The Good Race Pt. 5
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, all related characters, locations, and events, are owned by Warner Brothers, J.K. Rowling, and multiple parties. No infringement is intended, nor should it be expected. Fair use only.
One-Shot: The Good Race Pt. 5 - And so they came...
A/N: This is the direct continuation of The Good Race Part 4. Read that first if you haven't read it yet, otherwise this will make no sense. Part of it is below, as part of the opening scene.
Arlington, Texas - 2002
For a moment, as he stood on the top stair, he thought that they wouldn't begin to take him down. That Albus would refuse to let him leave, refuse to give him his first lifetime of peace. As the seconds droned on, the worry truly set in, till at last, they sprang to life. It would seem that in the end, the Headmaster felt he deserved it as well. The journey back to the gates was a fast one, not a single soul awake at that hour to oppose him.
As Harry stepped through, he couldn't help but a sad smile formed on his face. As hard as it would be to walk away, he knew that he needed this more than anything in the world. A twist, a pop, and he was gone.
"James?" A soft voice interrupted his thoughts, pulling him from the past and into the present.
Harry turned, raising an eyebrow to the pretty blonde standing next to him, as she wiggled a raw carrot in his face.
"Sorry Jessica, lost in thought", he says, smiling softly.
"Hmmph. I was asking if you wanted me to try that stir fry again tonight. I think if I use fresh, not frozen, it'll turn out much better." She says, wiggling the carrot again.
"Absolutely, go for it." He says, grabbing one of the handy produce bags and taking the carrots from her.
It had been 11 years since he'd left England, and all his worries far behind. He'd traveled for a time, learning new things, meeting new people. For the first time he felt alive...but deep inside he knew that the world he left behind was burning. It had only taken five short years before even the muggle world had begun to hear the news. People were missing, entire towns destroyed in a night, even the rumors of the dead walking once more.
'Of course, without staying in contact, I have no idea what is actually happening over there…' He thought, as they finished their biweekly shopping trip.
Jessica...sweet Jessica...a muggle girl a year younger than he was. They'd met on a beach in Australia a few years back, both on vacation, looking for fun. What they'd found were kindred spirits. One running from his future, one running from her past.
"Woah…" Jessica gasps as they collect their bags. "That's weird…"
Harry looked up, meeting her eyes, surprised at her puzzlement. Following her line of sight, Harry sees what has her surprised, a frown filling his face.
"Shit…" He whispers, staring out the large windows of the storefront.
"Isn't that the strangest thing you've ever seen, James?" Jessica asks, pulling his attention back to her. "What do you think….James?"
The entrance to the store was standard fare for America with all it's space. A large two lane space in front, with a fire lane, and then parking spaces nearly as far as the eye could see. For a Saturday afternoon, overcast, rain in the forecast, it was still quite busy, the front two thirds of the lot stuffed with parked vehicles. Their own was two rows over, perhaps nine spots back. From where they stood, they had a fantastic view of that parking lot.
"James? What's wrong?" Jessica asks, startled, grabbing his arm.
Harry looked down at her hand, before looking back up. "Jessica...I want you to know that I love you...I don't say it often enough, and I always regret that."
She grabbed his arm tighter, pulling him towards her. "James, what the fuck are you saying? What is going on?"
As he began to answer, he was interrupted, a loud voice filtering through the store, not through the speakers, but everywhere at once.
"Harry Potter…"
"I...I have to go Jessica." Harry said, before prying her hand off of his arm. With a whisper, she was frozen, unable to move, unable to follow, as he made his way towards the entrance.
The doors slid open as he approached, a burst of cold air hitting him as he walked through. From there he could take in the full view, seeing what trouble had finally found him...and trouble it was.
"Shit…"
Standing on nearly every car was a black-robed figure, silver, white, or golden skull masked. Floating in the air above, a slowly moving circle of death, Dementors feasting on the emotions of the city surrounding them. The chill was now bone-deep cold, the moist air forming little crystals of ice that softly fell to the ground. With a flick of his wand, he locked the building tightly, another flick, and the storefront was nearly unbreakable...at least for a few hours while the spell held. At last, Harry walked forward, stopped a dozen feet from the first line of robed figures. As he did so, the twelve gold masked Death Eaters stepped forward, forming a loose half-circle in front of him.
"We all know why you're here...Does anyone want to walk away?" Harry asked, twirling his wand lightly in his fingers. "I'm going to be straight with you...coming here was a mistake, and you will pay for it with your lives...unless you leave right now."
No response, and no cracks of apparition.
"I see," Harry says, shaking his head. "Just remember I warned you."
There was a soft creak to the left, and with a wave of his wand, a spell of shocking blue smashed against his translucent shield, sparks cascading outward in a small explosion. Harry jumped back, a crack of black energy slamming into the pavement where he'd stood. He twists as he lands, two spells of green sliding past him missing by scant inches, one sliding by his face, the other his knees. As he rotated, he twisted his wand, and with an upward flick released a bolt of purple that zig-zagged towards the closest Death Eater, smashing through his hasty shield, and nearly vaporizing him, and the two Death Eaters behind him, in a flash of light.
At this, there is a gasp from the crowd, but Harry didn't let it distract him, a chunk of pavement tossed into the path of an unknown golden spell. Harry ducked, waving his wand in a swift circle above his head, before pointing it at the ground.
"Excavatum Horribilis!" He yelled as a lance of red energy slammed into the ground.
With a roar, the ground splits, widening rapidly as a ravine formed, cars, and Death Eaters alike fall in, at least a few dozen taken by surprise. A jade spell slams into his arm, a sensation of being on fire rapidly spreading outward from the impact. Harry throws himself aside, another death spell just barely missing as he rolls to the side, rapidly whispering the counter curse, and jabbing his wand into his arm.
As he comes out of the roll, his blasting curse hits two of the Gold Death Eaters, turning them into bags of crushed bone and meat. A blue spell just barely dodged, but the red curse he sent back hits its mark, leaving a hole the size of a watermelon where the man or woman's chest once was. Harry swept his wand left to right, arcs of electricity shooting out, bouncing from car to car in a torrent of death. With an almighty wrench of his wand, he flips one of the cars onto its side, sliding and smashing through a group of Death Eaters that had been knocked down from his ravine forming, having thus dodged the electricity. With a flick it's launched into the air, aiming to crush another group closer to him.
An unknown spell hits the car, cutting it in half, but Harry had expected it. He bends back, a bolt of white energy that he knows would have eaten him from the inside out just barely missed, as he swipes his wand through the air, rapid-fire concentrating on a complex bit of magic. As the two chunks of car slide to a stop, they twist and bend, forming into two full-grown lions that immediately pounce on the nearest robed figures. There is a scream from behind him, prompting him to turn, a tire flying past him fast enough to have killed him. Harry flicked his wand, a hand of pavement forming, grabbing, and squishing the Death Eater that had nearly removed his head.
'Three left…' He thinks as he rips the hood from a truck, intercepting another unknown spell.
"Avibus Terrore!" He yells, pointing his wand straight up.
With an explosion like a cannon, dozens of birds, large and small, fly from his wand tip, streaming through the air to attack his foes, buying him a second. A chill swept through the area, telling him that whoever controlled the Dementors had tired of waiting. Harry looked up, the swirling mass of creatures starting to drop towards him.
As he looked up, he bent, grabbing two of the many wands on the ground, the ones that felt right to his senses. While Harry had been gone from Britain, that didn't mean he had sat idle. He's spent many years learning new magic, magic he'd never even heard of before. He'd read thousands of books, filling every moment he wasn't enjoying life learning how to win in his next one. The time spent with the Native American tribes would help most here, and in fact, were perhaps the best time he'd spent in decades. Chants, metaphoric, and sympathetic casting...Didn't even need to be done in their ancient languages. With a twist, he snaps one of the fallen wands, exposing its core to the frozen air. Harry pressed his wand against the core and began chanting.
Dead too young,
It's stolen grace,
It's song unsung,
Without a trace,
Harry's wand lit up with a golden light, so bright and warm that the falling snow melted dozens of feet around him.
Hear my cry,
This beast of yore,
To the sky,
THIS DRAGONS ROAR!
With his final words, the Dragon Heartstring turning to ash, Harry pointed his wand into the sky and released true fire. As close to Fiendfire as one could get, the flames billowing from Harry's Wand were filling the sky. The spell Harry had cast was about potential...Harry had summoned the potential Fire the dragon this Heartstring belonged would have produced had it lived a full life. Considering that taken care of, Harry tired of this game. Looking around, Harry Fucking Potter spotted what he was looking for. As it was, there weren't many spells he needed to say aloud, but the ones he did were the kinds you wouldn't forget.
'There!' He thought, spotting a large pipe within the ravine, concentrating as hard as he could, a trickle of blood dripping from his nose. 'And now to make them regret coming here…'
"Ssssserpenssssortia Horribilissss Rexssss!" Harry hissed, a dull roar filling his ears as he burns through magic.
The pipe twisted, shifting, even as Harry turned away. A spell splashed against the car beside him, but he ignored it in favor of casting another spell against the building, turning the windows into walls, removing their ability to see the death that was coming.
"Oh my god." One of the silver masked Death Eaters nearby says as a loud screech fills the air.
His words were his last, as he drops dead, falling to the ground.
"Turn and ssseeee them all, oh king of ssssnakesss." Harry hisses, ducking down and closing his eyes. "Kill the onessss in robessss, eat your fill oh king of ssssnakesss."
"Avada Kadavra!" A voice yelled, the spell of deathly green flying over Harry's head, splashing against his summoned Basilisk.
Harry stood then, surveying what could only be described as a battlefield, one coated with the blood of the many dead. Harry turned then, to see the man that had killed his snake. Standing front and center was an unknown man, taller than average. The only identifying feature was the blood-red eyes that still haunted his dreams. Harry hopped over the car between them, stopping a dozen feet from the man.
"Harry Potter…" The man snarled, clearly enraged.
"Tom," Harry says, smiling. "You're a bit late to the party. Had trouble finding a dress?"
Voldemort's hands clenched around his wand but then relaxed. "How interesting...here I expected to find an untrained Wizard, unaware of who he even was…"
"Tell me Harry Potter...who trained you?" He asked as he began to circle.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Harry replied, matching the circle.
"I know you never went to Hogwarts, nor any of the Australian schools," Voldemort said, almost casually. "The colonies couldn't have produced a Wizard of your caliber in a thousand years."
"It's interesting that you say that...one of the strongest spells I've ever learned I learned from an American Professor," Harry replies, almost casually.
Voldemort slashes his wand, the arc of yellow casually batted aside by Harry, who returns fire with several orbs of blue that you couldn't help but gaze at, a ponderous effect that made them even harder to dodge. Dodge Voldement did, however, knowing that blocking them would be fruitless.
"Tell me, Tom," Harry says, his head throbbing, as he starts casting stunners so fast the air was filled with them for a moment. "Did they destroy your Horcruxes?"
As Harry had apparently touched a nerve, the man began casting in a frenzy. Spells of every color filled the air, each singing a different song of death. As many spells as Harry knew, even he had to admit he could only have named a half dozen of these, and cast certainly less. Harry didn't even have time to consider how best to defend, he did the only thing he could, throwing himself to the side as the many spells crashed together where he once stood. Rolling to the side, Harry jumped up, blocking a flashing grey spell with one of his own.
This was perhaps Harry's least favorite part of prolonged battles. No matter what, no matter how strong he got, he did not have infinite stamina. He'd last as long as he needed, but as soon as he began fighting Voldemort, whatever strength he had would dwindle.
"Not this time motherfucker!" Harry yelled, dodging a blast of fuschia light.
"Ascendere!" Harry yelled as another spell left Voldemort's wand.
The two connected in midair, white lights shooting out, connecting their wands together. Something that hadn't happened since Harry's first life, so long ago, was making a repeat appearance. As the lines of light spread out, forming a web around them, little droplets of golden light began to float along the lines. Harry concentrated, the wand in his hand vibrating with how hard he was pushing, knowing that if the droplets reached him, he'd be dead. As the Pheonix song began, Harry knew it was time.
He reached into his pocket, pulling out the second wand he'd snagged from the ground earlier, pointing it directly at the monster that had set him down this path. That had cost him his life over a dozen times. Harry's head was throbbing, the pain almost blinding as he yelled the words he'd been wanting to yell for lifetimes.
"Avada Kadavra!"
The green light, so close to his eye, enveloped the tall red-eyed man, sapping the very life from him. Life stolen from others, coveted above all, and wasted. The web of white light shattered, little motes of light floating into the air, as Harry dropped to his knees, wand still outstretched, as his foe dropped to the ground, dead at last.
"I...I did it…" Harry said, gasping for air.
He struggled to his feet, moving quickly over to the still smoking body. With a flick of his wand, its head was removed, burned to ash. As though an impossible weight had been lifted, Harry could barely stand, leaning heavily against one of the smoking wreckage of cars left after the battle.
'I can't...believe…' Harry thought, as he sank to the ground, the sound of police sirens, at last, filling the air.
He sat there for only a moment longer, before pushing himself to his feet, swaying as he did. He knew he needed to leave now before the Police found him surrounded by bodies and impossible creatures, but as he took a step, he collapsed onto his hands and knees, vomiting.
"Wh-what…" He coughs, realizing there is a tightness in his chest, finding it hard to breathe.
His head is on fire, burning, throbbing, as though being stabbed by a thousand needles full of Basilisk venom. Harry falls, landing face-first on the ground, with barely enough strength to roll over. As he tries to breathe, he realizes he can't, that what strength he had was lost, burning away with every pulse of his blinding headache.
'Harry….Potter….' He hears in his head, as everything fades to black.
July 31st, 1991
A loud boom echoed through the small cabin, shaking it by the foundation. Another boom and the door smashed open, letting the storm that raged outside now in. Harry, whose eyes had just opened, makes it to his feet in time for Hagrid to step through. Harry pushed himself to his feet, his heart pounding in his chest, as he said the only thing he could.
"What the fuck just happened?"
A/N: Bonus points if you've figured out what mistakes Harry has been making since the beginning. It's pretty obvious I think...I actually really like writing badass TimeTravel!Harry, so I'll probably write a part 6 to this one. Sorry to all my readers for the long, things have been shit, and I've got what feels like no motivation at the moment. Give me some reviews, help me write, please!
Until next time guys and gals!