Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the Potter-verse. Everything you recognise belongs to the magnificent Ms Rowling. I do, however own any characters you don't recognise.
A/N: Ummm… hi… anybody still remember me? I'm ashamed to say I'd pretty much forgotten about this fic, so when I got a little reminder email about it, I decided to see what I had sitting round on my computer. And found I had a chapter sitting round I hadn't uploaded. So this is going up, but I don't know how long it will be before it gets updated again. Sorry!
(Oh, and HBP was shocking (and good)! And there were a few things in there that were similar to ideas I had for this story – like soul stone horcruxes; so I might use a few of those concepts, though this story is rather AU now.)
Fulfilling Prophecies
Chapter Fifteen
October 29th, 2000
Harry paused in his speech. Looking directly at Allie, rather than at the table, he frowned. "I don't want to go into details, I've dealt with all of this, it's behind me now, and I'd rather not burden you with all that happened."
Allie was about to protest, but Harry shook his head and Connie put a hand on the blonde girl's shoulder. She nodded reluctantly, and Harry continued.
"After Dudley and I were surrounded, things weren't looking too good and I knew it was going to be rather difficult to get us both out of there. So I didn't. I did my 'saving people thing', as Hermione called it, and punched through the anti-portkey wards activating my cousin's portkey at the same time. I couldn't do both at once, and there was no way I was leaving him there to be tortured and killed rather quickly. At least with me, Voldemort would want to gloat a while, and I'd have a chance to get out.
"Anyway, the power I used knocked me out; but I managed to see Dudley disappear to safety first, so I didn't fight to stay conscious. The next thing I knew, I was in a dungeon, wearing only my pants; no weapons, and no portkey necklace, so no chance of immediate escape. The next two months were a blur of pain, spells and very little in the way of food. The only reason they hadn't killed me was Voldemort had the strange idea that he could transfer my power – which in its raw form was almost equal to his – to him. I got to be a guinea pig for some new and some ancient spells; none of which worked, thankfully." Looking up briefly, Harry saw a look of shock on Allie's face. She could never have guessed he had gone through anything like this, and it was incredible to her that he was still here; and sane. "I managed to escape when one of Voldemort's spells backfired and left me with a short burst of magical power. I escaped in a similar way to how I got Dudley out. I punched out the wards preventing apparition, and apparated myself to the only safe place I could picture clearly – the Burrow."
Calming down, Harry sighed. "I was very weak. After two months of constant strain on both my magic and my body I wasn't able to do anything much at all. So I was sent back to Privet Drive early, and my Aunt looked after me. I suppose she was grateful that I saved her 'baby boy', so she took good care of me; it was either that or the constant visits from Order members and my friends. I grew closer to my aunt, and more tolerant of my uncle; helped by the fact that they were doing the same towards me. Dudley blamed me for what happened, even though I went in and rescued him. I think he had been having nightmares, and couldn't cope. He was away at his school most of the time, however, so I didn't see him very much." Dudley and Harry had stayed away from each other as much as they could after that; Harry also thought his large cousin was a little jealous of the fact that his parents had to pay attention to Harry, but he never said anything about that.
"I missed my exams that year, but because of my more than adequate progress through the year I was allowed to progress in all my subjects, and I started my seventh year at Hogwarts at full strength. That year was a constant battle. I didn't take part in most of it, but when I did fight, I saw so many people die or get injured. Most of the DA, which I had been officially running that year, wanted to fight; and after we graduated there were a few of us that stayed on at the castle to assist the teachers and fight if we were needed." Harry swallowed a lump in his throat; he knew what came next in his story, and there was no way he wanted to talk about it.
"That summer was hell. The war was waging its toll on everything, and everyone. And just after the school year began Voldemort attacked Hogsmeade with all he had. I think most people lost someone close to them in that battle. Although we were lucky that so few people actually died. Though I find it hard to see how, given who was lost." A glance at Connie showed tears streaming down her cheeks silently, and Harry brushed his own damp cheek harshly as he sniffed away his tears.
Allie looked to have figured out what was going on, and she put one arm around Connie, and placed her free hand on Harry's knee as he spoke again. "Hermione died at the Battle of Hogsmeade, along with fifty other witches and wizards on our side. But we killed almost two hundred of Voldemort's supporters, and drove him away once again." Harry once again tried to forget exactly how Hermione had died; the terrible choice he had been faced with, and the decision he had lived with since.
He said nothing more about that battle and Hermione's death, and continued on, telling the two girls about how Ron had abandoned him, and how on October 30th he had felt Voldemort coming onto the school grounds. Skipping much of the detail of the final battle, Harry told them briefly how he had mortally wounded Voldemort with Gryffindor's sword, and then how he and Dumbledore had trapped the Dark Lord's soul into the stone.
"After I woke from a three month long magical coma, I left the wizarding world and came here. The rest, you know." A silence descended, and Harry filled the awkward moment by getting up to refill everyone's drinks.
It was Connie, not Allie, who broke the silence. She sat on the edge of the sofa clutching her glass of bourbon tightly with both hands; a lifeline to the here and now, rather than the back then and back there where everything bad had happened.
"How did she die Harry? Nobody ever told me." Her voice seemed small, but it was asking the big question that he didn't want to answer. Very few people had known what had happened, except that Harry had come back once again alive, as had Dumbledore, but Hermione had not. And it was Harry's fault.
Harry's grip on his own glass tightened as he struggled to stay calm. "You know Pettigrew owed me a life debt, right? Well, at one stage during the battle after Voldemort had left, I found myself separated from the main battle, with Hermione and Dumbledore by my side. Something happened, I'm not sure what, an explosion of some sort, but Dumbledore collapsed and a Death Eater had a wand pointed at his head. I remember frantically trying to figure out what was going on, and then I saw Hermione struggling against the grip of another Death Eater who had their wand jabbing into her neck."
Another deep breath and another sip of his drink steadied him enough to keep going. "I didn't know what to do, I couldn't get rid of both Death Eaters in time to save them both, and they knew it as well as I did. Then Pettigrew showed himself.
"He knew he still owed me a life debt, and he wanted to be rid of it. So he told me he would spare one of them, and me. He had the authority over those two Death Eaters, and I knew he would do as he said because he gave his word as a wizard that he would do this to repay the debt.
"But I had to choose who would live; who would die. There was Dumbledore; he was the most powerful wizard alive, he brought unity and hope to the light side, he was the only one with the power to help me defeat Voldemort and bring peace back to the wizarding world. Hermione, my best friend, and the closest thing I had to a sister, the smartest witch of our year at school; and at the end of it all, expendable. She understood. She looked at me and gave me a small smile, nodded her head as far as the wand at her throat would allow; and I knew it was the right choice, but it was also the hardest choice.
"Pettigrew kept his word. He left me with Dumbledore to make it back to safety. He even said he would 'generously' leave me her body." Harry squeezed his eyes tightly closed, seeing her in his mind even now. Her eyes open, accepting of her fate, no mark on her. "I brought them both up to the castle, and for a moment everyone thought that they were both dead. It was when I saw the relief, the joy almost, on their faces when they realised their leader was still alive and it was only Hermione who was dead. That proved to me that I had made the right choice. But I couldn't deal with it; Ron couldn't either, and I don't blame him for how he acted.
"No matter what anyone told me, I know it's my fault she died. I may have accepted it, the guilt and the grief, but I still know that it's my fault." Harry was almost whispering; his eyes still closed so he wouldn't have to see his friends' faces.
A touch to his cheek brought his eyes open, and he found himself looking into Connie's forgiving face. Her eyes were still glistening with tears, but she didn't look as sad as she had. "Oh, Harry. Thank you for telling me. Thank you for being there for her." She drew him into a hug, "she would write to me telling me about you. How much you meant to her, how she would die for you if it came to it. She knew what it meant being Harry Potter's friend in the middle of the war, and she accepted all the dangers that came with it. Something she said to me once about you was that it was your ability to feel pain for others that made you such an amazing person. I never understood, she didn't expect me to though, she said I'd have to meet you to understand." Pulling back slowly, she looked him in the eyes again. "I understand now, Harry. You feel the pain for everyone around you, even if they don't feel it themselves. Hermione wouldn't have felt any pain in the way she died. I can honestly tell you she would think it a good death to have died for her side in the war, and for you. She would never have blamed you, nor would she have wanted you to blame yourself; so don't. Forgive yourself, for her."
Staring at her with wide-eyed disbelief, Harry slowly found himself realising the girl in front of him knew Hermione well, knew what she was talking about. He nodded his head, for lack of any better way to express himself; and she smiled knowingly before sniffing gracefully and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Oh, I bet I look a mess after all that. You've lead such a tragic life, Harry, you've driven me to look like this!" Connie poked some gentle fun at the black-haired youth sitting heavily in his chair.
Allie came closer to them, and made a show of inspecting her friend before turning to Harry, "she's right, you know, you've done a spectacular job of making her look awful, in fact, I don't think I've ever seen anything look this awful!"
Connie lifted a hand to slap Allie on the back of the head, but was brought up short by a pillow in her face. Harry had managed to get two pillows and throw one into each of the girls' faces.
A squeak of indignation came from behind a purple and gold striped pillow, "Harry! How did you manage to do that so quickly?"
For the first time since Harry had begun speaking about his life, a smile appeared on his face, and he twirled his wand between his fingers. "Magic."
Harry's smirking statement was followed by the two pillows being whacked at him simultaneously. And that, of course, started a pillow fight of the two girls against Harry; which, armed with his wand, Harry won hands down.
Looking at the clock on the wall, Harry stood from where he sat between the two girls; "I should go, there's a lot that needs to be done, and not much time to do it in. I probably won't be around very much over the next few days; the most you'll see of me will likely be a few minutes at a time." The girls nodded, and Harry went to his room to collect a few things to take back to Hogwarts with him. When he came back out again, Allie and Connie were standing by the door waiting to see him off.
Seeing them there brought a smile to his face, and not just because he was happy to see they cared about him. "Did you realise I wasn't planning on leaving by the front door?" He hadn't expected either of them to think of him travelling by apparating, but it was still amusing to see the confused expressions. He gave each of them a quick hug, and told them to take care, before he stepped back.
"This is how we travel in the wizarding world." There was a small pop and he was gone; leaving the two, shocked girls alone in the flat.
