A/N: Tadda! It's here!
Gilthas: And it's your birthday.
Me: Yes! I'm an old lady now...
Gilthas: No you're not.
Me: I know, but my hair's already blue.
Gilthas: That would be hair dye.
Me: Whatever. I was very happy this morning because my wonderful family made me breakfast and I thought, 'well, maybe I should post'. So I did.
Gilthas: And everyone loves you for it.
Me: Yes, and I want reviews! Send them now!
Gilthas: At least let them read first!
Me: *sigh* Whatever. You have 5 minutes starting...now.
~
Chapter 10: The Battle
The words sounded stupid, even in Harry's own head. And yet, Voldemort still did not attack. Harry was forced to believe them—as ridiculous as they might sound. Harry had defeated him twice before now, after all, but still...
The Death Eaters seemed to sense that something was wrong.
"Master?" asked a female voice. Harry could guess whose spirit resided in that body.
"Silence," Voldemort said. As if covering up for his lapse, Voldemort looked behind Harry. "I see you came alone."
"Excellent observation, Voldemort," Harry said coldly. "I suppose I didn't have time to steal someone's soul."
"Apparently," Voldemort said with that smirk. "But enough talking, Potter. I'm sure you didn't come to watch me harm innocents."
"I've been waiting," Harry said calmly. "Come now, Voldemort, fear doesn't become you. Though, to be fair, neither does anything else."
Voldemort's face contorted in anger. Again, Harry was surprised at how well he's hit the mark. He had never even considered that Voldemort could fear anything!
Voldemort raised his wand and shot a jet of light at Harry. Harry threw up his shield and the spell bounced harmlessly off. Harry's shield lowered and he looked at Voldemort.
"You call that a curse? I thought you fancied yourself the most powerful wizard of all time."
Voldemort shot three curses at Harry, Harry threw up his shield and it deflected one, but he felt that his shield would not hold for three. Grabbing his cloak, he twisted it and appeared on the opposite side of Voldemort's forces. Harry flicked his wand hard as though trying to squash a particularly irritating fly. His spell was so powerful that it blinded most of the people in the area. Harry did not flinch and was well aware that Voldemort had vanished long before the spell hit him.
A few Death Eaters yelled in horror, but Harry did not listen to them. He did not see what was in front of him. He was concentrating with all his might. He would know exactly where Voldemort appeared.
There.
Harry dodged to the side as Voldemort's spell nearly hit him. He made two quick slashing movements in the air and a jet of what looked like water flew straight and Voldemort and wrapped around him with the stickiness of glue, tightening slowly. Voldemort shimmered eerily for a moment before Harry's spell suddenly rebounded upon him and Voldemort vanished.
Harry placed up his shield. The different and rarer type of shield lapped up Harry's spell as though it was nothing more than a drop of water falling into a pool.
Harry saw the spell coming out of the corner of his eye. Voldemort's Death Eaters had entered the fray. He twisted to the side and the Avada Kedavra Curse passed him harmlessly by.
Harry grabbed his cloak again and, with a twist, vanished. He appeared seconds later behind the Death Eaters. He cut a line through the air with his wand and a thin golden line appeared there as though Harry had been drawing with a pencil. He pushed forward in the air with his free hand and the line sped forward, growing as it did so, and, as if it was a large string of rope, it knocked the line of Death Eaters off their feet and to the ground. His cloak swirled again and Harry was suddenly standing far down the street.
He watched the Death Eaters get to their feet looking wildly around for their attacker.
Voldemort was no where to be seen. Harry tensed. He much preferred having his enemies where he could see them.
Suddenly his feet were glued to the ground and he looked down, horrified. Volts upon volts of electricity rushed through his body. He yelled loudly and the next second it was gone. Harry wrenched his feet off the ground where they had been magically stuck and, on impulse, floated several inches off the ground. The next second he saw the ground spark with the second electrical current that would have caused considerable damage.
Seeing himself vulnerable to his invisible opponent, Harry twisted his cloak and vanished, only to reappear down a side street. He looked hesitantly around the corner and saw the Death Eaters forming ranks, trying to discover where he was.
"Still hiding, are we, Potter?"
Harry whirled around and found himself face to face with Voldemort.
"Speak for yourself," Harry growled.
"Ah yes," Voldemort said, smirking. "But I am not the 'noble' one."
"That's right!" Harry said in a mocking voice. "You're the deranged psycho killer!"
"I'm touched that you remember, even after all these years," Voldemort said mockingly.
"Yours is not a face one so easily forgets," Harry said in all honesty.
"Indeed."
At exactly the same time, Harry and Voldemort whipped their wands. Each yelled a different spell and they hit in midair, forming that string of golden light. Voldemort cursed and, with a twist of his cloak, tried to disappear.
Harry pulled hard on his wand, forcing Voldemort back to stand before him. Voldemort pulled hard the other way. It went on for several minute with neither making headway before—
BAM
The string of light exploded, blowing Harry and Voldemort both backwards. So unexpected was the blast that neither had time to summon a spell to mind that would save them.
With a loud 'boom', they flew backward, landing hard on the pavement. Harry put his arms over his head to shield himself from the pieces of concrete and building that had blown apart in the sudden and unexpected bursting of the magic...
* * *
"Is he okay?"
"I don't like the looks of this..."
"Who is he?"
"I don't know! I've never seen him before..."
"Did somebody call the hospital?"
"You dolt! They had to evacuate the hospital because of the attack!"
"Then send him to Hogwarts or something! My God! Did you see him fight off the Dark Lord?"
"I was right here next to you the whole time! Of course I saw it!"
Harry blurrily opened his eyes. The world spun weirdly and he quickly closed them. Two people looked down at him.
"He's waking up!"
"Hello? Can you here me? Are you okay?"
Harry groaned. His entire body felt rather broken. It took him a minute to realize he was lying on top of something hard and unyielding. He tried to roll off it, but one of the people held him back.
"Don't move! You're really hurt!"
Whatever he was lying on was distinctly uncomfortable. Harry tried to communicate with the man, to tell him that part of his pain was due to the very hard and rather pointed item beneath him, but his tongue didn't seem to work properly and his limbs weren't quite responding as they should.
"He looks like he's still in pain," came the whispered word of one of the people.
"We have to do something," agreed the other. "We're going to try to take you to Hogwarts," he said in an unnecessarily loud voice to Harry. "Maybe they can do something for you there. We're not sure—"
"Have you got him?" asked a voice suddenly. It stirred something in Harry's memory, but he couldn't quite place it in his state.
Pounding footsteps shook the ground beneath Harry, making that block of whatever was sticking in his back even worse. He groaned again and tried to open his eyes.
The world had stopped spinning somewhat and he saw a man lean down to regard him. "I'm here, Harry," he said. "I'm going to take you to the Hospital Wing, okay? You're going to have to bear with me. Can you walk? You can just shake or nod."
Slowly, feeling as though his head weighed more than the rest of him combined, Harry managed something that could be interpreted as a negative.
"How long has he been sitting here?" the man asked of the first two people.
"Not that long," said the one man. "But that other guy..."
Even through Harry's pain clouded mind, he was suddenly very attentive. He reached out a very heavy arm and grabbed the man's wrist. "Is he over there? What happened to him?"
The man looked horrified that Harry should move so and he tried to untangle Harry's fist around his arm, but Harry held stubbornly on.
"Those other men," he said. "In the black cloaks. They thought you were dead. They took the other man and they disappeared!"
Harry let go of the man's wrist and fell back to the ground. He hit the piece he was apparently lying on and flinched horribly.
"He's laying on something!" said the other man quickly. He lifted Harry gently up and removed the rather large piece of cement that had been hampering Harry's rest. Harry lay back down, suddenly aware just how comfortable it was without that piece there...
"Don't you go out on me," said the newest man quickly, shaking Harry and making him groan. "You two, help. We need to get him out of here."
"Yes, Minister," said the man. "How?"
The newest man frowned slightly before snapping his fingers excitedly. "I have an idea!"
Harry blinked to see a wand pointed at him. His eyes widened slightly and even through his slightly slow mind, he realized that even if this was a friend, his magic might not work properly.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Harry felt himself lift off the ground. He felt himself start to panic before pushing it aside and realizing that he probably did not have strength to struggle if he wanted to.
The new man was next to him, oddly close before Harry remembered again that he was floating. "I told you I was Head Boy, didn't I?" the man said, smiling very big.
The next moment Harry's eyes widened as he felt himself falling. He saw the man's horrorstruck face before everything went black...
* * *
Harry awoke in a very white place. He blinked and wondered briefly why the entire world looked blurry. He groaned and turned his head, which seemed oddly heavy, as saw his glasses sitting on the bedside table.
Closing his eyes because seeing and trying to move at the same time really didn't seem to be an option, he reached blindly over to the table and felt around for his glasses, putting them on when he found them.
The white blur around him took shape. He was in a very white room. His bed sheets were white and his pillow was white and the walls and ceiling around him were white. Putting his arms under him, he pushed himself into a sitting position.
He was slightly dizzy, but he did not sit down. He wondered vaguely for a moment where he was before the previous day came back to him.
The white door opened.
"Harry Potter!" said a woman. "It's good to see you awake! I was beginning to think you'd sleep the day through!"
"Where am I?" Harry asked, his tongue feeling rather big and awkward in his mouth.
"The hospital wing, Harry Potter," the woman said promptly. "The hospital at the Ministry was destroyed so you were brought here. You've got some nasty wounds there, Mr. Potter."
Harry noticed vaguely that she was saying his name far more than was normal. He shook it aside though (mentally, definitely not physically) and tried to comprehend better exactly where he was. The hospital wing. Right. At Hogwarts.
Suddenly he sat up straighter as his unusually slow thoughts came around. "What happened at the Ministry?"
"Why, you scared them off, to be sure, Mr. Potter," the woman said. "The people in the masks took the other man you were fighting and left with him, leaving you. I suppose they thought you were dead, Harry—Mr. Potter."
Harry nodded slowly. He remembered vaguely someone telling him the same thing. "And what about the people in the hospital?"
"Only a few died, Mr. Potter," the woman sniffed. "You managed to distract them long enough for us to get quite a few evacuated, though. Of course, you clearly paid the price."
"Clearly," Harry muttered. His head didn't feel quite as heavy as it did and his arms seemed to be responding rather faster than before.
"I was hoping, Harry Potter," the woman continued. "That you could tell us something of what occurred out there. What was that explosion?"
Harry shook his head. "Voldemort's wand and my wand...it's rather a long and complicated story. Think of it this way, the magic got stretched a little too far."
"Magic caused that terrible explosion?"
Harry nodded, making his head spin a little. "I need to go," he said suddenly, trying to move through the pain. Dimly, in the back of his mind, he realized that he shouldn't be hurting quite as much as he was.
"Oh dear!" the woman said. "Mr. Potter, you shouldn't be getting up! Your condition is far too serious!"
Harry shook his head stubbornly. "Just give me a potion or something. I'll be alright."
He looked up when the woman didn't say anything.
"A potion," Harry repeated. "Nothing too advanced. I just need something to make my head stay above my feet."
"Potions?" the woman repeated, quite blankly. "For healing?"
Harry felt his mouth open slightly despite himself. "Yes," he said slowly. "What else does one use for healing?"
"Bandages?" the woman asked in what Harry was sure she thought was a helpful manner.
Harry rubbed his eyes wearily. "Bandages don't help when someone breaks a leg, do they? What do you do if someone breaks a leg?"
"How would someone break a leg?" the woman asked blankly.
"An arm then," Harry offered.
"How would anyone break any bones?" the woman asked. "Unless it's intentional, there's really not any way to break a bone. If they do, they're sent to the hospital."
"I thought this was the hospital wing."
"It is!" the woman assured him. "But it's only a school wing! You know, for minor injuries. For bigger things they go straight to the hospital at the Ministry!"
"And where are they now that there is no hospital at the Ministry?" Harry asked patiently.
"They brought most of them here," the woman admitted. "But the doctors came too! I mean, I don't have that much medical training. Enough to be a doctor, I mean."
"You mean a healer?" Harry asked.
"Healer?" the woman asked. "What is that supposed to be?"
"Never mind," Harry said quickly. "Then what do you do if someone gets sick?"
The woman now had a very confused look on her face. She opened her mouth to respond when suddenly the door opened. Harry looked up to see the Minister of Magic standing there.
"Minister!" the woman said gratefully. "Perhaps you could answer Harry Potter's questions. I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what it is he's talking about."
"Certainly," Crocker said quickly. The woman exited hurriedly. Crocker did not move from his place in the doorway.
"Come on in," Harry said with a slight grin on his face. "I don't bite."
"Of course," Crocker said quickly, coming in and shutting the door behind him. He stood beside Harry's bed. Harry felt very awkward craning his neck up so far to see him. Crocker seemed to realize his discomfort and pulled up a chair.
"You'll have to forgive the nurse. I see she's still calling you Harry Potter. She was beside herself when she realized who you were. We didn't tell her, you see. Inevitably she saw your scar and figured it out for herself."
Harry listened quietly. Seeing that Harry was not responding, he continued. "I'm afraid you're rather something of a famous name, not to be confused with a face. When she found out who you were, it's always been your full name, like we learned it in the history books. You're Harry Potter. She's been practicing for when you woke up, trying to call you Mr. Potter. That's what Grander calls you anyway."
Harry nodded and immediately regretted it when his head hurt.
Crocker sighed. "I'm afraid we don't have much in the form of medication to give you. We just don't get a lot of headaches. Or disease. Or broken bones."
"I can't imagine why not," Harry said sarcastically. "Oh, I've seen how you've mutilated Quidditch."
Crocker chuckled. "That was long before my time, let me assure you."
Harry nodded. Then he became suddenly serious. "How long have I been in here?"
"A week," Crocker answered promptly. "Five days, that is. A working week."
"Perhaps," Harry said quietly. "You can give me a more detailed account of what happened out there."
Crocker sighed. This was clearly the part he had come to tell Harry about, and yet he was reluctant to do so at the same time.
"I followed after you," he began. "I was rather behind, you see. I'm not as young as I used to be."
Harry smiled at the irony.
"I arrived when that Death Eater had stepped forward. I vaguely realized the man. He's committed several more severe criminal charges, like burglary." Crocker sighed. "I suppose there are always a few bad eggs."
"He wasn't the same person," Harry began. "He was—"
"Lucius Malfoy," Crocker said promptly. He smiled slightly at the look Harry gave him. "I did my research when I found out exactly who it was we were dealing with. Malfoy is mentioned several times."
There was a moment of silence.
"And still no Dumbledore?" Harry had to ask.
"You mean the headmaster?"
Harry's mouth dropped open slightly. He couldn't believe his ears! "Yes, Professor Dumbledore. That's the one."
Crocker smiled at Harry's surprise. "The history files at the Ministry are far more complete than those you will find on the shelves. I'm afraid your own achievements outshone Dumbledore's in the eyes of the public. Gradually, over the passage of time, the entries on Dumbledore became passing paragraphs, which gradually turned into passing comments which were soon left out altogether as your stories were added to and some of your faults were removed and you became this shining figure in history—the strongest of the strong. He who needed no help. He who could defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort and any other that happened to be thrown your way. The Dumbledore as you know him became extinct. I suppose that happens sometimes in history. Time takes its toll on all things."
"Except perhaps Hogwarts," Harry said, staring around at the still perfect walls surrounding him.
"Except Hogwarts," Crocker agreed.
There was silence again. Suddenly, Crocker burst out, "What happened out there?"
Harry blinked in surprise, rather taken aback. "I was hoping perhaps you could tell me."
Crocker waved it away. "You probably already know. The Death Eaters took you for dead and they didn't exactly have time to check a pulse. They took Voldemort and Disapparated. Then those two men came along and found you. I found you slightly afterward and after a failed attempt at a hovering charm, I finally made you float (and you were completely unconscious by that time) and we brought you here. Now tell me what you did! Out there! Against Voldemort!"
"There's not much to tell, really," Harry said, not wanting to go into detail. "A few charms and a few hexes I suppose."
"A few?" Crocker asked. "I was Head Boy in my day and I struggled through that hovering charm! That was magic as advanced as anything I've ever seen!"
Harry smiled slightly as the man admitted it. He supposed he should perhaps look at this man in a new light. "I was a few years ahead of my peers when it came to Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"And you're clearly a few centuries ahead of us," Crocker said, still looking amazed. "In all my years as Minister! I knew he knew some magic that we didn't, but I had no idea!"
"I've been trying to tell you," Harry said pointedly.
"I know!" Crocker said. "I wasn't listening. I'm a horrible Minister. But to be honest," he looked rather embarrassed. "I wasn't sure whether or not to believe you were the famous Harry Potter or if you were just making things up! No offense," he said quickly. "But you didn't exactly seem like the Harry Potter I've always imagined. I mean, at the time you didn't. You reminded me more of a kid trying to skip out on doing homework."
Harry grinned at the words. "About this time of my life? Yeah, that's pretty much what I was."
"See?" Crocker said unexpectedly. "That's what I'm talking about! The Harry Potter you learn about in the history books (while it has no mention of what your actual grades were) always made you out to be a top student! Head Boy... Prefect..." Crocker sighed. "But I must sound like a child getting to meet his superhero. It's just, I don't know what to do! There's no positive precedent to this!"
Harry looked Crocker firmly in the eye and said, "Then let's make one."
~
Me: Whoo Whoo. Yeah, I wasn't sure how to end the chapter and I hope it's not corny.
Gilthas: It's fine.
Me: You're only saying that because it's my birthday.
Gilthas: If I don't know that and you don't know that, then it isn't true.
Me: Right...responses to reviews!
~
mashimaromadness: *hides* Please don't hurt me! It's a birthday present...er...sorry. I went all Gollum for a moment. Thank you so much for reviewing all my chapters!!!!
Alyssa: 'Dye?' What, my hair?
linky2: *blink* Done.
Sea-Turtles: Yeah, I'm trying to get Harry out of the small-child-who-needs- everything-explained-to-him role. Not that that's bad, but he only looks 16 and actually he's a lot older, he was more knowledgeable on magic in his time so he can figure out a few things by himself.
gooofas: Thank you so much! I didn't notice! My computer screwed up when I was trying to post the first time so I did some stuff to it and I think that part didn't download or something! Thank you for pointing it out! I never would have noticed otherwise!
Darkmoon Fleur: I hope it lived up to expectations! I kind of like big battle scenes even if I'm not very good at them. Actually I was halfway through Harry's meeting at the Ministry before I thought, 'Boy, this is really boring. Let's bring Voldemort in'. :)
The Vampire Story Hunter: I'm so glad! I hope this one was as good!
star estrella: Happiness factor maximum! I'm a dork, I know and accept this.
Devonny Rose: Harry wiped the floor with Voldemort in every previous battle they ever had! Heck, I'd be scared of him too!
sara*magic: Twitchy, eh? Oh, I've put some thought into your last review and I'm doing something with it in (I think) the next chapter. Harry's got to have something to fight for, right? Plus I give some hints of random things. All squished into one... Pants are the same things as trousers like sweaters are the same things as jumpers. Well, their not in America, but they are in Britain. It's good to have a Harry Potter obsessed Mum. She orders interesting things off the internet, like the British versions of all the Harry Potter books...
john: thanks!!! I have a friend who is a MWPP fanatic and I want to poke her some times, but her stories are good and she used to not like Harry Potter half as much as Lord of the Rings, so I'll take what I can get.
insanechildfanfic: Thanks! Er...I'm not sure if I've asked this before, but do you like fanfictions with insane children, or are you an in insane child who likes to read fanfictions? :)
sab: Done and done.
The Mystical Elf: Yay! I'm glad I got to bring more Voldemort into play. Most of the times he's more like an evilly looming shadow that you keep turning around quickly, expecting to see, but he's never there. Yeah, I'm a little off.
Liz: Updated! The sequels coming soon, though not as quickly as I had hoped...
gam: Thanks for telling me! The problem is fixed. I'm sorry about any inconvenience. Boy, I sound like a sales person...
Rhinemjr: Wouldn't we all? I don't think there's honestly a soul out there who dreams night and day of going through everything Harry has to go through. Well, there probably is, but they're probably really weird...
Snizzle: Fixed!
Prd2bAmerican18: Updated!
Authoress: Thanks!
keebler-elmo: No summoning, but there's sort of Fawkes. I mean, Harry and Voldemort's wands connected again, right?
HongMing: If I got my butt kicked every time I went up against a person, I would try avoidance. Unfortunately, Voldemort isn't that fortunate. He doesn't have many options and he doesn't like the ones he has...
~
Me: Okay, I'm hungry now. See you guys next time!!!
Gilthas: And it's your birthday.
Me: Yes! I'm an old lady now...
Gilthas: No you're not.
Me: I know, but my hair's already blue.
Gilthas: That would be hair dye.
Me: Whatever. I was very happy this morning because my wonderful family made me breakfast and I thought, 'well, maybe I should post'. So I did.
Gilthas: And everyone loves you for it.
Me: Yes, and I want reviews! Send them now!
Gilthas: At least let them read first!
Me: *sigh* Whatever. You have 5 minutes starting...now.
~
Chapter 10: The Battle
The words sounded stupid, even in Harry's own head. And yet, Voldemort still did not attack. Harry was forced to believe them—as ridiculous as they might sound. Harry had defeated him twice before now, after all, but still...
The Death Eaters seemed to sense that something was wrong.
"Master?" asked a female voice. Harry could guess whose spirit resided in that body.
"Silence," Voldemort said. As if covering up for his lapse, Voldemort looked behind Harry. "I see you came alone."
"Excellent observation, Voldemort," Harry said coldly. "I suppose I didn't have time to steal someone's soul."
"Apparently," Voldemort said with that smirk. "But enough talking, Potter. I'm sure you didn't come to watch me harm innocents."
"I've been waiting," Harry said calmly. "Come now, Voldemort, fear doesn't become you. Though, to be fair, neither does anything else."
Voldemort's face contorted in anger. Again, Harry was surprised at how well he's hit the mark. He had never even considered that Voldemort could fear anything!
Voldemort raised his wand and shot a jet of light at Harry. Harry threw up his shield and the spell bounced harmlessly off. Harry's shield lowered and he looked at Voldemort.
"You call that a curse? I thought you fancied yourself the most powerful wizard of all time."
Voldemort shot three curses at Harry, Harry threw up his shield and it deflected one, but he felt that his shield would not hold for three. Grabbing his cloak, he twisted it and appeared on the opposite side of Voldemort's forces. Harry flicked his wand hard as though trying to squash a particularly irritating fly. His spell was so powerful that it blinded most of the people in the area. Harry did not flinch and was well aware that Voldemort had vanished long before the spell hit him.
A few Death Eaters yelled in horror, but Harry did not listen to them. He did not see what was in front of him. He was concentrating with all his might. He would know exactly where Voldemort appeared.
There.
Harry dodged to the side as Voldemort's spell nearly hit him. He made two quick slashing movements in the air and a jet of what looked like water flew straight and Voldemort and wrapped around him with the stickiness of glue, tightening slowly. Voldemort shimmered eerily for a moment before Harry's spell suddenly rebounded upon him and Voldemort vanished.
Harry placed up his shield. The different and rarer type of shield lapped up Harry's spell as though it was nothing more than a drop of water falling into a pool.
Harry saw the spell coming out of the corner of his eye. Voldemort's Death Eaters had entered the fray. He twisted to the side and the Avada Kedavra Curse passed him harmlessly by.
Harry grabbed his cloak again and, with a twist, vanished. He appeared seconds later behind the Death Eaters. He cut a line through the air with his wand and a thin golden line appeared there as though Harry had been drawing with a pencil. He pushed forward in the air with his free hand and the line sped forward, growing as it did so, and, as if it was a large string of rope, it knocked the line of Death Eaters off their feet and to the ground. His cloak swirled again and Harry was suddenly standing far down the street.
He watched the Death Eaters get to their feet looking wildly around for their attacker.
Voldemort was no where to be seen. Harry tensed. He much preferred having his enemies where he could see them.
Suddenly his feet were glued to the ground and he looked down, horrified. Volts upon volts of electricity rushed through his body. He yelled loudly and the next second it was gone. Harry wrenched his feet off the ground where they had been magically stuck and, on impulse, floated several inches off the ground. The next second he saw the ground spark with the second electrical current that would have caused considerable damage.
Seeing himself vulnerable to his invisible opponent, Harry twisted his cloak and vanished, only to reappear down a side street. He looked hesitantly around the corner and saw the Death Eaters forming ranks, trying to discover where he was.
"Still hiding, are we, Potter?"
Harry whirled around and found himself face to face with Voldemort.
"Speak for yourself," Harry growled.
"Ah yes," Voldemort said, smirking. "But I am not the 'noble' one."
"That's right!" Harry said in a mocking voice. "You're the deranged psycho killer!"
"I'm touched that you remember, even after all these years," Voldemort said mockingly.
"Yours is not a face one so easily forgets," Harry said in all honesty.
"Indeed."
At exactly the same time, Harry and Voldemort whipped their wands. Each yelled a different spell and they hit in midair, forming that string of golden light. Voldemort cursed and, with a twist of his cloak, tried to disappear.
Harry pulled hard on his wand, forcing Voldemort back to stand before him. Voldemort pulled hard the other way. It went on for several minute with neither making headway before—
BAM
The string of light exploded, blowing Harry and Voldemort both backwards. So unexpected was the blast that neither had time to summon a spell to mind that would save them.
With a loud 'boom', they flew backward, landing hard on the pavement. Harry put his arms over his head to shield himself from the pieces of concrete and building that had blown apart in the sudden and unexpected bursting of the magic...
* * *
"Is he okay?"
"I don't like the looks of this..."
"Who is he?"
"I don't know! I've never seen him before..."
"Did somebody call the hospital?"
"You dolt! They had to evacuate the hospital because of the attack!"
"Then send him to Hogwarts or something! My God! Did you see him fight off the Dark Lord?"
"I was right here next to you the whole time! Of course I saw it!"
Harry blurrily opened his eyes. The world spun weirdly and he quickly closed them. Two people looked down at him.
"He's waking up!"
"Hello? Can you here me? Are you okay?"
Harry groaned. His entire body felt rather broken. It took him a minute to realize he was lying on top of something hard and unyielding. He tried to roll off it, but one of the people held him back.
"Don't move! You're really hurt!"
Whatever he was lying on was distinctly uncomfortable. Harry tried to communicate with the man, to tell him that part of his pain was due to the very hard and rather pointed item beneath him, but his tongue didn't seem to work properly and his limbs weren't quite responding as they should.
"He looks like he's still in pain," came the whispered word of one of the people.
"We have to do something," agreed the other. "We're going to try to take you to Hogwarts," he said in an unnecessarily loud voice to Harry. "Maybe they can do something for you there. We're not sure—"
"Have you got him?" asked a voice suddenly. It stirred something in Harry's memory, but he couldn't quite place it in his state.
Pounding footsteps shook the ground beneath Harry, making that block of whatever was sticking in his back even worse. He groaned again and tried to open his eyes.
The world had stopped spinning somewhat and he saw a man lean down to regard him. "I'm here, Harry," he said. "I'm going to take you to the Hospital Wing, okay? You're going to have to bear with me. Can you walk? You can just shake or nod."
Slowly, feeling as though his head weighed more than the rest of him combined, Harry managed something that could be interpreted as a negative.
"How long has he been sitting here?" the man asked of the first two people.
"Not that long," said the one man. "But that other guy..."
Even through Harry's pain clouded mind, he was suddenly very attentive. He reached out a very heavy arm and grabbed the man's wrist. "Is he over there? What happened to him?"
The man looked horrified that Harry should move so and he tried to untangle Harry's fist around his arm, but Harry held stubbornly on.
"Those other men," he said. "In the black cloaks. They thought you were dead. They took the other man and they disappeared!"
Harry let go of the man's wrist and fell back to the ground. He hit the piece he was apparently lying on and flinched horribly.
"He's laying on something!" said the other man quickly. He lifted Harry gently up and removed the rather large piece of cement that had been hampering Harry's rest. Harry lay back down, suddenly aware just how comfortable it was without that piece there...
"Don't you go out on me," said the newest man quickly, shaking Harry and making him groan. "You two, help. We need to get him out of here."
"Yes, Minister," said the man. "How?"
The newest man frowned slightly before snapping his fingers excitedly. "I have an idea!"
Harry blinked to see a wand pointed at him. His eyes widened slightly and even through his slightly slow mind, he realized that even if this was a friend, his magic might not work properly.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
Harry felt himself lift off the ground. He felt himself start to panic before pushing it aside and realizing that he probably did not have strength to struggle if he wanted to.
The new man was next to him, oddly close before Harry remembered again that he was floating. "I told you I was Head Boy, didn't I?" the man said, smiling very big.
The next moment Harry's eyes widened as he felt himself falling. He saw the man's horrorstruck face before everything went black...
* * *
Harry awoke in a very white place. He blinked and wondered briefly why the entire world looked blurry. He groaned and turned his head, which seemed oddly heavy, as saw his glasses sitting on the bedside table.
Closing his eyes because seeing and trying to move at the same time really didn't seem to be an option, he reached blindly over to the table and felt around for his glasses, putting them on when he found them.
The white blur around him took shape. He was in a very white room. His bed sheets were white and his pillow was white and the walls and ceiling around him were white. Putting his arms under him, he pushed himself into a sitting position.
He was slightly dizzy, but he did not sit down. He wondered vaguely for a moment where he was before the previous day came back to him.
The white door opened.
"Harry Potter!" said a woman. "It's good to see you awake! I was beginning to think you'd sleep the day through!"
"Where am I?" Harry asked, his tongue feeling rather big and awkward in his mouth.
"The hospital wing, Harry Potter," the woman said promptly. "The hospital at the Ministry was destroyed so you were brought here. You've got some nasty wounds there, Mr. Potter."
Harry noticed vaguely that she was saying his name far more than was normal. He shook it aside though (mentally, definitely not physically) and tried to comprehend better exactly where he was. The hospital wing. Right. At Hogwarts.
Suddenly he sat up straighter as his unusually slow thoughts came around. "What happened at the Ministry?"
"Why, you scared them off, to be sure, Mr. Potter," the woman said. "The people in the masks took the other man you were fighting and left with him, leaving you. I suppose they thought you were dead, Harry—Mr. Potter."
Harry nodded slowly. He remembered vaguely someone telling him the same thing. "And what about the people in the hospital?"
"Only a few died, Mr. Potter," the woman sniffed. "You managed to distract them long enough for us to get quite a few evacuated, though. Of course, you clearly paid the price."
"Clearly," Harry muttered. His head didn't feel quite as heavy as it did and his arms seemed to be responding rather faster than before.
"I was hoping, Harry Potter," the woman continued. "That you could tell us something of what occurred out there. What was that explosion?"
Harry shook his head. "Voldemort's wand and my wand...it's rather a long and complicated story. Think of it this way, the magic got stretched a little too far."
"Magic caused that terrible explosion?"
Harry nodded, making his head spin a little. "I need to go," he said suddenly, trying to move through the pain. Dimly, in the back of his mind, he realized that he shouldn't be hurting quite as much as he was.
"Oh dear!" the woman said. "Mr. Potter, you shouldn't be getting up! Your condition is far too serious!"
Harry shook his head stubbornly. "Just give me a potion or something. I'll be alright."
He looked up when the woman didn't say anything.
"A potion," Harry repeated. "Nothing too advanced. I just need something to make my head stay above my feet."
"Potions?" the woman repeated, quite blankly. "For healing?"
Harry felt his mouth open slightly despite himself. "Yes," he said slowly. "What else does one use for healing?"
"Bandages?" the woman asked in what Harry was sure she thought was a helpful manner.
Harry rubbed his eyes wearily. "Bandages don't help when someone breaks a leg, do they? What do you do if someone breaks a leg?"
"How would someone break a leg?" the woman asked blankly.
"An arm then," Harry offered.
"How would anyone break any bones?" the woman asked. "Unless it's intentional, there's really not any way to break a bone. If they do, they're sent to the hospital."
"I thought this was the hospital wing."
"It is!" the woman assured him. "But it's only a school wing! You know, for minor injuries. For bigger things they go straight to the hospital at the Ministry!"
"And where are they now that there is no hospital at the Ministry?" Harry asked patiently.
"They brought most of them here," the woman admitted. "But the doctors came too! I mean, I don't have that much medical training. Enough to be a doctor, I mean."
"You mean a healer?" Harry asked.
"Healer?" the woman asked. "What is that supposed to be?"
"Never mind," Harry said quickly. "Then what do you do if someone gets sick?"
The woman now had a very confused look on her face. She opened her mouth to respond when suddenly the door opened. Harry looked up to see the Minister of Magic standing there.
"Minister!" the woman said gratefully. "Perhaps you could answer Harry Potter's questions. I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what it is he's talking about."
"Certainly," Crocker said quickly. The woman exited hurriedly. Crocker did not move from his place in the doorway.
"Come on in," Harry said with a slight grin on his face. "I don't bite."
"Of course," Crocker said quickly, coming in and shutting the door behind him. He stood beside Harry's bed. Harry felt very awkward craning his neck up so far to see him. Crocker seemed to realize his discomfort and pulled up a chair.
"You'll have to forgive the nurse. I see she's still calling you Harry Potter. She was beside herself when she realized who you were. We didn't tell her, you see. Inevitably she saw your scar and figured it out for herself."
Harry listened quietly. Seeing that Harry was not responding, he continued. "I'm afraid you're rather something of a famous name, not to be confused with a face. When she found out who you were, it's always been your full name, like we learned it in the history books. You're Harry Potter. She's been practicing for when you woke up, trying to call you Mr. Potter. That's what Grander calls you anyway."
Harry nodded and immediately regretted it when his head hurt.
Crocker sighed. "I'm afraid we don't have much in the form of medication to give you. We just don't get a lot of headaches. Or disease. Or broken bones."
"I can't imagine why not," Harry said sarcastically. "Oh, I've seen how you've mutilated Quidditch."
Crocker chuckled. "That was long before my time, let me assure you."
Harry nodded. Then he became suddenly serious. "How long have I been in here?"
"A week," Crocker answered promptly. "Five days, that is. A working week."
"Perhaps," Harry said quietly. "You can give me a more detailed account of what happened out there."
Crocker sighed. This was clearly the part he had come to tell Harry about, and yet he was reluctant to do so at the same time.
"I followed after you," he began. "I was rather behind, you see. I'm not as young as I used to be."
Harry smiled at the irony.
"I arrived when that Death Eater had stepped forward. I vaguely realized the man. He's committed several more severe criminal charges, like burglary." Crocker sighed. "I suppose there are always a few bad eggs."
"He wasn't the same person," Harry began. "He was—"
"Lucius Malfoy," Crocker said promptly. He smiled slightly at the look Harry gave him. "I did my research when I found out exactly who it was we were dealing with. Malfoy is mentioned several times."
There was a moment of silence.
"And still no Dumbledore?" Harry had to ask.
"You mean the headmaster?"
Harry's mouth dropped open slightly. He couldn't believe his ears! "Yes, Professor Dumbledore. That's the one."
Crocker smiled at Harry's surprise. "The history files at the Ministry are far more complete than those you will find on the shelves. I'm afraid your own achievements outshone Dumbledore's in the eyes of the public. Gradually, over the passage of time, the entries on Dumbledore became passing paragraphs, which gradually turned into passing comments which were soon left out altogether as your stories were added to and some of your faults were removed and you became this shining figure in history—the strongest of the strong. He who needed no help. He who could defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort and any other that happened to be thrown your way. The Dumbledore as you know him became extinct. I suppose that happens sometimes in history. Time takes its toll on all things."
"Except perhaps Hogwarts," Harry said, staring around at the still perfect walls surrounding him.
"Except Hogwarts," Crocker agreed.
There was silence again. Suddenly, Crocker burst out, "What happened out there?"
Harry blinked in surprise, rather taken aback. "I was hoping perhaps you could tell me."
Crocker waved it away. "You probably already know. The Death Eaters took you for dead and they didn't exactly have time to check a pulse. They took Voldemort and Disapparated. Then those two men came along and found you. I found you slightly afterward and after a failed attempt at a hovering charm, I finally made you float (and you were completely unconscious by that time) and we brought you here. Now tell me what you did! Out there! Against Voldemort!"
"There's not much to tell, really," Harry said, not wanting to go into detail. "A few charms and a few hexes I suppose."
"A few?" Crocker asked. "I was Head Boy in my day and I struggled through that hovering charm! That was magic as advanced as anything I've ever seen!"
Harry smiled slightly as the man admitted it. He supposed he should perhaps look at this man in a new light. "I was a few years ahead of my peers when it came to Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"And you're clearly a few centuries ahead of us," Crocker said, still looking amazed. "In all my years as Minister! I knew he knew some magic that we didn't, but I had no idea!"
"I've been trying to tell you," Harry said pointedly.
"I know!" Crocker said. "I wasn't listening. I'm a horrible Minister. But to be honest," he looked rather embarrassed. "I wasn't sure whether or not to believe you were the famous Harry Potter or if you were just making things up! No offense," he said quickly. "But you didn't exactly seem like the Harry Potter I've always imagined. I mean, at the time you didn't. You reminded me more of a kid trying to skip out on doing homework."
Harry grinned at the words. "About this time of my life? Yeah, that's pretty much what I was."
"See?" Crocker said unexpectedly. "That's what I'm talking about! The Harry Potter you learn about in the history books (while it has no mention of what your actual grades were) always made you out to be a top student! Head Boy... Prefect..." Crocker sighed. "But I must sound like a child getting to meet his superhero. It's just, I don't know what to do! There's no positive precedent to this!"
Harry looked Crocker firmly in the eye and said, "Then let's make one."
~
Me: Whoo Whoo. Yeah, I wasn't sure how to end the chapter and I hope it's not corny.
Gilthas: It's fine.
Me: You're only saying that because it's my birthday.
Gilthas: If I don't know that and you don't know that, then it isn't true.
Me: Right...responses to reviews!
~
mashimaromadness: *hides* Please don't hurt me! It's a birthday present...er...sorry. I went all Gollum for a moment. Thank you so much for reviewing all my chapters!!!!
Alyssa: 'Dye?' What, my hair?
linky2: *blink* Done.
Sea-Turtles: Yeah, I'm trying to get Harry out of the small-child-who-needs- everything-explained-to-him role. Not that that's bad, but he only looks 16 and actually he's a lot older, he was more knowledgeable on magic in his time so he can figure out a few things by himself.
gooofas: Thank you so much! I didn't notice! My computer screwed up when I was trying to post the first time so I did some stuff to it and I think that part didn't download or something! Thank you for pointing it out! I never would have noticed otherwise!
Darkmoon Fleur: I hope it lived up to expectations! I kind of like big battle scenes even if I'm not very good at them. Actually I was halfway through Harry's meeting at the Ministry before I thought, 'Boy, this is really boring. Let's bring Voldemort in'. :)
The Vampire Story Hunter: I'm so glad! I hope this one was as good!
star estrella: Happiness factor maximum! I'm a dork, I know and accept this.
Devonny Rose: Harry wiped the floor with Voldemort in every previous battle they ever had! Heck, I'd be scared of him too!
sara*magic: Twitchy, eh? Oh, I've put some thought into your last review and I'm doing something with it in (I think) the next chapter. Harry's got to have something to fight for, right? Plus I give some hints of random things. All squished into one... Pants are the same things as trousers like sweaters are the same things as jumpers. Well, their not in America, but they are in Britain. It's good to have a Harry Potter obsessed Mum. She orders interesting things off the internet, like the British versions of all the Harry Potter books...
john: thanks!!! I have a friend who is a MWPP fanatic and I want to poke her some times, but her stories are good and she used to not like Harry Potter half as much as Lord of the Rings, so I'll take what I can get.
insanechildfanfic: Thanks! Er...I'm not sure if I've asked this before, but do you like fanfictions with insane children, or are you an in insane child who likes to read fanfictions? :)
sab: Done and done.
The Mystical Elf: Yay! I'm glad I got to bring more Voldemort into play. Most of the times he's more like an evilly looming shadow that you keep turning around quickly, expecting to see, but he's never there. Yeah, I'm a little off.
Liz: Updated! The sequels coming soon, though not as quickly as I had hoped...
gam: Thanks for telling me! The problem is fixed. I'm sorry about any inconvenience. Boy, I sound like a sales person...
Rhinemjr: Wouldn't we all? I don't think there's honestly a soul out there who dreams night and day of going through everything Harry has to go through. Well, there probably is, but they're probably really weird...
Snizzle: Fixed!
Prd2bAmerican18: Updated!
Authoress: Thanks!
keebler-elmo: No summoning, but there's sort of Fawkes. I mean, Harry and Voldemort's wands connected again, right?
HongMing: If I got my butt kicked every time I went up against a person, I would try avoidance. Unfortunately, Voldemort isn't that fortunate. He doesn't have many options and he doesn't like the ones he has...
~
Me: Okay, I'm hungry now. See you guys next time!!!