Desiring Other Times
Chapter 14 – Chaos
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: Review quickly so I can make sure I don't make any drastic mistakes while writing in the holidays.
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"There. Finished." I wearily grinned at the prone faux body I had finally completed. Other-Harry whirled about in the air, still unhappy that I wouldn't fuse with him, but glad enough that at least I had found a way for him to fiddle with this world.
Are you sure you won't change your mind? He tried one last time.
I glared at him. Yes, I'm sure. Now get in there.
He shook his head. I'll wait a bit, see if you change your mind. A lot of things can happen in a week.
You're going to be annoying me for another week? I shouted at him, and he winced.
Look, just… it's kind of, I don't know, really weird. And we're not sure if it'll work – I mean, it's not even alive.
I shrugged. It's the only way I'm getting you something to possess. Unless you feel like possessing someone else.
The argument continued as I climbed out of my trunk, went to get my textbooks for Charms and even until I entered the classroom.
…and shut up, I have to listen. I told Other-Harry, and for some reason, he smirked.
Oh? I thought you said you knew everything already? His voice was challenging.
I glared at him, then proceeded to ignore him.
By the end of the class, he had shut up, and I was feeling a little peaky. I took a little detour to the Hospital Wing to get some Pepper Up Potion, and was heading off to my next class when people started screaming.
"What the…?"
"It's a Basilisk! In the corridors! RUN!" Some random fifth year screamed at me, and my mouth fell wide open.
A basilisk?
Other-Harry seemed worried. This never happened in my world. Sure, there was a Basilisk, but it never got into the corridors. Never mind that, just run, goddammit!
I did, and joined some other students and staff that had barricaded themselves in the Hospital Wing.
"What on earth is a basilisk doing in the castle?"
"Did it kill anyone?"
The questions flew thick and fast, but no-one knew the answers. Several hours on, a house-elf popped into the Hospital Wing, startling us all. It proceeded to dither and stutter, until we finally realised it was telling us all to congregate in the Great Hall on the orders of 'Great Wizard Dumbledore'. Slowly and nervously, we proceeded to the Great Hall, where the rest of the school was gathering.
Halfway there, on the third corridor, I heard a hissing.
Come, let me tassste your blood, let me eat you, let me rip you to piecesssss… it hissed, getting closer and closer, when…
Screams. I could hear the people around me screaming, shouting, and my eardrums – enhanced as they were – popped painfully, I could feel the blood running down the sides of my face…
"Help!"
"RUN!"
"Basilisk! Nooo!"
My eyes were squeezed tightly shut, and I brought my wand out, pointed it at the direction where the hissing was coming from when…
Turn around, and wait. There issss sssomeone here I do not want you to kill. A familiar voice hissed, and the basilisk answered.
Yesss, massster.
The sounds of something heavy shifting and sliding, and then…
"Potter? It's safe to open your eyes." Draco called to me, and I realised then that Other-Harry was parroting the words to me in my mind, because I couldn't hear a single thing through my burst eardrums.
I opened my eyes, and saw the giant snake in the corridor, bent around at the middle so it faced the other direction. Draco was looking rather proud of himself, and he carried a small diary.
There is a… a ghost behind him, like me. Other-Harry whispered at me, and my eyes widened.
Really? Who is it? Can they see you?
Other-Harry shook his head. For some reason, it is extremely weak. And I do not know who it is.
"I've opened the Chamber of Secrets, Potter! All the mudbloods are as good as dead now," he spat gleefully. "Get out of here, now. I don't want to have to kill you – after all, you're still useful."
I narrowed my eyes, and winced as my eardrums began piecing themselves back together, slowly but surely. Around me were the prone forms of my fellow students.
All of them were dead.
"Forget it, Draco."
I lifted my wand, his mouth swung open in surprise and I cried "Explodere Metiri!"
And all hell broke loose.
Bright purple light gathered at the tip of my wand, then split in half, one part shooting straight at Draco and the Basilisk, the other half going the opposite way. The whole hallway exploded with dust and blood and bits of snake flesh, but that was the least of my problems.
Pain, there was pain and blood and the ground shook and everything went blurry but not the pain, not the pain. Shit, shit, shit. This wasn't supposed to happen! No! Fuck, my arm! No!
"GAAH!" I screamed, "Shit! SHIT!" I crumpled to the ground, as pain lanced through my entire body, burning and ripping and rending, like hot steel wires wrapped about and around my flesh, searing through it all. Blood pooled around me, mostly from my arm but also from the wounds that ripped their way across my skin. As I landed on the ground, more burning, aching agony tore through my body, as the fractured and shattered bones in my body hit the ground hard.
"…fuck…" I managed to murmur when all went black.
"…is he going to be okay?"
"…condition is severe…"
"I don't want him to die, please, save him, please, you have to save him!"
"He might not live."
"Wake up, please, Harry, wake up. Don't die on me. I can't have my child die before me!"
"…he isn't going to die! I don't believe you!"
The pain was back, arching, throbbing, torturous agony. My body oozed physical torment as it leaked blood. I tried to speak, but then somebody forced a foul-tasting potion down my throat and I was unconscious once again.
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Harry lay in the bed, completely wrapped in bandages, like a mummy. Madam Pomphrey had been able to remove all the dust and grit that had gotten into his eyes, so the likelihood that Harry would wake up blind had gone down dramatically. That was the least of anyone's worries though, as Harry's body continued to refuse to heal, the many wounds across his body staining his bandages into a crimson that Pomphrey had to change them five times a day.
The severed arm had been the worst – it wasn't even severed, it was more like it had exploded into nothingness, leaving behind a jagged wound that still fairly reeked of magic.
"He should have healed by now." said Professor McGonagall to Professor Dumbledore.
He sighed heavily. "I know."
"But why isn't he? Why is it that he could still die?" Her voice grew steadily frantic.
"I don't know, Minerva. I don't know."
A door swinging open, footsteps. "I do." said a voice. The two professors turned towards the voice.
"Severus?"
A heavy sigh. "He's lost his magic."
Silence.
He's lost his magic.
His magic.
Lost.
"…n… no…" A weak voice broke the silence, and the three professors whipped their heads around to look at Harry.
He stirred, then choked off a scream. "Mr. Potter? Here, take this potion, it will help with the pain." Pomphrey moved to pour a potion down his throat.
"M… my… my magic…" Potion dripped out of his mouth and soaked into his bandages, which were quickly staining red as he continued to move.
"Mr. Potter!" Pomphrey pulled out her wand, ready to cast a spell on him that would make him swallow when she poured the potion in again.
"It's gone, Harry." Dumbledore replied as Pomphrey force-fed Harry the potion. "I'm… I'm sorry."
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Each of us as he receives his private trouncings at the hands of fate is kept in good heart by the moth in his brother's parachute, and the scorpion in his neighbour's underwear.
Simonides
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"What happened? What kind of spell could have made this happen?" demanded James Potter.
Flitwick twitched guiltily. "I… It seems your son… for lack of a better word, copied the information I had stored in my Occlumency ward. False information for the most part. And he tried a spell I had in there, which was a kind of… a kind of modified suicide spell that I had labelled as merely being a destructive art."
James and Lily gaped at him, as did the others present.
"You knew he had that inside his head and… and you didn't tell him?" bellowed James, trying to swipe at Flitwick but being held back by Remus. Sirius had been restrained by Hagrid, and Lily seemed too shocked to do anything.
"…I had no idea he would try using those spells."
"That's not good enough! You knew those boys were going to go into the war! You knew he was supposed to buy time for Jeremy! You… you…" screamed James, finally breaking down into tears. "…you knew…"
"I'm sorry." Were the hollow words Flitwick offered, but it only served to make Lily and James cry even harder. Sirius howled, struggling against Hagrid's hold, and Remus seemed frozen like a statue. He of all people had most need of keeping his emotions in control, but this… this was stretching even his famed control.
"…it was your fault, your fault… all your fault…"
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"You could have stopped him!" Jeremy shouted at the ghostly figure before him. "You could've told him the spell wasn't right!"
Other-Harry stared at floor, downcast, depressed. I didn't know he was going to use a spell he hadn't verified. I had no idea.
Jeremy screamed something unintelligible, threw the water jug across the room and heard it shatter. It didn't help soothe the gaping hole he could practically feel in his chest, and he let loose with another pain-filled roar. The glass windows shuddered, vibrated, then burst into tiny motes of dust. Cupboards flung themselves about the room, and the chairs smashed themselves against the walls.
"Mr. Potter…!" cried somebody as they opened the door to see what all the noise was about. "Calm yourself!" The Auror was completely caught off guard when Jeremy flung himself against him, hitting at the man's chest with his flailing arms and bawling.
"Why? Why Harry? Tell me!"
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Still falls the Rain–
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss–
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross.
Edith Sitwell
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Author's Notes: So lots of people complained that Harry was getting too powerful for his own good. Honestly, these people have no faith that I can pull a decent plot twist out of my ass. Ok, so maybe I've never been a good writer, but I've gotten better, dammit!
1. Basilisk – Draco is infinitely less likely than Ginny to go against Riddle's plan, and he was going to take it to a much further extent than what Riddle had planned. Hence, Basilisk in the hallways.
2. Ghost – Other-Harry is actually like Horcrux-Riddle. Pretty much the same, really, except Other-Harry is at maximum 'strength'.
3. Explodere – Latin root for explode, meaning 'drive off the stage by clapping'. Metiri – Latin for 'measure', which was root of the Old English word 'mete', meaning 'food', which was in turn, the root for the modern English word 'meat'.
This was a lot different to my previous chapters in that the perspective changed a lot, and there were random texts in the middle. While I'm writing this fanfiction, I'm slowly experimenting with writing style, so if it flops, tell me, if it was good, tell me.