Harry Potter and the Life after the Old
Chapter 6 – Rewind
Authors Note: The end of this chapter contains description of battle, with scenes of violence.
It seemed strange for Harry to wake up with someone next to him. It had only happened twice before, and on both occasions it had been Ron, while they were on their 3 day and 2 night camping holiday in Wales shortly after they left Hogwarts. It had been Ron's idea. He suggested it because he wanted to ask Harry's opinion on the ring that he had bought for Hermione, and also so that he could be sure that he was about to ask the right question. Harry turned over and opened his eyes slowly to see Ginny lying next to him, still sleeping peacefully. They had been engaged for three months now, and Ginny had gradually been gradually moving her things from the Burrow into Harry's flat.
The day was Wednesday. A work day for Harry and a looking for work day for Ginny. It was October, and even though the Quidditch season was yet to start, there were training sessions to report on, and the new upcoming England line up, and, of course predictions for the up coming season. Strangely, off season work for a Quidditch reporter was just as busy, if not even more busy than in the season. Since Harry only had to work on the main games, he spent most of his time reviewing articles from his other correspondents and acting as editor. Today, Harry was off to talk to the Chudley Cannons, who had begun their training regime almost as soon as the season finished after their spectacular win in the finals.
Ginny on the other hand was being indecisive. She still had no idea what she wanted to do with her life, so had spent much of the past three months looking around for small jobs in London. She had so far managed to get a job working as a secretary at the Ministry of Magic, and was becoming more interested in the world of magical law. Magical Law is much like muggle law. Ginny would train up as a lawyer and represent her clients in her specialised field. She had almost decided that Law was what she wanted to do, but where to be trained in the law was becoming a problem. There were two magical law schools in England, one on Diagon Alley, and one hidden in the depths of Snowdonia in Wales. Both had very good reputations. The London School of Magical Law specialised in International Wizarding Law, and Financial Law. The Cador Magical Law School in Wales specialised in criminal law and cases to do with magical law enforcement. International law would suite Harry's carrier, as he would shortly be required to travel frequently to Canada for the next Quidditch World Cup. In the short term, however, Ginny was happy with the work that she was doing, as she was helping a lot with the Office of Muggle Affairs, in which both Hermione and her father worked.
Harry lifted himself out of bed. It was 8.00, and time that he was getting ready for his day in Chudley with the Cannons. He headed straight for the shower, after which he went back into the bedroom in order to dress. Ginny had not yet stirred.
"Gin?" Harry whispered, shaking her "Wake up…Its 8.15"
"Already?" she said drearily, opening first one eye, then the other "Not fair"
Ginny had never been one for waking up. She took after Ron in this respect, who was notorious for being ridiculously short tempered with the fact that time went so quickly in the night. It was Ron's opinion that time was working against him in order to prevent him from sleeping. Ginny shared this opinion, though in a more joking fashion. Ron was deadly serious.
"Its time" said Harry, moving off into the kitchen and started rummaging through cupboards to find his specially large coffee cup. Ginny wondered in and hugged him from behind.
"What's on the agenda for today then?" she said, letting him go and wondering back into the bedroom.
"Off to Chudley to see the Cannons today. Meeting Ron there. He's going to interview Verelda Snork about the teams tactics for this season, coffee?" he asked
"Ok, yes in a minute" Ginny replied, heading for the bathroom.
Harry set about preparing a quick breakfast, whilst reading the Daily Prophet for the latest headlines. News had been slow recently, except for the proposed changes to the Ministry of Magic's electoral system. New plans for the Minister of Magic to be elected from a majority of public votes were being vigorously fought in the Ministry. The previous system, based on a candidates strengths to be leader and voted in by a majority of votes from members of the new Wizengamot, which itself had been recently re-elected after the discovery that it had been overwhelmingly dominated by those loyal to Voldemort. The reforms were being rubbished as being "Too Muggle". The Office of Muggle Affairs was researching the muggle electoral systems to see if anything could be learned. This move was proving unpopular. Ginny emerged from the bedroom, showered and dressed. Harry plonked a cup of coffee in front of her, and set about finding cereal. They ate their breakfast in silence, occasionally commenting on an article in the newspaper, which was spread out before them.
"Well, I'd best be off. See you later, love" said Harry, standing up and clearing his things away with the flick of his wand.
"Ok. When will you be back?" Ginny asked, standing up and taking her fiancés hand.
"Probably around 4 o'clock. Shouldn't be too long there, Ron is going to be doing most of the work. I just need enough to build up a new Team Profile for the Cannons" he replied, kissing her "Love you lots"
"Love you too" she replied, watching him disappear from her site.
Ginny gathered together her bag, and coat, and apparated away to London, and the Ministry of Magic.
It was business as usual in the Weasley Household. Hermione kissed her husband good-bye, while he cleared up the kitchen. Hermione Weasley was three months pregnant, and already Ron was panicking. Hermione was staying remarkably calm, despite her tendency to be easily flustered by something. She was carrying on her work at the Ministry, and had been assigned a job working in the Muggle Parliament to research the British Muggle Electoral System. She had been cleared by the Muggle Prime Minister, who had given Hermione permission to work there under the disguise as a Muggle university researcher.
Ron was still busy with the tactics column at the Daily Prophet, although at this time of year, when the season was still far off, was reporting on new strategies, or commenting on the merits of old ones. Despite his popularity as a writer, Ron was also considering a career change. He wanted to try and enlist as an Auror. His skills of logic and a cool mind in tight situations had proved him to be a valuable asset to the effort against Voldemort. He had been scouted by the Auror's and had been told then that when he felt ready, he would be welcome to enlist.
Two hours later he and Harry were standing on the training grounds in Chudley. They were watching the orange robed players speeding back and forth during their training session.
"Looks like they've got the chasers working on that one/two move that we saw in the match" said Ron, noting this down with his quick quotes quill
"Hmmm, though it does look like Snork is training them rather like she was the Falcons…" said Harry, watching a series of fast, violent moves, that if seen in play may be conceded as fouls
"They need someone up there to give them a kick though. I don't know what they were doing before Snork, because they're pretty much all of the same players on the team, all that's changed is the Captain and Coach" Ron replied, looking at the Keeper, who was practicing against the Chasers
"True…though with moves like that, they could cause problems with the World Quidditch League" Harry commented, watching the Beaters
"Lucky the National League comes first. I think they're against Puddlemere for their first National League game" Ron said, putting his quill away
"Yea I guess" said Harry, walking up to the players in practice.
"Hello?" he said. The players all landed, and shook hands with Harry and Ron
"Just been doing some observations, there's some good play coming through there. What are your hopes for the coming season?" asked Harry, pulling out a scroll of parchment. Verelda had been elected spokesperson for the team.
"For the National League we hope to get to the semis, but we would all be delighted if we made the final again. We're training hard, so hopefully we can get there. For the World Cup, again we hope to get to the semis, though we know that the opposition is a lot tougher there" she said, the players nodding in agreement
"Just a question about your tactics for this season. Are you going to be using a similar style of play as you did against the Falcons? Or are you trying out new things?" Ron asked
"Similar tactics I think. We're building on what the players already know. Although there's plenty of time before the matches, we still feel that if we consolidate the moves that we already know, we can get a lot further than scratching together new ones. Obviously the formations will change a bit, but you'll have to wait and see at the matches to see those" said Verelda, with a small chuckle from the rest of the team.
"And just one last thing, about this new wave of support from fans. Is this a surprise to you?" asked Harry, looking at Ron, who smiled
"Yes it was. Pleasantly so. We never expected to do so well against the Falcons. The match only really came about because Galvin made a bet with his wife that the Cannons would re-enter league Quidditch before the end of 2002. And they've done it" said Verelda
"Mrs Snork, The Chudley Cannons, thank you for letting us talk to you. Later on, a photographer will come round to take some team photos to accompany the article" said Harry, who shook the hands of the team members, then Ron followed suit.
They left the ground and arrived back in London just in time for lunch. They went to the Leaky Cauldron.
"So, have you got any further with thinking about the Auror thing?" said Harry
"I'm not so sure now that Hermione's pregnant. It probably wouldn't be a good idea, what with the training. I'd have to be away from home during the week for four months, only home at the weekends" Ron said, picking his way through the beef casserole
"True. I don't know how far Ginny's got with deciding what she wants to do. She seems to be torn between Law Schools at the moment. Can't decide whether to do Commercial law or Criminal Law" said Harry, knowing that the magical terms were different, but was testing Ron's knowledge of all things Muggle
"Personally I don't see what the attraction is to law. You know, I don't see why you didn't train to become an Auror. Don't you miss the action?" said Ron
"Yes sometimes. I just wanted to do something a bit more peaceful for a while. The war took a lot out of me, physically and emotionally. When I'm ready I'm thinking of signing up, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the work I'm doing" replied Harry. Ron nodded, and they carried on with their lunch in silence.
It had become a kind of unwritten rule in magical circles not to mention the war unless absolutely necessary. This was mainly because of the bad memories that many people associated with it, and did not want to be reminded of it. For Harry, it was much the same. He was in the centre of it, and his last years at Hogwarts were a turbulent few, in which he lost his Godfather and other close friends. Although he didn't show it, the scars of battle were still locked away behind the friendly exterior. In many ways, it was not necessary for people to talk about the war, especially Harry and his nearest and dearest. They could tell when it was getting him down, and had learned through time to give him the space he needed to try and get through it. If he needed to talk about it, he would. Ginny helped Harry through many of these times, by simply holding him in her arms and simply being there with him.
The sounds of battle were drawing ever closer to the school. Marching could be heard. Look out of the windows, and the once peaceful view seen over the lake was ablaze with the colours of curses and spells flying back and forth. Overhead on broomsticks, another battle was raging, with curse colours lighting up the early evening sky.
"Its time, Harry" said Ginny, looking at him with frightened eyes "Be safe. I love you"
"I love you too Ginny. Please try to stay out of trouble" he said. They kissed, and he kicked off into the air. Surrounding him were Hermione and Ron, who also rode brooms.
They flew in an arrow formation, Harry in the lead, and with wands out, divided into the fray, yelling stunning curses and disarming curses in all directions. The defence shields that Ginny had built around them were holding up for the more weak spells, but they could feel the occasional burst of pain when a more powerful spell managed to partially break through. They flew in all directions. There were no clear sides that the two opposing armies were keeping to. The only thing to distinguish friend from foe was the colour of the robes (black for the Deatheaters, and blue for the Aurors) and the fact that Deatheaters wore hoods and masks. Voldemort spotted somewhere near the centre of the battle, fighting off a group of Aurors, with the help of several Deatheaters by his side. He spotted the broomsticks and called off the fight from the Deatheaters. The Aurors also stopped fighting, as they saw who was approaching.
"Lord Voldemort" said Harry "I challenge you to a duel of swords"
"You challenge me?" Voldemort said incredulously "Hah! You stand not a chance Mr Potter"
So it began. Harry landed his broom and handed it to a nearby Auror. He drew the sword of Godric Gryffindor, and positioned himself into the starting position for a sword duel. Voldemort simply sneered at Harry and chuckled. He drew his own sword, a black metal blade, with a deep red hilt, with rubies and emeralds glistening.
"Ready when you are" Voldemort said with a mock curtsy, to which his Deatheaters cackled
Harry ran at Voldemort sword held to his side. He did a flying kick at the man, and had recovered before the Dark Lord had realised what had happened. In a flash, the blades of the two swords were chinking against each other, each successive blow from the other being blocked. The watching Deatheaters and Aurors made a circle around the fight, and watched as the two of the most powerful Wizards of the age danced around it, fighting without the aid of Magic. This had been proved impossible, as the wands owned by Voldemort and Harry were brother wands, a different way of fighting had to be found. Although sword fighting had not been specifically agreed upon, it seemed the most obvious choice. Thus, both men had trained long and hard for the fight. Harry never seemed to loose energy, despite the sneering comments that occasionally came from Voldemort's mouth. All too soon however, Harry had a cut on his arm and Voldemort one on his stomach. They sparred for another hour almost before both men began to show signs of tiring. After one careless move, Voldemort managed to stab Harry through his side. This weakened him greatly, though as luck would have it, it missed any vital organs. In a truly arrogant way, Voldemort walked around Harry while he lay on the ground in pain, taunting him, saying how the duel was his. It was the second time that Voldemort mentioned how the Potter's had once again turned out to be a failure that Harry summoned the strength to jump to his feet, wield the sword around his head and drive it through Voldemort's heart. At that moment, all of the Deatheaters simultaneously disappeared from the scene, as Voldemort fell to the ground. A bright light suddenly surrounded the pair, and a wind blew through the trees. When it had cleared, the body of the young Tom Riddle lay dead on the ground. With pure exhaustion, Harry fell to the ground, and he knew no more.