Erised's Bane

Author's Note: I can't believe I'm finally coming into the last couple of chapters! It seems as if I've been working on this fic forever, (and in fact, I have been working on it for about a year and a half now.) I'm just glad to be finishing this story before finals period comes into full swing, and I'll probably have the sequel to this story posted sometime during Thanksgiving or Christmas break. Again, I appreciate the fact that so many of you have been so receptive to the story.

Oh, and just so you know, the sequel will be set in this story, as an addition. I'll make a note of this in the summary as soon as I get the next part posted.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to the Harry Potter franchise and this story is completely original. A few of the characters are mine, as is the plot. Otherwise it all belongs to J. K. Rowling. And…since I didn't say anything else amusing….SQUIRREL!

The Living and the Dead

"What are you talking about?" Harry snarled.

Voldemort laughed. "Trying to play the hero…again, Potter? Don't you realize by now that there can only be one outcome to all of this? The population will know once and for all that I am the ultimate power as soon as their little champion's head is firmly rested on their doorstep."

Harry didn't know what was going on for certain, but he knew one thing—whatever Voldemort was planning, he couldn't let him carry it out.

"Wormtail? Will you ready the graves?"

And it was at this moment that sudden, horrible realization crept into Harry. Voldemort looked at him, and a horrible sort of smile came over his face. "Yes…you see now, don't you? You realize why I've brought you here of all places? The ritual we are about to undergo is much like the last you were in attendance for, except rather than use my own foul father's hatred, we will be destroying your dear sweet mother's love."

He stepped aside, revealing two headstones upon which were emblazoned the name POTTER, with the Gryffindor seal marking each. Wormtail was standing still beside them, his face curled in what seemed to be mingled disgust and disturbance.

His mother…his father…they were here.

If it hadn't been for that, if it hadn't been for the fact that young Megan was still lying prone, helpless in between his parent's graves, Harry would have disapparated then and there. Yet he knew he couldn't leave the girl alone…

But what if he had to?

The thought had never occurred to him before, but now he realized that the fate of others rested on his own life. If he were to die…well, if he were to die then Voldemort would be left to survive, or was that not how the prophecy went? What if Megan's role in all of this…was that of a martyr?

He shook his head. He was thinking too much. He didn't want to think about that sort of thing at all. Nobody else should have to die because of him.

"Wormtail? What are you waiting for!" said Voldemort suddenly.

Wormtail jumped, clutching his hands before him and bowing low. "I am sorry master, I am very sorry, but I cannot…they were…they were kind to me…"

"You imbecile! Your master is the only one who has been kind to you, and you must remember that! Besides, was it not you who helped me murder them?"

However, Wormtail didn't notice this. He was staring at Harry…at the scar on his forehead. Then, suddenly, he began to weep. "I can't do it any longer…I deserve to die, but I am too afraid…"

A loud crack heralded his disapparation. Voldemort roared and another hooded Death Eater rushed forward. "What shall I do, Master?" he said.

"You will help me perform the ritual," he said. "And afterwards, you will see to it that Wormtail is destroyed."

It was at that moment that Harry noticed that there was something off about Voldemort this time around. His Death Eaters were shaky, they didn't seem to realize what was going on. Voldemort had no carefully planned tactic…

He had taken him by surprise. He knew they had been tracking him, but it just now occurred to Harry that nobody could have guessed he would have gone to the Ministry tonight, of all nights. It had been spur of the moment, with no apparent motivation. This idea that even Voldemort's careful planning had been taken awry, gave Harry a small dose of comfort.

Right as he thought about this he felt a growing heat in the center of the chest. Suddenly Harry remembered the map at Headquarters. Putting two and two together, he realized what was going on…whoever was on duty had noticed Harry's flight, and now the Order was being called together…

All Harry had to do was stall for time.

"So tell me, how does it feel?" said Harry darkly.

"How does what feel?" said Voldemort, glaring at Harry. The Death Eater who had been preparing some sort of ritual nearby Megan paused to watch—exactly as Harry had hoped he would.

"How does it feel to be beaten so many times by a mere child?"

Silence fell, before Voldemort began to laugh. "Beaten? I? You could never defeat me. You have had your fair share of luck, Potter, but tonight your luck shall end. Perhaps, though, I should give you a taste of what is to come…"

He lowered his wand—Harry was ready for it. When he was bathed in the crimson light he gritted his teeth, steeling himself. The pain, as always, was excruciating, but Harry was so focused on doing what he had to that he scarcely noticed. After a long moment it ended. Harry took long deep breaths, then slowly lifted his head up to stare straight into Voldemort's horrible red eyes.

"Is that all you've got?" His wand was raised. Voldemort snarled. "I don't know how the girl gave that thing back to you Potter, but it is not matter. You will be destroyed soon enough. You…and your wand."

At those words several Death Eaters directed curses at him, perhaps hoping to bind or paralyze him, but to no avail. Harry used a shield charm around himself to keep their curses from reaching him. A few bounced back at the Death Eaters around him. Harry noticed one double over, great tentacles sprouting from his throat. It was a gruesome sight…Harry was very glad for what Sabrina had taught him that year.

Again Harry felt the tingling on his chest, though slightly different this time. He thought nothing of it.

Voldemort turned then. "Bellatrix? Lenina? It is time to sacrifice the girl."

Two Death Eaters removed their hoods, revealing themselves to be women. The name Lenina struck Harry—he remembered her as being the missing Order member.

Well, he supposed he now knew what had happened to her.

Both went forward, kneeling beside the child. She stirred slightly, opening her eyes and looking in horror up at the two women. "Shh, child," said Lenina, "we are going to help you sleep."

"No you're not!" said Megan helplessly. Bellatrix smiled.

"Yes, we are, though the sleep we speak of is a very long one indeed…in fact, it is one you never awaken from."

Lenina withdrew a dagger and pointed it directly at Megan's heart. "Blood of an orphan to represent the Boy-Who-Lived…"

Harry saw the shining arc of the blade as it sliced through the air…

"No!" With a loud crack Harry apparated right to the space before the arc. He had made his choice. No longer would anybody die in his name. He felt the blade sink into his chest, felt the sickening scrape of metal against bone. Then, to his surprise, Lenina's eyes widened and she began to shriek.

Harry was dazed, losing his blood slowly to the earth. Lenina was shuddering, as if being electrified by a bolt of lightning. Suddenly she collapsed, making Harry realize something...

He was on his mother's grave. If the same rules of his mother's blood applied to his Aunt Petunia…

Well, no wonder Voldemort hadn't tried to kill him yet. In fact, it seemed to Harry that Voldemort had felt some sort of pain himself when he had used the Cruciatus curse against him.

Of course, there was still the matter of the dagger which was still deep in Harry's chest, and the fact that he was still losing blood.

Voldemort snarled then. "Of course you realize that your own blood will work even better than the girls? You know now that you will most certainly pay—you have taken one of my most loyal servants after all."

The Death Eaters had formed a ring around them. Harry was beginning to black out—shadows were dancing at the edge of his vision.

He heard chanting, smelt the smoke of various spells and incantations, but his world was beginning to go fuzzy. He would never have imagined that this would be the end…

His world went black.

Everything was dark. Harry felt like he was swimming in the blackest depths of the ocean, one of those places that had never seen light. All the pain he had ever felt seemed to have gone away, away forever. Slowly, a light began to envelop him.

He was alone in a room that was vaguely familiar…before him was a stone dais, upon which stood a veil that fluttered as if blown by some invisible wind. Harry approached it, knowing that this is where he had to go.

His hands gripped the edges, he was prepared to pull it aside when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be so eager, Harry. You've still got a while to wait before you see what's behind there."

Harry turned to stare back at a face that was both familiar and deeply foreign to him.

"Dad?"

James Potter smiled at his son. "Yes, Harry. I'm sorry, but we only have a few moments to speak. Sirius has been talking with us about you for a while now, and we know he was able to visit you for a while earlier, through Erised."

"But how…"

"We can't tell you what's back there, Harry…you can't know until you join us. But you have a lot more to do in life before you join us. I suppose you've already found our place in the Ministry?"

Harry nodded.

"You took something from there, I can tell," said James. "Don't feel bad, it's already come in handy. Just promise me one thing…"

"What?" Harry asked.

"Be happy. And…don't forget to visit us once in a while."

When Harry rejoined the land of the living, the Order had already arrived. Harry suddenly gripped his chest, but to his surprise found the knife that his punctured there gone, his wound little more than a twinge of pain. And yet he could still see the blood that stained his robes.

He looked out to the frenzied group to see what was going on. He could see many Order members were there, including Sabrina. Then he noticed the little girl who was still huddled behind him, now wide awake.

"H-Harry?" she whispered.

"Are you all right, Megan?" Harry said.

"I am, but you aren't!" she said. "They were able to finish that ritual! Your mother's protection is gone!"

Harry felt a knot form in his stomach. "That's all right," he said, although it was fairly obvious that he was lying. "I'll be okay, Megan, don't you worry about me."

"But Harry!" she said quickly.

"Don't worry about me!" Harry said. "Just hide behind that headstone, and keep out of the way! I don't want you to get hurt."

She hid, and Harry got up and turned slowly to the battle.

Tonks, Remus, and Kingsley were there, along with a few new wizards who Harry didn't think he had seen before. They were battling the Death Eaters. To Harry's horror, he saw that Sabrina and Bellatrix were facing one another.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" said Sabrina calmly.

Bellatrix laughed. "Yes, it has," she replied. "I take it you decided to return to England, tail between your legs after I killed Sirius. Tell me, were you ever able to break the news to poor Harry that you were his godmother?"

"He knows," said Sabrina.

"And does the naïve little brat yet know that you're a murderer?"

Sabrina smiled. "He didn't, but it appears you just told him."

Bellatrix's head whipped around to look at Harry. He caught sight of her dark eyes and felt a chill go through him. Then, unexpectedly, Harry heard the tell tale incantation of the killing curse.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Bellatrix Lestrange fell over dead.

Harry looked straight into Sabrina's eyes and suddenly realized what Remus had meant when he had said she wouldn't die for Harry, and the reason she had been made his godmother.

She wouldn't die for him, no. But she would kill for him.

"I'm sorry, Harry," said Sabrina. "But it was the only way I knew how."

She turned away then and marched back into the throng. It was then that Harry felt the coldness of his archenemy upon him and turned. For the second time that night, Avada Kedavra would take a life.

Harry reached for his wand, but was suddenly unable to move.

'Ah, you see,' a voice in his head said, 'I can enter now, control you…you are nothing but a puppet without your mother's gift,' the voice hissed.

Harry saw Voldemort raise his wand and point it at him.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" All movement on the field of battle stopped as the bolt of green light surged towards Harry. It hit him square on the chest, knocking him to the ground where he lay still.

Then, slowly, Harry got up and brushed the dirt from his robes, looking utterly bewildered.

"NO!!!" Voldemort screamed in rage, then in unison he and his Death Eaters disapparated away from the graveyard, which was left once again in silence.

For the first time, bodies were strewn upon the field of battle. Bellatrix, Lenina…to Harry's shock he saw the still form of Lucius Malfoy, who it seemed had gotten on the bad side of one of his own spells—probably a shield charm, Harry surmised. One had also been taken on their side. It was Charlie, the second eldest Weasley son.

Trying to think of something else, anything else, Harry suddenly thought of what his father had said and reached down to his chest. With surprise he saw that the locket was open. He turned to the space where he had put the red stone, and saw it was missing.

Quickly he searched the ground around the graves, looking for it, but found nothing. And then, slowly, he straightened up. Now he understood.

The knife…when Lenina had stabbed him, she must have pushed that jewel inside of Harry's chest, near his heart. And, if what Harry had earlier believed that shard to be was true, then that would mean…

"Her blood…her protection…is inside me now," he said to himself. And he knew what that meant…as long as he was alive, he would always be protected. And something else also told him that whatever this was, it wasn't her protection alone…

Despite the horrors of that evening, he felt a slight smile at his lips and for the first time let himself weep for them all. Sirius, his mother, his father…they were all inside him now.

That gem contained their love.

It was only later that everything began to sink in. Sabrina had gone to the Ministry to be questioned, and despite being released by the Ministry it seemed like Dumbledore wasn't going to forgive her.

"I'm out," she said to Harry, who was sitting across from her in her office.

"You're out?" he said.

"Of the order, of Hogwarts."

Harry wasn't that surprised. But he had to know…

"When was the other time? That you killed?" Harry asked slowly.

Sabrina shook her head. "It was around the time your mother found out she was having you. About the same time that the prophecy came to be, actually. I wasn't fighting for the Order. Actually I was working with a group of dark wizards, doing research on their magic. What I didn't know was that these wizards were mostly Death Eaters, and when they found out how closely I was involved with members of the Order…well, I was seen as a traitor.

"They all confronted me, and I had to fight them off. I used an Unforgivable, for the first time in my life, and killed one of them. Things were very tense in Britain at that time, and of course suspicions were being thrown in my direction even though I wasn't with Voldemort. That is why I resigned all power I had here and went to America."

"But…you used Unforgivables…you still do."

Sabrina looked at Harry intensely. "I did. I do. I don't pretend to be a good person, Harry. I fight on Dumbledore's side only because of what Voldemort did to the people I loved the most in this world."

It was a new notion…the fact that some people were not inherently good or inherently bad. Harry knew that someday he might have to kill. And yet…yet, he still felt somewhat stricken by the fact that, for the first time in his life, he had seen somebody on his side cross the boundaries of what he had considered morality.

Sabrina sighed. "It's too bad that Lenina turned out to be a traitor," she said. "Of course, I suspected as much when she disappeared. I don't suppose you've guessed what it was I was doing this year?"

Harry shook his head.

Sabrina smiled. "It's probably better you didn't. I've been visiting my old 'friends' again. They were all holed up in St. Mungos. They were hiding something from me, I knew it. And I also knew that they were speaking with somebody else. That would be Lenina. You see, it was she who was able to get the ritual from them, the one that, if it worked, would have severed forever your mother's connection to you. Dumbledore, by the way, has explained to me why Voldemort could not kill you.

Harry also knew the reason Dumbledore wasn't talking with him at the moment. Draco Malfoy had just heard the news of his father's death. Ron, who had been found in the Ministry, would soon join his family in learning of his brother's death.

"We are all affected by this war," said Sabrina suddenly. "Good or bad, nobody will be happy when it ends."

Harry was quiet for a moment. "Then…why does it exist?" he asked.

Neither of them could answer.