Chapter Ten: Problems Resolved
The silence in the room was such that you could have heard a pin drop. Harry blinked in shock before saying, "Would you mind repeating that Headmaster, I could have sworn that you said that this current Dark Lord was my son but that can't be true."
"Why can't it be true Harry?" Dumbledore asked calmly. A cold look from Harry prompted the old wizard to say, "Sorry, Knight Potter."
Harry breathed out, seeking calm and serenity before answering. "It can't be true because I didn't have any interest in girls in that way until sixth year and even then I was only just figuring out my feelings for Ginny. Add that to the fact that I was taken to Azkaban a few months later and you have the impossible fact of me fathering a child while I was locked up in prison, half insane. Do you have an answer for me?"
Tonks coughed uncomfortably, drawing Harry's attention to her. The Metamorphmagus was rapidly cycling through various hair colours which was a sign of nervousness but she answered the question in a soft voice.
"Harry, it was the Ministry's fault really. When you were falsely accused and sent to Azkaban, Fudge demanded to know why you were so special. Dumbledore told him the prophecy and the idiot got it into his head that we needed a back up."
"What did he do?" Harry asked calmly, but the Jedi recognized his tone as one that said, "I'm getting impatient." Tonks seemed to recognize it too because she hurried on with the explanation.
"He decided that as you'd gone Dark, we needed a person capable of standing up to Voldemort, and there needed to be a Potter that was capable of carrying on the family name. Who better to do that than your child? So, he went to Azkaban, along with a Mediwizard and, well, collected a sample of your sperm."
Harry coughed a bit uncomfortably and said, "OK so basically they stole my DNA. What next. Dare I ask who the mother was?"
"Me" Tonks answered. Harry nodded. "I assume they wanted the child to be a metamorphmagus as well as having a combination of my power and yours" he mused. Seeing Tonks shake her head he frowned.
"Have I got something wrong?" he asked. Tonks nodded.
"I wasn't much more than an incubator Harry. I may have carried the child but genetically he's identical to you. He's not so much your son as he is your clone. The only things he's missing are the scar and the conscience."
"What do you mean he's missing a conscience?" Mace broke in, seeing that Harry was nearing information overload. Tonks looked at him and then responded, "Because he was trained to kill Death Eaters and Dark Lords without a shred of remorse for doing so."
Harry spoke up again, his expression and tone of voice neutral. "So basically the Ministry created a living, breathing weapon that was totally loyal to them. Is he what I was supposed to be?"
Dumbledore, who had been quiet while the explanation was given broke in with, "No Harry he's not. The ministry made a grievous error with him, they underestimated the amount of anger he held towards them. One night he broke out of his rooms, and killed all his trainers, along with Fudge. This was a year or so after you left."
"So he'd be about 15 or 16 now" Harry mused. Snape shook his head and replied, "No, in order to properly train him, the Ministry fed him a modified aging potion, one that would make his mind the same age as his body. He's around 20 now."
"What does he look like?" came the question from Anakin. Dumbledore smiled sadly and waved his wand, creating a holographic image like he'd done with the image of Tom Riddle. The image this time was of a tall young man with longish black hair pulled back loosely so it didn't hang around his face. His eyes were green, the same as Harry's and he held himself in a confident stance. There the similarities ended. Looking into the image's eyes, Anakin could see that they radiated coldness and anger the way that Harry's radiated warmth and love. The Padawan shivered and looked from the image, to his master and back, seeing the differences very clearly.
The other Jedi were also examining the image, and once they'd completed their inspection Qui-Gon asked, "What is his fighting style like?"
"Brutal" Kingsley Shacklebolt answered immediately. "He went through our best Aurors and Unspeakables in seconds, and his followers are even more ruthless. There is no one in the magical community that is powerful enough to stop him, except Dumbledore, or Harry. That's why we're so glad to have you here Harry. We really do need your help, and that of your friends."
Harry nodded. "I'll need their help too, I'm not about to take on, what's his name and all his followers by myself. What exactly is their purpose anyway?"
"They're a group of fanatics who hate the Dark Arts the way that some purebloods hated muggleborns. Your clone, who has called himself Wraith by the way, knows the Dark Arts but only uses them when he has to. He killed his trainers because they pushed him too far and he used a mix of muggle martial arts and low level spells such as Reducto and Accio to kill them, by blasting them to pieces or summoning various vital organs such as their hearts or brains, and apparently even their lungs."
"What kind of Dark Lord doesn't use the Dark Arts?" Harry queried in disbelief. Draco who had been quiet up till now snorted and muttered, "One that isn't so much a Dark Lord as one that has been labeled that because the public doesn't know what else to call him. I've seen him; it's like looking at a mirror image of you except for the fact that you wouldn't kill a Dark wizard by disemboweling him and then ripping his throat out like Wraith did. The only thing that's saving me and Severus from him is the fact that we don't leave Hogwarts except under a guard of Order members. Most times Dumbledore comes along himself."
"I'm fairly certain that the two of you are good duelists in your own right. Why don't you take him on?" Obi-Wan enquired. Snape snorted.
"I saw a Pensieve recording of the night he broke out. One survivor gave it to us before he died of his wounds. None of us can match him, except maybe Potter and you lot."
"Let's see it then" Harry said quietly. Snape raised an eyebrow but before he could say anything, Molly Weasley who had been among the Order members butted in.
"Are you sure the children should see it" she said. Harry gritted his teeth and inwardly smirked as he heard a faint growl from Anakin's direction. A slightly less faint growl came from Syra, along with a hissed, "Quiet" from Obi-Wan.
Let me handle this Padawan he said to Anakin through their bond. He felt an acknowledgement of the request but along with it came a sense of annoyance and disbelief. Harry turned to face the Weasley matriarch.
"Yes they should see it Molly. They might be young but both have gone on dangerous missions before, and they need to know what they're up against. No good will come of them being kept in the dark."
As Molly opened her mouth again, Obi-Wan broke in. "Also, who are you to decide what OUR Padawans will and won't see? You have no authority to order them around, nor any right to tell us what to do regarding them. Kindly keep your opinions to yourself until asked for them."
Molly flushed with embarrassment and anger but seeing the warning look in the eyes of not only Harry but also the other Jedi as well as her own family, she decided to shut up. Snape looked round and saw that no one had moved. Shrugging, the former spy retrieved the memory from his robe, where it was held in a clear bottle that had an Unbreakable charm on it. He poured it into Harry's Pensieve, which the Jedi had wordlessly pushed forward, and then tapped the Pensieve with his wand.
The memory started playing in movie projector style above the bowl. It was quiet for a few seconds and then the screaming started. Three Aurors and two Unspeakables retreated into the room, firing curses at an unseen attacker. As they retreated further, Wraith strode into the room, deflecting the curses with ease as well as casting several himself. One Auror tried to tackle the young wizard only to find his target had spun out of the way. The next thing he knew was the crushing impact of a punch to his throat. He dropped to the floor, dead.
Seeing their colleague die spurred the others to new heights, and they started using darker curses, even the Unforgivables. Wraith dodged, deflected and attacked back, going through his remaining opponents with ease. After the remaining Aurors and Unspeakables were dead, Wraith calmly walked out the door, not seeing the lone survivor, although he would soon die anyway. Screaming from further from up the hallway announced more deaths as the survivor staggered up the hallway after Wraith.
Darkness came quickly as the survivor lost consciousness but not before saying to Kingsley, "Stop Wraith…all costs."
The memory ended and Snape took it back. There was a brief silence and then Syra broke it. The Padawan was looking shaken and remarked a bit unsteadily, "Well; now I know why I've never wanted to piss Knight Potter off."
There were a few brief chuckles and then Harry replied, "I wouldn't do that to anyone Padawan, you're quite safe. I will admit though, that I want as much help as possible when I kill him."
"You're actually going to kill him?" Moody questioned. Harry gave a short nod.
"Yes. I can't let him continue to go round killing people like this. He's totally out of control, plus as long as he's alive anyone that he deems to be Dark is in danger, no matter if they're into Dark Arts or not."
He rolled his head from side to side, releasing the built up tension in his neck muscles before continuing, "He's lost sight of the fundamental nature of the world. In his quest to destroy anything "dark", he's forgotten that in order to have light, one must have dark as well. He's destroying the balance of magic which will throw the magical world into chaos. Therefore, he needs to be stopped."
"You're not going to try and redeem him?" Dumbledore asked. Harry turned round, a hint of disbelief in his eyes. Before he could answer, Qui-Gon broke in. "Redeem him? He thinks he's doing the right thing therefore anyone attempting to "redeem" him will be met with scorn and more than likely will end up dead. None of us are prepared to take that risk."
Dumbledore sighed and then asked, "How are you going to go about it?"
Harry met his eyes and then asked. "What is his one goal, now that Voldemort is dead?"
"Killing you. Fudge told him that you were worse than Voldemort, and Wraith doesn't care about things like Ministry pardons."
Harry waited until it was clear that Dumbledore wasn't going to be saying anything else before asking, "Does he have the ability to speak Parseltongue?"
"No he doesn't" came back the immediate response. Harry nodded satisfied.
"In that case, let's give him what he wants. He can come to Hogwarts, ostensibly to meet, and kill, me, only to be met with all of us. He'll try and attack me only but not even he is good enough to stand against 6 Jedi, 2 of whom are Jedi Masters."
"You think all of you are going to beat him?" Snape asked skeptically. Harry nodded and replied firmly, "Yes I do. If he is truly my clone then I have an advantage."
"Er Harry, he can do wandless magic" Ron put in. He had only just made up with Harry; he didn't want to lose his best mate again. Harry smirked in his direction before smoothly levitating Ron into the air and putting him back down again.
"So can I" he said coolly. Ron flushed as he realized that Harry wasn't going to be helpless against Wraith. Regaining self control he smirked back at Harry and then said, "Kick his butt mate."
Smiling somewhat coldly Harry replied, "I intend to." He was about to continue when a ring on Dumbledore's finger began blinking urgently.
"What is it?" Harry asked, interested. Dumbledore looked at him. "When Wraith escaped I secretly put wards around the Dursley home, in case he tried to attack them. He knows about your childhood, as he's done a lot of research on you, and he might be trying to exact a bit of payback for what they did to you."
"From what we know, we probably should leave him to it", Mace growled. Harry shook his head. "No Master, he'll kill them. I won't leave them to that fate, no matter how much I may dislike them. I can't let my mother's sister die, thinking that I killed them."
Turning to look at Dumbledore he asked, "Can you create a portkey to the Dursleys?" Dumbledore nodded and then held out a piece of rope a few seconds later. Harry, Mace, Dumbledore, and surprisingly Snape and Draco grabbed hold of it. The next instant they were in Privet Drive and Harry was setting off towards Number Four at a half run.
Bursting in the door they heard loud voices coming from the living room. Harry quietly led the group to the door, and looked inside. As they were waiting, Mace and Anakin couldn't help but cast glances towards the cupboard under the stairs and then looking back at Harry. Harry followed their gazes and his jaw clenched at the sight of the cupboard, but he said nothing.
Harry waited a moment longer and then acted. Throwing open the door he walked into the room, seeing Vernon and Petunia, who were by now grey-haired but still just as vindictive as ever, sitting on the couch, while Dudley who was as overweight and stupid as ever was lying on the floor, trembling. The fourth person in the room turned upon hearing the intrusion. Green eyes met green as Harry and Wraith met for the first time.
"Ah, Harry Potter. I've been looking forward to meeting you. And you've brought the other last people on my list with you. How appropriate. Do you want to do the honors?"
"I'm not going to kill my relatives Wraith and if you had any decency in you at all you wouldn't either" Harry said steadily, keeping his eyes locked on those of his clone. It was unnerving to stare into eyes that were identical to his but he kept calm. Wraith tensed slightly and then attacked him. Harry was ready though, and sidestepped, catching Wraith and throwing him into a wall. Wraith got up, dazed and Harry took that moment to hiss at the Dursleys, "Run. I'll keep him distracted, get out of here."
The Dursleys looked at him but grudgingly obeyed. They realized that Harry was the best equipped to deal with the "freak" that had interrupted their lives, even if they didn't like it. Wraith looked at the five people standing in front of him and smirked. He held out a hand and began closing it into a fist. Dumbledore looked confused but the Jedi were on high alert. Suddenly Snape and Draco began choking, trying to breathe round the invisible hand that was crushing their throats. Harry half-closed his eyes and the two former Dark wizards felt a larger power rip the hands off their throats. As they doubled over, drawing in deep breaths, they felt, more than saw, Harry throwing Wraith across the room with a flick of his wrist.
Wraith snarled and then said, "We can't duel here properly Potter, but I will kill you someday. Name the time and place."
Harry raised an eyebrow before turning slightly to Dumbledore. Dumbledore understood the unspoken question and nodded. Harry turned back to Wraith and replied, "Very well. Hogwarts, tomorrow. Come alone."
"I'm afraid I can't do that. I'll come to Hogwarts but my followers will fight yours while you and I decide who the better of the two of us is."
Harry smirked. "Haven't you heard Wraith? No matter how good a copy is, it is never as good as the original. See you at Hogwarts."
He turned to leave, and saw that Mace was looking at the Dursleys, with a distinctly unfriendly look in his eyes. "Master?" Harry queried. Mace looked at him. "You go Harry; I need to have a "chat" with your relatives." Harry closed his eyes as he mentally groaned.
'Oh dear they're in for it now' he thought. Opening his eyes he said, "OK Master but please remember that they're to be left alive." Mace looked a bit offended. "I know that Harry, I just want to tell them what I think of their treatment of you."
Dumbledore created another portkey and gave it to Mace along with the activation phrase to use once he was finished. Wraith had already left so Harry, Dumbledore, Snape and Draco grabbed hold of it and were in the Jedi suite a few moments later.
"Well, what happened?" Anakin demanded. Harry raised an eyebrow and Anakin fell silent. "We stopped his attack on the Dursleys. He had probably just got there so he hadn't done much at all. He's coming here tomorrow to supposedly kill me, and he'll be bringing his followers to engage you so that he can fight me alone. Anyone up to creating a strategy for dealing with this?"
"Where's Mace?" Qui-Gon asked. Harry smiled humorlessly. "He's having a word with the Dursleys regarding their treatment of me when I lived with them. He'll be back when he's finished."
"Er, they are going to be alive at the end of it aren't they?" Hikari broke in. Harry smirked. "Yes they will be. How are the Longbottoms?"
Hikari smiled. "They're fine. I was able to bring them back, and they and Neville have been catching up on all the things they've missed which is why Neville hasn't been here much recently."
Harry nodded. "That's brilliant news. I'm sure Neville is grateful for what you did for them. Now, shall we do some strategizing?"
With the Order members crowded round, the strategy session lasted well into dinner time, interrupted when one of the house elves brought the food to them. The end result of the strategy session was that the Order and the Jedi would form a circle round Harry and Wraith, killing and/or capturing Wraith's followers while protecting Harry from them. Harry himself would fight, and then kill Wraith, thus ending the threat to the wizarding world. With that settled, everyone decided to have an early night as no one knew what time Wraith would be arriving the next day.
As luck would have it, Wraith arrived at dawn. Harry felt his presence at the gates and leapt into action. Within minutes, everyone was awake and waiting out on the grounds, cursing the fact that they had to fight before breakfast.
"Dawn is such an overused time to attack" Ron grumbled. Harry smirked at him before answering, "Yes but it puts us at a disadvantage because he's got the sun behind him. Are the traps in position?"
"Yes mate, they were set up before Fred and George went to bed last night. Just say the word and we'll set them off" Ron replied, focused on the enemy in front of them.
"Be careful Harry" McGonagall said quietly. Harry looked at her and smiled. "I'm always careful Minerva" he replied softly. Looking back at Wraith he continued, "There will be only one winner in this battle and I intend for it to be me."
The two sides stood facing each other. Wraith's followers were dressed in black, with a phoenix on the back. Harry smirked as he heard Dumbledore growl something about arrogant clones stealing ideas, and then settled his gaze on Wraith. Without meaning to, he began thinking about what a child between him and Ginny would look like and concluded that it might look like Wraith with the exception of the hair and eyes.
'And of course, they'd have a much nicer personality' he thought before firmly banishing that line of thought to the back of his mind. Looking at his friends and family, he murmured, "If you see any green light, duck immediately. There's only one curse that's green and that's the killing curse. If it hits you you die and I don't want that to happen so stay alert."
The Order of the Phoenix members nodded seriously as did the Jedi. With another murmured encouragement, Harry raised his voice,
"Let the battle begin" he called out. At once spells began flying from both sides. The Jedi spread out and advanced; deflecting spells left, right and centre, taking out several of the bad guys when they didn't move. Harry and Anakin were both wearing their dragon-hide armor under their robes, which helped with the odd spell that made it through their defences. Harry headed straight for Wraith noting peripherally that the Order members were fighting well. Snape and Draco were hanging back a bit, casting curses at any enemy they came across but for the most part providing defensive cover. When all of the enemy forces were within the gates, Harry tapped his throat with his wand and yelled, "Release!"
At the precise moment when he yelled that, Fred and George unleashed a barrage of WWW products. The attackers found themselves floundering in portable swamps, while being hit with exploding spell grenades and other things that made them turn into various animals and plants. Soon, all the Order had to do was fish the attackers out of the swamps and make sure they couldn't escape. They would be spending some time in Azkaban later on.
Once the rest of the attackers had been subdued, all eyes turned to Wraith and Harry. The two men, one wizard, one Jedi stood facing each other, motionless, waiting for the other to attack. Then, as if by some prearranged signal, they both attacked at the same time.
Wraith sent a variety of nasty curses Harry's way, designed to cruelly incapacitate the Jedi. Harry nimbly dodged them, before sending a few curses back towards Wraith. He deliberately kept the curses at a low level, wanting to draw Wraith in close. Wraith took the bait and attacked with knives and a sword. Harry drew his lightstaff, and changed the blades to the sword blades. Releasing one of the blades, he turned the fight into a fairly evenly matched swordfight. Wraith began to taunt Harry but his taunts fell on deaf ears.
"Hey Potter, your parents must be so disappointed in you, going Dark and all" he jeered. Harry shook his head. "Actually they're quite proud of me, it's you they'd be disappointed in" he replied evenly. Wraith shook his head, annoyed.
"You're weak. Love only brings pain, why do you rely on it?" he sneered. Harry laughed. "Have you been looking into necromancy by any chance because you sound an awful lot like Voldemort" he grinned.
He'd hit precisely the right button because Wraith screamed out, "I AM NOT VOLDEMORT!" before rushing straight at Harry. Harry jumped out of the way and brought his sword down, cutting deeply into Wraith's back. Wraith gasped in pain, before swinging round, blood flying wide from the gaping cut.
"You bastard" he hissed. Harry shook his head again. "My parents were married thank you very much" he replied. "Why don't you just give up, there's nothing else you can do. If you continue to fight, you'll die. I don't want to kill you but you'll give me no choice if you fight me any further."
Wraith snarled and then said, "Say goodbye to your precious apprentice" before swinging round. Anakin was caught in the open, and had no defence against the curse that was sent his way.
"Avada Kedavra" Wraith screamed. Harry watched in horror as the deadly curse sped towards his Padawan. The others on the Light side had ducked for cover and wouldn't get there fast enough. The rest of the Jedi were too far away and even a dragon-hide vest wouldn't protect Anakin from the deadly effects of the curse as it was aimed at his head.
With only one option open to him, Harry Apparated in front of Anakin and shoved him to the ground. The curse hit Harry seconds later and there was a cry of "HARRY!" from Ginny, Ron, Tonks, Kingsley, all the Jedi, and surprisingly from Draco as well.
Harry fell backwards, landing on his backside, his eyes wide in shock. Then, a deep golden aura surrounded him as the killing curse rebounded on its caster like it had so many years before. Wraith wasn't fast enough to dodge and the rebounded killing curse struck him in the chest. Wraith fell to the ground clearly dead; while Harry fell backwards as well, just unconscious. His sword slipped from his grasp and fell beside him as his eyes closed, the lightning bolt scar on his forehead ripped open and bleeding like it had on Halloween 1981.
Ginny raced over to Harry, checking him swiftly. With a choked sob she looked up and said, "I don't know how but he's alive. He should have died but he didn't. He needs to go up to the hospital wing though."
As Harry was once more carted off to the hospital wing Draco remarked in a tone filled with irony, "He's like a bloody phoenix. What the hell does someone have to do to kill him?
Author Note
Ok here is chapter ten. I'm not entirely satisfied with the second half of the chapter but after rewriting it half a dozen times I can't be bothered rewriting it again. So, here it is and please don't flame me for it if you don't like it. This will be the last update for this story for a while as my muse has left me totally for this one. It's like a car, the engine has broken down and needs to go in for repairs. In light of this expect more updates to DA than for this for a while. Sorry but that's the way it is and most of you seem to like DA anyway.
Padawan Lynne
