Unfinished Journeys, Untraveled Roads - 8 - Fate's Exchange
.
by Polydicta
A selection of unfinished tales that have been abandoned.
Each 'chapter' represents a single story.
Ongoing warnings for smut, language, character death, bashing, torture, mutilation, religious/social iconoclasm and reader brain damage. Brain bleach is highly recommended.
.
Disclaimer:
All fiction is derivative and fan fiction doubly so. I make no claim to own any part of any of the following, all I have done is an attempt to put together the elements in a novel fashion, using words and ideas like Lego ™ bricks.
There is no money involved – all I do is to share what I do for my own amusement.
.
-::::::::-
.
Unfinished Journeys, Untraveled Roads - 8 - Fate's Exchange
.
Sirius, Harry and Hermione all die in the DoM debacle, and Fate has to act.
.
1 – The Party At The End Of The Film
.
The end of shooting party was taking place in one of the hangar-like warehouses on the Pinewood Studios main lot. The party was in a most surreal setting, surrounded by furniture from various scenes from the seven films – the full-size Death Veil arch formed a dramatic backdrop to the party.
"I have to say, Dan, this was the most dramatic set for a death-scene that I ever did have. Falling through the veil seemed almost an understatement when it came out."
"A nice touch, actually, Gary. A classic piece of dramatic counter-composition."
"Thank you Her … um, Emma."
The brown haired actor grinned at the blushing young starlet. The fact that he was wearing long hair and a beard for his current stage role just made him look more like his Sirius Black character. He briefly reflected that the pretty young girl he had first met was now a beautiful young woman, and was every bit as intelligent as the character she had portrayed.
The three sat in companionable silence, reflecting comfortably on the highs and the lows of shooting the seven films as the party rolled on into the night.
.
Somehow, in their quiet reverie, they managed to miss the departure of the cast and crew. Somehow, no one noticed them sitting quietly on the partially dismantled plinth supporting the massive, wood and plaster arch.
.
.
Neville Longbottom was carrying an injured and unconscious Hermione Granger through the Department of Mysteries. His friend, Harry Potter was shooting curses and raising shields in an attempt to bring his two injured classmates safely through the hell of the running battle.
They emerged in a chamber lit by the eldrich glow of some kind of misty veil that filled an arch that seemed ripped from an ancient ruin. A sussurus like the whispering of a thousand ghosts filled the air.
Luna, Ginny and Ron appeared through another of the several doors around the circumference of the chamber. Ron was in a bad way, obviously hallucinating and Ginny, whist still functioning mentally was hobbling on an obviously damaged ankle. Luna, like Harry, was fighting for three.
"Harry, I deeb a breader!"
Harry nodded. "I know, Neville … lay her on the plinth. We're fairly defensible here amongst the rocks."
Harry looked toward the veil. Now that they were closer, he could hear that the sounds were voices on an unfelt breeze.
"I can hear them too, Harry."
"Thanks, Luna. I wasn't sure it wasn't my imagination …"
.
A few minutes respite was all they had before they once again were caught up in the running battle, only now they were pinned down. A series of pops were heard as members of the Order of The Phoenix apparated in., and the battle heated up once more.
Harry was fighting alongside Sirius on the plinth before the arch when a stray banishing hex hit the still unconscious Hermione, throwing her through the arch.
"Hermione!" the distraction was enough for Harry and Sirius' opponents to throw them through the veil.
.
The battle raged and resistance was crushed, but so was the hope of the wizarding world with the deaths of the Boy-Who-Lived and his friend, the brightest witch of the age.
Dumbledore faced Lord Voldemort in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic, but, after the Dark Lord departed, Dumbledore was crushed by the news of the loss of The Chosen One…
.
.
Twenty-seven miles, a few years away and on the other side of a shadow, three cast-members from a block-buster movie series roused from their introspection. Still a little tipsy from the festivities, they all slipped from their perch together. A moment of speed, a flash of grey and they were kneeling.
"Um, Dan?"
"Emma?"
"This is grit I'm on …"
Daniel Radcliffe pulled his thoughts together and moved his hand. "Ummmmmm …. yeah. Same here. What the …?"
Gary Oldman finished Dan's sentence with the preferred profanity.
The three stood and looked round at the chamber. The arch was there, now with a faintly glowing veil of mist across the aperture, the floor was grit and strewn rocks and there was a burned taint mixed with ozone in the air.
Emma stooped and picked up a stick which gushed forth a stream of red and gold stars, giving a little shriek of shock as she dropped the supposed firework. The stars winked out as she lost contact with the wood.
She picked up the stick once more and, feeling very silly, performed the swish and flick whilst intoning, "wingardium leviosa!"
One of the smaller rocks lifted from the dirt floor.
The sick grin fixed to her face showed, to the two actors, that she really didn't want to believe what was going on.
Dan and Gary looked around, eventually finding a couple more wands that did nothing. Nothing, that is, until they exchanged them.
Three actors stood looking as though they felt very, very silly.
.
They managed to find their way out of the death chamber and into the atrium. It looked as though there had been a rocket attack on the place. There were people milling around wearing robes not unlike the wizard costumes that the trio had worn whilst on set. A tall, white haired man with an incredible white beard and a twisted nose was speaking to a worried looking weasel of a man with a green bowler hat and a nightshirt.
The nightshirted man glanced past the imposing man and at the trio. Dumbledore, for it was he, paused and looked around, following the minister's gaze, immediately seeing the three dressed in muggle clothes.
"Siri … um, Har … err, Miss Gran … Um … ?"
Dumbledore stopped, realising that these three were not the three who had passed through the veil.
.