Harry walked out in front of the crowd feeling very self –conscious. Everyone began to whisper to each other, he knew it was about him but he had grown so used to it over the years that he ignored it and searched for the familiar brown eyes of his love. He found them staring right back up at him, full of reassurance and love for him. He felt his confidence boost up and he cleared his throat to speak.
"This spring a… a good friend of mine was murdered. Ever since Vo…You-Know-Who killed my parents I have looked to Albus Dumbledore as a fa…father," Harry read from the cards the ministry men had written for him. He had felt too defeated to argue with what was in them so had vainly tried to memorize them in the 20 minutes before he had to say them to a crowd of hundreds.
"We need to…" Harry paused. He caught a movement in the back of the room. A hooded figure was making his way toward the back door, there was something familiar about the way this man walked.
"We need to listen to the ministry to stop more people, like Dumbledore and my parents from being sacrificed…"
As he spoke, Harry noticed more and more hooded figures in the room, all were heading towards exits, some looked as if they were trying too hard to look casual. He absent-mindedly continued speaking.
"The ministry is asking all of you to…" Harry stopped speaking again as he saw one of the figures pull out his wand and raise it towards the stage where Scrimgeour was standing.
Before Harry could shout any kind of warning, an explosion wracked the room.
Harry dove to the side and held his head down as he felt debris hit his back and legs. Cautiously he stood up, nothing seemed broken. He glanced over and saw that Scrimgeour was alive but with a nasty cut down his forehead and what looked like a broken leg as Aurors dragged him off. Harry jumped off the stage with only one thought on his mind; get to his friends.
Aurors had blasted open the doors at the back and were shepherding people out as more explosions went off throughout the room as chairs and even people were set on fire. Spells were bouncing off the walls as the Death Eaters and remaining Aurors battled each other.
Harry began pushing against the frantic crowd trying not to get trampled, he felt a pang of sadness as he stepped over fallen bodies but pushed his feelings aside for the moment. He didn't have time to deal with them yet.
"Ginny!" He shouted as he searched for any glimpse of her flaming red hair in the crowd. He could feel his body getting battered from the people pushing and shoving all around him and he had to duck several times to avoid being hit with curses. Finally he found her with Hermione and the Weasleys.
Ginny grabbed his hand and they all began to make their way toward the exit with the rest of the crowd.
As Harry ran he caught glimpses of the chaos all around him. To his left he spotted one of the Death Eaters sneaking out a stairwell. He recognized that one, it was the first figure he had noticed; Snape.
Harry let go of Ginny's hand and fought to go back, against the direction of the crowd. He could hear Ginny screaming his name behind him as the crowd, or perhaps her mother, pulled her further away.
With his mind set, and no other thoughts entering him he chased after Snape through the crumbling mess the auditorium had was becoming.
He reached the door Snape had gone through and charged up the stairs. When he emerged out the top he was surprised to realize he was on the roof. He had thought the ministry was entirely underground but apparently they had a small building disguised as an old bank.
Snape stood only 10 feet from Harry, his back turned.
Without even a thought of the consequences Harry let out a scream of rage and leapt at Snape knocking them both to the ground. Snape was taken by surprise, so even though Harry was much smaller he had the upper hand and began punching every inch of Snape he could reach.
Finally Harry reached to pull out his wand but in that one moment he let his guard down and Snape pushed Harry off of him and stood up.
"Potter," he hissed at Harry menacingly as he drew his own wand. He had a bloody nose and several gashes from the fight with Harry and in the ministry.
They now stood opposite each other, both with wands raised, ready for the other to make the first move. Then Snape chuckled.
"What's the matter, Potter? Too scared to fight me fore real? You are nothing but a…" But Snape never finished that sentence as right at that moment Harry shouted 'Crucio' at Snape.
Caught off guard for the second time that day, Harry got the better of Snape and for a moment Snape writhed in pain. But Harry was still young and had only used the curse once before, on Bellatrix Lestrange. Snape was able to fight it off and he jumped up shouting 'Expelliarmus!'
Harry's wand flew into Snape's hand. Snape stood panting as he regained his composure. Then without any warning pointed both his wand and Harry's at the boy and muttered the cutting curse.
Deep gashes sprang up all over Harry's body and he doubled over in pain. Before he could recover he was hit with crucio. Harry fell to the ground and bit his lip so hard it bled trying not to scream. He did not want to give Snape the satisfaction.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this, Potter! If only your father could be here to see this. Pathetic little Snivellus with perfect Potter's son's life in his hands. Ha!" Snape spat as he spoke and sounded as if he were truly mad.
"CRUCIO MAXIMUS!" Snape shouted as the pain Harry was feeling doubled and he let out the screams he could no longer hold in.
When Snape finally removed the curse both men were panting heavily.
"The dark lord wants you for himself Potter. Please always remember that if it weren't for that, I would have killed you here today." And with that Snape apparated away and Harry slipped into a blissful unconsciousness.
The next thing Harry felt was a steady throbbing in his head. He tried to open his eyes but everything was blurry and the light made the throbbing worse. He tried to sit up to reach for his glasses but ended up falling back into the bed. Every inch of him ached and he felt nauseas. Very slowly he moved his left arm onto the bedside table and felt around for his glasses. When he at last found them and the room came into focus. He was in a hospital, not Hogwarts obviously, 'probably St. Mungo's,' he thought to himself. He noticed that to the left of his bed were Ron and Hermione. Both his friends were asleep in a single chair, and Hermione was curled up on Ron's lap. Harry couldn't help but smile at this. He tried to sit up once more, slowly this time and hissed with pain as he leaned back. The sound caused Hermione to wake, and her stirring woke Ron. As soon as the two saw Harry was awake, Hermione leaped at him.
"Oh Harry!" she exclaimed hugging him.
"Ow! Hermione! Ron get her off!" Harry shouted no longer able to see his best friend past all of Hermione's bushy brown hair that was enveloping him.
Hermione lifted herself off Harry after realizing she was causing him pain. There were tears in her eyes.
"Ron, tell Hermione not to be such a girl, it's not that bad," But Ron never told Hermione because at that moment Ron too leaped at Harry and gave him as great a hug as Hermione had done.
After a beat Ron seemed to pull himself together and said in a purposefully deep voice, "Glad to have you back, Potter."
Hermione and Harry both burst into fits of laughter at Ron's pathetic display but the laughing made Harry retch and he was glad when a mediwitch arrived moments later.
When she had finished checking on him, Harry asked, "What happened?"
"Oh, Harry it was terrible!" Hermione exclaimed.
"We were all dragged out and we could hear the fighting going on but no one knew what was really happening. We waited in a safe room with all the others for about an hour before anyone came in to give us news," Ron explained.
"And then they asked us to come with them to the Minister's office and we saw you laying on the desk. Harry I was so scared you were dead!"
"We all were mate," Ron added.
Hermione continued, "So they brought you here to St. Mungo's. That was two days ago."
Harry took a moment to absorb all of this before allowing Hermione to keep talking.
"No one knew what happened to you. Ginny saw you run off and then Aurors found you on the rooftop, unconscious. Thirty-seven people were killed, and lots more were hurt."
"But at least a couple of them were Death Eaters," said Ron.
"But Ginny, and your parents, they're all alright aren't they?" Harry asked becoming anxious.
"No, they're all fine," Ron assured him. "Ginny's been a nightmare since it happened though, hasn't slept, she's been snapping at everyone."
"Where is she?" Harry asked.
"She went to get some food, we'll go get her,"
With that they left, Harry couldn't help but notice that they were holding hands. He took a deep breath and sank back into his pillows. Snape had beaten him again.
"One day," he vowed, "I WILL kill that man."
He was jolted from his resolve when the door opened and Ginny stepped into the room. Very quietly she walked over to Harry's bed. She didn't say anything just stared at him sadly.
"Hey," he whispered and that was all it took. Ginny burst into tears and lay her head down on Harry's blankets.
"Don't you EVER do that to me again! Do you have any idea how scared I was! You just left and then I saw you lying there covered in blood! You can NEVER make me worry that much again! You could have died!" Though her words were muffled by the blankets, Harry understood their meaning and he reached to her and pulled her into his embrace.
"Sh… I'm sorry. It's okay," he comforted her until she fell sound asleep beside him.
Harry had been denied no luxury upon being admitted to the hospital. He had been given his own private suite with a fire and soft lounge chairs and large four poster bed rather than the typical uncomfortable hospital beds. It was more like a hotel than a hospital.
All his injuries had been healed and he'd spent the next few days recovering his strength under the careful watch of the mediwitches of St. Mungo's. All his friends had come in to visit him and Ginny had hardly ever left his side.
Rita Skeeter had written an article about the ministry conference where she had exaggerated a great deal, and elaborately told her own version of the duel between Harry and Snape.
No one had heard any news on the whereabouts of the Death Eaters, although two of them were killed and another had been caught and sent to Azkaban. Snape remained illusive with the rest of them but nothing could yield Harry's determination to face Snape again and destroy him.
Bill's wedding was in a few days. After which he would finally set out to end the war and find his destiny.
AN: I know this is starting to sound really familiar but once again I am SOOOO sorry that this has taken me so long! The thing is that I started this story in the summer when I had lots of time to write it, but now that schools back on (and my social life has been more dramatic than I care for) I haven't had as much time. Anyway there's just ONE CHAPTER LEFT! I'm excited, and I hope you all are too!