Sparkle of hope

A/N:

Welcome everybody to the first and most spectacular fanfic ever...

Stop being so snobbish!

I'm not being snobbish.

Yes you are!

Am not!

Are so!

Anyhow, that's the first piece of writing from us. Another generation of the infamous marauders.

Stop being a git and let the story begin wags her over the head

OW! Piss off! We wish you all a lot of fun and can't wait to read your reviews. You better review or else...

Do you think it's that wise to threaten our readers!

Oh shut it!

We'll see ya at the beginning of the next chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: We do not own any of the characters and we do not make any money with this story

Chapter 1 – A bittersweet surprise

„NOOOOOOO!" , Harry screamed desperately seeing Ron's dead body hitting the ground. He couldn't believe his eyes. Sinking to his knees he crawled over to Ron, shaking him.

"Wake up, Ron! Come'on! You can't do that to me, you promised everything would be alright. How shall I...?" but he interrupted by an evil laughter.

"You are so pathetic, Potter! You know that love is your greatest weakness like it was your parents'.

Tears of hate and anger rushed to Harry's green eyes but he blinked them away. Now wasn't the time to mourn his best friend. He was going to avenge him first. Slowly he rose to his feet staring at his cruel opponent with red burning hatred in his eyes.

"So what little Potter? Are you going to duel me?"

Hastily Harry grabbed his wand with a shaking hand. If this was from exhaustion or surpressed anger he could not tell. As an answer he spat at Voldemort's feet.

" I have nothing to lose Tom!"

Riddle ignored the use of his first dead muggle father's name.

"But you do have something to lose, don't you Potter? Oh, no I apologize Potter. True, I already killed all of your worthless friends."

Harry flinched inwardly at these taunting words. It was true. Since the Death Eaters had launched their attack at Hogwarts, most of the people he knew and cared were gone.

First the Weasley family, except Ron who had stood bravely at his side until his end. Hermione had been severly wounded and had been taken into the Great Hall to be treated by Mme Pomfrey.

Remus had been slaughtered by Pettigrew who had put his newly gotten silver hand to good use after all. The Dark had been very pleased indeed.

Most of Harry's classmates and especially the DA had stood by his side when the battle had begun. But now he was the only one who was left.

The shrill voice of Lord Voldemort brought him back to his senses.

"Bow to dead Harry. Prepare to meet your parents. But before you're going to see that worthless mudblood mother of yours , I'm going to have a bit of fun. CRUCIO!"

Harry's reflexes had been slowed down by the battle that had been going on for hours.

Spasms of pain jerked through Harry's body. A moan escaped his cracked lips but he refused to give any more acknowledgement of the undescribable pain he was going through. All thoughts had vanished from his head leaving only blankness and hopelessness. Harry wanted it to end but he knew that if he died he'd take Voldemort with him. Just before he thought he couldn't take it anymore the Dark Lord lifted the curse.

"It hurts, doens't it, Harry? You have two choices. You can either tell me where the headquarter of the Order of the Phoenix is and die a quick and maybe even painless death or I'll leave it up to my faithful servants to finish you off."

Harry opened his mouth to speak but only undistinguishable sounds were coming out of it.

"Pardon, me Potter? I didn't get you."

"I said." Harry said more clearly "GO TO HELL!"

Voldemort raised his wand and pointed it slowly at Harry's heart. Harry heard a frightened scream from his side but couldn't make it out.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry closed his eyes awaiting the impact of the deadly spell...but it never came. Instead he heard a big thump echoing through Hogwart's grounds. He opened his eyes, staring blankly at a mane of bushy brown hair.

"Hermione" he whispered shallowly. "No!" he sobbed, "Come back!"

Voldemort was looking astonished at the body of the young witch in front of him.

Harry unaware of what he was doing, rose to his feet and pointed his wand shakily at Voldemort.

"You gonna pay for this. For all of them! Bellatrix told me once that you had to mean an unforgivable curse and you know what Tom...this time I really mean it! Avada Kedavra!" With a look of surprise still etched on his unhumanly snakelike face, Voldemort's body fell heavily to the ground. Harry collapsed and let darkness overcome him.

Two months had passed since the glorious defeat of the darkest wizard ever known to wizardkind. A victory it was, but it hadn't been achieved lightly. There had been to many casualties, though people tend to forget and just got on with their lives.

There was one though who hadn't forgotten. One who still felt the heavy loss as fresh as it had been on the day he woke up from his coma.

Harry Potter, the boy who lived, the chosen one, the boy who had killed the dark lord, the boy who just wouldn't bloody die. Well, the last title was one he had added himself.

After being rewarded the title of Merlin First class and getting rid of all the stupid, incompentent and way too noisy reporters, Harry had decided to rebuild Hogwarts.

He knew that it was never going to be the same place as before, because for him Hogwarts hadn't been a simple place, not a collection of brick walls and high ceilings but a place where he had discovered true friendship for the first time in his life.

No he wasn't going to forget about Hermione and Ron. He knew that they, like so many others, had sacrificed their lives in order to save him, in order to give him a possibility to live his life.

But what kind of life was that? He had nobody to turn to. People tend to forget about him once the celebration had died down and nobody seemed to think it necessary to keep in contact with him, now his destiny was fulfilled. He wasn't of any use to them any more, as plain as that.

At the beginning he had been surrounded by a lot of people. Even though he knew that there were people who cared about his well-being he still felt alien. He didn't feel as though he could confine into them.

Harry shook his head to clean his busy mind. He was on his way to the headmistress' office, which had strangely withstood the assault on the castle untouched. Though the stone gargoyles in front of the office had been damaged in the war, they still guarded the entrance to the spiral staircase which led up to McGonagall's office.

"Victory" he said tonelessly. The gargoyles moved aside.

He made his way upstairs and knocked at the door, waiting for McGonagall's strict voice to tell him to enter. But it never came.

He opened the door cautiosly, looking around. The room was empty, except for a small magical bird perched on the golden post. It led out a melodious thrill which warmed Harry's insides instantly. He walked into the room and strode over to the animal which was watching him.

"Hey Fawkes!" he said softly, stroking him. He was interrupted by a voice he knew so well.

"Mr Potter. What brings you to my..well...this office, this sunny afternoon. Oh, I forgot my manners...care for a lemondrop?"

Harry swirled around only to find himself staring at his late headmaster's portrait.

"No thank you sir." Harry replied politely. He had never truly understood why Dumbledore favoured this particular muggle sweet.

"I heard about your glorious victory. I think congratulations are in order."

Harry's inside churned guiltily at the sound of these words.

"Leave out the "glorious" part.", he answered darkly "There's nothing glorious about causing your friends' death."
"It wasn't your fault, Harry!" Dumbledore replied in a soft yet stern voice.

"Yeah, sure! First I killed Cedric Diggory. Then Sirius, then you, Ron and Hermione and don't even get me started on all the other people I cared about and who are now dead because of me. You told me once that love was my greatest strength, that suffering like that proves me to be still human. But I can't go on like that, Professor. I lost every single person who had meant something to me."

He sank exhaustedly into one of the fluffy chairs in the office. It took Dumbledore's portrait a moment to regain its' composure. Finally he went on in a sad tone.

"I'm sorry, my boy. I'm sorry that you had to endure all of this. You know I can't make things undone. But like you know, time is a curious thing." His eyes behind the halfmoon spectacles were glittering.

"I think I've heard that before, Professor." Harry said blankly and without any idea where that particular conversation was heading.

"You know, Harry, there are many turning points in one's life. There are decisions you have to make that will determine the outcome of not only yours but everybody's destiny."

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked with a hint of impatience in his voice. Not even in death Dumbledore couldn't help speaking in riddles.

" You see, Harry," Dumbledore's portrait went on ignoring Harry's question "take my obsession with lemon drops. If I hadn't decided at the fragile age of ten to discover the hidden preference of muggle candies, my life hadn't turned out the way it did. Lemon drops can have a big impact on your life." With these words he strolled out of his portrait.

Harry stared at the portrait in utter disbelief. He hadn't thought that it would be possible for Dumbledore to become even more crazy once he was dead.

"What the hell had he been talking about?" he muttered to himself. He needed Hermione more than ever.

When her face appeared in his mind, he quickly made to push her out of his thoughts. He couldn't bare to think about her. Harry turned his attention back on the topic at hand.

He still wasn't any wiser considering the weird speech his former headmaster had given him.

Being obsessed with a muggle sweet was one thing but to think that it could turn his whole world around was another.

Curiously he grabbed one of the sweets that Dumbledore had offered him so often in the past. He eyed it suspiciously and then without any further thinking he popped it into his mouth and while it slowly dissolved he felt the world around him starting to spin and dizziness overwhelmed him.

TBC