Harry Potter and the Last Day Walker
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Wednesday 7th August 1996
23:33 pm, No.4 Privet Drive.
Harry Potter shot up out of his sleep and began panting heavily for a few moments before his hand fumbled around his desk looking for his rounded glasses.
He was drenched in sweat and his heart beat was racing from a nightmare he had just had, only unlike his Ministry ones he couldn't remember the details of this one but he knew whatever had happened had terrified him.
When he found his glasses, he shoved them roughly onto his face and looked around his darkened room. There was no one in there except himself and Hedwig who was sleeping in her cage.
Harry frowned.
He looked towards his open window which blew a light cool breeze against his curtains.
He had noticed that Hedwig of late wasn't hunting at nights like she usually would. Other than sending letters she had been staying indoors most of this summer.
He wondered to himself if Hewig was trying to keep him company at the expense of her own free time.
He sighed to himself. He would try to encourage her to hunt and stretch wings for the sake of it tomorrow.
Harry felt his heart beat start to calm down a little but he removed the covers off of him and swung his legs over the bed and just listened to the silence for a moment.
As Harry sat in the darkness, an uneasy feeling began to plague him. It was like that feeling when you suddenly got nervous but wasn't sure why you were nervous.
Harry also felt like he was forgetting something, something important but what?
He couldn't think of anything that he was supposed to remember. He had no chores to do, he had written his replies and he had done all his homework for the summer.
What else could he be forgetting?
Nothing came to him.
It was probably just the after effects from his nightmare.
He sighed to himself before laying back down but he couldn't sleep. All the tiredness had evaporated from him and he laid there once again staring at the ceiling.
He tried to breath a few times to just relax but he couldn't fight the feeling that something was wrong.
But what?
What had he been dreaming about?
Harry assumed it was another one of his weird flashes that he'd been seeing but he could remember those so why couldn't he remember this one?
Maybe it wasn't important if he couldn't remember it.
No! That didn't feel right.
This dream had been important.
Harry had learnt over the last few years that his dreams were very important but did that mean that this dream had something to do with Voldemort?
His scar didn't suggest that it was.
While his scar burned all the time now, it was more reminiscent to that of a constant buzz. Like a small fly buzzing around his ear.
That's how the pain in his scar felt. It only prickled or burned much more intensely when near Voldemort or when his emotions were high.
Although he couldn't forget about the pain he had felt in his scar when Voldemort had physically possessed him.
That pain wasn't just in his scar though. Arguably that pain was felt in his very soul. Every Fiber in his being in fact.
The feelings he was feeling right now didn't suggest Voldemort which made him all the more worried.
If some kind of danger came knocking at his door that had nothing to do with Voldemort or was sent by Voldemort then perhaps there was a risk to his participation in the prophecy.
Not that he wanted to participate in the prophecy but Voldemort would never stop trying to kill him. Even if he changed his name, ran away and went full muggle.
What he would give to be able to just do that and not worry about anything but Voldemort would still look for him. He would hunt him down for all eternity until he proved that he could kill him once and for all.
Harry had no intentions of running away no matter how tempting.
Even if he did, what would he do with himself? He had no qualifications in the muggle world and it would feel wrong to fake it by magic.
He was actually a little upset when he thought about how the wizarding world could just take over your muggle life.
He hated the Dursley's and absolutely adored magic but if he had just declined to go to Hogwarts and instead had just gone to stonewall like the Dursley's had wanted then maybe his problems wouldn't be so drastic as they were now.
Maybe he would be a somewhat normal teenager with normal muggle friends. Maybe he wouldn't be dealing with Voldemort and death-defying experiences every year.
'Yeah right. As if destiny would let you live a normal life.' He thought to himself bitterly.
Harry knew how naive those thoughts were.
It wouldn't do any good to go back to Hogwarts being naive this year. He had a war to prepare for.
'He had a war to prepare for!'
He had a war to prepare for and what had he been doing this entire summer so far? Moping.
Merlin was he stupid sometimes. People were out there dying.
People had died because of him.
Everyday Voldemort was out there getting stronger and stronger. He was taking out the light, building up his army and the only hope to stop him was himself.
The guy who couldn't even learn occlumency to see a fake vision in his head.
There was so much he had been lax with and while he couldn't blame everything on himself for certain things happening it didn't help that he had wasted so much time over the years.
He should've been training. He should've been learning how to kill Voldemort from the moment he could walk. He should've...never been born.
If he was never born then he wouldn't need to train to kill Voldemort.
The burning anger that had momentarily surged through him simmered down.
That anger he had felt at Dumbledore for ignoring him and keeping him in the dark didn't diminish the truth in the words he had spoken to him for not telling him the truth about the prophecy when he had been younger.
This entire summer he'd been depressed about the prophecy and Sirius but if he let that feeling go then what he'd have left would be fear and anger and while he was angry about being kept in the dark, he knew his fear of the prophecy would out do the anger.
He hated Voldemort with a passion and that would never change but he didn't want to kill him.
He snorted at how stupid that sounded to him. He didn't want to kill the man who had ruined his life, killed his parents and had tried to kill him five times now and yet he knew to himself that it was true.
He didn't want to kill him.
He didn't want to kill anyone.
There had been a moment back at the ministry where he had wanted to hurt Bellatrix. There had even been a moment where he considered ending her life but he couldn't go through with it.
He didn't want that on his conscious. He had felt all that hate and darkness inside Voldemort and it had felt horrid. He didn't want to feel that through killing.
He didn't want to be like him.
He didn't want the responsibility of killing him.
He couldn't help but think about the kind of person he would've become if he had known about the prophecy years ago.
Would he be paranoid like Madeye? Would he be as experienced as the auror? Would he have cracked under the pressure? Would everyone think of him as the next Dumbledore and expect him to have all the answers and make decisions that affected the entire world?
Just minutes ago, he'd been thinking about running away and not going to Hogwarts.
Just seconds ago, he had thought about training every waking minute instead of having a childhood.
Not that he had a proper childhood. No, that had been stolen from him.
It had somewhat been given back to him when he first came to Hogwarts.
He got to have fun, make friends and eat properly. There was plenty of faults with Hogwarts as he had almost died there every year so far but it was still his home.
A home he now had to protect.
A prospect that terrified him.
Dumbledore had wanted to keep him innocent for as long as possible why he didn't tell him of his responsibilities.
Harry was still angry with the man but he ultimately understood his misguided actions because Harry now craved the feeling of being in the dark about the prophecy again.
The fate of the world rested on his shoulders and he had no faith that he could fulfil what the prophecy required of him.
He had survived being killed by Voldemort but not because he was particularly skilled. He had been severely lucky each and every time but what if luck wasn't always on his side?
Who else would have to die before his luck ran out?
What if it was Voldemort who fulfilled the Prophecy instead. One of them would kill each other in the end and there was no guarantee that he'd be the one to win.
What would happen to the world then? What would happen to the Muggle world? What would happen to Hogwarts? What would happen to Neville, Luna and Ginny? What would happen to Ron and Hermione?
He shuddered even thinking about the possibilities.
That's why he had to get out of his slump now.
He couldn't bare the idea of anything happening to them.
Angry or not he was grateful to some degree for the time he hadn't known about the prophecy even though not knowing had partially helped get Sirius killed.
Still his reaction to learning it had been depression and maybe it would've been the same years ago or maybe he would've been worse but the time for his depression and fear was over.
He needed to start acting like a Gryffindor only he couldn't be reckless anymore, that had mostly gotten Sirius killed.
He needed to be brave but he needed to be smart. He needed to start acting like a Ravenclaw. Not just be smart but be wise about how he was going to handle this war.
While he wasn't remotely anywhere near Alastor Moody's or Dumbledore's level of trained, he wasn't no slouch either.
He was top of his class for Dada. He had managed to teach defensive spells to the D.A and while many of his death defying experiences had been down to luck, he had still survived them by using initiative and instinct every now and then. He had killed a basilisk, taken on a hundred Dementors and had fought off death eaters.
He did have some skills and it was time to properly cultivate them.
He was seeing deaths in the daily prophet every other day and was getting strange dreams that could be warning of imminent danger.
Starting tomorrow he was going to become a new Harry. A Harry ready to fight no matter what happened. No matter how terrified he was.
Where there was darkness, light would follow and he was going to do his best to embrace that light and fight for it.
He would fight for his home. He would fight for the safety of his friends. He would fight for the justice of his parents and Sirius.
He would fight.
With a fresh determination he settled back down.
He allowed his mind to relax and shake the unpleasant feeling that had taken over him.
He would make a plan on how to self-train himself and be better prepared for handling Voldemort. He would write for some advice and would look into his weird dreams and get advice on what they meant and how to deal with them.
With those thoughts Harry Potter finally began to drift back into a peaceful sleep unaware that the nightmare that had woken him up had been a message to tell him that one of his goals for the new and improved Harry Potter had been a little discarded that very night.
He would no longer be needing to fight for their safety... at least not in the way he had originally intended too.
/
Thursday 8th August 1996,
00:01 am, The Granger Residence.
The third figure that stepped into the dining room of the Granger residence was appalled by the sight that they saw.
Blood was splattered across the walls and little droplets of it stained the floor. A few chairs were turned over and there were several broken vases shattered across the floor. There was even a large pot plant with a scattered trail of soil across the mahogany hardwood floor but the worst of it of course was the three blood covered bodies and disgustingly a severed fingertip and blue eyeball that were lying on the floor.
The figure shook their head and turned to the other two figures.
"The verdict?" Said the third figure in the tired voice of a man.
"We've got two dying breathers and an almost dead witch." Replied the second figure with the sugary voice of a woman with a hint of sarcasm present in her tone.
The third figure simply scowled.
The first figure in the room who was in the most peculiar outfit snorted and then added...
"Don't forget the two quarters of a vamp. That's the takeaway if you ask me." Said the first figure also with the voice of a higher pitched man that was clearly amused.
"And they belong to who?" Asked the second man with a sigh.
"Jasper." Answered the woman.
"And how did Jasper lose a finger and an eyeball?" Asked the second man.
"The witch bit it off, which is impressive considering she was a fangless breather when she bit it off. As for the eyeball she poked it out with her wand." Replied the woman with a tone of disdain that was mixed with a hint of a smirk.
"Well, let's not wait for the grass to grow and leave them lying around for decoration." Said the second man now highly irritated.
The first man smiled before pulling out a ten-inch wand and casting a nonverbal spell that suddenly made the severed fingertip appear in a conjured piece of silk cloth.
The man then picked up the cloth with a grimace before he looked at the other two occupants of the room and smirked.
"Finger sandwich anyone?"
"Gross." Replied the woman with a look of revulsion plastered on her face.
The first man snorted again.
"I don't think it's any worse than what you actually eat love." Said the first man with a goofy grin.
The woman simply glowered and the first man took a step back but defiantly kept smiling.
The second man rolled his eyes.
"Enough! The eye!" Said the second man agitated.
The first man then repeated the spell and the eye was in a matching silk cloth, he then summoned a bag and put both cloths in the bag.
"What about the muggles?" Asked the second man in a serious tone.
"We got here a couple of minutes late. The breathers had already been bitten but they were after the witch and she put up a fight. So, they didn't get the chance to drain them when we got here but they'll die soon enough unless I turn them as well. Dipshit here has got them both under some kind of freezing charm apparently. That's the only reason they're not dead... yet!" Answered the woman, her tone barely even feigning interest.
"A freezing charm? That will sustain them?" Asked the second man curiously.
"I honestly have no idea but she's already on her way out and if she survives the transformation, then I figured it might be easier for her to learn that her parents haven't been brutally murdered... yet!" Replied the first man with an air of uncomfortableness.
"Oh yes because if I was turned into a demonic creature of the night, I would love to wake up and then watch my parents die, maybe even want to bite them instead of just learning of their demise and not having to deal with that pain of seeing their lives end or caring about them during the fledgling phase." Said the woman sarcastically.
"Yeah, but she's probably not a cold-hearted bitch like you and would maybe want to see her parents one last time. Besides, if we get them to Mei before my charm runs out, then maybe they can go peacefully or if she survives the transformation and the charm works long enough then maybe she can have the choice and they can be turned and she doesn't lose her parents, to the life she's just been subjected too." Replied the first man going back to his defiant grin.
The woman then took a menacing step forward toward the first man but he showed no ounce of fear and kept his wand trained on her, his smile still in place.
"I said Enough!" Shouted the second man.
The other two didn't take their eyes off each other but the woman took a step back and the man lowered his wand slightly.
"Jasper and Creed got away, yes?" Asked the second man still irritated.
"Yes, but in case you were wondering about my intriguing get up this evening, then you'll find that the next question on your mind is already answered. Nala acquired it on a mission." Said the first man as he turned to show off his very strange purple tailcoat which had patch on right shoulder sleeve.
There was a white patch with a black paw print on it and realisation dawned in the second man's eyes.
"Nala got the uniform from a member of the werewolf capture unit?" Asked the second man with a hint of uncertainty.
"Former member and yes. She gave it to me to wear so that it would cause utter confusion tonight." Replied the first man going back to another grimace.
"And I told the dipshit and Nala that their plan is dumb. Especially as neither Jasper or Creed are werewolves." Barked the woman.
"Actually, it could be a smart move. They've never seen his face before and if they think that a member of the werewolf capture unit was in the area, they'll assume werewolves were in the area as it's a full moon tonight. They'll maybe assume that the werewolves were coming for her or that a man from the WCU would obviously follow protocol call the vampire dispatch squad, meaning they won't risk coming back for the girl. They'll of course realise it's a farce when they hear no news of the VDS being in Elsworth." Said the second man contemplatively.
"It's hardly smart when it's obviously a farce to begin with. He was by himself, there's no werewolves around for miles and he displayed no proper protocol that an actual member would've shown. Not to mention, with our own distractions tonight, they would be stupid to not realise that we had something to do with them coming back empty handed. Oh, and did I mention that Jasper and Creed aren't werewolves." Said the woman scathingly.
"Always the Debbie downer." Muttered the first man, knowing full well that the woman was a vampire and could hear his remark very clearly.
"Regardless, it got the job done. The others will be here any minute for clean up." Said the second man.
"And why the hell has it taken this long for you guys to get here? It's been four hours." Snapped the woman.
"You forget that we lack the numbers of that which our adversaries possess." Replied the second man smoothly.
"Yes, but what we lack in numbers, we make up for in power." Replied the woman, very agitated.
"Yes, and if we exhaust that power, we lack it and numbers. Besides the limited power that was here tonight has done a fine job of ensuring that you've not had any extra problems in the last four hours, has it not?" Replied the second man also agitated.
"Hmm." Snorted the woman.
"She's just cranky, there's 'breathers' around that she can't finish off." Stated the first man.
"I'm cranky cause I've been stuck with a piece of shit like you for four hours and I'm not allowed to kill you... yet!" Said the woman as her eyes flashed red.
"So, you admit you're cranky." Said the first man with a dramatic finger pointed at her.
She went to step forward again but her head suddenly snapped in the direction of the youngest body on the floor.
Hermione Granger who was lying face up, had two puncture holes in her neck with blood trailing from them and had blood smeared across her mouth.
Hermione had been alive for this entire conversation, not that she could truly pay attention to it because she'd been shallowly breathing as something inside her had very slowly and very painfully been killing her for the last four hours.
Hermione knew two people had come and chased away the vampires that had attacked her and her parents but they'd done nothing to help her as she laid dying on the floor.
By the time the third figure had entered her home she was on her last straws of life but she could do nothing as some vile poison clawed its way to her heart.
Her shallow breaths sped up heavily as tears leaked from her eyes.
This was it. She was going to die.
The pain had started becoming numb and everything was becoming fuzzy as spots of white began to cloud her vision.
Memories of her last moments filled her head.
/
She heard her parents scream. She came running down the stairs. She saw the creatures she had studied in class but had never seen in person. They were a lot worse than she could've ever imagined. Still her Gryffindor nature had jumped into action and she sprang forward. Even with her wand in her hand, the type of magic she needed to defeat a vampire wasn't in her arsenal and she couldn't recall the spell to call the VDS so she had done the first thing she could think of.
"Hey!" She screamed as she threw a large plant pot by the bottom of the stairs at the vampire who had his teeth in her mother's neck. He let go of her mother and turned around towards her, his fangs bared, eyes red and black, face morphed and mouth dripping with blood.
He looked at her hungrily and Hermione's breath hitched as her heart and pulse quickened but her mother's feeble command for her to run was enough to make her snap out of her shock and run forward and grab a chair and throw it with all her strength at the larger vampire who was still drinking from her paling father. The chair connected with the bigger vampire which was enough to send the vampire flying halfway across the room without hurting her father which shouldn't have been possible.
(Unbeknownst to Hermione that her magic was using a rare wandless phenomena called instinctual magic which sometimes coincided with accidental magic and like accidental magic for the most part, disappeared when you received a wand. Most wizards were prone to using accidental magic in their youth rather than instinctual magic and so she had no clue she was doing it. Her magic was acting on the instinct to protect her family and thus it was boosting her strength and had allowed her throw the chair with a force strong enough to even knock down Hagrid.)
She picked up a second chair and charged at the vampire stalking towards her. She swung it at his head which he dodged. She swung it again and the vampire dodged again. She swung several more times, each time the vampire ducking or stepping back to avoid the chair. She swung a final time but the vampire was ready this time and caught the two of the legs of the chair and threw the chair across the room.
The vampire then lunged at her and grabbed her then turned her around and held her in vice like grip with his mouth hovering over her neck. She tried to wriggle out of his grip but he was too strong. Hermione stepped on his foot but the result only ended in him pressing onto one of her ribs and she felt it snap.
Hermione screamed loudly.
She heard the vampire snarl.
Even with the pain she was feeling she realised why he had snarled.
She needed to scream again.
She used all the strength she could to scream an ear-piercing cry, hoping it would hurt his ears even more as they were meant to be extra sensitive and hoping it would attract the neighbours to call the police.
The ministry had a system for wizards who lived in muggle populated areas and if they popped up on the muggle radars such as a muggle reporting a wizard's name or house number and anything like that, magic would intervene and the muggle would be compelled to contact the ministry about the incident even though they had no clue that was happening.
The vampire snarled as Hermione screamed for help and pushed harder into her rib cutting the scream short, he then used one hand to cover her mouth.
"Nice try you little bitch. No one's coming to help you. Now let's see if you taste as delicious as your mother does." Said the vampire as he was about to go in for the bite.
A thousand thoughts ran through her head as the pain in her side became unbearable but she did the only thing she could think to do. She bit the vampire's hand.
The vampire let out a guttural cry as he ripped his hand from her mouth but she had latched onto one of his fingers and when he ripped his hand away one finger remained in her mouth. She felt metallic blood dribble down her throat and she spluttered and spat the finger out. She then took her wand from her back pocket and stabbed it backwards.
"AAAAAAHHHHH! YOU BITCH!" Screamed the vampire. As he bent over in pain.
Hermione turned and hobbled forward yanking her wand from the vampire's eye but the vampires eyeball popped out of his socket and flew across the room.
The vampire snarled again and was ready to leap forward but suddenly there was a loud crash and then another.
Hermione saw the vampire bleeding from his temple as her parents who looked sickly pale while blood trailed down their necks, were standing behind the vampire. They had just crashed two vases on his head, Hermione being close to the dining table took a final chair and swung it at the vampire's head and it connected with his head and he went crashing into the wall.
Hermione dropped the chair and keeled over.
Her parents who were feeling extra weak only had time to smile at their daughter before they both fell unconscious, hand in hand.
Hermione crawled over to them and began to shake them.
"Mum! Dad! MUM! DAD! Please wake up. Please! Please, everything will be fine. You just have to wake up. Wake up and we can go to the hospital. Mummy! Daddy! Please don't leave me!" Cried Hermione as tears streamed down her face.
No, she couldn't lose them.
Hermione was just about to stand and grab the phone when suddenly she was hoisted up by her hair and felt her neck being snapped back and suddenly, she felt sharp fangs pierce her neck and then her blood was being sucked from her body. The pain was indescribable as she began to get light headed and found it harder to breath but as soon as it had begun, it was over.
Not the pain though, no that started to spread further past her, ribs, past her neck. Her body suddenly felt on fire.
She could hardly see anything but she felt as one of the vampires hoisted her up once again and hovered something over her mouth.
She then felt a hand grip her jaw and suddenly blood was pouring down her throat. She once again coughed and spluttered but she was too weak to stop it. When the blood stopped flowing, she was slammed back to the floor and left there.
She heard noise. Plenty of it.
She heard voices talking. She heard spells being fired. She heard snarling. She heard crashing objects and for while she heard silence. All the while she was there laying on the floor dying.
/
She could feel it coming. Her death was close.
She wasn't going to become a dark creature. She was just going to die.
She could live with that.
What she couldn't live with was failing her parents. Failing to complete Hogwarts. Failing the order. Failing the wizarding world. Failing Harry and Ron.
Harry and Ron!
She'd never see them again.
Her boys.
Her best friends.
Her brother and the... the one.
She let their faces fill her mind. She lingered on their smiles.
She thought about all her family and friends.
Her parents accepting her as a witch. All her precious muggle family.
She thought about Confident Ginny, quirky Luna and sweet Neville.
All the Weasleys and her amazing teachers except professor Snape.
And for one last time wonderful Harry and her perfect imperfect Ron.
She managed one last smile before her eyes closed and she finally took her last breath.
/