The…What-Who-Lived?
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and Raincoast Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter.
Summary: After the epic Final Battle between the Light and Dark forces, how will our favorite characters move on after the consequences of magical warfare?
Chapter 1: Backdrop
It was completely dark. The only inhabitant of the pitch black void was a fifteen-year old bespectacled boy, one who had the messiest jet black hair (even by magical standards) and green-colored eyes that when alive shone like magnificent emeralds.
The only problem was that this teenager did not feel alive in the slightest. No, on the contrary he felt decimated, and on the inside he felt numb and hollowed out. His soul ached so much that he was terrified he would never feel completely whole ever again. There was a main reason for his current demeanor, and there were also several other good ones to throw in as well.
The main reason was that for the second time in his oh so young life; he had lost another father figure. But this time the loss of his godfather Sirius Black hit too close to home. Maybe because they had a history together, the bonding and interaction that they shared, the letters and the talks between them, and now all that was so cruelly snatched away from him.
The other factors that tormented this individual and left empty spaces in his soul, was the tragic absence of his parents, a childhood of physical and mental abuse from his 'relatives,' growing up too fast because of this sad childhood, and the feeling that he would never be a normal person in whichever world he lived in.
However, what hurt the most was that Sirius died in the most noblest of ways; coming to rescue his godson from the wicked clutches of a dozen Death Eaters, brought on by Voldemort's manipulations.
He constantly recounted the failures on his part; not trying hard enough to shield his mind in the study of Occlumency, forgetting to use the two-way mirror Sirius had given him, not listening to Hermione's logic when she tried to reason with him. All this was his doing, and he had a large part in Sirius' death.
He also reminded himself that there were also others to blame for this fiasco as well. One of them was the traitorous old house-elf Kreacher who had sold out his Godfather and the Order of the Phoenix on orders from the Malfoy family, who in turn were acting on the orders from Voldemort.
Another who was responsible was Severus Snape. The potions master and double spy for the Light forces, the person who was suppose to be teaching Harry to protect his mind using the art of Occlumency. Though this responsibility was misplaced, as the professor used this golden opportunity to ridicule and antagonize Harry, all because he would never be able to overcome the school-time grudge he held for James Potter. The result being the revelation Harry witnessed in Snape's pensieve, the confrontation that then followed after he was abruptly pulled out by the angry professor, and the termination of Occlumency lessons.
And last but surely not least Harry's Headmaster and borderline grandfather - Albus Dumbledore. The man who sentenced a one-year old baby to ten dark and emotionally crimpling years, the man who put him through tests and dangerous situations, the man who armed him with half-truths and incompetent professors, the man who dropped the biggest bombshell in the world on a fifteen-year orphan. "Kill or be killed. Oh yeah, and it's against the evil Dark Lord who killed your parents and the world's future depends on you too."
Though to be honest with himself, Harry was not thoroughly shocked with the disclosure of the prophecy itself. Deep down he always had a feeling that Voldemort would not stop plotting and attacking him, until at least one of them was dead and buried.
This is when Harry thanked the Gods, or ghosts, or angels, or whatever magic was up there that helped them out, and insured that none of his friends or any other Order members were killed in the Department of Mysteries battle. His thoughts drifted to his friends, and how they would act in response to the now all-too familiar feeling of fighting against Death Eaters while your life is at risk.
He thought of his best friend Hermione Jane Granger, and remembered the first time he met her on the Hogwarts Express. The muggle-born witch came into his compartment looking for a toad, with wild bushy brown hair and large front teeth, sporting a bossy sounding voice and attitude, and showing off her new skills as a witch and at the same time showing up Ron Weasley.
He marveled of how much Hermione had come out of her shell since the incident with the mountain troll during the Halloween feast in their first year. Since then, she became less bossy, and accepted the fact that rules could be broken for things more important than conformity.
She accompanied him almost to the end, through the dangerous and exciting trials to rescue the Philosopher's Stone at the end of their first year, she was petrified by a Basilisk in her second year, and in her third year she used a Time-Turner to attend extra classes, and helped him save Sirius from the Dementors and Buckbeak; the falsely-accused Hippogriff.
Harry realized that she became his best friend in their fourth year of Hogwarts. She stuck by him when everybody seemed against him. Ron was jealous and abandoned him, but she never faltered and even tried to get them to make up with each other. She also took the time to help him learn spells for the Tri-wizard tournament, which certainly saved his life that time, and many others to follow.
She was somewhat involved with a famous Bulgarian Quidditch player, and Harry remembered how stunning she looked during the Yule Ball, she was practically glowing in her floaty, periwinkle-blue dress, and was more confident with her newly shrunk front teeth.
He admired her constant effort to help others in need; the numerous times she helped Ron and him with their homework, Neville with potions, Hagrid with Buckbeak's defense, trying to free house-elves or at least get people to start treating them better. She also chose Crookshanks, her ginger-colored cat with a squashed face and bottle-brush tail, that nobody wanted to buy and spent a good deal of time at the Magical Menagerie before she bought him for her birthday.
Harry was also constantly amazed with her skills. He remembered how proud he was of her jinxing abilities when Marietta Edgecombe had the word 'SNEAK' appear on her face after ratting out the D.A. He was immensely impressed with her ability to cast N.E.W.T level magic with the Protean charm for the fake D.A. galleons. There would not even be a D.A. group if Hermione had not thought it up and planned the sessions.
Wondering how she was feeling after her injury in the Department of Mysteries, Harry hoped that she could make a full recovery and that she still wanted to be his best friend. He treated Ron and her pretty almost the entire school year, and his mistakes got them seriously injured.
Knowing that Neville, Luna, and Ginny only had minor injuries from the battle, (aside from Neville being Crucioed) Harry pondered if Ron's injuries would have any serious side-effects, as being assaulted by mysterious brains attaching themselves to your body can never be a good thing.
There was also the matter of the injured members of the Order members that showed up. Poor Tonks was obviously bested by Bellatrix Lestrange, and fell down the stone steps of the Veil Room in a crumpled heap. He was sure though that Tonks was well enough to be moving around, since she was there at King's Cross, as well as Alastor Moody who received quite a hit to the head from Antonin Dolohov, which resulted in Harry tripping over Moody's magical eye.
Harry made a mental note that the next time he saw Dolohov things would be much different. He almost killed Hermione, knocked Moody around pretty good, and then he tried to hit Harry with the same purple flame he hit Hermione with. He also wondered if Hermione wanted another shot at him or not.
Then there was Bellatrix Lestrange. Tortured the Longbottoms to insanity with the Cruciatus curse, was responsible for injuring Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt during the battle, and killed her own cousin, stunning him into the Veil.
By now Harry had a list formulated in his mind bearing the names of the people he was going to take down right when he is capable enough to do so.
Voldemort – killed my parents
Peter Pettigrew – betrayed my parents and the Order of the Phoenix
Bellatrix Lestrange – killed Sirius
Antonin Dolohov – almost killed Hermione
Lucius Malfoy – might as well
After the threats Moody and the others made to his uncle Vernon at the train station, Harry did not have to say a word to the Dursleys as they were already jumpy enough from last summer's dementor scare. Mulling over all these thoughts mentally for the first three days since he returned to Privet Drive for the summer, Harry only left his dark room to eat never saying a word to his relatives.
At the end of the third day, Harry realized that he had forgotten to write his mandatory note to the Order, and was about to get up from bed to send it off with Hedwig. Subconsciously, Harry questioned himself 'Did I really forget about the note, or do I just really want to talk to somebody that bad?'
As if his thoughts were suddenly answered, a hushed pop brought him out his self-induced stupor, and he was alerted to the presence of the leader of the Order of the Phoenix in his messy bedroom, Albus Dumbledore himself.