Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. This plot is an original work. Any resemblance to a real-life person or story is purely coincidental.

Ladies and Gentlemen, It is with my deepest pride that I, BloodRedSword, present to you another story from the deepest cavern of my mind…Ok…that was a little melodramatic. (Cough!) My apologies, it seems that ever since I had enter the 3rd Battalion Singapore Guards, I had became rather cranky. Anyway, when I was rereading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or if you guys prefer the U.K. version, the Philosopher's Stone for the…err, I lost track of how many times I had read it…Anyway, when I reached the sentence, and I quote, "Death is but the next great adventure." I know, I know. There are some parts before it but let's keep it this way for the sake of this story… I started thinking; what if Harry died or rather was killed in duel. His physical body was dead but by a strange twist of fate he was resurrected and travel through both time as well as his memories of his past self. This proved to be a very interesting though and I started exploring the possibilities. It was endless. Ideas came, some remain, some discarded, some changed. In the end a rough plot came out in my mind. I must first say that this story will be an AU for the Half Blood Prince will be arriving in store July 18.

The summary:

It was said that Death is but the next great adventure. It is thus true for our hero. For Lord Voldemort had somehow managed to bypass the blood wards and killed Harry in a duel. What happened was beyond Harry's wildest imagination and dreams. For instead of dying, Harry traveled through memories of his past life and time. Things he never knew possible, skills and arts lost through time, all was once more learnt. He also found the love of his life, his soul-mate. But as the saying there is no free lunch in the world, Harry had lost his memories of the future, retaining only his skills and knowledge. But everything is a circle, for what goes around, comes around, what goes up must come down, eventually. Harry returned back to when he came from to have the final show down with Lord Voldemort.

I hereby present:

Harry Potter and the Ancients' Past (Title courtesy of my insufferable brother, Sword of the Dragonmaster :-))

The End of an old Life

Crimson eyes met Emerald eyes. Harry looked at the pair of red eyes that now looking him, mockingly. Harry tightened his grip on his wand. The wizard whom had tormented him since his birth had somehow bypassed the wards that protected him.

"I'm curious, Voldemort," Harry said, forcing calm into his voice, "How did you pass through the wards without destroying them?"

"You know, Harry. It was a ridiculously simple and logic solution. I simply arrive at this place before any of your muggle family member or you return here. I wondered why I hadn't thought of this earlier. For the wards was designed to protect you, young Potter, from me. But when no one is here with the house, it deactivates. Only when the residents of the house returned with you into a certain area then the wards will be active. Beside, your blood which now also runs in my vein helps in deceiving the wards," said Voldemort as he idly examined his fingers. Harry noticed that his wand nowhere in sight.

"Secondly, your address is one of the more predominant in their list of underage wizards. It isn't exactly a secret."

Harry glanced at the Dursley. If the present situation wasn't so tense and deadly, he would have laughed himself sick at their predicament. The y had been trussed in bondage and all three of themnow hanged by their feet from the ceiling. He looked back at Voldemort met his looked with a sneer.

"Praying for hope, Harry?" Voldemort mocked.

"No, I'm wondering why you haven't attack me yet or killed me."

"I want you know the meaning of being abandoned, Harry," Voldemort said, his eyes gleamed with malice. "As you know, Harry, for the past hour, the two of us had a face off. And yet your beloved Headmaster or any of his lapdogs had come to help you. Or even investigate. Don't you agree that Albus Dumbledore had abandoned you? Where it the Great Albus Dumbledore now, Harry?"

"There are times when one had to depend on oneself to defend what he cherished. Help don't always come when one needed them. Only with self reliance can one hope to triumph over adversary and adversity," Harry said his mind strangely blank. He had subconsciously known that he was going to die. He had accepted this hand which fate had deal him. There was no fear, only calm acceptance. "Come on, Tom Marvolo Riddle. Let's end this game. Let us fight until the last man standing."

With that, Harry fired a Reductor curse at Voldemort. The Dark Lord casted a shielding charm and retaliated with another hex. Harry twisted his body out of the way and casted another hex towards Voldemort. There were no thoughts, only instinct and his experience. The two began to trade spell in earnest. Every thing Harry learnt, every skill Harry had learnt was brought out into battle.

For the few times in his life, Voldemort began to experience fear. This was an opponent that he never expected. This was a person who fought like he had nothing to lose. Dumbledore, he feared because of his powers and knowledge. Harry he feared because of the bloody prophecy. Now it seems that the prophecy was about to come true.

"NO! THIS CANNOT BE AND WILL NOT BE! AVADA KEVADRA!" Shouted Voldemort. Harry turned to the left but the green light sped towards him.

'This is it,' Harry thought. 'I'm coming for you, Mom, Dad and Sirius.'

Harry closed his eyes as the curse enveloped him in an eerily glow.

Voldemort watched with glee as the bane of his life collapsed on to the floor, lifeless. He turned towards the Dursley and said, "I will let you live if only you help me play messenger to that old fool, Albus Dumbledore. Tell him that, I, Lord Voldemort had killed off his so called favourite."

And with a manical laugh, he fired the Dark Mark into the skies of England before disappearing.

"Alas, age had truly caught with me," Albus Dumbledore muttered, as he learnt of Harry's death. "I had grown old. I had failed to protect the last hope of the wizardry world and perhaps the whole world."

The Ministry of Magic was the first to send a team of Hit Wizards and Aurors down to Privet Drive due to the appearance of the Dark Mark. What they had expected was the massacre of the Muggles in Privet Drive. What they found was far worst then their imagination. When they arrived on scene, the entire street was like what a quaint suburban town of England. If you ignore the sinister Dark Mark which was floating above a house, that is. There were no smokes, flame, hysterical crowd of Muggles run around like headless chicken. There was however some curious Muggles who had gathered around to see the floating Dark Mark, wondering if it was some light show.

"Ladies and Gentleman, can you please kindly leave the area?" shouted one of the Hit Wizards. "We are from the London Police Force and we received a complain regarding this. It would be very unpleasant if we have to detain everyone here for hindrance of police work."

Immediately everyone disappeared like smoke. One of the wizards shook his head at the Muggles' naiveté. One of them pulled out a wand removed the Dark Mark which was hovering like a dark reminder of what is to come. None of them noticed the house number, Privet Drive 14. In a low voice, one of the Aurors whipered the unlocking charm. The door swing opened smoothly.

"Hello? Anyone here?"

Some muffled voice replied as an answer. This was certainly very strange. Even in the first rise of You-Know-Who, there was no account anyone being left alive after their house had been visited by anyone who was Death Eaters or the Dark Lord himself. The groups entered the house and they were stunned to discover that the serene face of the famous Boy-Who-Lived. As the team leader for that mission was Kingsley Shacklebolt, he immediately reported what happened to Dumbledore via a communication set and the Ministry to report a death.

The Minister of Magic was enjoying a nice cup of tea when his secretary burst into the room screaming that Harry Potter was dead. That certainly spooked the Minister's wheel. He was planning to make use of Harry Potter in his next reelection campaign. But now all his plans were wasted just because of the death of that brat. However, he had to maintain his image.

"Don't be ridiculous, Linda," Fudge replied, "Potter has almost as many protection as Hogwarts itself."

"But Minister," she whined.

"Out, now!"

The headlines on the Daily Prophet next day created massive panic amongst the general wizarding population around the world.

No One's Safe! Harry Potter Dead!

It is a great tragedy for me to report the death of one of the most outstanding wizard in our glorious history. Mr. Harry Potter had fallen by the Dark Lord, You-Know-Who. You read it right! The famous Boy-Who-Lived was killed by Lord Voldemort in a brutal duel.

The officials were tight-lipped regarding his death but according to reports the various departments had received, the Dark Lord was fought to a standstill by Mr. Potter. There were also reports about the magical level around Privet Drive had reached an critical level just before the Dark Mark was fired into the skies of England.

This makes us wonder, how in the world did You-Know-Who managed to get pass the wards which protected Mr Potter during his summer stay with his relatives. It was whispered amongs the Ministry that the wards which protected Mr Potter were second to those of Hogwarts.

More importantly, why had the Ministry been so slow to react to the massive outburst of magic in a Muggle populated area? The Minster had claimed he would move the code alert to from green to orange. For those who don't understand the mean, please allow me to explain.

The Codes of Emergency was designed to let the Aurors and Hit Wizards know what Decon status are they on. Code Green is a no-combat situation in which only one squad of Aurors will be on standby to deal with possible disruption. The next level, Code Yellow has 50 NTM, Notice to Move. It means that the Aurors and Hit Wizards will be given 25 minutes to return to their headquarters for briefing and 25 minutes to move out. The next level, Code Orange, has 30 NTM. And Code Red, they will have 5 NTM. It means that they will be basically station at the Headquarters, ready to move at a minute notice.

This begets the question. You-Know-Who and Harry Potter had a duel over an hour and yet none of the Aurors or Hit Wizards attempted to investigate. It was only after the Dark Mark reached the skies did they responded.

Are we truly as safe as the Minster of Magic claims? Destructive magic was used in Muggle area and yet no one gave a damn. Cornelius Fudge claims that he will aggressively hunt down all Dark Wizards but yet none had been caught by the Ministry.

Our last hope gone, gone down in a blaze of glory. One of the two person who You-Know-Who truly feared. Now let us all keep a minute of silence as respect of our beloved Hero, Harry Potter.

Needless to say, the Minister and the Ministry immediately came under fire from the public. Calls for the Minister's impeachment, reorganizing the Ministry to be more efficient, and weeding out of Lord Voldemort's supporter had flooded the Ministry daily.

As the Wizardry world is currently in chaos, Lord Voldemort had chosen that moment to ride chaos. Like a tsunami, his force ravaged England and Europe in a coordinated and synchronized time and date, leaving the massive damage and casualties to the muggle population. Now the world lives in a shadow of fear and terror.

Now let's us get back to Harry…
Harry opened his eyes. He found himself drifting in pitch black Darkness.

"Why am I here?"

Immediately another voice replied.

'Because you are.'

"Who are you?"

'I'm you.'

"Where is this place?"

'This is a place where one goes when he or she still have desires unfulfilled. This is where you are.'

"What do I want?"

'Ask yourself and seek the answers which lies deep within your heart. Let your heart and soul speak out, not your mind and conscience.'

Harry closed his eyes and released his deepest feeling.

"I want to be at a place where I will be loved for who I'm, not what I'm. I want to learn which will be helpful to me should the time comes when I have to face danger. I want to be…be who I am without any restriction, without burdens, without chains of restriction. I want to be free."

TBC…

Well, I won't say much but READ AND REVIEW!

P.S. I should be uploading my other chapter for the Betrayal, Quest of the Swords and Tome of Infinite Arcane Knowledge, soon.