"Catching Lightning in a Firewhisky Bottle

Chapter 3: Sober

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Catch lightning in a bottle - to do the impossible
. . . . .

A very sober 'Whisky' watched with narrowed eyes as he stalked up to the house. He looked on as that damn archenemy of his raised his wand towards the brave man blocking his way behind the door, making his heart clench. Within a second, he appeared silently next to the defender. Said wizard stood surprisingly steady on his feet, desperate to protect what was his. He could respect that. He could respect his father for that.

'Patience.' He reminded himself. It had been a long time since he had been this tense.

The hidden presence, which actually seemed to be a second somehow-having-time-traveled Harry Potter, waited until the last second and then sprang. He looked as if he was nearly dancing under the cloak hiding him out of sight, while silently mouthing the spells under his breath.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The green light filled the cramped hallway-

James Potter's eyes widened fearfully as the green flash surged towards him– knowing that his story would end.

At least, he thought it would.

Instead, something intervened. The young father grunted as a sudden invisible force slammed into him, pushing him back. His eye was drawn to the sickly green light and he watched with wonder as the curse collided with something else than him – he wasn't sure what it was – just above his chest, causing it to explode.

James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut.

He heard the vile creature enter his home, chuckle and walk past him. The situation made him feel absolutely livid as he was forced to watch his enemy continue towards Lily and Harry. James made to attack but he couldn't move. He couldn't do anything but curse and rant in his mind as his glazed eyes watched the ceiling above him.

He couldn't blink! Was he dead? He didn't feel his heart beat! He couldn't fucking breathe! Oh gosh! He had to protect his family! Move damnit! MOVE!

To say that the wizard was stressed, would be an understatement.

Out of nowhere, a voice interrupted his mental rants. "It will be alright. Sleep for now."

He didn't see anyone. For a moment James wondered whether his maybe-dead or oxygen-derived mind was playing tricks on him.

Then the world turned black.

James's savior quickly apparated silently upstairs, where Lily was now confronted by Voldemort. Harry watched with clenched fists as he saw the so familiar scene unfold. He felt the magic in the air and couldn't help but admire it. His mother's love was so beautiful.

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead —" She pleaded.

"This is my last warning —"

"Not Harry! Please ... have mercy ... Not Harry! Please — I'll do anything."

"Avada Kedavra."

What would be Voldemort's last words for a long time was the sign Harry had been waiting for. Harry had sprung to action before Voldemort had even finished the curse. A second later, Lily Potter fell to the ground, eyes unblinking.

His heart rammed so hard in his chest he thought Voldemort might hear it. Harry forced himself to breathe out silently, reminding her that she wasn't really dead. It just looked eerily like she had.

He felt the atmosphere in the room shift. As he had expected, his mother had attempted to sacrifice herself anyway. He could feel her magic flow around the room warningly. It would strike and protect and Harry couldn't help but shiver at the fact that his mother had felt this kind of love for him.

He was not going to let her sacrifice her life though.

Harry noticed immediately when his old friend called Death had answered the ritual's call. Harry quickly glanced towards a shadow that appeared in the corner of the room and narrowed his eyes threateningly. He directed his magic towards it in warning – a command. The shadow stilled immediately. An icy shiver ran down his spine and Harry could feel its confusion and interest, before it shrank and simply watched.

He would talk to Death later.

Instead the Man-Who-Had-Conquered readied himself as he watched the last confrontation between Voldemort and The-Boy-Who-Would-Live take place. He soundlessly closed in on them until he nearly stood between the two. Then, the moment that the curse was cast, he released opened his cloak and jumped between the two.

It wouldn't do to hide from Death now. He barely met Voldemort's startled gaze before everything erupted into chaos.

Harry hadn't quite expected the amount of force that Voldemort had put into the spell – how could someone hate a small baby so much? - and was flung back as the green light hit him square in the chest. A pained his escaped him as his whole body burned in protest while his magic fought off the spell's effect.

Meanwhile, Lily's magic reacted.

Voldemort's intention had triggered Lily's protective magic focused on her baby, thus forcing his curse back, no matter that someone had stepped in between. That, or Harry was so identical to his younger self that with him being in danger, it had the same effect anyway.

A quite destructive one.

Baby Harry cried as the force of the two clashing forces of magic ran its course. The window exploded outwards and the whole room shook. Harry watched Voldemort's eyes widen in silent horror, but before the man could say anything, the curse had already rebounded and hit him head on.

Once again, only his robes remained.

Harry couldn't help but sigh in relief at the sight. The find details of why Lily's magic had once again acted didn't matter really matter to him, Harry decided as he pushed himself up. He was simply glad that everything had worked out well –

-or not, Harry thought as a sense of foreboding washed over him.

There was, of course, a tiny detail; one more thing that had remained behind - Voldemort's Horcrux. Having studied every book that one could find on Horcruxes, Harry knew that it should have gone to the one that Voldemort had targeted to kill. Baby Harry.

There was only one problem that the older Harry had not quite anticipated, a tiny detail that wasn't often spoken of. Of the few Laws of Nature that certain magic in actually followed – the law of the least resistance was one of them. Somehow in the clash of magic, this had won out over the much vaguer Rule of Intent that was taught more often.

So, instead of creating a new rip in the poor Baby's Harry's healthy soul, it nestled into a certain space that it had safely resided in before. Well, it had resided there in the non-existent future at least. Meaning that it targeted that damn cursed scar of his.

It wasn't a gentle intrusion into his mind either. Feeling as if his head was torn into pieces, Harry couldn't hold back his pained scream as he sunk to the ground. Luckily it didn't last long. He gasped in relief as the feeling lifted; replaced by an incredible headache that put every hangover Harry had ever head to shame.

Harry groaned pathetically as he pulled himself up and realized what had just happened. Barely one minute had passed, but a lot had changed.

The future The-Boy-Who-Lived had once again Lived.

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was no more. Well… for the next decade at least.

And the current time-travelling Master of Death had managed to get a fucking Horcrux stuck in his forehead once.

Again.

He cursed himself as he leaned heavily against the crib, holding his ribs. "Damnit! Bloody fucking hell!" He muttered and turned towards the corner in which Death still lurked and looked at him pointedly.

"I don't suppose you can take this fragment with you when you leave?"

The shadow disappeared promptly, causing the wizard to sigh.

"I take that as a no then."

He turned around and he quickly lifted the complete paralysis on his mother, just like he had done with his father minutes before. A minute without air wasn't that bad right? Irrational fear still reared its head and he held his breath as his eyes zeroed in on her chest. He sighed in relief when he heard her gasp for air and started breathing again. Merlin, that was close.

The Master of Death turned shakily back towards the baby to check up on him, only to realize that he was still crying. He grimaced. The loud wails didn't do his pounding headache any good, but the distraught look on the boy's face forced him to put the pain aside.

His neglected father instincts re-awakened surprisingly easy as he shushed the boy. Gently, Harry picked up the young boy, cradled him in his arms and swayed soothingly. The boy calmed almost as soon as he was in the older man's arms and looked up at him with wide eyes. Harry felt his magic shiver as it recognized the other. Nearly the same, yet somehow not completely.

Interesting.

"Shhh…It's alright. See? You're not the one with a bloody scar now." He told the baby, as he pointed to his own now-bloody forehead that had finally stopped bleeding. He gently caressed the baby's forehead and frowned when he saw that actually a very faint familiar scar had in fact appeared on the baby's forehead. Though it was barely a tiny line - a nearly invisible and unnoticeable at that - he couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed.

He gently laid his hand on it, to scan for any dark magic, but there was only a shiver of residue that would disappear within a year. Baby Harry giggled as the magic tickled him.

Odd. He would never completely understand magic.

"See? You are perfectly healthy!" He assured the baby cheerfully. His eyes turned slightly somber as he continued. "Now let's get you back to your mother before people come to investigate."

As the wizard turned back around to look at their mother, he froze when he saw that her lively eyes desperately tried to look into their direction. Luckily, her gaze wasn't directly enough to look at him. Instead, it could only have been the fuzzy sight from the corner of her eye in which he had been seen. Shakingly, he quickly spelled her to sleep and swallowed.

Should he obliviate her?

He walked towards the woman and crouched down next to her form, taking a few precious seconds to study her. He watched as the baby in his arm reached for her and swallowed.

"I'm pretty jealous, you know." He told the baby, who looked at him questioningly. "At least I saved you from a pretty shitty childhood." He continued and poked the baby's nose. The baby wrinkled it in reply and Harry laughed hollowly. He sat the boy down on the ground.

"Time to finish this." He mumbled to himself as his hand reached for his wand, but his will weakened the moment he touched it. He couldn't do it. He couldn't force his mother to forget.

"It's not as if she really saw what I looked like right?" He asked his younger self, but he didn't receive an answer as the little boy was too busy with playing with his mother's hair.

Prying the hairs from the baby's fists, he picked him up again and carried him out of the room. "Let's get you both to a proper bed alright?"

The baby gurgled happily at him, his tiny fist now enclosed around his invisibility cloak, which was soon partly covered with salvia.

"I take that as a yes." Harry nodded as the baby continued to drool all over his cloak.

"This is so weird."

"Lily! Harry!" James yelled as soon as he got back to consciousness.

"They are safe in the bedroom."

The furious father swirled around towards the voice – only to find nothing.

"Where and who are you?" He growled, his wand erupted with sparks. "Accio!" He yelled, but nothing happened.

"I see that you are familiar with an invisible cloak Mr. Potter, but this one only answers to me I'm afraid." "The voice stated. "Don't bother trying to find me. Voldemort is gone. Oh and you better call your friends over before they do something stupid. I'm sure people will think you have been killed after that explosion a few minutes ago."

Explosion?

James had only half-listened to what the man was saying as he rushed up the stairs. He gasped fearfully as he saw the state of the room.

"Da!"

His attention snapped to his own bedroom, to find his wife and child safe and sound. He felt all his energy leave him. He stumbled towards them and touched them as he sunk to his knees.

He watched as his boy smiled at him and heaved up his arms. "Da!" He proclaimed again.

Within moments James cradled the two of his most dearest people in his arms and sobbed silently. He had no idea who had saved them, but he was internally grateful.

Baby Harry didn't really understand why his father was acting so oddly, but didn't care. Lying between his parents after those stressful moments, the Boy-Who-Lived was more than happy to fall asleep.

Dreaming of things only babies could.

"Whisky?" An joyful voice called out.

"Wha?" The man startled awake from his tiny corner and turned to Rosmerta who watched him with an odd expression. He noticed her glance at the unused bed and then back to his tiny messy corner that was littered with different kind of liquor. He sat hunched over, leaning with his elbows on his knees as he stared down at the bottle clenched in both hands.

"Aren't you coming down to celebrate?" She asked softly, her previous cheer suddenly dimming.

"Nah."

"Why not?"

"Dusn't bring back tah liffing ya know." The man slurred, pointing a bottle at her. "Persons shaved not mah fam'ly. Not really mine." He muttered under his breath, so softly that Rosmerta barely heard him..

The barmaid didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but she that sometimes is was simply better to play along.

"Shouldn't you be happy for them though?"

The man let out a guffaw but didn't answer. He took a swig from his bottle, only to find it empty. He sighed and held it up. "Th'ts mah life! Empty!" He told her and his eyes dimmed again.

"Stuck. Not belonging here. Fucking Fate." He mumbled.

Rosmerta recognized the way his eyes glazed over and sighed. He was back in his memories.

'At least, your tormentor is dead?' She wanted to say. 'He can't hurt anyone anymore, focus on that thought.' She could have told him, but didn't.

It didn't seem fair to him. She knew that he had probably lost everyone dear to him. Sometimes he couldn't completely hide the broken look in his eyes, he startled when someone unexpectedly touched his tormented body and his need to stay drunk in order to dim his memories said more than any amount of words could.

He was right. He didn't have any reason to celebrate, did he?

Still. It bothered her, to see him sitting there.

Swallowing, Rosmerta stalked forwards and carefully sat down next to him. They continued to sit there for a moment, looking at flame that the lone candle on the floor provided.

After a long time of pondering over his words, Rosmerta couldn't help but break the silence.

"Would they want you to keep your life empty though?" She earned a confused look, so she elaborated.

"The people you lost. Would they want you to remain empty?"

Something flickered across his green eyes as Whisky looked at her with a surprised expression. Then a faint grin broke through and he chuckled grimly. "Dunno. Guess not."

He sighed and shook his head. He held out the bottle to her which she accepted hesitantly.

"Smart g'rl, ya are." He told her with a slur. "Don't evah become me." He said solemnly as he gestured to the empty bottle. "Now go enj'y yerself."

She paused, sensing the dismissal. Though she was dismayed with his refusal, she couldn't actuallhy force him to come down so she raised herself to her feet. She paused at the door, hand on the doorknob.

"Julia wants you to spend Christmas with us." She told him..

"So please, don't disappear on us tonight alright?"

Harry grunted and heard her shut the door behind her, leaving once again to his antagonizing lonely peace. It wasn't like he had any place better to be. They were good people to invite him.

The Master of Death stared at the candle again.

"First I lose everything. Now I'm back to save everything." He blabbed to himself. "Fucking Fate, how it that fair? I saved my parents, only to become… "He couldn't finish his sentence.

He remained in his room the whole night, watching the candle burn until nothing remained.

The next morning, Julia wasn't amused when she found him sleeping in the exact same spot.

It brought a ghost of a smile to his face.

. . . . .

That's it for now.

Sadly, I don't get much respons. I'm not doing so well, aren't I?

Please write something down below.

Hopefully till next time.