Harry's Minerva

AN: Sorry about the delay but I'm trying to figure out where I want this story to go. Also, thanks to everyone who read and followed my story.

AN: I made a small edit to the end of the chapter to reflect that Travers and Macnair did not manage to get a cut on the back of Harry's head. The jacket that he has on protects him from most spell damage but not all blunt force damage and the hood was not removed during the battle so that was not possible. He did suffer a head injury that caused some external bleeding, but that was from being thrown into a wall very hard.


Chapter 3

The next two days Harry got into a routine. He would wake up in the morning and exercise before eating breakfast. Then he would look around Voldemort's mind for a little bit before going to the Black library to study some of the spells found in the books. He didn't plan on using them, but he knew it was important to know the effects and appearance of them if they were thrown at him. Then he had lunch and spied on Voldemort again before going into the training room to work on his magic, dueling several training dummies at a time to practice fighting when outnumbered. He wore the jacket and boots Sirius had made for him so he could get used to wearing them while fighting, loving the way they didn't hinder his movements a bit as he jumped, dodged, and spun around quickly to avoid spells.

While he trained, his three elves worked hard to clean the manor up throughout the day. They made substantial progress and it began to lose the dark feeling that had filled it before. Still, there were twenty bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, a large library, elf quarters with five individual rooms, and three sitting rooms in total, so the elves still had a lot to do. They did manage to remove all of the magical and non-magical creatures hiding away, so at least the house was now pest-free. Harry also made sure they took three meals a day and went to bed by nine at night to prevent them from overworking themselves.

On the morning of the 26th of June, Harry finally was able to learn about a raid taking place that very night. Six new recruits and one, more experienced, Death Eater, who wasn't in the inner circle, were going to attack the family of one of Harry's year-mates, Justin Finch-Fletchley. He carefully extracted the time and place for the attack before exiting Voldemort's mind. I guess it's showtime, he thought darkly.

Harry spent the rest of the morning reviewing all of the spells and tactics he knew. In the afternoon he went over his plan with Dobby, having chosen said house-elf to be the one to transport him there and back. Winky made sure he rested to conserve his energy and fed him a filling lunch to bolster his strength. He did as she asked while mentally preparing for the fight ahead of him.

Half an hour before the raid was set to start, Dobby popped Harry to Justin's house, before disappearing quickly. He pulled his hood down as he surveyed the area, looking for a good vantage point to await the Death Eaters' arrival. Knowing where they planned on entering from, he found a bush to hide behind that offered him a decent view of it. As he waited, he checked his mental shields and ran through the possible tactics he could use in the fight. He heard the sound of laughter emanating from the house through an open window, strengthening his resolve to make sure they survived this attack.

Right on time, seven small pops sounded out, signaling the arrival of the Death Eaters. Harry cast the Disillusionment charm over himself before he stood up from his spot behind the bush. He waited patiently as the group moved toward the front door of the house, examining them. He could tell that there were two witches and five wizards, including the leader, in the group. They seemed nervous, yet excited about their raid, making Harry more determined to ruin their night.

When they were in front of the door, they drew their wands and the leader sent a Blasting curse at the door, blowing it back into the house. He heard frightened screams ring out as the Death Eaters began entering in. Harry waited until there was only one left outside before he acted, quickly stunning the wizard. He slowed down the unconscious man's descent to the ground with an Arresto Momentum before casting Incarcerous on him and breaking his wand, effectively incapacitating him. When he was done, the screams got louder in the house, making him run inside to help.

The six remaining Death Eaters had the frightened family trapped on their sofa in the living room and had begun torturing them. Justin was trying to put up a fight, but he was sorely outnumbered. Knowing he needed to get the group's attention, Harry sent three Depulso charms in quick succession, blasting all six of them away from the victims. One of the wizards was slammed into the wall, falling unconscious. Then, before they could recover, Harry transfigured the nearby coffee table into a stone shield to protect Justin and his family from spell fire.

Just as he finished doing so, a wizard and a witch began to engage him, both sending the Killing curse at him. He dodged their attempts, quickly sending his own spells back at them. He knew he had to get rid of them quickly before the others recovered, so he cast Ossium Ruptor (Bone breaker) at the wizard, catching him in the leg and breaking it in two, sending the man to the floor. Harry stunned the man before sending a Confringo at the witch, blasting her through the window behind her.

He didn't have time to see if she was dead because the other three were back on their feet and sending curses his way. He dodged and rolled out of the way, using conjured or transfigured physical shields to block the ones he couldn't evade. The remaining witch managed to hit him on his left side with a dark cutting curse, but his jacket protected him from the damage. The Death Eaters were surprised when he didn't go down, giving Harry time to take another wizard out of the fight with a well-placed and overpowered Flipendo, knocking him back into the stairs. The witch angrily ran toward him, intent on killing Harry for that. Must be her lover, he thought scornfully as he sent an Impedimenta and Stupefy at her, slowing her down before knocking her unconscious.

"Who are you?" the leader and sole Death Eater still standing asked angrily, knowing he was completely outmatched.

"I'm here to send a message to your master. Tell him I am coming for him," Harry said, deepening his voice to make it sound different.

The leader glared hatefully at Harry before using his emergency portkey to get away. Harry knew he could have stopped the man, but he wanted his message to be delivered. When the dark wizard was gone, he began tying up the rest of the Death Eaters, all of whom were still alive, and broke their wands, putting them in a pile in the middle of the floor. He used a spell he found in the Black library to mask his magical signature, making it unrecognizable. Then he turned the shield he used to protect the family back into their coffee table.

"You should be safe for the night, but I would suggest you get out of England for the summer," he informed them, using the same deep voice. "Oh, and sorry about the mess," he added before Dobby got him out of there as he heard the pops of apparition signaling the arrival of the aurors.

When he got back to Grimmauld Place, he was forced to sit down at the kitchen table as Winky healed his injuries with the healing supplies she had picked up yesterday. Thankfully he only had minor cuts and bruises. His jacket protected him from any serious wounds. He did have a bruise on his left shoulder from rolling into a wall while dodging a curse, but it wasn't bad enough to truly concern him. When she was done, she fed him dinner before sending him off to bed insisting that he needed his rest.

That night he was able to get a whole five hours of sleep before being woken up by nightmares, satisfied with what he was able to accomplish and the lives he had saved.

- H.M. –

Harry woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than he had since Sirius's death. He had seen Voldemort's reaction to the failed raid last night and was satisfied that he had pissed the wizard off so much. He did his exercises that morning with a bit of his old enthusiasm in him.

At breakfast, he read the Daily Prophet, his fight splashed onto the front page. They had named him the "Hooded Stranger," and there were two main speculations on who he might be or what his goals were. Some thought he was another dark lord trying to take Voldemort's place. Others thought he was a savior and were grateful he had taken out some of Voldemort's followers. He skimmed through the rest of the paper to see if any mention of his disappearance was there. Fortunately, Dumbledore was managing to keep that information under lock and key. He was also happy to see that the aurors had arrested all of the Death Eaters he left tied up for them. Hopefully they would stay that way.

Harry spent the rest of the day in a better mood, pushing himself harder during his training and keeping to his established schedule, in spite of the slight pain of his injured shoulder. His house-elves noticed his positive mood change and responded to it. Even Kreacher was less grumpy in his presence, having formed a grudging respect for his new master.

- H.M. –

The next day, he was about to start his perusal of Voldemort's mind when he thought of something Dumbledore had mentioned to him once. It happened after the Chamber of Secrets incident when he was in the man's office and he was asking about his parseltongue ability. Dumbledore claimed that Voldemort transferred some of his powers to him the night he gave him the scar. Harry now wondered if Voldemort had transferred anything else to him that night. He decided he would look more closely at his scar later that day.

He did his usual meditation, learning of another possible attack in the near future, this time on a muggle village. Voldemort hadn't decided when he wanted it to take place yet, so Harry made a mental note to be prepared for it. Then he went through his normal routine for the rest of the day. At lunch, he contemplated sending a letter to his friends to let them know he was alright. After debating with himself, his guilty conscience won out and he sent Hedwig with short letters for Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Luna, and Neville. He simply told them he was alive, in a secret place to train for the next time he faced Voldemort, and they shouldn't worry about him. He wanted to write one to Minerva but decided against it. Their last conversation didn't go well, and he was unsure what he could say to her to fix it. He made sure to tell Hedwig not to wait for any replies before she left so no one could try and track where he was.

- H.M. –

That night, instead of heading to bed after dinner, he returned to the training room to try his new idea out. Quickly, he got into his usual meditative trance and was in his mindscape seconds later. He went to the place where his scar was and studied it for several moments, trying to think of how he would do this. The area was filled with an inky black substance that emanated a cold and evil aura, similar to that of the Dementors. As he looked closer, he could see that there seemed to be a center to it due to the darker spot in the middle. It was a round shaped patch, but he couldn't find any easy way to reach it.

Eventually he shrugged his shoulders, deciding to simply go with his instincts though he would try to be cautious. He reached his hand out to touch it, feeling the evil intent from it. Then he began to mentally search it, trying to see if there was anything he could learn or knowledge he could absorb, slowly moving further into it. After about ten minutes he finally delved deep enough to feel something beyond pure evil. There seemed to be some sort of presence nearby, though he couldn't really explain what it might be. He followed that path for a minute until he reached the center he'd seen during his earlier examination. Bracing himself, Harry slowly reached out until his fingers touched it and that's when things got crazy.

Immediately, he was physically assaulted by some strong presence as it latched onto him with great force, as if to possess or control him. Though he was panicking, Harry fought back as hard as he could, refusing to let whatever it was get a firm hold on him. The presence pushed against him continuously and he was hard pressed to fight back. After several tense moments where Harry thought he was going to be overcome, he finally was able to break free, but it wasn't a clean break. As he subdued it, he was slammed with several different images running through his mind. Harry hurriedly retreated from the area pushing what he realized were memories into the back of his mind behind a locked box until he was ready to deal with them.

A moment later, he completely retreated from his mind, taking several deep breaths to calm himself. He was sweating profusely as if he had just finished exercising.

"What the heck was that?" he asked aloud, though there was no one to answer him. It took him almost thirty minutes as he tried to figure out what just happened. He thought of trying to get some sleep but knew it would be futile. There was no way he could sleep without looking at those memories on his mind. So, he braced himself before diving back into his mindscape. Cautiously, he reached out to where he had thrown the memories in his haste. Here we go Harry, he thought right before he touched them.

He had already suspected it, but the first memory he encountered confirmed his suspicions that these were indeed Voldemort's memories, based on the familiar young boy he was currently observing. Already aware of the dark wizard's childhood, he decided to skip through the younger memories for now, promising himself to view them later. Thankfully, they were in chronological order, so he was easily able to jump ahead to the wizard's teenage years.

Harry started viewing them more closely when he got near the time Voldemort created the diary that possessed Ginny. At first, he was confused about what the wizard had been trying to accomplish until he started learning about what horcruxes were through the memories. After he heard the full description, he was horrified, knowing that Voldemort had succeeded in making them – likely more than one. He was proven correct when he saw him turn the diary into one – the same diary Ginny had been possessed by. Well at least we managed to destroy that one, he thought bitterly.

Despite his disgust with the lengths the man had gone to for immortality, Harry continued watching to learn as much as he could about the items. That's when the memories got a bit hazy, unfortunately. He was able to learn what items the man had used, but not where they might be and their protections. Harry assumed that some of the memories got corrupted during his struggle, but he was still disappointed. He hoped that he would be able to learn more after his mind had settled. He did make a mental note of the items Voldemort corrupted which included: Riddle's diary, which was destroyed; the Gaunt's ring; Slytherin's locket; Hufflepuff's cup; Ravenclaw's diadem; and his snake Nagini.

Then, there was a time skip and next thing Harry knew, he was witnessing the night his parents died. He was practically mute as he watched his father valiantly fight off Voldemort, trying to buy his family as much time as he could. He almost cried out when James fell to the Killing curse, fifteen minutes later. Then he watched the murderer saunter up the stairs as if he had all of the time in the world. When the dark wizard confronted his mother, he looked around and noticed the runic symbols she had written on the floor. He also noticed a runic symbol on his younger version's forehead in the shape of his infamous scar. He promised himself he would look into that more closely later before turning back to his mother and Voldemort.

Lily stood defiantly in front of the most feared wizard in Magical Britain, refusing to move even an inch, in spite of being offered her life. The respect he had for his mother increased after witnessing her bravery firsthand. Then Voldemort killed her without remorse as well before he walked toward the crib containing baby Harry. The evil man smiled cruelly, disparaging the idea that Harry would contain any power to defeat him. Then Voldemort used the same curse he killed the baby's parents with, expecting immediate death.

However, that is not what happened. Harry watched as some sort of shield sprang into place, blocking the curse and rebounding it back at Voldemort, throwing the man to the floor. Harry wasn't focused on Voldemort though, looking intently at his younger form to see if anything else happened to him. Something did happen, but it didn't bring Harry any peace; quite the opposite in fact.

He watched as first two small golden lights headed for his chest. One came from his mother's body and the other seemed to come from his father because it came through the wall from the direction of the stairs. That's not what upset Harry. No, it was the black inky substance that shot from the disintegrating body of Voldemort, heading straight for his scar and being absorbed into his body. The same substance Harry saw get absorbed into the objects that were turned into horcruxes.

Harry forcefully expelled himself from his mindscape, letting loose a loud scream of anger, pain, and fear. His elves came to check on him, but Harry was too far gone into his own world to hear their pleas. "No, no, no, no," Harry repeated over and over again. He pulled his knees to his chest and rocked himself slowly as he continued to chant the same word as if it was a mantra. However, no matter how many times he said the word, it didn't change anything. I'm a horcrux. He turned me into a monster just like him he thought with horror and disgust. This was why he could tell when Voldemort was nearby. This was the source of their connection.

The elves, unsure what else to do, moved him to his room and put him to bed. Harry was too distraught to really notice. Eventually, Harry passed out from pure exhaustion and his elves kept watch over him during the night. His dreams were filled with images of himself committing even worse crimes against humanity than Voldemort ever had. He saw himself burn worlds and annihilate innocents with reckless abandon, yet he couldn't wake up from the dreams no matter how hard he tried.

Harry spent most of the next day in his room, refusing to eat or drink. He stayed in bed staring at the ceiling in despair, sinking deeper and deeper into a depression. No matter how hard they tried, the three house-elves couldn't get Harry to do anything. That night though, Harry went into the training room and blasted training dummy after training dummy, trying to exhaust himself enough that he wouldn't have any energy to dream. When he was done, he took an hour-long shower, futilely scrubbing his skin raw as he tried to remove the taint from him. It didn't work because he was still disgusted with himself afterwards. His plan to have no dreams failed as well and he was tormented with the same nightmares of the previous night.

- H.M. –

The next morning, Harry came to some conclusions. First, he realized that as a horcrux, he would have to die in order for Voldemort to be killed. He had seen no methods to destroy a horcrux without destroying the object that contained it (not that he looked too hard). This suited him just fine because he wanted die anyway, unable to live with the knowledge that a piece of Voldemort's soul was living inside of him. Second, he realized that Dumbledore had to know of this, so any chance of him working with the man was almost completely gone. He didn't think he could be civil with a man that ruined almost every chance of happiness for him, knowing of the proverbial death sentence hanging over him. Third, he was done holding back against the Death Eaters. If he was going to die sometime soon, the least he could do is take as many of them possible with him. Not that he was going to start throwing Killing curses around, but he wouldn't concern himself with their survival if it meant innocent lives were saved.

With that decision made, he got out of bed and began his normal routine, working himself even harder than before. At breakfast, he read the Daily Prophet to learn that Sirius had been declared innocent posthumously, information that did nothing to calm his anger. In fact, he had to work hard to control his anger after that before he destroyed the kitchen. During his magical practice, he started using some of the spells from the Black library. He stopped himself from using dark curses or the Unforgivables, not wanting to corrupt his soul any more than the horcrux already did, but he did learn some of the elemental spells. He was especially talented with the fire and air ones, so he focused on them. Winky and Dobby tried to talk to him throughout the day, but he only gave them short or one-word answers before walking away.

Kreacher, however, stayed completely clear of Harry, cleaning up in silence. The elf had begun to truly respect his new master, seeing the strength and potential within him, but now he was afraid. He knew if his master went dark, Harry would be much worse than Voldemort. He seriously hoped that wouldn't happen to him.

- H.M. –

The next day during his meditation, Harry learned of a raid happening that night. It would involve ten new recruits, six regular ones, and two inner circle members: Travers and Macnair. Even though he would be outnumbered eighteen to one, he still was going. His inner voice was screaming at him to rethink his decision, but he had stopped listening to it yesterday.

At breakfast, Harry informed Dobby of the time and location of the raid, instructing him to be ready an hour before the start time. He spent most of the day in the training room working on the elemental spells, trying to get them down as much as he could. Then he took an hour-long nap after a big lunch to gain his strength back.

When it was time, Dobby looked solemnly at Harry, not wanting to take him to the raid but knowing he had no choice but to obey a direct order. Winky begged him not to go while Kreacher stood by helplessly, but Harry shook his head at them.

"I know you're worried about me, but this is something I have to do," he said firmly. "Dobby, it's time to go." Dobby nodded sadly before popping him to the location. Harry forced Dobby to leave before he began surveying the area. It was a small village with only one main road in and out. There were a few dirt roads that led to three farms. About thirty different buildings total were scattered around the village, two-thirds of them residential. In the middle of the village, all of its people seemed to be gathered in front of the main building for some sort of celebration. Harry counted around fifty people, fifty lives that he had to save. This only strengthened his resolve to get these people out and to seriously hurt those who planned to turn this joyous occasion into a tragedy.

He thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to get these people out of there before the Death Eaters showed up. Eventually he decided he would have to put them all into a fully warded area. He hoped he would be able to convince them to listen to him, but he would knock them all unconscious if he had to. With that decision made, he quietly walked to where everyone was congregated, pulling his hood up. When he got there, a few people noticed him and told those around them about his presence. Within a few minutes, he had everyone's attention.

"Who are you?" a big burly man asked. He seemed to be the spokesman for the group, so Harry turned to face him.

"Who I am is not the important question. Why I'm here is," Harry responded. "I've come to warn you of an imminent attack on your village. Some real evil people, murderers, are going to be here shortly, and they have every intention of annihilating every single person in this village – men, women, and children." Some people let out gasps of fright and Harry paused a moment to let that sink in. "I can help you but you're going to have to trust me."

"Why should we trust you? How do we know that you aren't with these so-called attackers?" the same man asked. Harry decided to nickname him Chief.

"Because, if I wanted to kill you all, you would be dead. But, since you don't believe me, I'll prove it to you." Before anyone could say anything else, Harry had his wand drawn and was casting the defensive spell, Ignis Murus, behind him and away from the people. They all gasped as a huge wall of fire appeared behind the hooded stranger. "Do you believe me now?" Chief nodded his head mutely after all of his fellow villagers looked at him for direction.

"Good. I need for you to lead us to a building that can fit all of you in it on that end of your village," Harry instructed, pointing to his left. Chief nodded in compliance, making Harry silently sigh in relief. The villagers gathered everyone together, picking up the small children as they started moving in the direction Harry specified. Chief picked the last building on the right and began ushering all of his people in.

When the Chief entered in at last, Harry spoke up again. "You're probably going to hear a lot of noise, but no one is to leave this building until men and women in blue robes come get you. Do you all understand?" Everyone nodded their heads in unison. "Good, I'm going to cast some protective wards around this building, so you will be safe, I promise." Harry closed the door and began to do just that, using every ward he had learned from Minerva to protect the people. Satisfied with his work, he went back to the center of the village and used the tables and chairs around him to set up some barriers and blockades to give him an advantage against being outnumbered. Then he climbed to the top of the main building of the town to give himself a good vantage point, waiting for the Death Eaters to arrive.

The sound of eighteen apparition pops signaled the groups arrival. Slowly they stalked into the town, looking everywhere for the sign of people. The lack of sound seemed to unsettle them, making Harry smirk before he got down from his position. He took note of everyone's positions before he cast the Fumos charm, a thick smoke emitting from his wand and spreading out over his makeshift battlefield. Then without warning, he sent three Bombarda charms in the direction of his opponents, starting the battle.

Harry dodged out of the way of a few spells heading for him before he sent a Reducto their way, hearing the satisfying scream of pain letting him know his spell made contact with someone. After a few minutes of spells flying everywhere, one of the Death Eaters cleared the smokescreen, having come to their senses. Harry counted fifteen of them still standing. Well at least that took out some of them, he thought as he spun out of the way of a Killing curse.

"It's only one person!" Travers shouted, emboldening his group.

Harry only smirked at them as he sent a Ventus Vulnus (Wind Slash) in the man's direction, hitting two Death Eaters near the him, though he managed to jump out of the way. The battle got serious then, Harry's opponents trying to keep him off balance by overwhelming him with spell fire. Harry was not deterred however, as he used the environment around him to even the odds, transfiguring things into stone and glass shields. He even threw conjuration in the mix, making shields out of thin air when necessary. When those were blasted, he would send the broken shards back at the attackers. He also made great use of the elemental spells, hitting them with waves or slashes of wind and whips and blasts of fire. Every time he got one of them one on one, he used Ossium Ruptor and the Stunning charm to take them out of the fight permanently. He also used the traditional blasting and exploding spells to knock them back when too many got too close, knocking a few into the buildings where they crumpled to the floor.

Harry got hit as well. One managed to catch his left leg with a burn curse while another blasted him into a building, injuring his back and his head. When he got up from that, his jacket fell open allowing a dark cutting curse to strike his abdomen. However, he ignored every injury, so focused on his mission and filled with adrenaline that he didn't feel them.

After about thirty minutes of battle, there were only five left, including Travers and Macnair. Harry was starting to feel the effects of using so much magic, but he persevered, standing tall against his remaining opponents.

"Who are you?" Macnair asked.

"Someone who doesn't fear your master," Harry retorted scornfully.

"Do you think you're funny boy? Wait until my master gets ahold of you. We'll see who's laughing then!" Travers yelled, angry at his opponent's disrespect of the Dark Lord.

"Seeing as he has trouble killing a single underaged wizard, I think my chances of survival are pretty high," Harry replied sarcastically. "Anyway, first you have to catch me." He sent an overpowered Deprimo, causing everyone except for the two inner circle Death Eaters – who managed to throw up shields – to be thrown back several feet. Harry didn't have time to worry about if they were dead because he was immediately engaged with his two remaining opponents. Tired as he was, he still managed to keep up with them, dodging and deflecting their spells. They managed to break his left hand and bruise or break some ribs, yet he continued to fight. Then, Harry mistimed a movement getting hit by Travers' Cruciatus curse. Harry fell to the ground in pain as the dark wizard held him under the spell for ten seconds before releasing it.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Travers asked cruelly as he put Harry back under the spell for ten seconds again. "No witty comeback, huh?" Macnair chuckled darkly in amusement as Travers sneered down at Harry, casting the curse again.

As they taunted him, Harry was just about ready to give up. The pain wasn't as excruciating as Voldemort's, but it still hurt, and he was tired of living the cursed life he'd been saddled with. He wanted it all to stop. Yet, just as he was about to surrender, the image of Minerva's smiling face popped in his mind. Then he was flooded with images of all his friends and the good times he had with them. Her face was most prominent though, and he focused on it. He realized just how important she had become to him and he knew he couldn't do this to her. She deserved better than this from him. I don't want to die, not like this, he thought as he gathered his strength, preparing for an opening.

The two Death Eaters verbally taunted him for a minute longer before Travers cast the curse again. This time Harry was ready for him though. Fighting through the pain, Harry managed to lift his arm up and fired a Bone Breaker at his current tormentor, hitting the man in the neck. Travers fell down to the ground, dead. Harry didn't think about that though as he saw the Killing curse rushing toward him. He knew there was no way he would be able to move in time, so instead he gathered all of his remaining magic up, willing it to take him away from there before the curse could hit him. Take me back home, he thought desperately. Right before the deadly curse came into contact with him, he vanished without a sound. Macnair looked at the spot in utter shock, trying to figure out where Harry had gone. Then he heard the sound of several people apparating there and knew he had to go before the aurors saw him. He used his emergency portkey to get away, trying to figure out how he was going to explain this to the Dark Lord.

Meanwhile, Harry travelled for a few seconds before he stopped at his intent-driven destination, his body slammed to the ground upon arrival. He fell unconscious almost immediately after. The person who he landed in front of almost jumped out of their skin at his sudden arrival. Then they recognized who it was and gasped in shock and fear.

"Harry!"