Chapter 3 : Back in Time
I do not own Harry Potter
Author's Notes :
A couple of plot twists in this chapter, hope you guys like it!
A divergence from canon - so here, once Harry finds the diary, he hangs onto it for a little bit longer than in the books/movies. He writes in it for long periods of time, sympathizing with Tom considering their similarities. Once Riddle gets everything out of him, he has Ginny steal it back, on whom he still maintains a hold.
Small change to chapter 2 - Mrs. Weasley is replaced by Andromeda Tonks (it'll make more sense why later)
I'll hang on to the 'undecided' pairing for one last chapter, my apologies for the wait.
"I said I'm not going back!" yelled Harry, addressing the rest of the people - Dumbledore, Snape, Remus, McGonagall and Sirius with wide eyes and shaky hands.
"Harry, must be go over this every year, my boy? I understand things are... difficult between you and the Dur-"
"Difficult?! The only reason they leave me alone now is that they're afraid I'll snap and kill them!"
"If you are finished with your whining Potter, the Headmaster has other important business to attend to" hissed Snape
"You stay out of it, Snivelly!"
"Sirius, please refrain from creating a scene here. This is my office, not a schoolboy's yard" Albus warned sternly
"ME?! What about-"
"Sirius" spoke up Lupin, his face scrunched up as if thinking of the best way to say what he wanted "...your care for Harry is noted... and appreciated. BUT, I'm, afraid we have no choice"
"Are you serious Professor?! What about if I step out of the house?! No protections there!" objected Harry
"A simple remedy that you don't leave the house unless absolutely necessary. Even for a dunce like you, this shouldn't be too hard to think of, Potter" drawled Snape, not missing his chance.
Sirius opened his mouth in protest, but his incensed godson beat him to it "You really are a jerk Snivellus! No wonder you got bullied all the time!"
"You disrespectful little-"
"Enough!" shouted Dumbledore "More discussion on the matter is pointless. You will go back to your relatives Harry. The circumstance is unfortunate, but it is imperative you go back. In time you will see the wisdom of my actions" declared Dumbledore with a tone of finality
"The circumstance is unfortunate" repeated Harry "You blind, arrogant old - " he spoke in a low voice, laced with venom
"Mr Potter! You are still speaking to your Headmaster!" chided a revulsed McGonagall
"Albus, Grimmauld Place is sufficiently equipped-" started Sirius, but was once again interceded by his old friend
"-with enough traps and curses to kill him before Voldemort. And it is no condition for a child to live in-"
"But the Dursleys are, huh?! A place where I work like a servant, yet still hear how much of a burden I am and a place where I still have to STEAL food because I'LL DIE IF I EAT ANY LESS!" he shouted, banging the table with his palm, breathing heavily
"Harry-"
"You know why Vernon stopped hitting me?"
"WHAT?!" outraged Sirius, as the rest of the room too froze at the implication.
"I was so scared of him..." he began, eyes looking distant "I did accidental magic, I'm sure. Whatever it was, I think I hurt him so bad he got scared of ever trying that again... I was 10... he even cut down my meals, so I didn't have energy to do magic... and you want me to keep going back there" he finished, his heart pounding heavily, as a throbbing pain rose in his head, and he started hearing an eerily similar voice. He'd heard it somewhere before, he just couldn't remember...
'He wants you weak' it whispered
"Headmaster, surely if not Grimmauld we can find something else" implored Remus, surprising Sirius. His own request was something he was sure would amount to war crimes though
"You want me weak!" declared Harry, looking directly at Dumbledore.
"You - you're jealous! You're afraid I'm better than you are!" Harry said at once, spewing everything he was hearing in his head "That's why you want me weak, you want me crippled! So I keep looking at you as some sort of hero! Well I see right through you, Dumbledore!"
"Mr. Potter, such preposterous allegations!" exasperated McGonagall
"How dangerously large is your ego, Potter. You aren't even fit to shine the Headmaster's shoes, let me not mince words, what exactly have you achieved"
"A lot more than a cowards hiding behind two masters!" responded Harry
"Take that back!"
"I saved the school, two years running! I took out 100 dementors with one patronus! I survived the entire tournament, then crawled out of Voldemort's trap too! What had any of you done before your 15th birthday!"
"And that has never been in doubt, son" appeased Dumbledore. He could see it in the boy's eyes, he'd lost it completely. It had to be just PTSD, or at least he hoped... "You are without question more capable than any wizard in this room, myself included" the ancient wizard admitted, stunning Harry momentarily "I'm sorry for all the pain I've put you through... Not a day goes by that I don't think of the life I condemned you to live... but your safety is paramount, even over your happiness"
'Don't listen to him, Harry... empty words. Chunks of meat thrown to a dog...'
Harry was caught in two minds, literally. One side was extremely moved by the high praise and candid confession by the usually stoic man... but the other... the other agreed with what he'd just heard - it was manipulation... just like Tom Riddle's diary in year 2... the last time he'd opened up so much to someone, he'd walked right into a trap set by his parents' murderer.
He'd never felt so vulnerable, so powerless. He'd just revealed his deepest, darkest secret, and far from considered, it had been been downright disregarded... But then Dumbledore did seem repentant... but he would act that way even if he wasn't, wouldn't he?...
" -rust me, that is all I ask of you... Harry?" asked Dumbledore, snapping him out of his reverie. He looked back at him. Still caught in two minds, he simply said how no words could ever made it any easier, and walked away, his mind totally mixed up
'Dumbledore has to be put down'
Dumbledore HAD to be put down... But for the first time, Harry would be killing with...pleasure?
NO!
Just the thought he could ever enjoy killing repulsed him. He could never do that. This little thought was... just... not him.
He cast that thought aside for now. He made a more immediate emergency to deal with;
The fight with Dumbledore was taking too long... He had to find a way to end it quick.
As he rolled to dodge a spell and returned fire, he spotted the still unstirring form of McGonagall. He turned his eyes back to Dumbledore... he'd seen it too now
"Sectusempra!" he moved his wand in a crooked motion, launching a most certainly fatal attack towards the aged Transfiguration Master.
Dumbledore reacted as expected; casting a protection towards his old deputy.
Making use of the distraction, he fired a wordless severing hex - a spell with a short wand movement - towards Dumbledore.
And gifted or not, time waits for none.
Dumbledore's speed was not what it once was.
He was a fraction of a second too late...but late nonetheless...
His cry of pain was heard all over. The fighting paused completely, all eyes glued to the great wizard falling in battle for the first time.
"Reducto!" fired Harry rapidly, striking a kneeling Dumbledore squarely on the chest.
His body slumped back, and fell over.
Complete silence...
"At last, the old coot is dead!" celebrated Malfoy, as the rest of his...colleagues began to cheer.
"Runestone!" exclaimed Harry
"Huh?" replied Lucius eloquently
Even from his grave, he'd managed to play one last trick. Dumbledore had tied the wards to a runestone... a runestone that couldn't be too far if the wards were this strong...
Harry turned to Arthur, who was crying, not unlike some of the other Order members present "One last time, Mr. Weasley"
"Wait a minute" jumped in Bill "...what does he mean by 'one last time', dad" the curse-breaker asked, looking at his dad critically, and fearfully.
Arthur gave his son a helpless look "... it's with Mad-Eye"
"Weasley, what are you-" Moody began, but spoke no more. A flash of green light struck him from the side... fired by none other than Lucius Malfoy
"I know you said no Unforgivables... but surely the circumstances justify the exception" Malfoy said haughtily, not attempting to mask his delight.
The Order, that became even more disadvantaged as more and more IIA pawns showed up, had further been crippled by the loss of their leader. Surrounded and thoroughly outnumbered, they had been forced to stand down too. Hence, as Lucius strut over to Moody and two more henchmen scanned his corpse, all they could do watch helplessly. I Silence engulfed them...
"Why, Arthur?" asked Tonks
"..."
"Answer her!" demanded Bill, his own eyes welling up
"... We were going to lose, oh come on, you know it too!" he said, before choking up. He glanced back to see someone - Corbin Yaxley, he recognized, one of the few Death Eaters that had carved a place within Harry's new ranks, working on Mad-Eye's 7-door pocket safe.
Realizing he would have to continue his confession, he started again "...He came to me" he said with a jerk towards Malfoy "... said all the Weasleys had was each other... and with so many dead... he said he'd kill my last child too if I didn't" Arthur couldn't continue further breaking down into loud cries as he fell to the ground
"Thank your father, William. He's saved your life - and gotten you a job with me in the IIA if you wish-"
"Shut up, Malfoy!"
"-though I suppose you'll be choosing Gringotts" Lucius finished with a cruel smile
"I'm sorry, everyone... Bill, I-I- only did it for your safety" Arthur managed to stutter out. He tried to reach for Bill, but the latter moved away.
"He doesn't have to kill your last child, you've done it yourself" Bill declared, shattering the last of what remained of Arthur's will.
He could take no more.
With the metaphorical, and physical shun from Bill, as well as an impending realization of just he'd done, how truly selfish he'd been... how much of a coward he'd been, hit him.
He could take no more.
Turning his wand to his head, he fired before any one could intervene
Bang!
Arthur fell face-first, still clutching his wand, his other hand extended out towards Bill.
"Father!" cried out Bill, kneeling next to his fallen form.
Silence took them once again, watching a young man lose his father, and with him, the last of his blood.
The quietude was broken only the occasional sob from Bill...until
"Oh dear, oh dear" Malfoy began to laugh "Arthur Weasley, a loser to the end!" he exclaimed with joy and cantankerous laughter, joined in by a few more disturbed souls who'd apparently found this funny.
"Quit it!" Harry finally intervened with a glare, silencing his Director of Covert Operations
"My apo-"
"If you hadn't killed Moody, we could've had the combination by now, you trigger-happy fool!"
"I - my apologies again, my Lord. I hope it is inconsequential in the long term" he said in atonement. He really didn't want the Order's plan to succeed... He'd got a good thing going on here, Merlin knows what cou-
"Is yourself all you're capable of thinking about?!" shouted Daphne. Harry turned to her. He tried to meet her sapphire eyes, but found himself incapable of doing so. He was too ashamed...
"Look at me, Potter!"
"Oi! That's the Chancellor you're talking to, girl!" Turais Gray shouted from somewhere
"No" objected Harry "let them speak"
"I would have followed you anywhere... You didn't need fear or money to buy loyalty, you inspired it... You didn't need this Surveillance State to bring order... you didn't need to kill in cold blood... you were... you were virtue, and kindness... you were an inspiration, that victory could be found in the darkest of times... we loved you...I-" Daphne silenced herself, but Harry heard the unsaid
"We've got it, Chancellor!" declared Yaxley, holding up a dark-grey stone, its surfaced carved with patterns and designs
"I can make short work of this" Malfoy volunteered swiftly, before casting an unknown spell in the same breath, breaking the ward-stone clean into two.
"You must hurry, Chancellor!"
'Lies. Just like Dumbledore' whispered a voice that had grown to command tremendous influence in Harry over the last few years
"Harry-" Neville called out, but the man in question had apparated away
"If it's any consolation it was a wonderful speech" mocked Lucius. For a second he was worried Potter was going to give in to all that garbage "Alright, round them up!" he ordered
"What, Greengrass? Hoped your little monologue would do something? I re-"
CRACK!
Lucius' euphoria turned into fright.
There were no wards around the place anymore
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The entire order apparated away, some barely dodging deadly spells launched their way. All that remained was Arthur Weasley's corpse, his cheek pushed up by the ground on such an angle that his lip was curled into a smile.
As fate would have it, Arthur would have the last laugh after all..
"It's Black Manor - 12 Grimmauld Place! Come on, the Fidelius is broken!" bellowed Lucius
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The order retreated back into the house. Fidelius or not, this place was still a defendable one. There unfortunately hadn't been enough time to plan out a strategy, but the precious few seconds headstart they did have was just about enough for them to regroup.
Fighting now broke out all over the house, but this time it was the order's turn to ambush.
As the Empire broke down the door (which, given its considerable protections, was a while) and rushed in, the first wave of intruders fell prey to a cartoonishly slippery slope, and were taken out by rapid fire from inside the sitting room to which the hallway let.
Once breaching that initial hurdle, they were met with an empty room
"Secret Passage" one of the frontmen called out to the back, loud enough for Lucius to hear
"House is a darn maze!" he cursed "Clear stairways for me!"
Also, where on earth was Harry Potter!
Splat!
Mundungus Fletcher, hidden next to the door frame, whacked one sprinting intruder with a frying pan. Wand or not, blunt force trauma was blunt force trauma
"How about that, Dung!" complimented Neville, which the crook returned with a smile
"So Harry left before you lot?!" Andi questioned, running into the kitchen
"Right...Aha!" he exclaimed, clipping one 'Auror' in the neck "Greengrass is missing too!"
"Didn't see her either" affirmed Andromeda
It was too much of a coincidence those two specifically were missing...
"Fall back to the second floor!" yelled Bill.
Even with their considerable skills, secret passages and traps... the force was an insurmountable numerical advantage. It was time to make one last stand, near their invaluable time-gate.
"We need to hurry!"
"Well I can't make the runes light up faster, Hermione!"
Thud!
"Hear that?" inquired Sirius, receiving his affirmation when Hermione drew her wand
"Where are you going?!"
"To buy you some time" answered the muggleborn
"Wha-" Hermione put a finger to Sirius' lip
"It should be you"
"Me?! But I-"
"-you are better positioned than I am. Remember, I was a schoolgirl for the most part. But you - you were outside. You can get so much more done"
"But you'll be with him for so much longer!"
"And it didn't matter last time either" she pointed out "You alone can give him something he never had - a home"
Sirius looked Hermione in the eyes... she really did believe he could pull this off
"Even with the amount of time you did had, you became the one person Harry trusted above everyone"
"I-I what if I screw up!" he said anxiously
"What if you don't?... go back and save us from this godforsaken world... where time stands still, where morning never comes, where it's always cold... this isn't a future worth living for, Sirius... go back and fix everything" she said in an encouraging yet emotional voice, before rushing out into the hallway
"Oppugno!" birds - on fire - charged towards the invading force. Since her sixth year days, Hermione had come a long way in weaponizing the canaries.
"Crucio!" fired Malfoy... with his master wasn't around to leash him, he was up to his old tricks again
"Carpe Retractum!" chanted Neville, the seize-and-pull charm retracting Hermione from the curse's path. He'd cast in desperation and forgot one important detail - the charm pulled the person towards you.
Hermione crashed into Neville as both fell to the ground, shielded by fallen debris
"If you lovebirds are done having a moment, we've still got a killer squad to deal with!"
Both Gryffindors pushed up from the ground as fast as possible, faces slightly red
Lucius realized time was of the essence, and cast his most destructive spell, not bothering that given the tight space he could die too - the inferi.
All of a sudden, the ground swampish beneath their feet. The corridor began to be swarmed by the undead, as infernus after infernus appeared from seemingly nowhere
"Guys, a little help here!" called out Sirius from inside, who had the additional task of protecting their infinity gate, as it was called.
"I'll go!" said Bill, making his way towards the room, repelling their new attackers with fire, as were the others
As expected, the summoner too was caught in a predicament. Unlike his 'lords', he did NOT possess control over the inferi. They were clawing at him with equal hunger.
And he didn't remember how to send them away.
Panicking, he apparated away, his men in tow.
But the Inferi just kept on coming...
"Merlin I wish my mother could see the house now! She'd die a second time!"
"Very funny Sirius! Excuse me if I didn't laugh, kind of in danger of being abducted by zombies here!" cried out Bill, repelling another wave of attackers with his Incendio
"Sirius how much longe - AAAAH" Bill was struck on the leg, somehow managing to maintain balance. If he fell... he was done for
"Bill!" called a concerned Sirius, himself barely dodging a strike... there were just too many now
"Don't worry about me, just jump in!"
"Its-" Sirius began to protest, but stopped. He jumped to avoid one grabbing him. They'd occupied practically the entire floor now... it was now or never.
He glanced at the date - July 15th, just after he'd escaped Azkaban.
Good enough.
"Here goes nothing!"
And with a jump worthy of his canine animagus, Sirius Black leapt into the unknown.
And that's a wrap!
That's right! Tons left in the 'original future' as well! And yes, it has its own unique problems!
Thanks for reading!