A/N:So much less of a wait this time, as you can see. A few things to note: This first battle with Sindie's Voldemort was fairly tough to navigate, as I've never done a battle sequence before, so I hope it turned out well. I went in assuming that Voldemort probably gathered as much as he could of his counterpart's war with Harry Potter, but a small detail like the DA coin probably would slip under the radar. I thought the Shield Charm Harry used in OOTP would be a good way to get him to see Voldemort's memories without reactivating the scar, which I felt would make no sense given the scar's origins.
As for why he is going after Harry, I figured that he'd have learned that Harry had control of the Elder Wand, so he'd want to ambush him to end the threat. Plus, he'd have the same pettiness and flair for poetic justice Voldemort did. But without knowledge of the DA communications, he could end up comfortable with a smaller pack of Death Eaters and be vulnerable to getting overrun. And given the situation of Death Eaters reorganizing, I think it's reasonable to assume the Minister of Magic would want all of Harry's allies on-call if needed.
I was going to do a Snape/Lily scene this chapter, but I think it's better suited being the bookends for Ch. 7. You'll see why with the next chapter.
Chapter 6: Ghosts of Failures Past
"Is something the matter, Harry Potter?"
As Voldemort started to laugh smugly to himself, Harry was altering between states of panic and total disbelief. There was no way that this could actually be happening. A slew of thoughts as to what he should say or do were rushing to him. He couldn't send a patronus because he didn't know if other Death Eaters were hiding around him. The time it would take to send one could be deadly.
He finally realized that he still had his DA coin, just in case he needed additional help, and this seemed like a good time. While there had been no need for it since the war ended, Kingsley advised the DA to keep in communication in case of extreme emergency. He silently cast the spell to make the coins say "Graveyard, Godric's Hollow," masking his motions as he walked and began to speak to Voldemort.
"You can't be here. I watched you die."
Voldemort didn't seem fazed, and actually smirked. "Oh, you'd be amazed at how much effort it took me to return to see you. Rest assured, though, this time I will not be stopped by a wizard so young and pedestrian."
"I've beaten you before, and I'll beat you again." Harry wanted to keep him talking in order to buy the DA time to react. He hoped one of them would remember to alert the Ministry. He was going to need all the help he could get. At this point, he could sense eyeballs watching him, and he knew that Voldemort had not come to confront him alone.
"But that's just it, isn't it, Potter? You haven't beaten me. I'm still here and I've never been more dangerous, because this time you don't know what I'm capable of."
"I know you're still as ruthless toward others as you've ever been. The Death Eaters' movements have been as cold-blooded and dangerous as ever."
"But what you don't know," Voldemort said, "is the lengths I have gone to be ready for this showdown. How I returned to my position of power, how I plotted and waited for this moment when you would come and see your weak father and mudblood mother and be completely vulnerable."
"How did you survive?" Harry's hatred was dripping from his words, but even he had to admit he was genuinely curious of his answer to this question.
"That story is one you will never know, I'm afraid, as you won't live long enough to hear it."
And with that, more than a dozen Death Eaters came in from all sides and created a circle around Harry and Voldemort. At this point, Harry knew that his chances of survival were next to nothing if the DA didn't come soon.
Harry put his wand up to defend himself, but immediately had to deflect multiple attacks from opposite sides of him. He managed to block an incendiary spell and a Cruciatus curse, but a second one, this time from Voldemort himself, managed to hit and drop him momentarily. In his distraction, Voldemort knocked Harry's wand from his hand, then hit him with a second Cruciatus curse.
As Harry lay in the grass, writhing in pain, Voldemort began to walk toward him. 20 feet and two additional Crucios later, Voldemort had his wand at Harry's throat. Harry was in unbelievable pain, and it took a herculean effort not to fall into a state of unconsciousness.
"I'm going to kill you, but as the one who 'killed' me, you may prove to have useful information, so I'll take it first, and then put a Killing Curse into that scar on your forehead."
Voldemort's red eyes met Harry's green ones, and he knew that the Dark Lord was going to use legilimency on him. Harry's skills at occlumency remained a weak point for him even as an Auror. He had only managed to get a minimal knowledge of it, and in his current state, he lacked the mental awareness necessary to put his full effort into it.
Knowing that he might give away valuable information as to where the Ministry had stationed wizards to keep watch for the Death Eaters (among other important information), Harry resorted to a protective technique that had worked once before… against Snape in Occlumency classes. He cast a Shield Charm and was able to slip through and briefly enter Voldemort's mind.
He knew he'd be expelled in a matter of seconds, so Harry deeply hoped he could find something of use quickly. Harry came across a memory and…
Wait…
Something was wrong. The memory he was seeing was clear as daylight, but there was no way it could possibly be real. It was the memory of Voldemort killing his mother, yes, but something was very wrong with the memory. Lily Potter didn't seem to be in his bedroom; heck, it didn't even look like she was in the same house. Could this be an older attack? How could no one have told him?
But wait, she was pregnant too. Harry was struggling to comprehend this. Lily was very clearly pregnant in this memory. He couldn't have known about the prophesy this early, or at least not to the extent that he would have gone into Godric's Hollow to conduct the attack personally. This memory couldn't be right.
He fired a killing curse at her. She dives behind a sofa and the curse doesn't hit her. And… BANG!
Something that sounded like a gunshot went off and the memory goes black. When it returns, a man who looked vaguely familiar is standing over Voldemort holding a gun.
This memory made no sense at all. Did someone shoot him? This story would have had to be known by someone. It can't be real. And if Voldemort does have this as a dying memory, what does that mean?
Unfortunately, there was no time to speculate, as Harry was violently bounced from Voldemort's mind. As he looked at the man once known as Tom Riddle, he could see that he now had a murderous rage present in his eye, even more than before.
"So you think you can enter my mind, eh, Potter? Well I hope you enjoyed seeing whatever you saw, because I don't plan on letting you live long enough to tell the tale."
Harry didn't know how long he was in Voldemort's mind, but given their positions and the positions of everyone else, it didn't look like it had been more than 10 seconds or so. Regardless, it was clear Voldemort didn't want anyone to know what was in his mind, so he prepared (as best he could) to avoid a Killing Curse at close range.
Voldemort stood over him now, waved his wand and began the attack. As he did, Harry thought he heard popping in the background.
"AVADA KEDAV-"
And Harry was right. Voldemort's wand flew out of his hand, as remnants of the red energy could be seen coming off of Ginny's wand. She must have gone on pure instinct because her face was now going pale and her eyes were wide with sheer terror at who she was looking at.
Ron was right behind her, and although he was definitely surprised, he made a rush straight for the Death Eaters closest to him. Ginny recovered and followed. As Voldemort shook off the surprise and motioned his wand back toward him, another pop revealed Hermione coming to the graveyard.
After a moment where she stood in a similar state of disbelief, a Death Eater tried to disarm her, but the blast was deflected by a shield charm from Ron.
"Oi! You have to focus Hermione! What took you so long anyway?"
Hermione immediately stood back to back with him so they could protect each other's blind sides.
"I had to send a patronus to alert the Ministry for backup, Ronald," she said, a little peeved at being given the third degree during a battle.
"I was just asking. You're welcome, by the way."
"Let's just stay focused. And thank you."
The three were badly outnumbered and were simply trying to deflect the blasts that came toward them. Harry, who had been largely forgotten in favor of the standing wizards, crawled to his wand while he made a mental note as to how many Death Eaters were present. It looked like 10 wizards were now surrounding Ron and Hermione, while eight plus Voldemort were gathering to surround Ginny. Harry realized Ginny would only be able to hold her own for a few seconds, so he forced himself to his knees and prepared to throw himself over to the group about 30 feet away.
But suddenly, there were two more pops, one in between the groups of Death Eaters and everyone paused to see Neville Longbottom. He didn't notice Voldemort immediately, but did see Ginny was unprotected and immediately turned and fired a 'Locomotor Mortis' at the nearest hooded figure he could find.
The second pop came much closer to Harry, and in seconds found himself being helped up by Luna Lovegood.
"Quickly, Harry Potter! We have to help the others."
Harry snapped back into the battle. "Right, thanks Luna. You take on the Death Eaters. I'm going to lead Voldemort away."
"Voldemort?" Luna asked, suddenly seeing the Death Eaters' leader and widening her eyes more than Harry had really seen. Apparently even someone who believed in some of the most outlandish things was not prepared to see Voldemort again. "How is he back?"
"Not sure, but we'll figure it out after!" Harry yelled as he ran toward the group. Upon seeing him, Voldemort immediately broke from the group and started firing waves of green light in Harry's direction. It would seem that he had suddenly remembered what Harry had seen and was determined to leave nothing to chance.
Harry was now running as fast as he could and was able to dodge Voldemort's spells. Voldemort tried to knock him over with a curse, but Harry was able to defend it. He ran into a row of gravestones and moved through them in an attempt to put more obstacles between himself and Voldemort.
As Voldemort pursued him, they drifted quite a ways away from the rest of the group, which was now getting significantly larger. Over the next minute, the Death Eaters were dealing with quite a few more members of the DA. George Weasley and Hannah Abbott came in from opposite sides, and so did Susan Bones, Cho Chang, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell and Dean Thomas. Seamus Finnegan, Ernie Macmillan and both Parvati and Padma Patil soon made it as well. Suddenly, the numbers game the Death Eaters had been in control of looked just about even.
And after a short two minutes of positioning and failed attempts to take anyone out, the odds went right out the window for the Death Eaters, as Kingsley had received Hermione's message. He every Auror who was in the building with him showed up to fight. Thanks to Hermione's quick thinking, the Ministry and DA now nearly tripled the Death Eaters in terms of numbers.
Seeing that they were no longer in control of the situation, the Death Eaters grouped together and tried to create enough space to leave. They made attempts to yell to Voldemort, but they were not being heard through the large group that was now enclosing around that things were in control, Ginny and Luna broke from the group after seeing Harry now desperately trying to avoid Voldemort.
"Now now, Harry. You know how powerful I am, and that I have no plans to let you go free." Neither Harry nor Voldemort had shifted their focus enough to see the rush of Aurors and other wizards who were driving away the Dark Lord's backup.
"I don't know what you saw in those moments where you entered my mind, Potter, but rest assured that you will not be sharing it with anyone. I cannot risk you revealing anything about me, even the most miniscule—"
And at that point Luna and Ginny simultaneously fired curses at Voldemort. He heard the blasts leave the wand, though, and immediately blocked. He fired two curses at them almost instinctively.
"Ginny! Luna!"
The two managed to barely dodge the blasts. Voldemort made a move to fire again, but his attention turned just enough for him to see his Death Eaters starting to retreat and disapparate from the scene. He was now painfully outnumbered and members of the Ministry were now rushing toward him, wands out.
"NO!" Voldemort realized that, strong as he was, within moments he would have dozens of the most powerful wizards in Britain surrounding him. The odds of victory were not good at this point, and he had no desire to delay his plans with another resurrection. Besides, there was no telling whether the potion would work here. Bone from his father would be necessary, but he used his father's bones before leaving his universe. Even if some traces remained from his father's grave here, he couldn't risk that they wouldn't work.
Inside, he was seething. How had Harry Potter reached out to so many wizards so quickly? He had a scout in the area and was sure that an ambush would work. He didn't see him send anything out, and yet within minutes he had gone from being in total control of the situation to being desperately outnumbered. And the move from the group he brought to pull back so quickly was deplorable. He would have to make an example out of all of them when he got back.
As much as he didn't want to leave a loose end, at this point he had to go into self-preservation mode. Besides, even if Harry Potter had come across a memory that gave away how he was alive, he made a point of making sure Salazar Slytherin's notes in this time were destroyed, so they couldn't do anything with the information.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
He fired one last killing curse at Harry just before he disapparated. Harry ducked behind a grave stone and survived the final attack. Voldemort was gone and the threat had passed. Harry was sure that there would be blood in the Death Eater ranks for the debacle here, but larger revelations were setting in.
This Voldemort remembered a totally different encounter with his mother and a totally different death. His scar didn't react at all to him, and the use of the DA coin as well as his surprise at how quickly the reinforcements came in meant he didn't have memories of some of the tactics used at the end of the war.
Harry had spent a lot of time in Voldemort's head, and if one thing was for sure, the person he was fighting, dangerous as he was, was not Voldemort.
