examine the sign; rusted and worn. However, The wheel that sat on top of it was... rather...new.
"I know you broke up with Daphne, yesterday."
"Not. now." Harry replied sharply, his eyes fell over the rest of the street.
"Not now? Last time I talked to her, she was planning out your wedding! Lavender, it'll be so beautiful!" He mocked, his voice reaching the highest octave he could muster, "Royal blue and dragons flying over! A spectacle every wizard will be talking about for as long as Merlin!"
There were newer tires on every other car located on the street. Harry turned sharply, pulling out his wand as he moved closer to Neville, who was in his own world.
"Lavender, The Muggles will serve everyone gold shit on platters! The Emperor would just absolutel-" He stopped as his voice cracked, and he fell into bouts of coughing "Seriously, you both were go-"
"It's a trap!" Harry yelled. With the wave of his wand, a blue transparent dome fell over them.
"Wha-"
Before Neville could finish, there was a blinding flash of light before a loud boom shook the grounds around them causing both brothers to fall to the pavement as a black smoke covered the surroundings of the cracked dome. Debris and rubble began to fall, and were quickly deflected by the dome.
Outside of the sounds of debris and rubble settling, Harry could hear the sound screams from nearby. For a moment, Harry could only stare in the black abyss that sat on the outside of the dome.
"Are you okay?" Neville asked, his voice shakened.
"Yeah. That was...close." Harry replied as he looked at his brother, who didn't seem to be paying attention to him. Rather, his brother was holding his chest; a dark look fell over his face.
"Let the barrier down." Neville demanded as they both stood up.
Harry nodded. With the flick of his hand, the barrier fell. Dirt and smoke from the outside began to surround them, making it hard to see each other.
"To the air." Harry said, knowing his brother's thoughts. Harry flicked his wand, ascending high into blackened clouds, the trails of their flights seemingly just as blackened as they flew out of. With another flick, the smoke in their immediate vicinity cleared as he trailed a bit behind Neville, who was flying with a speed that would embarrass even the most expensive broom.
"Here." Neville yelled as they descended toward a rather small house in flames. As they landed, men and women lay dead on the pavement street with bits of carcass strewn across different areas. The area had been cleared of smoke which allowed a good view of injured death eaters who were huddled together, across from a relatively undamaged house. Some were missing limbs, some had pieces of shrapnel lodged into them, some had been so severely burnt their robes had melted into their bodies, and some had a mixture of it all and more. Those who looked to be relatively unharmed stood with the injured, fear and uncertainty etched on their face.
Neville didn't spare a moment, approaching the group with a walk that reminded Harry of Father.
"Give me a status!" Neville demanded. Whatever uncertainty the death eaters had was quickly wiped away for the iron-clad face of obedience and duty.
"Prince Neville...Prince Harry, bless the Emperor, you're both alright!" A death eater closest to them said. "We've got five unaccounted for. Ten severely injured. Marcus has sent for reinforcements, Pansy took the rest to search for the resistance over the block."
Neville's gaze fell dismissively over the injured, "Good. Get them out of here then I want every stone turned from this place. Pull from other zones if you have to."
"Yes, your Grace." The death eater replied.
Neville turned to look at Harry, "When I find her, I'm going to bring that bitch to her knees."
"I know," Harry said, examining the damages. How had no patrol noticed the mass movement of muggles outside of the zone, and furthermore, how did the scouts not catch the lack of muggles in the area. Even if there were few, they were rarely separated?
"Oi!" Neville said, snapping Harry's attention to the red explosion in the air just a few blocks away. Before Harry could say anything, Neville had already taken to the skies.
Harry turned to the death eater that had reported to them both, "One more thing."
"Yes, Your Grace?"
"I want you to report directly to Knott once reinforcements arrive, tell him we'll need an entire regiment searching all outside zones and the nearest zone."
"Yes, Your Grace."
Harry turned away from the death eater and flew to the skies, flying toward where his brother had flown off to. It didn't take long to spot the burgundy-covered robe his brother had adorned and the dark cloaks of the death eaters. As he descended, Harry noticed they were circled around an individual...a muggle man.
"Just kill this worthless shit, he's barely holding on," A death eater whispered as Harry landed behind the group.
"Tell me what you know," Neville yelled followed by the crack of bone and a labored huff from the middle of the circle. "I won't say it again."
"Move," Harry demanded from behind. The death eaters turned with contempt before realizing who was behind them, and parting for Harry.
Harry moved closer to where an older looking muggle man was being held up by Pansy and another death eater. His clothes were tattered and coated in blood and soot, his hair patchy and filled with grey and black. Like the rest of the muggles in the area, he was extremely frail and had the weathered look of the outside zone.
"Tell me!" Neville roared as punched the older man once more. The man's head flew back, spewing blood and teeth against the pavement where they were located.
"Neville." Harry commanded, "Stop."
Neville spun around to his brother, blood ran down his face as he stared Harry down. "The Muggle must have answers. I want them!"
Harry came closer, running his eyes over the man until he found a set of brown iris that were barely visible through his swollen cheeks. "Then be smarter."
A rush of fragmented memories, visions, and emotions flooded through Harry's mind as he searched. Hunger. Desperation. Anger. Harry could see a younger woman, she cradled a sleeping baby in her arms.
"We're nobody's fucking slave, Tilly!"
"Shh. The baby, Dave."
"Look, We can survive out there. I have some contacts with some magical friendlies- they help muggles out there! We'll be okay once the western front wins, they'll send rescue!"
"Dave, we can't risk it. We can't. Not on rumors. Honey, the Carrow's are good masters and our zone looks beautiful compared to the conditions of others!"
"Tilly, do you hear yourself? Is this what you want life for our son to be? Slaves to those ucking pyschopaths?"
"The outside zone is a death sentence, Dave! You have to think of Jack. We-"
"THAT'S ALL I THINK ABOUT TILLY!"
"Dave," Tillly whispered as the baby grimaced and began crying, "We can't. We can't….I can't."
Crying filled Harry's ear as he probed further until he arrived at a moving picture of Jack and Tilly, they were smiling. Harry could feel the despair radiating from the memory, he could feel the colder winds settling in his bones. The scent of sulfur and smoke, replaced with earthy and metallic scents. A younger man walked next to him, tall and spritely carrying the muggle tools...guns, they used to call them.
"Dave. Are you okay?"
"Of course- Yeah, I'm fine, Peter. In a world dominated by magicals, we're at war with other humans, and I'm freezing my ass off, and dying of hunger, but overall, I'm fine!"
Peter chuckled. "I 'ear that. Brighten up, mate, we've 'bout an 'our of patrol left."
"Trying." Dave said, "It just feels like...a death sentence out here."
"At least we're free. We call no one our king out 'ere, we'll die free men, and sure, we're 'ungry today, but Bill, from the garden, told me Friendlies 'ave tried to fix the soil, but they think they can fix- Dave. Dave?"
The sounds of sobbing swirled in Harry's ear as he moved further.
"Take your time." Neville said, others snickered around him.
"Shh." Harry replied, focusing on the face of Peter; greyer and gaunt looking.
"Damn it, Dave! We 'ave the chance to move tonight, and we need to take it. You have to let me move."
"You didn't see what I saw…an entire community...just gone! I've never seen anything like it. Innocent men, women, and children...gone. The Magicals didn't even stand a chance. The rumors were true, Pete."
"The sons of-" Peter stopped,"They say no ones seen 'em and lived."
"So you must see why I can't put my family at risk. They live in that zone. "
Peter scoffed, "A family you haven't seen in 15 years, Dave. For all you know-"
"Don't you finish that fucking sentence, Pete."
"They're dead, Dave. Or at the very least, they've moved on. We 'ave one chance and tonight is that chance!"
"I said NO. The decision is final."
Peter turned, "Then I apologize for what's been done."
"WHAT DID YOU DO, PETE?"
Sudden flashes of hanging men, carcasses, and screams pulled Harry away. His eyes wandered to Dave's bloody and swollen wrists; both were blank.
"His memory has been tampered."
Neville moved closer, "How can you tell?"
"Whoever meddled forgot that muggles don't have moving pictures. Secondly, the fragmentation of his mind is rather bad, which could be attributed to high stress, but I should have been able to passively cut through it and I can't."
Neville groaned. "Just my luck."
Harry faced his brother. "I'm not thrilled either, but we can take him to my manor. I'll untangle him."
Neville rolled his eyes, "Of course."
"Unless you would like the honor?" Harry asked. As expected, Neville shook his head. His brother had no love for the art of legilimency. "One of your people will need to watch him, I don't keep guards at the manor."
"Just worthless shit," Neville replied, turning to Pansy, "Pansy." Her pug-face was stoic and colder as she slowly looked up at Neville, her eyes drilling into Neville, "You're coming with us. Grab the muggle."
"The rest of us, Your Grace?" a death eater asked.
Neville stared him down. His temper evident, "Look. around. you. What do you think?"
"Err-Yes, Your Grace."
Neville turned to Harry, muttering grumpily, "Let's go before I gut him."
Harry felt hands lightly grab his shoulder and arm.
"One thing's for sure, The bitch will pay for this," Neville murmured, "Even If I have to cut down every muggle from here to across the pond, she will pay. "
Harry waved his wand, and everything went black.
Post-Chapter Thoughts:
Welcome all to the First Chapter! Thanks for Reading, and I'm excited to start this story for you all.
A couple of things you should know:
1. It's an AU(obviously), but don't expect me to spend chapters talking about the minutia of differences. There are things you will organically come to found out, and there are things you'll have to put together! Overall, if you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
2. There is an eventual Harry/Hermione. Trust the Process.