Harry didn`t even have time to bask in the glory of what he`d done before the entire hall burst out into utter madness.
A spell exploded on the bowl of rolls behind him, and the Slytherin who`d cast it was swiftly tackled by an overzealous Sirius Black, who decided to follow Harry and resort to muggle tactics. James and Alice had already cast multiple shield charms on Lily, but the witch in question seemed perfectly at ease as she dueled another one of Snape`s cronies. A stray spell lit Frank`s hair on fire, so Mary dumped a bucket of pumpkin juice over his head before they too joined the fray.
Snape, staggering from the blow, started to reach for his wand, already muttering curses under his breath and turning back on Harry. Before he could retaliate, however, Melody swept his legs out from underneath him.
"Nice one, Harry!" Mattie cheered over the din, taking up a protective stance between him and the scuffling crowd. "You might want to run now, before the entirety of Slytherin really does kick your arse. They may not like Snape all that much, but they love a good fight."
Up at the teachers table, even McGonagall was on the verge of giving up on soothing the anarchy.
"Why shouldn`t I stay and fight with the rest of you?"
James chuckled, glancing back as he sent a cantankerous Ravenclaw flying. "Because, when you laid hands on that slimy junior Death Eater, you put a price on your head that would be extremely beneficial for anyone trying to get in good with the Death Eaters to want to cash in. Bagging one of us in the hospital wing is just an entire now, you`re the main course."
Business as usual, then. Harry was tempted to tell his dad he could handle a bunch of students, after all, he`d just faced off against Voldemort again just a few days ago.
But clearly, this was not the time for disputing bravery and comparing egos with James Potter. So, for the sake of keeping up image as the impulsive, homeschooled cousin, he wiped the Snape slime on his pants and took off sprinting.
Unfortunately, the mob was not quite done with him yet.
As Harry rounded a corner, he saw the wave of silver and green charging after him, and found himself desperately wishing he had his Firebolt. Surely, he could not keep this pace up forever, and eventually, one of them was bound to hit him with a stunner or worse…
At that moment, passing the hallway that would, in just a few decades time, become a swamp by the hands of some brilliantly vengeful twins, it hit him. He would pull a Weasley.
Or would it be considered a Potter now, since he was now here to coin it first?
Only time would tell.
"ACCIO BROOMSTICK!" Harry roared, whirling up a staircase, taking the steps two at a time.
Of course, the broom didn`t come crashing in immediately, as Harry had hoped. It wasn`t like they were helpfully chained up inside the castle or anything. But as Harry and his parade of pissed predators ascended one of the tallest towers of Hogwarts, help was indeed on the way.
Thanking his lucky stars there wasn`t a class he would be busting in on, Harry dashed out onto the astronomy tower, only precious seconds ahead of the pack.
But that hardly mattered, because he was completely trapped in a place that wasn`t quite home, without even the immediate aid of the people who weren't quite yet his friends. It was a dead end. Well, not quite.
Harry looked uneasily over the edge of the tower. As someone who practically lived for the thrill of heights, he wasn`t exactly terrified of the distance between him and the ground; Harry just knew that this dive wasn`t exactly one he`d have a chance of surviving. Between falling to his death and being hexed to oblivion by an angry mob of Slytherins, Harry was beginning to think being scraped off the grounds below by Filch was sounding pretty good. So much for the Boy Who Lived.
It was then that Harry saw something that made him solidify his decision.
He took off running, right on past the point when there was tower left to run on.
The tower door crashed open, but before the first crucio could be fired, Harry`s feet were no longer on the ground.
Once, before he`d know about this world magic, Harry had jumped an extraordinary distance to avoid getting beat up by Dudley`s gang. At the time, it had seemed a once in a lifetime opportunity, a miracle, a fluke. Now, as Harry`s shoes balanced on the narrow broomstick as it rose farther and farther from his would-be attackers, he thanked Merlin that this lightning bolt had struck twice.
"Oi, get back here!"
"Stupefy!"
"Accio Finnigan. There must be some way to get at him…"
"Accio Nimbus 1000!"
Speeding away before the other broomsticks could arrive, Harry contemplated how exactly to get down from this broom-surfing position. Any sudden movements would surely send him spiraling to the grounds below, or worse, forgoing the broom and letting gravity take hold.
Harry had seen pictures of muggle trapeze artists, and not once had he ever felt the slightest bit of envy towards them. Now, if he closed his eyes for the briefest of moments, standing free, he could feel the rush of fear diluted with the pure bliss of freedom, and understood why the muggles did this...
"Hey Finnigan! You`re not supposed to stand, you house elf! Ever been on a broom before?"
A boy who Harry could only assume to be Crabbe Senior had mounted his broom, with the other member of the Future Death Eater Squad right behind him. A hex hit Harry in the left ankle, and while he marveled at how they could contain the brain power to fly and fire spells at the same time, Harry lost his stance. His legs scrambling to touch anything but air, Harry managed to dig into his inner seeker and grab the broom as he fell.
As he dangled, the others began to catch up.
"Aw, hang in there Harry, we`ll be there soon."
"Look at the little Gryffindor, still trying to run. Can you believe what they`re passing off as bravery these days? Starts a fight, and then leaves his friends to finish it for him."
The castle below blurred, and Harry was back at the Department of Mysteries, watching Sirius disappear behind the veil, consumed by oblivion. All the people who had fought that night, been hurt and killed that night… Ron, Ginny, Neville, Sirius…. It had all been because of Harry and his hero`s complex, blindly running into battle. It wasn`t the first time, either. Ron and Hermione had been put in danger countless times thanks to him, not to mention the fact that he inadvertently caused the deaths of Cedric Diggory and both of his parents. Maybe it was for the better that he was never born.
However, that didn`t mean he wanted his already born self to suffer a terrible death-by-Slytherins.
Tightening his grip on the broom, Harry heaved himself up until he was finally sitting. This small victory was quickly quelled, though, as the younger Mulciber and Crabbe Senior closed in.
"Protego." Harry gasped, dodging what he could only assume was a nasty curse from Mulciber. Shooting off towards the Black Lake, Harry swerved around the battlements in hopes of losing his shadows.
Sadly, the apparent lack of brain cells only seemed to hasten the mob, the absence perhaps making them slightly lighter. Ducking around Hagrid`s hut, Harry was momentarily considering making a pass at the Whomping Willow when a much safer alternative stood out in his peripheral vision.
Unfortunately, safer wasn`t always less risky.
Grinning, Harry just hoped they could steer as well as they aimed spells, and shot back up above the castle. He circled for a minute, wasting precious seconds plotting his course.
"Are you lost, newbie? Come `ere, we`ll show you a short cut to the ground."
"Gotta catch me first, old man." Harry whispered, and dove, not daring to check if they followed.
The owlery windows, no bigger than a Great Grey owl, had allowed passage for a vast assortment of birds, hawk to carrier pigeon, in their many years of service, but never before had any of them been passed though by a teenage boy. Considering the students currently embodying Hogwarts, it was quite shocking that Harry was the first (but certainly not last) to ever accomplish this. However, considering this was the same boy who aided his friends in smuggling a dragon out of the school, one can not be taken completely by surprise.
Not only did Harry manage to enter the owlery via the windows, but he succeeded in exiting through them as well. His pugnacious pursuers, however, were not as lucky. The ones that managed to make it in the window, not expecting the abrupt turn out the other side, were soon exclaiming synonymous expletives of the very secretion they were coated in.
"Whooohooo!" Harry threw a celebratory fist in the air, feathers trailing in his wake. One of these days, he was going to run out of miracles, but he thanked Merlin that today was not that day.
Since he was fairly sure the brawl in the Great Hall was still going strong, Harry was contemplating introducing himself to Hargid or sneaking into the Divination tower when he spotted the open window in the Gryffindor tower.
It wasn`t until he had climbed through said window that he registered any concern about who`s room exactly he was sneaking into, or the mess he would surely leave (because feats such as the great owlery dive of 1976 did not exactly come owl poop and feather-free), and it wasn`t until a second after that when he registered that he was not alone in said strange room, as a voice called out to him from the shadows.
"James?"