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Chapter 14: The Deadliness of War

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Isabelle was walking through the forest with Order members around her, her older self beside her, and her brother and his older self and her best friend and her older self, along with her parents around her. She took a deep breath and tightened the grip on her wand. She thought back to the past two weeks that were a blur to her. She couldn't recall how she ended up there in the forest outside of the Durmstrang grounds, preparing to take on hundreds of Death Eaters. She put a hand in her pocket and enclosed it over the bottle that was full of time travel potion, just in case her life was in danger. Evan and Lauren had bottles in their pocket to, fully prepared to drain it should the battle go ill. She glanced at her older self, Lily's green eyes darting back and forth, the fear evident in their depths. Isabelle glanced over at the rest of the people there; the fear in their eyes was almost to much to look at. Evan and Lauren were holding hands, Lauren clutching onto her boyfriend as in fear that something bad would happen should she let go. Isabelle looked at the ground watching for the tree root she had to step over, and suddenly saw a jet of red light fly past her, hitting a tree, narrowly missing her left ear. Everyone fell to the ground for cover behind fallen trees and roots, some sending stunning spells at the gaps in the trees. More spells were sent by the Death Eaters, more powerful and dangerous than plan stunning spells. Isabelle heard a woman taunting in a baby voice,

"Oh Harry! Come out and play, the Death Eaters want to play." Isabelle muttered,

"I know that voice." A memory went through her head, a memory of a wand being pointed at her when she was seven. The woman said, in that mocking baby voice,

"Oh Harry! I have your daughter, come out and meet us, or ickle Lily might not see her Daddy again." Isabelle's eyes flew open as she recognized the voice as Bellatrix Lestrange's. Isabelle looked over at her father, whose eyes were narrowed in anger. It was the woman that killed his godfather. Harry looked up to see Bellatrix leaning out from behind a tree. He pointed his wand at her and shouted,

"Avada Kedavra!" A jet of green light shot out from Harry's wand and went directly to Bellatrix, hitting her directly in the chest, killing her instantly. Isabelle's jaw dropped. She had never seen her father kill anyone before. She knew he had, otherwise Voldemort would still be alive, and so would a lot of Death Eaters. But seeing him do it was shocking. Harry's Killing Curse started the next round of spells from both sides. Isabelle shot a few spells to the trees, not being able to make herself perform the Killing Curse, or any other forgivable. Isabelle's attention was brought to her brother's older self, who had come across one of the students he taught at Durmstrang.

"Professor Carter? You're…you're a Potter!" The boy looked utterly petrified to come in contact with his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. But despite his fear, he raised his wand and sent a stunning spell at Blake, who blocked it with the Protego spell. Blake said,

"Philips, you're too young to be a Death Eater, you should go home." The boy named Philips' eyes narrowed in anger. He said,

"I am not too young to be doing this, Professor, I could curse you just as well as anyone at school."

"And I could kill you just as well as any Auror could." The boy's eyes widened in fear. He sent another spell at his professor, who blocked it again. When Blake had the upper hand on him, he said to him,

"Go home." Philips turned and ran. Blake was caught off guard when someone sent the Cruciatus Curse at him, and he fell to the ground, writhing in pain. All of the Potters watched in shock as Blake was screaming pain and they were powerless to stop it. Since the other Order members were off battling other Death Eaters, the one Death Eater who held the curse on Blake came out. Smiling wickedly, he lifted the curse and said almost lazily,

"Avada Kedavra." A jet of green light shot from his wand and hit Blake, killing him instantly. Lily, Julia, and Isabelle screamed at the same time,

"BLAKE!" Hermione, who had been standing next to Harry behind a tree, almost collapsed to the ground, but her husband kept her from falling. The Death Eater laughed and said,

"One down, four more to go." Hermione sobbed, making the Death Eater laugh even louder. The smile was instantly wiped off his face when he heard a female voice scream,

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Another jet of light shot out of a wand, this time from Hermione's. It hit the Death Eater dead on in the chest and his lifeless body fell to the ground. Isabelle looked over at her mother sobbing uncontrollably in Harry's arms, while tears were running down his cheeks. Lily's hands were over her mouth as tears streamed down her cheeks and she stared at her brother's lifeless body. Julia and Lauren were in shock, the regret of how she treated her husband evident on Julia's face. Evan's expression was unreadable. It was hard to comprehend and weird to see yourself die. Forgetting the pseudonyms, Isabelle shouted over to her brother,

"Blake, drink it now! Get the hell out of here!" Evan looked at his sister and slowly nodded, took out the bottle and drained it in one gulp. He disappeared as he went back in time to the present. Lily said to Isabelle,

"Lily, you and Julia get out of here too, we can't let anything happen to you."

"I'm not leaving, not when I can be of help." Lily looked over to Julia and Lauren, but found that the younger self was gone. She had gone back with Blake. Julia said to Lily,

"She's gone! One minute she was there, the next she was gone!"

"It's fine, Jules! She's gone back."

"Gone back where?" Instead of Lily answering, it was Isabelle, who said,

"To the past." Julia's eyes widened in surprise and she looked at Isabelle and said,

"Oh my Go…" She was cut off by a jet of light flying past her face and hitting a rock with a crack. Julia jerked back away from the spell, her eyes wide and fearful. Before she knew it, Isabelle was hit with the stunning curse, and was knocked unconscious.

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"Is she going to be alright?" Isabelle heard Julia's voice and for a minute thought that she was back in the past. But she opened her eyes and saw the thirty-six year old version of Julia staring back at her, with relief on her face when she saw the teenager wake up. Isabelle said groggily,

"What happened?" Her older self said,

"You were stunned. We brought you back to the hospital wing because you also hit your head and have a concussion."

"What happened after I was stunned? Where's Harry and Hermione?"

"They're in their office."

"I'm at Hogwarts?" Julia and Lily nodded. Isabelle put her hands to her forehead and closed her eyes. Julia said,

"So Isabelle's from the past then?" Isabelle nodded and opened her eyes. She ran a hand through her hair and jumped a little when she saw it was black again. She noticed that her glasses were sitting on the table and she put them on. Lily smiled.

"Sorry, I had to tell her." Isabelle nodded. Julia said,

"It's unreal to see you at seventeen again, Lils."

"I know. I know exactly what you mean."

"So Lauren was my younger self then, and Evan was Bl…" Julia stopped talking, emotion overpowering her, preventing her from finishing her sentence and saying her husband's name. Isabelle said,

"How are Mum and Dad doing?"

"Mum is still crying, and can't believe her son is gone, and Dad's just…in shock. He was telling us that it should've been him that died and not Blake." Julia sniffled and said,

"I wish I hadn't been fighting with him for the past few months. The last thing I said to him was that when we got back we're going to have a conversation about those divorce papers. I never got to say goodbye."

"None of us did, Jules, you're not the only one." The door to the hospital wing opened and Harry and Hermione came in. Harry said,

"Madam Pomfrey told us that Isabelle was awake and doing better, so we came to visit." He said to Isabelle,

"How're you feeling?"

"I have the biggest headache of my entire life." Hermione sat on the bed next to Isabelle's, staring at the floor, her face expressionless. Isabelle said hesitantly,

"Mum?" Hermione looked up and smiled sadly.

"Oh, Lily, why did you mess with time travel again?"

"Again? How'd know about the first time?" Harry said,

"Your memory charm didn't work on us two." Shocked, Julia and Lily said,

"You remembered when we went back in time?" Harry and Hermione nodded.

"How? We put that memory charm on you all."

"I think it's because you're our children, and you were using the power that was given to you through us." Hermione nodded slowly and said,

"I knew you had come into the future when I saw Adriana come running up to Evan and calling him Daddy."

"So you knew? And you didn't say anything?" Hermione shook her head. Harry said,

"You've been given a gift, Lily. You have the opportunity to change the future. You know what it's like, and you can change it. You've seen how you are in the future, how your life is; you know how Julia's and Blake's are. You can change what you've seen." At the mention of Blake's name, Hermione started crying again. Isabelle asked hesitantly,

"How many others have died?" Julia said,

"Blake was the only one. The rest of the dead were all Death Eaters." Lily said,

"And you know what, Lily?"

"What?"

"It's all over. The last of the Dark side has passed." Isabelle smiled.

"That's wonderful. I just wish Blake was still here to enjoy it." Julia said,

"Maybe he will. Like Harry said, Lily, you all have the opportunity to change the future. Maybe something will turn out differently that he won't die."

"I hope so, Jules." Isabelle looked at her parents, "Because I know that no parent should have to bury their child."

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The next morning, Isabelle was feeling better, and was about to be released from the hospital wing. But before she left, Madam Pomfrey said she had a visitor. Isabelle nodded and Lily came into the wing holding a bottle in her hand. She offered no greeting, just said quietly,

"I think you need to go home." She handed the bottle to Isabelle and Isabelle said,

"I think so too."

"Make a good future for yourself, Lily. Tell Julia and Blake that too."

"I will." They both smiled and Isabelle took the cork off the bottle. She drank the liquid and it slid icily down her throat. She felt the hook behind her navel and the last thing she saw was Lily's smiling face as she disappeared.

She was going back.

A/n: Hey hey, second to last chapter everyone! This one wasn't my greatest one, I know that, but hey, I tried. The next chapter is the last one, and I'm still deciding on an epilogue. So, please review!

Husker-fan-2006