Harry Potter and the Scars of Time
By: Krystal Lily Potter
Chapter 25: The Traitors
Rating: AA (which means, around here, 14 and up)
Summary: Harry's last year at Hogwarts has finally come but that doesn't mean things will be any easier for him. After last year's horrifying events the school things that nothing worse could happen. They were all wrong. The prophecy resurfaces and is dangling in front of Harry, held up by the pain from the past, quite literally. As the world is slowly being morphed outside of the safety of Hogwarts the people inside it are finding out that they cannot hide for much longer and that time is as much their best friend now as it is their worst enemy. What is a person supposed to do when they know they have to face the most evil wizard in history and if they're killed then the rest of the world, magic and muggle is doomed?
Warning: There is a lot of fightinghere, some mentions of some things that might disturb some people and there is a fair amount of cussing too!
Heed this warning if you don't like death: there will be A LOT more deaths of characters you recognise from JKRs books and some original ones. If you thought I was cruel and brutal in the prequel to this then I don't know what you're going to think of me after reading this story.
Sequel to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
By the way the quote has nothing to do with this chapter…I just like it!
"Can a heart still break after its stopped beating?"
-Corpse Bride
Harry felt as if he was going to be sick. His stomach flipped over itself as his throat constricted and his fists clenched together so hard that his knuckles turned white.
"We trusted you Malfoy," he spat bitterly, "we trusted you to be our ally, to help us when we needed it! Not betray us!"
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer Potter," he said in the evil drawl Harry had believed was gone, "I knew all I needed was a sob story and a way to lure you in and I knew you'd accept me. You know you're just like old man Dumbledore, you forgive too easily, everyone that is, except for him of course. There we truly do remain allies, I'm sure you'd agree that Dumbledore is an old crazy coot."
Harry felt something stir inside of him that he hadn't felt since before the death of Sirius. He felt anger at someone who took a verbal jab at their headmaster. His emerald eyes narrowed and he said, "No, we're not allies! Dumbledore is the best thing that ever happened to this school, and no matter what I thought I KNOW all along he was doing something to help against this war! I was just too dense to realize that he might not actually need to tell me. I was too much like you: arrogant and self-centered."
The smirk on Malfoy's face disappeared and he said, "Arrogant am I? I could destroy you here and now."
"You're friends aren't here, neither are mine," Harry said in a taunting voice, "I say we finish this once and for all."
"You think you can beat me Potter?" he replied before yanking out his want and yelling, "Crucio!"
"Progeto!"
The curse smashed onto Harry's shield and rebounded on Malfoy, who yelled in pain and quickly stopped the curse. Harry watched as his shield came into view slightly before shattering and disappearing.
"Serpantsempera!"
A huge snake flew out of Malfoy's wand and headed to Harry who hissed, "Go away, this isn't your fight."
The snake stared at him for a moment then turned to Malfoy as if waiting for an order. When its creator said nothing it simply slithered away.
While Malfoy was distracted by this pathetic attempt to subdue Harry the other boy made his move. "Windaramus!" Harry yelled and a jet of powerful wind shot at Malfoy, knocking him backwards into the trees behind him.
Draco's grey eyes looked livid as he yelled, "Aquartum!" and a jet of water cause Harry to fly backwards and smash into the ground roughly. He winced as several rocks dug into his skin and blood escaped from his arms.
"You're pathetic Potter!" Malfoy yelled before raising his wand once again and yelling, "CRUCIO!"
This time Harry didn't have a chance to bloke the oncoming curse. He felt the blow of it rage through him as he started twitching on the ground in agony. Tears blinded his eyes but he didn't let Malfoy see this, he wanted to scream from pain but he didn't even make a sound of protest.
Harry wasn't quite sure exactly what happened next but all he knew was that Malfoy was on the ground, yelling in pain. Potter looked over and saw the tip of his wand glowing beside him in a blood red color, the same as Malfoy's. "Finite," he quickly said, feeling disgusted with himself for letting that happened.
But what had happened?
As far as he could tell his wand had randomly shot out the unforgivable curse. Something he had never heard of before.
Harry managed to push himself to his feet, ignoring the painful twitch his muscles made every once and awhile. Soon Malfoy too stood up, any traces of a smug smirk erased from his pale face.
"I never knew you had it in you Potter," Malfoy said, sounding slightly impressed, "I never knew you took a savage amount of pleasure from other's pain."
"I don't," Harry spat back, "but anger and hate can do just as much damage, despite what you believe."
The two young men stared at each other for a moment; anger and hate were the emotions of choice for Malfoy while a wary anger claimed Harry's features.
"Diffindo!"
"Flipendo!"
Both were spells that they had learned in their very first year at Hogwarts but both were effective at doing what they were supposed to do with ease. They crashed into one another and shot down towards the earth, causing a small explosion and dust to fly everywhere.
Harry choked as he breathed in some of the dust and doubled over, just in time to dodge the curse that Malfoy had blinding sent through the dust. His eyes watered slightly before warning bells went off in his head. He spun around in time to hear Malfoy yell, "Suffoco!"
He clutched his throat as he felt his windpipe squeeze tightly together. He tried to breathe in but was unable to and briefly allowed an amused thought to pass through his mind, "So this is how the people Darth Vader strangled felt."
Harry closed his eyes tightly before yelling in his mind, "Succendo!"
The ground under Malfoy's feat exploded with fire. He howled in pain and jumped out of the flames, breaking the spell that caused Harry so much torture. Harry gasped loudly as he finally was able to suck in a large breath of air.
Malfoy fell to the ground, hissing with pain as he glared at Harry. He raised his wand to curse him again but this time Potter beat him to the punch, "Expelliarmus!" Malfoy's wand went flying and he tumbled to the ground. With a deep gasp her struggled just to sit up and stared at Harry with a deep hate.
They glared at each other until footsteps were heard coming towards them. Looking around quickly Harry's heart sank a little at the sight of Severus Snape swooping into the scene like the giant bat he was. His soulless black eyes stared from Harry to Malfoy with a look of surprise, as if he couldn't believe that Harry Potter had survived a duel against his prize student.
"Professor!" Malfoy said suddenly, causing both Harry and Snape's attention to turn towards the blond boy, "Help me! We can destroy Potter together!"
Snape ignored him and turned to Harry, "Get up Potter!"
Harry pushed himself off the ground, his arms twitching in protest. Malfoy's face turned into a look of twisted rage as he yelled, "NO! You promised! You promised my mother to help me succeed! You took an Unbreakable Vow! You promised to help me destroy Potter and Dumbledore! You promised you lying bastard!"
"Shut your mouth Draco," Snape said dangerously, "the Dark Lord has no use for you. He never believed you could destroy Dumbledore…and he claimed Potter for himself so he knew you could not overcome him either!"
"But the Vow—"
"There was no vow made," the Potion's professor snipped, "Your mother was under the Imperius curse! She fulfilled her duty and the Dark Lord took care of her. You have fulfilled yours by weakening Potter."
Harry felt dread run through his mind suddenly and he knew what was going to happen. He knew, staring at the scene, that there was not one, but two traitors in their ranks all along, both acting as if they were on the side of light: Malfoy by being a buddy to Harry and Snape by pretending to betray the Dark Lord by helping Harry the summer before his sixth year.
"NO!" Harry yelled but it was too late. Snape uttered the last words that so many people ever heard and a bright green streak of light flew out of the end of his wand. Harry shielded his eyes and when he opened them again he found himself staring at the shocked, dead face of Draco Malfoy.
Albus Dumbledore never suspected such a terrible moment in history to rage over Hogwarts grounds. It was not the first time the school had seen bloodshed though, and would definitely not be the last. This simple fact did nothing to ease the old Headmaster's thoughts as he watched his students fall.
He fought with a grace one would be surprised to see of from such an old man but compared to his fighting style when he was younger Dumbledore began to slow. As he trapped a few of the Death Eaters around him his eyes wandered the grounds for only a moment, and much to his displeasure he could not see any sign of Harry Potter.
At that moment of realization his senses were at their height. As he continued to gracefully fight he tried searching for the young man he was looking for. He saw Professor Snape slip away from the crowd and knew by instinct that something was wrong…terribly wrong…
Professor Nickleson never thought she'd be in the situation she was in at that moment. Blood ran down the side of his face from a particularly nasty fall that she had taken while dodging the Killing Curse.
"Goddamn you stupid cowards!" she yelled as one person killed a first year that managed to get caught up in all the mess. Without any regret she killed the person who committed such an act of hatred.
She spun around just in time for a curse to fly past her side. Behind her Alyssa and Bellatrix still fought violently. She felt a wave of horror pass over her as she saw the blond haired woman stumble over a rock of all things and fell backwards on to the ground.
Alyssa struggled to get back up and a look of horror appeared over her face as Bellatrix shot a blinding, blood red curse towards her.
"Alyssa!" Nickleson cried out as the spell struck her companion in the chest. Alyssa fall onto her back again in slow motion before hitting the ground. Her face held a look of shocked horror glued onto it and her eyes were wide open, lifeless.
Bellatrix had heard Nickleson's cry and stared over at the young woman before advancing.
Nickleson's fist shook angrily as she said in a whisper, "That's right old hag, walk to your doom."
"I thought you couldn't go back to Voldemort," Harry said while keeping his distance from Snape. His wand was held firmly in his hand and a look of pure hatred was plastered over his face like nothing ever seen on him before. "I thought you were on our side!"
"You, Mr. Potter, expect me to be a fool and waste time explaining my story to you like they do in all your pathetic muggle shows? No it doesn't work that way in real life Potter," Snape said with his infamous sneer.
Harry's hand started to shake as he saw Snape twitch his wand and he yelled, "Expell-"
"No Potter," Snape said with a wave of his wand and the spell was gone in a flash.
"Pet-"
Snape shrugged that on coming spell off as well.
"Persona Fl—"
"NO POTTER!" Snape yelled as the spell was throwing out of the way, "Don't dare think I am ignorant to die by the same spell as you killed Pettigrew's sister with last year!"
Harry stared at him angrily and went to raise his wand again when another figure caught his eye. Snape noticed this and for a distracted moment looked over in the same direction as Potter and saw what he had.
Albus Dumbledore had finally appeared.
Hermione felt panic as she pushed a second year to the ground. There were several first, second and third years in the battle and she had no clue where they had come from. None had on school robes so she had no clue which house they were in but something told her that they were all from the same one.
She grabbed the arm of the third year she had just pushed down and dragged him to the side, out of the way. He fell to the ground and she knelt down beside him and said, "Why are you out here?"
"The Hufflepuff common room was attacked. Those of us who escaped had to go somewhere but the Death Eaters are all over the castle, they're searching for the other common rooms," the young boy explained.
A look of horror past over Hermione's face as she said, "Hide over there!" She watched as the little boy hid then she turned around and ran back towards the fight. She looked around until she found Remus. Ducking curses she ran beside him and said, "The Hufflepuff common room has been attacked. The students are all over the place now."
Remus shot a spell at a werewolf, quickly subduing it before turning to her and asking, "Where's Dumbledore?"
"I don't know, he disappeared earlier," she replied quickly.
"What about Harry?"
"I haven't seen him since we left him with Malfoy."
Remus glanced back at the castle, then at the oncoming creatures. He motioned to Sarah, who quickly joined them. "Sarah I need you to keep up the defenses here. I've got to get into the castle to help there."
"Alright, just be careful," Sarah whispered. Remus smiled and quickly kissed her before running towards the castle, followed closely by Hermione.
A light screen escaped Kaylee's mouth as she was pushed to the ground by a heavier body. A second later a bright green beam of light shot over them then the person rolled off. She looked over and saw that it was Ron who had pushed her to the ground.
"How is the fight looking over that way?" she asked him as they stood up and started fighting again.
"The creatures are pretty much all trapped away…all the giants that were here are subdued but every time we take down one of them about four Death Eaters show up in their place," Ron replied, his face turning a bright shade of red from stress.
"So in other words, not so good," she said before casting a shield charm over the two of them, blocking the flames that had been shot at them.
"Yeah but it gets worse. The Hufflepuff common room's been attacked, that's why there are some younger students out here. Remus, Hermione and a few others went inside so they could try to stop the Death Eaters from getting into the other common rooms," he informed her, "Sarah's in charge over there."
Kaylee was about to say something else when the ground underneath them started to shake and split open. She screamed and he quickly grabbed her arm and they ran.
Once they were safely away from the splitting ground (which quickly closed after several people fell down it) they ended up stumbling over the one thing Kaylee didn't want to.
Her eyes widened and she let out a scream as she moved away from it.
Ron looked around quickly and saw Nickleson and Bellatrix fighting and he quickly put two and two together. He looked over at Kaylee, who was in tears by now and quickly dragged her away from that spot but she couldn't take her eyes off of the body of her dead mother.
Albus Dumbledore's pale blue eyes had no twinkle to them, but for once Harry saw pure rage echoing in them as he stared from the body of Draco Malfoy, to the forms of Snape and Potter then back.
His attention turned to Harry and he said, "Get back."
Harry quickly complied and moved away from Snape, but he never lowered his wand nor let Snape leave his line of sight.
Snape on the other hand had his attention focused on Dumbledore with a look of hate plastered on his face. Dumbledore stared back at him with a betrayed rage before saying, "Why?"
"Why? Because I could! Despite what Bellatrix might say about her being the Dark Lord's most trusted servant it is I who holds that honor. Last year you thought it was Evelyn who was spying on the Half Bloods but no, she was simply a distraction to take all eyes off of me," Snape hissed, "Soon the Dark Lord will rule all and there is nothing you can do about it."
Harry was about to move forwards again when he felt his limbs freeze. Snape looked in his direction with surprise for a moment then turned to Dumbledore and said, "You thinking moving Potter somewhere else will stop this outcome? No Dumbledore, it's over, the dark Lord has won."
"I thought highly of you Severus, I see that I was wrong though," Dumbledore said with a sigh and raised his wand.
Harry wanted to yell out to Dumbledore, but he couldn't move, let alone make a sound. His eyes widened with horror as another Death Eater appeared from behind and yelled, "CRUCIO!"
For once Albus Dumbledore hadn't known. He hadn't seen the Death Eater appear nor had he expected to be hit in the back with such a terrible curse.
Harry would have been able to recover from the curse and get up to defend himself, but it seemed that age was not Dumbledore's friend anymore. When he stumbled to the ground in pain he did not get up, he stayed on his knees, his body twitching in pain.
"So ends the era of Albus Dumbledore, bowing in front of Severus Snape," Snape hissed before raising his wands and saying, "Avada Kedavra!"
He tried to yell but once again nothing came out as he watched the twinkle fade out of Dumbledore's eyes as his ancient body slumped to the ground, dead.
All the spells that were on him vanished and without a thought he shot the same spell that killed Evelyn the year before at the person who attacked Dumbledore. He roared with fury pain and ended up falling to the ground. Snape turned to him quickly then said, "I didn't think you had it in you Potter…to kill someone out of anger."
"I didn't know you were such a traitor," Harry hissed and before Snape could move the young man was literally on top of him, punching him over and over again as hard as he could.
Blood poured out of Snape's nose and eventually Harry relinquished his hold on the former Potions Professor before backing off. Snape was coughing on his own blood and Harry felt it inside of him that the man was dying.
"I hate you for this," Harry whispered before pointing his wand at Snape, "Consider this mercy." For the first time in his life Harry whispered the words 'Avada Kedavra' and Snape's body fell to the ground just like Dumbledore's had.
Author's Random Babbling
Several months and another choppy chapter later…yes I am back…again…except there is ONE little difference this time.
Harry Potter and the Scars of Time, yes all 29 chapters, is complete. Of course I won't be putting them all up at once as to hold the suspense longer.
So yes this will be updated again but remember, the more who review the faster it goes up! Ahhh I can't believe I finished it!
All I have to say is Yes we find out who Nickleson really is…in Chapter 27! LOL! So everyone get your last minute guesses in!
We'll I won't leave you with anymore boring author's notes and I'll be replying to everyone who reviews in the next chapter! PROMISE!
ONCE AGAIN SORRY FOR THE SUPER LONG WAIT! But the story is complete! So it will all be up soon!
Krystal Lily Potter