Harold James potter was sitting on his bedroom floor in a pool of his own blood. He ran a hand through his jet black hair and sighed. He hadn't completely given up on the idea of being discrete. He wanted the floor to stain. He wanted to leave his mark on the Dursley household.He wanted to be able to leave a mark somewhere. He had tried cutting, but it just didn't work. He cut his arms just to leave some sort of mark on his arm, something he could control. However, it didn't work. The next day the marks would be gone. His natural magic had made them dissapear. Just like his hair regrew after it had been shaved bu aunt petuniawhen he was younger. He cut deeper each time. He noticed that the deeper he cut, the longer the mark stayed.
This time, however, he cut too deep. He knew that well. Diziness began to overtake him. He knew this was the end. He was going to die. This hadn't been his initial idea...to die. But after Sirius...he just wanted it all to end. This was no longer a competition between his knife and his magic--over the skin on his arms--but a way to slowly die, and no one would know better.
He laughed.
He could just imagine the Dursleys coming home from their one month vacation the Bahamas to see a rotting corpse in his dusty bedroom. They would have to clean it up, notify the authorities, and ultimately feel the pain of seeing someone's dead body. That would be payback. Payback for locking him up in the cupboard all those years...for putting bars on his windows and locks on his door...for never taking him on family vacations or outings (except for the one before 1st year)...for hitting him, kicking him...starving him...making him do all those awful chores while Dudley ate sweets in front of the telly. Payback...if only he could see the look on their faces when they came home.
Harry had to admit...the only thing that he really held against his relatives was that they never gave him the kind of childhood that he could look back on when he was an old man, and say 'those were the times,' or something cheesy like that. He never felt loved by them as a young boy, and certainly didn't feel it now.
What bothered him most--the real reason he was cutting--was because his sould purpose in life weas to rid Voldemort from the world. The prophesy didn't say that he wouldn't die in the fight along with the Dark Lord. It didn't say anything about him living happily ever after, never being plagued by those Death Eater scum. If he did live...he'd be stuck with the awful memories of watching Cedric and Sirius die. Or those dreams of his mother and father being murdered. He'd remember them all--from that fateful day in Godric Hallow to the day he defeated the Dark Lord. He couldn't do it. He couldn't and wouldn't be able to live with all of those memories.
He didn't want to be on the front page of the Daily Prophet...praise or not. He just wanted to be his own person...and for people to actually get to know him, rather than have his reputation proceed him. He didn't want to put Lupin, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Hagrid, Luna, Neville, and all of the others in danger because of it all. He didn't want them to die like everyone else he loved had.
"I can't defeat Him," he said aloud. "I will never be able to defeat him. He'll kill the others right in front of me, and then just finish me off. I have nothing. I can't do it!" he creied, watching the blood seep from his arms.
He felt even weaker. He couldn't move a muscle in his body. He felt himself get dizzy and his eyes got blurry. 'I've lost too much blood. Crap' he thought. His body wavered a bit, and then fell to the floor with a sickening crack. He was out cold.
"Tonks. Do you know if the Muggles are in this time?"
"Yeah. Figg told me that they went for a family vacation in the Bahamas. Harri is home alone. Although he's probably not had lots of fun. They cut of all their electric and air conditioning...as well as cable and gas and all that stuff. The only thing they left was water. So he's either outside chilling out, or inside in the dark heat alone," she replied.
"Oh...well seeing as it is three in the morning...he's probably sleeping in his room," Mad-Eye said gruffly.
"Not necessarily, Mad-Eye," Charlie commented. "He could be taking his grief out on some poor unsuspecting teenage Muggle girls at a night club," he said, teasingly.
"Normally I would agree. However, seeing as this is Potter we're talking about..he's definitely in his room. He's definitely not like James. He's easily intimidated by the ladies, and so far has had no luck with them," Lupin commented light-heartedly.
"Okay, thats enough. We agree...he's in his bedroom. But we have to be careful, who knows whose lurking about." Kingsley said, causing the others to go back to serious mode.
"Tonks," Kingsley whispered. "Is he in the same room as before?"
"That's what Figg said," she whispered back.
"Okay, Lupin, you go up with Mad-Eye first, and we'll cover you guys from behind. We have the twins and Black circling the perimeter," Kingsley explained. "Everything is going accordingly. So go," he motioned to Lupin and Moody.
Lupin and Made-Eye walked through the doorwayof the Durlsey's home. They looked around in the considerabley dark lving room--and moved towards the cupboad. They opened it. "Tell TonksTonks to grab these," he told Mad0Eye, "These are most of his school things."
Moody stayed behind and whispered the instructions to Tonks, She nodded and silently shrank the trunk and up it in her picket.
Lupin creeped up the sairrs to where he remembered Harry's room being a year ago.
The door still had all eleven locks, but this time they were not latched. Lupin motioned for the others to quickly cover him., and he swiftly swung the door open.
The all gasped at the horrible sight they saw in front ofthem. There he was--Gryffindor Golden Boy---The Boy-Who-Lived--laying unconscious, like a heap on the floor, surrounded by pools of dark red blood.
"Mad-Eye, is he--?" Tonks asked gently.
"No. I can still see his heart beating. Although, it is very faint. We have to get him to the Hospital Wing."
"Is the portkey ready?" Lupin asked Kingsley.
"Yes. It should bring him straight to the infirmary. Poppy wants to see him anyway."
"Thank God."
Kingsley pulled out a smallchewed up dull pencil and handed it over to Lupin. "Only one of us can go with him, since its such a small portkey. There are wards all over this block. Anti-Apparation, Anti-Floo, Anti-Portkey, everything. Thank Dumbledore for that bright idea. So, Luipin, you need to take Harry all the way down to Magnolia Crescent. We'll stay back here. However, in order to avoid you getting jumped by some Death Eaters if that occasion arises, Black will escort you. Understood?"
"Yep," Lupin said, while kneeling down to Harry's body. He slid one arm under his legs and another to support his back, and lifted. "You guys, look under the loose floorboard in here, and get the stuff under there, as well as any of his other belongings," he said, motioning towards the rest of his bedroom.
Lupin walked down the stairs and out the door. He stood in the driveway, looking for Riley. 'Where could she be?'
He felt a light tap on his shoulder and quickly turned around. "Looking for me?" Riley asked.
"Christ Riley! You scared the living daylights out of me!" he whispered fiercely.
"Sorry. I couldn't help it. I saw you looking around when I was on the roof. Couldn't help surprising you...so I quietly jumped down and spooked you." She smiled, and then burst out into quiet laughter. She suddenly looked serious. "So. Whats the plan?"
Lupin was amazed at how quickly her whole face could change from happy to serious. Her smile was so wide that it reached in little wrinklesnext to hereyes,which were sparkling with laughter. Then, her whole face went stone cold. Her face showed no emotion in an instant. She was neither frowningnor smiling. She didn't look inquisitive or unhappy, just...nothing.
"Rem?" she asked curiously, pulling him out of his daydream.
"Oh, sorry. Right You have to escort me a block or so down the road to Magnolia Crescent, which is where Harry and I can use the portkey, and you can apparate. Harry and I are going to the infirmary, and you have to apparate to black manor, then floo to Hogwarts.
"Lets go," she said seriously.
As they walked down the street, he realized how much she was like Sirius. First of all, neither of them know what they wanted to do in life, but were incredibly talented and intelligent. They were both loyal to the friends they had, and had overall good character. Both of them had less than perfect childhoods. Sirius grew up with parents that hated him and were as cold as the purest pureblood was. Riley, on the otherhand, gew up knowing that Sirius was innocent, from her mother. However, she was only allowed to visit him every so often, and it was too painful for her to be near the dementors. Her mother had boyfriends all through out her childhood. They would end up living with her and her mother. Sometimes they would get abusive towards her mother, but mostly towards her. They treated her like crap. Then, like Sirius, she moved out as soon as she possibly could. At first she stayed with a friend, but later on got a job, and rented out her own apartment. Her laugh was identicle to that of Sirius'. This was something he handn't seen for at least fifteen years. Sirius had lost that sparkle in his eye to the dementors. Whatever was left of his boyish innocence was stripped from him the moment he stepped into that prison. She was like him at school too. She and one of her good friends would always pull pranks on the teachers or unsuspecting students. He heard stories from her when he visitied about how she got out of detention that week,or her midnight stolls to the kitchen, and even herefforts on how to become an illegal animagus like her father. At the time, Lupin never said anything to her about him beingguilty, which hehad made himself believe. He knew that if he did, she would turn away from him, and never let him into any part ofher life. He had always tried to be a kind of father to her, but knew that was impossible. She didn't want a father, she wantedSirius. She wanted a family, and a way to forget her horrible childhood. The main thing that separated her from her father was her maturity. Sirius was always immature, rarely was her actually...well...serious. He took things more lightly...sometimes it was good, and other times it was bad. Riley, however, knew when to joke around, and when to be serious. Although, she was more serious lately, because of all these recent events, but he knew that inside her was still that prankster, just waiting to come out
Lupin laughed to himself as he watched her walk. She was doing her job well, her hand gripped her wand tightly, and she had positioned her body to look like she was on the prowl. He snapped back into reality when hefelt Harry's body shift a little under his grip. Right, we have to get him to safety.
Riley suddenly turned around and grabbed his forearm tightly, pushimg him against the side of a house. "How far?" she asked intensely.
Remus looked down the street. "About 20 feet from where we were. Why?"
"Because there are five death eaters surrounding us."
"How do you know?" he asked curiously.
"They're wearing back cloaks, masks, and have their hoods pulled down. The are jumping rather swiftly, and I've seen their wands. They're just looking for an opportune moment," she explained.
"Shit."
"Yeah. So heres how we're going to do this. You run like hell to the point of apparation, and set the portkey off. I'll cover you, and take care of them afterwards--"
"No! you wont be able to get there in time to apparate if you're covering me--"
"Covering you and HARRY," she said , pointing at the unconscious teenager in his arms.
"All right, but be careful," he groaned.
With that, Remus ran at her signal, and Riley followed. A couple of disarming charms came his way, as well as some choice hexes. She provided a countercurse and an extremely powerful blocking shield for the curses. She sent her own choice spells their way, knocking two of them out. When she saw Harry and Remus vanish, she let out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, she still had three death eaters left, and no doubt more were on the way. She did realize that she could signal the others. However, then that would be putting them at risk when they weren't necessarily ready to fight. So she decided on taking them down on her own. The three were now standing in front of her. One was Bellatrix Lestrange, she pulled off her mask and hood, the other was Rudolphus, her husband, and the last was Zabini.
"Hello, guys. What are you up to?" she asked, sincerely (although faking).
"Hmm, let me think...oh yes...we were about to get Potter but someone beat us to it. Well, at least I get to finish off the last of the remaining black line," Bellatrix snarled.
"Oh, but Bella, you are a black...by birth...just like me. So if I were married to someone, we would be in the same position, and then there would be no blacks. So, who do you want me to marry?" she asked sarcastically.
"I killed your father, little girl. Aren't you mad?"
"At you?" Riley asked.
"Yes. Me."
"Not particularly."
"Wha--"
"I'm furious you bitch. So what are you gonna do now...kill me because you failed your master once again? Don't you think your in deep water enough as it is? I mean come on...killing a ministry official from america that could give you countless information on their governmental secrets? I'm sure he'd just sing your praises," Riley said snottily.
"I'm not falling for your reverse psychology crap, Riley, I'm not stupid."
"Could of fooled me," she snapped back.
Bellatrix glared at her, and pulled out a long, sharp knife. "You know what this is?"
"No. Should I?"
"Its the same knife that killed your twin brother, Andrew when he was killed as a child. McNair did it himself. Now, I'm going to kill you the same way your brother died."
"Wow Bella, can't get more creative than that? You need some new material. I've had tons of people show me knife just like it. I actually have the actual knife that McNair killed my brother with. Its with my other belongings that remind me why I never supported the Death Eaters and your less-than-half-blood Mudblood Lord," Riley spat.
Bellatrix jumped at her, and punched her in the face, causing both of them to fall to the ground. "How dare you" punch "speak of the Dark Lord" punch "like that--"
"Oh give it a rest Bella. Why don't you ask him about his parents, Bella. He may be an incredibly distant heir to Salazar Slytherin, but he's still a Mudblood."
"I thought you didn't think blood mattered," Bella snapped.
"Oh, but it does. See, when I feed the dead corpses of muggles to my man-eating snakes, they just spit it out because they don't like the taste of their blood. However,when Potter defeats your MudbloodLord, I'll be giving them the purest blood they've ever seen--from his followers. However, I thinkwe'll just have to ditchyour lord's body in the river...they won't like it," she said smugly.
She looked over and realized that since Bellatrixknocked her over, she was a mere five feet from thepoint in which she could apparate. She loked at them. They formed a semi-circle around her. All shehad to do was jump backwards and Apparate away. "I'd love to stay and chat, Bella, but I have stuffto do." With that, she jumped backwards, and before she hit the ground, she was in the foyer of Grimmauld Place, and then flood to her new rooms.
"Madame Pomphrey! I have another one!" Lupin yelled, carrying Harry's body in his arms, which had know completely soaked his clothes in blood aslo.
"What? Who? Oh--" she gasped, seeing Harry's body. She could barely make out who it was because all his features were covered, making him nearly impossible to identify.
"This is Harry," Lupin explained. "We found him in the middle of his bedroom. I think its self infliction. It took so long to get here becuase we were being followed by five death eaters," Lupin sid grimly, feeling guilty about Riley.
"Oh," she said, gaining her composure. "Well, set him down. Ginny! Come here and help me with Mr. Potter. No need to watch the Healers. You have another real-life situation on your hands!" she called.
Ginny came running across the infirmary to his bed. "Can we use magic to clean him?" she asled, staring down at Harry's messy body.
"Yes, but we have to strip him first. Mr. Lupin if you would kindly help. Ginny, go get a gown and a trash bag."
Ginny came back with both. Lupin and Poppy were still gently peeling off his shirt when she got there. They cut his pants off, and repaired them quickly. Ginny handed Madame Pomphrey a gown. she whispered a cleaning spell for his blood, and slipped it over him.
Ginny looked at Harry's body. She noticed his arms. "The blood is coming from his arms, Madame Pomphrey. Should I ask Professor Snape for the blood replenishing potion?"
"Yes, dear. Also, get a Sleeping Draught," she said, pointing to Snape.
Ginny walked over to him. "Professor."
He turned to her. "Yes, Ms. Weasley?"
"Madame Pomphrey needs a Sleeping Draught and Blood Repleneshing Potion for Harry, Sir."
Snape looked at her for a moment, and his gaze flickered briefly to Harry's body, and back to Ginny. He pulled out two small vials and whispered an enlarging (sp?) charm. "There you go, Ms. Weasley. This is quite the experience today, isn't it?"
"Yes Sir. Thank you for the potions," she said sweetly, while running down to Harry's bed. "Here's the blood repleneshing potion, Madame pomphrey."
"Good. I've already healed his cuts, which is always what you do before admitting this potion, or else they will continue to bleed." She plugged Harry's nose, and he opened his mouth, forcing the potion down. Ginny handed her the sleeping draught next. Madame pomphrey did the same thing, only with less resistance from Harry.
"What do we do now?" she asked.
"We wait," Poppy replied. "Now go ask Snape if he needs your assistance, while I fill out Mr. Potter's chart."
Ginny walked over to Snape. "Professor Snape?"
"Yes Miss Weasley?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Do you need any of my help. We're all done with Harry now."
" I don't believe so. We were able to get the blade shards out of her body, and the wound has been cleaned, and they put stitches on her because we can't use magic. So, no. However, I have things to discuss with you and I would like to see you in my office," Snape explained.
"Yes, Sir."
Snape turned around and motioned for her to follow him. They walked all the way up to his dingeons, and into the twoer where his classes were held. He muttered an incantation, and the wall not facing the outside opened into a nice luxurious study where very many books, potions, and luxurious furnature was held. She sat down in a dark brown leather chair that was positioned across from his. "Miss Weasley, all of your core lesson teachers wish to advance you to the sixth year level, as a fifth year. Your talent is extraordinary. You heal very well, many times better than Madame Pomphrey herself. I can only speak from what I know, and that is you and potions. You have the talent, yes. However, you also have the passion that goes into making complex potions, which is part of the magic, and that is why potions is also considered to be an art. You surpass Ms. Granger in your grades, in all of your classes, which shows that studying isn't the only way," he smirked. "You other teachers agree with me, and wish to put you in their NEWT level classes. I know that you have yet to take your OWLS, but if you accept our offer, you will be given someone to privately tutor you, and you can take them before the summer ends, if you are up to the challenge."
"Wow. You're really serious about this, aren't you professor?" Snape nodded. "Well, definitely. Wow...um...thank you," she said quietly.
"Also, there is another thing. The girl you were attending to...Kyra...as you know, she is a seer... and when she comes back from the hospital wing, we need you to keep an eye on her. So you will be given a room, much like the Head dormitories. You will each have your own room and bathroom, and you will share a common and kitchen area. Does thatdo well withyou?"
"Definitely, Professor!" she squealed.
"Ms. Riley Black will be our new DADA teacher this year, and she will be tutoring you in your OWLS."
"Yes, Professor," she smiled, thanked him, and went to the fireplace, and flooed to Grimmauld Place.
"Meeting called to order," Kingsley yelled over everyone's voices. The group quieted down. "We have sucessfully retrieved Mr. Potter. However, he had deep cuts through his arms, and will be unconscious for a few days, We encountered another probelm. Five death eaters were watching us, and followed, surrounding Riley Black." Whe he said this, they all gasped in horror.
"However, shewas snart enough not to send a signal for help and endanger us as well as the Muggles. She was able to get away with only a couple of punches. She is fine, and is staying in her quaters at Hogwarts."
"The Seer, however...is doing rather badly. She has been healed the muggle way because her magic won't accept outside interferences. So, she will not heal for a few days, if not weeks. We have arranged for Ms. Weasley to share a dorm much like Head Boy and Girl do with Kyra."
"Harry, when fully conscious, will also be staying at Hogwarts, only in his own room, under the supervision of Riley Black. All of these rooms are very close to each other because Harry and Kyra need to stay near each other, but be under supervision. This arrangement will not change unless we find out anything new about her abilities, and their spiritual and magical connection. That is all new business. Any old business?..."
A/N: okay, so this chapter is pretty long, especially for me. Let me know what you think, please read and review, leave any comments or suggestions, or what you would like to see happen next!