Disclaimer:
Like everyone else on her, I don't own it.
CHAPTER 1
After growing up living with her Aunt and Uncle, Haley was used to all sorts of pain. Emotional. Physical. Hunger.
Her Uncle Vernon liked to make her suffer for her 'misdeeds'. Nothing she ever did was good enough for her to avoid his punishments. When she was younger her punishments consisted of her food privileges being revoked and locking her away in her cupboard, but as she aged it slowly got more sinister one step at a time.
Her Aunt Petunia, unbeknownst to Haley, had a jealousy for the girl and her deceased mother that rivaled none. Whenever given the chance she would do what she could to knock the girl down a few pegs. She could tell the girl had been smart and pretty, much to alike to Lily for her liking so Petunia tried to take those qualities from her. She threatened and punished the girl until she was worse that school then her own child. She would try to give her bad haircuts and forced her to wear Ickle Dudleykin's old clothes that were so large on her that the shirts could have passed as dresses.
Dudley was the worst though because he was never alone when he decided to have a go at his younger and much smaller cousin. He had had the same group of friends since preschool and over the years they became a gang of violent hooligans wreaking havoc on the defenseless victims of Private Drive, and Haley in particular.
All that being said, Haley believed herself to be fairly tolerant to pain but nothing can ever prepare you for the pain of the Cruciatus Curse. It wasn't her first time under this curse unfortunately. Haley had only known about the Wizarding World for roughly 5 years and had been hit with this particular curse on 3 different occasions.
The first occurred her first year at Hogwarts. It had been a great year as she got to spend most of it away from her relatives and was finally able to make friends. Ron and Hermione had turned into the best friends a girl could ask for and when they all learned that Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher Stone was going to be stolen so they went together to save it.
Along the way Haley had gotten separated from her friends though and ended up facing the would be thief, Professor Quirrell with the Dark wizard that murdered her parents on the back of his head, alone. Haley had stood her ground admirably for an eleven year old facing the Dark Lord Voldemort.
After so long though Quirrell had gotten testy and used the pain curse briefly to try to get her to tell him how to get the stone. Days later, when the whole mess was over and Haley had woken up in the hospital the experience was put in the back of her mind.
Luckily in her second and third years Haley was blessed to not have a repeat of the curse. Of course instead she was bitten by a Basilisk and attacked by a swarm of hundreds of dementors but beggars can't be choosers and all.
Haley only heard that spell again in class in her fourth year. Professor Moody, which had actually been a Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise, had taught them of the spell along with the two other Unforgivable Curses one day. Haley had thought to mention to her two best friends after class about her experience with the curse but then decided better of it as it had been years prior and was now irrelevant but before the end of the year she had once again been subjected to the curse.
She had been kidnapped along with a Hufflepuff boy she hadn't known well but had genuinely liked during the last task in a tournament that she did not want to be in since day one. By the end of that night the Hufflepuff, Cedric, had died, Voldemort had returned, and Haley had been tortured and nearly killed yet again before making her dramatic escape with Cedric's body in tow.
That night she had finally gotten a few much needed answers from her 'beloved' Headmaster. Haley had seen Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore as a grandfather figure since that end of her first year and those feelings stayed until that fateful night.
The trauma of the nights events made it hard to follow Dumbledore's story so she had him repeat the tale many times to get the whole story across. He hadn't wanted to tell her any of this at her age but with the turning point in the war it had become necessary for her own good. He had to explain the prophecies. Prophecies... as in more than one. Two to be exact.
Both had been made by Professor Sybill Trelawney in front of him. The second prophecy of the two had been the one that had been partially over heard by then Death Eater, Severus Snape.
'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord has arrived... child of those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month died...'
That had been the cursed portion that had been delivered to the Dark Lord. If only he had heard the rest...
'and the Dark Lord will mark them as his equal, but the child will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The last enemy defeated is death... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord has arrived.'
Many people on the light side had heard this prophecy. In fact the majority of the Order of the Phoenix (at least the trusted ones) had been told the contents.
It was the other prophecy that no one but Albus himself knew and he had finally decided that he needed to tell Haley. One way or another this war was edging closer to the end and he couldn't let it end with Haley being unaware of the inexcusable misdeed he had done.
(FLASHBACK)
Haley's mind had been whirling from the first prophecy the Headmaster had just told her. It wasn't everyday you were told without a doubt you must kill someone or die. And that that someone just so happened to be the most powerful Dark Wizard alive.
What else was there Headmaster?" she encouraged so she could just go down to the hospital wing to get some rest.
Albus looked at her calculatingly and yet regrettably at the same time. It wasn't a look Haley very well liked. "I am sorry... about all of this. It's a long story about a desperate old man that saw no other way at the time. If I knew what I know now I would have worked harder to find an alternative... but you cannot deny the results were astounding all the same." He then played the prophecy.
'The one with the power to end the darkness approaches... Not by choice, but through force... Through worlds and realities... They will be snatched from a world that has no use of them... Snatched to end the darkness... Only to return when the deed is done..."
She had the headmaster replay it twice more before confessing, "I don't get it."
Albus sighed, "This was the first Prophecy I heard. I was interviewing Sybill about teaching divination when it came... It was such a promising future. After ten, going on eleven, years of war I needed to make this Prophecy come true. I would have done anything have that future. For the greater good you see." He rubbed his tired eyes. "I'm not proud of it, Haley. It's the only time I used truly dark magic. I wasn't even sure I could do it due to my magic being so light, but I had to try."
Haley narrowed her eyes, "What did you do?"
Albus sighed once again before playing a section of the prophecy again.
"Not by choice, but through force... Through worlds and realities... They will be snatched from a world that has no use of them...'
"I realized this meant, what most people refer to as an alternate reality in the multiverse."
"What?" Haley didn't even feel bad about cutting him off.
"I apologize, let me explain," Haley mentally snorted thinking that the professor has probably never said those words before. "The multiverse is a collection of an infinite universes, all of which are different but many very similar. There are other worlds out there. Other versions of me and yourself."
Haley nodded still not entirely understanding but wanting him to move on.
"I knew our hero had to come from one that wasn't ours. I had learned of an ancient ritual to draw people forward. It's considered Dark because it's, without a better description, a form of kidnapping."
Haley's eyebrows vanished under her uneven messy black hair.
"You force a person from there home and they have no way back until they complete the objective of the summoner. I was desperate... and I figured that anyone that truly had the power to fight Tom must be some kind of war hero or top auror. Someone that would understand my reasons... But when a mere baby wrapped in only a small stitched blanket and wearing a little blue onesie arrived through a portal that appeared to be made of red lightning I was horrified. I went back to Sybill and that's when I was told the second prophecy."
"Y-you.. you can not possibly mean myself Headmaster? We all know where I came from! James and Lily are my parents! I am of this world! I don't get what you're trying to tell me."
The professors eyes were shining with unshed guilt-ridden tears in the moonlight spot on him from the window. "When I heard the second prophecy I came back and did a parentage spell on you. You are the daughter of a James Potter and Lily Evans Potter. You have there blood in your veins... but one of the differences of our two worlds is that in the Lily Potter I knew was not able to conceive a child."
Haley's horrified green eyes grew.
"They were part of a group that I founded called the Order of the Phoenix at the time. We were a secret group that came together to fight Voldemort. In a raid one day Lily had gotten hit in the abdomen by a unsparing cutting curse. She nearly lost her life but the Healers performed nothing short of a miracle and she pulled through but not without consequences. She would never have been able to carry a baby to term and so they removed her uterus as a precaution. Both Potters were devastated. Lily more than James. He was just glad that he still had her even if it meant his family line would end with them. They had been talking about adoption but then when I showed up with you... Their biological baby from another world. Well, they had been confused and very horrified to know that another James and Lily may be missing there child but since there was no way to send you back they took you in. They loved you as their own because in the end you were theirs."
Haley was horrified. And then was angry. Before Albus even knew what she was doing she had grabbed one of the many trinkets on his desk. The biggest one. She wasn't sure what it did if anything but with one quick movement it was flying through a shattering window.
"Why?! Why now? Why would tell me this after all this time?!"
Albus tried to look at the girl he had become far to fond of over the years in the eyes, "With Tom back we don't know when this war will end. I still believe that you can defeat him but not knowing when or where... It leaves to many possibilities open. If and when you carry out the prediction you will have completed the task that summoned you... If you fight Tom and kill him, the way you have always been meant to... you'll go back."
Haley's breath caught in her throat.
"You'll be forced into a world unfamiliar to you. I have suspicions that it cannot be dissimilar to our world. After all James and Lily were still a couple and your parents but that is truly the only information I have about the land you are from. Not much is known about other dimensions. The only noted occurrence of something like this happening in our world is the woman whom invented the ritual. In 1307 a woman by the name of Laura O'Brian came up with the ritual which was a combination of Runes and a blood sacrificial ritual, I used my own blood if that helps any, to summon a version of her passed husband. He was brought here on the condition of getting her pregnant so his line could go on in this world. As soon as she conceived he was swept back into his world straight from the bed. Haley I couldn't let that happen to you. If you were to fall into another world after finally defeating Tom without being warned... You would think you were going crazy. The thought of you being scared and alone and no one knowing who you are... I'm sorry, my dear girl. You may not believe me right now but I have grown to care about you to much to allow you to be swept away without a warning."
"I think I will be going to the hospital wing now, Headmaster," she replied emotionlessly standing and walking out not letting him have another word. In the coming days she would confide in Hermione and Ron (and many months later Luna, Neville, Ginny, and the twins) , the former researching true prophecies and the multiverse with her and the latter distracting her when it would become overwhelming.
(PRESENT)
The final time Haley had been put under the Cruciatus Curse was that very moment. They were in the ministry. Haley had been lured there along with Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna, and Ginny by a false vision of the Dark Lord torturing her only family, her godfather, Sirius Black.
It, of course, had been a trap. Haley realized that when she saw the prophecy orb that the vision led her to. She knew that Tom had heard part of it and probably wanted to hear the rest. So Haley refused to pick it up knowing from Hermione's research that only those the prophecy was about could grab it. Well, the Death Eater that had been in hiding ready to pounce didn't like that. Lucius, Bellatrix, and many other masked men had circled the group of students.
They fought well for their age thanks to Haley training them. Ginny had wanted to call their defense lessons 'Dumbledore's Army' but with Haley's feelings toward the old man recently she decided it would simply be 'Defense Army'. D.A. for short.
By the time back-up had arrived they had yet to have any casualties but they were running a bit raged. Haley was only somewhat aware of the blood that raced down her cheek to stain the sweater that she had borrowed from Hermione before coming. The Order of the Phoenix had arrived and was soon followed by the Aurors that had been summoned by the tripping of the wards when an unforgivable was first used within the building.
Two hours in and it was a full out war within the ministry. The wards had fallen allowing more and more Death Eaters to apparate in. As word got out however, ministry employees and light leaning civilians also joined the battle to help.
Haley just wanted it to end. So many people had already died that night. Mad-Eye had been ganged up on by the Lestrange brothers as revenge in his part of their imprisonment. He held his ground and died as the soldier he always was.
Amos Diggory felt no regret when he took down Peter Pettigrew once and for all. He believed it justice for Cedric. But in his moment of triumph he didn't notice the green curse sent his way from none other than Lucius Malfoy.
Haley had seen and tried to intervene but was to late to save him.
However she was right on time to stop him when his attention turned onto a stumbling Luna. He turned his wand on her and she after all these years Haley finally claimed what she will forever believe to be her first kill. Quirrell didn't count as it was more Voldemort's fault and her part was an accident. Lucius though... He had been cocky and focused on Luna. She had merely levitated a chuck of debris over him wandlessly. He hadn't even known the large stone was there until he was squished under it like a swatted bug.
Sirius collected the two girls when he saw the event and had been trying to get them along with the other students to the main hall so they could floo to safety at last when his time came. They were in the main hall, almost to freedom when he got hit by his cousin, Bellatrix. Haley had tried to go after her but the bitch was quickly taken down by none other than, Molly Weasley.
It wasn't until Bellatrix fell that the Dark Lord decided his presence was necessary.
As soon as he glided into the battlefield in a cloud of black smoke the fighting slowed. His followers waiting for an order still on guard ready to fight if asked or attacked. The light side all stood in awe and horror. Even in the middle of a giant battle many of the civilians and ministry employees hadn't truly believed that the Dark Lord had returned.
"Enough of this foolishness," he hissed.
"You shouldn't have come here, Tom," Dumbledore taunted making Haley roll her eyes.
"Silence, Dumbledore! I am not here for you!" his eyes scanned the hall landing on Haley almost immediately as if sensing her presence.
"How many more powerful and innocent witches and wizards must fall tonight? Only one more need die tonight. Potter! Come forward and face your destiny! Die by my wand and my forces will retreat for the evening."
Haley stepped forward much to the dismay of everyone that actually knew her. She spared Ron and Hermione one last glance, positive that this was how she would die.
"No one try to help."
Voldemort laughed, "Potter doesn't mean that! It's not how she works. Who will you use as a human shield today?"
Haley didn't go for the bait and stayed silent. Tom put up a ward around the two of the making sure no one could interrupt.
That was her only warning before the pain. This was different then every other time she had fought Tom. He had always been a showman. He liked to talk to his victims, to see there terror in there eyes before killing them. But this time he went straight to the pain instead.
Haley held back her scream but fell to her knees from the pain. Tom was very truly pissed this time. She was positive that it had never felt like this before. Haley wasn't sure if she would even make it to her death with her mind intact. Visions of Neville with his parents in St. Mungo's Hospital flashed briefly in her mind. She felt so bad for them. Neville had it far worse than her. Her parents were dead, but Neville had to see his all the time and still not have them.
Haley's thoughts turned from just Neville to all her friends and how much she loved them. Saving Luna only ten minutes prior from Lucius' grasp. Ginny laying on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets and how she would have happily sacrificed herself there for her. Ron being knocked down in the giant chess game in there first year. Hermione almost getting her head taken off by a mountain troll club. Using her body to shield Sirius from the dementors when her patronus failed the first time. Sirius... Sirius was dead. She couldn't let the others join him.
Thinking of the people she had grown to love in this world Haley found the power to get back to her feet while the curse continued.
Tom released the curse in surprise and look briefly in those AK green eyes knowing the spell he needed to do next.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Haley's weak arm raised her wand when she heard the first syllable and shouted her own, "Expelliarmus!"
The familiar sight of the spell colliding appeared but it was a little different this time. As Haley continued to think of everyone she cared about in this world and how she wanted nothing more than to protect them her light grew brighter and brighter nearly blinding the spectators and most importantly, Voldemort himself. He closed his blood red eyes when the white light of pure love became to much but that did very little as the light shone through his pale white eyelids. Blinded his spell faltered. It was only half a second of weakness but it was enough.
Rather than just repelling Voldemort's spell, as Haley had intended when using the Disarming Charm, it seemed to absorb it.
Haley's arm shook as her wand seemed to somehow combine two spells at once. She pushed as much power into her wand as possible causing the ward that Tom had put up to fill with red and green lightning like beams too soar, trapped within the dome.
The dome ward burst and everyone in the hall attempted to dive for cover believing the light would escape. However after a moment they realized they light seemed to be retreating as if being absorbed. When the light was almost gone the spectators saw that it was being absorbed... into Haley. When the light vanished she seemed to glow momentarily in a red and green aura. At the end of the dramatic lightshow Haley stood there with her hair in an even bigger disaster than usual... and half the head was a dark red, not unlike her mothers... the other half was a vibrant green...
When it was deemed safe Albus was the first to stand and witness Tom's charred body falling lifelessly to the ground.
It looked so... unremarkable. Aside from the slightly blackened, almost like the light burned him a little, appearance his body look just as everyone else that had fallen to death in the battle had.
Everyone looked at Haley before they allowed themselves to rejoice. Aside from the unexplainable hair transformation Haley looked almost exactly as she did before the duel. She didn't have any more noticeable wounds or any burns like Voldemort's body but she looked tired. Like she could collapse at any second. Potter pocketed her wand, knowing her friends would have her back in her moment of weakness, and let her extremely heavy arms fall to her sides for a moment of rest.
There was immediately a roar of cheers and people were just about to rush to Haley's side but all celebrations of the Dark Lord's final fall were cut off when what at first look appeared to be a black hole from a muggle movie appeared just behind Haley.
Her eyes widened in horror as it slowly grew in size and a swirl of wind began to come for her. She quickly grabbed hold of the closest thing she could. The ministries famous fountain. She held onto it for dear life as sucking vortex grew in strength pulling her off her feet. Debris from the battle was being whirled around in the wind but no other people where getting dragged towards the portal.
Over the wind she heard her Headmaster shout, "It's time, my dear. Your job has been complete!"
She shook her head and looked to wear her friends were rushing toward her. Ron tried to grab hold of her to keep her there but was immediately stung by a red bolt that popped out from the vortex making him jump back.
Hermione looked at Luna and yelled over the wind, "Did you finish it?"
She hadn't even finished the question when Luna pulled something out of her pocket and looped it around Haley's neck careful not to actually touch her not wanting the same reaction Ron had gotten.
Haley looked down quickly at the small sack that was placed around her neck, hand slipping slightly. "What..?"
"Luna made it. Its got extension charms. In it is everything I could think that you may need if you were pulled away. Money, potions, books, your cloak, even your photos and the map so you don't forget us..."
Haley felt ready to cry.
"You made me a better wizard, Haley. I'll never forget that," Neville told her quickly.
"You saved my life. I've never been able to pay you back for that," Ginny added.
"I can't even imagine never seeing you again, Haley. Bloody hell! You're my best friend!" Ron breathed holding back tears.
"Take care of yourself, Haley. We don't know if anything is the same in your world. Please, study so you know what the same and what different," Hermione said before giving into her tears, "You're the best friend I could have ever had. I love you so much!"
"It's time," Luna said solemnly. "I'll miss you, Haley. We may have only met this year but I've never had a person care about me the way you do. Please don't forget me. I know I won't forget you."
Haley briefly looked at the order members collected together in the distance. Remus, Tonks, Fleur, all the Weasleys, Mad-Eye, McGonagall, even Dumbledore.
"I'll miss you all."
And she finally gave in to her fatigue and let go of the stone fountain immediately clutching her new pouch necklace in one had and her pocketed wand in the other, not willing to lose either in the portal.
