Across the camp-site, Harry Potter could hear off-key singing, and the occasional bang or crack of fireworks as the Irish celebrated their win.
It was, rather surprisingly in fact, rather calming to the young raven-haired wizard, who found himself drifting between waking and sleep in a gentle doze. Partly aware of the noise of the also celebrating Weasleys, the other half of Harry's mind was filled with fantasies – of him soaring into the quidditch stadium in Gryffindor Red robes astride his firebolt as everyone screamed his name.
"Oh… I'm so glad I'm not on duty," Mr Weasley's voice murmured quietly, Harry missing out the rest of what the man was going to say as he fell back into sleep. When he came back to himself, it was to the red-haired man shouting, "GET UP! GET UP! RON! HARRY! HURRY UP – BOTH OF YOU!"
Half falling off the top bunk, Harry blinked up at the panicked looking man in confusion, as he watched the Weasley Patriarch staggering around the tent and pulling his children and shoving them towards the door. Grabbing Harry's jacket from the floor and shoving into his arms as Mr Weasley pushed him towards Hermione and guided the two of them towards the tent door as well, slipping something small into Harry's hand.
As he finally woke up completely, Harry felt shivers running down his spine as he realised what was wrong – the happy singing had transformed into terrified screaming, and the cracking of fireworks had turned into loud explosions of spell-fire.
"GET INTO THE WOODS!" Mr Weasley ordered as he basically dragged them all outside, tapping Bill, Charlie, and Percy on the shoulders and gesturing towards the direction of the screaming and the fires burning in the night. "Get into the woods you lot! Stay safe, stay away from everyone else! You two," he added pointing at Fred and George, "Look after your sister, and – and just stay safe, all of you".
As Mr Weasley turned and sprinted off after his elder sons, Harry watched as Fred quickly lifted Ginny off the ground and threw her over his shoulder, George doing the same with Ron. "Run you two!" the twins shouted simultaneously as they shoved Harry and Hermione towards the forest, ignoring Ron's indignant squawks as they started running.
Feeling a flicker of amusement as he watched Ron bouncing on his brother's shoulders, Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and started running after them, fighting the part of him that wanted to look over his shoulder as he instead focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Drawing his wand as he ran, Harry unashamedly threw a curse at someone who stumbled into their way, his stinging hex knocking the man to the side with a yelp.
Ignoring Hermione's wordless cry of disapproval, Harry kept dragging her along, not willing to lose one of his friends to the chaos raging around them. He had a hard enough time sleeping in the same room with the other Gryffindors of their year, he didn't want to think about what would happen to him if he lost either of his best friends – an image of old Mrs Figg from Privet Drive flashed through his mind, the woman all alone with only a horde of cats for company.
That image was one too real for Harry to want to think about, he instead kept pushing forward, both he and Hermione using their wands to clear their path of any obstacles or burning debris.
Almost tripping over a small rabbit-hole in the ground, Harry managed to right himself in time to see a tornado of black smoke touching down in front of them, a man dressed in black robes with a bone-white mask stepping from it as he sent a stream of black fire towards a tent bearing a grinning leprechaun's face. As the tent went up in flames, Harry followed Hermione as she started to tug him away from the robed man and after the twins, keeping his wand locked on the man in case he turned and saw them.
"Death Eaters," Hermione hissed as they ducked behind a tent, the two of them crouching there paralysed as they looked at the wide open space between them and the Weasleys. "You-Know-Who's servants," she explained as Harry's mind raced.
Instead of responding, Harry waved his arms to catch the twins' attention, trying to convey through gestures that he and Hermione would catch up and that they should run. "When I say," he whispered, trying to peer around the tent at the 'Death Eater' hurling destructive spells around, "Run".
"But Harry!" Hermione began.
"Run," he interrupted, not wanting to sit there and argue as he grabbed her hand again, keeping the tent between them and the Death Eater as they ran away from the dark wizard. "We'll circle, meet up with the Weasleys in the forest," he explained as they dove behind another tent, "It'll be simple, like wizard's chess".
"This isn't chess," Hermione countered.
"I hope not," Harry confessed bluntly, "I'm crap at chess". Almost leaving it there, Harry glanced over at Hermione, freezing as he saw the tears forming in her eyes, "Hey, hey. We'll be fine," he promised, trying to simultaneously assure Hermione and watch over her shoulder for the Death Eater. "We'll get out this. If we can take on Voldemort, his basilisk and an army of dementors, then I think we can get out of this safely yeah?"
As Hermione blinked away her tears, leaving her beautiful brown eyes locked onto his, Harry found himself leaning forward before he could help himself, pressing his lips against hers awkwardly. "We'll get out of this," he repeated as he pulled away from the shocked girl, "I won't let anyone hurt you".
What Hermione was about to say went in one ear and out the other, as his eyes flicked past her to the Death Eater standing there, watching in growing horror as the man turned to face them. Freezing, the two of them staring each other for a second or two, Harry reacted the only way he could – as a cry of "AVADA KEDAVRA!" filled the air, he reached out and shoved Hermione away, watching as she hit the ground and the spell flew right over to hit him in the chest.
"HARRY! HARRY NO!"
"Step aside silly girl!"
"NOT HARRY! PLEASE NOT HARRY!"
"I'll only ask one more time".
"Not my son!"
"HARRY!"
Eyes snapping open, Harry stared up at into the night sky for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on.
Flinching as an explosion sounded nearby – leaving his ears ringing - he rolled scrambled to his feet, looking around what seemed to be a camp-site on fire, pretty much every tent he could see burning or destroyed. As his hearing returned, Harry didn't even have the time to duck as blade of what looked like black light tore through the tent beside him, the light coming so close he could have sworn he felt the heat and anger it let off. Spinning about as a scream filled the air, he watched as a man in a long black dress wearing a mask, hurled bolts of light at a younger strangely familiar brown-haired girl wearing pyjamas.
"PROTEGO!"
With her scream, Harry watched as a shimmering wall of blue energy appeared before her, the red light that the man threw hitting it and causing the wall to shatter in a purple explosion.
"Protego. More commonly known as the 'shielding charm', protego is a spell that creates a magical barrier before the caster, that can be used to deflect physical entities and spells. Now get your wands out… that's right… and repeat after me..."
Flinching back as the small squeaky voice cut painfully through his head, Harry dropped to his knees and clutched at his head as it felt like his skull had cracked open upon every word the voice had said.
Gasping for breath, Harry looked back up at the girl as she stuttered out the charm again, watching as it shattered again the moment the man's spell hit it. She was doing it wrong, he could see it from where he was kneeling, she was cutting the gesture off too early and she wasn't putting enough magic into the spell – the spell, because magic was real apparently. He couldn't remember how he knew, but he knew that magic was real, and that he could use it.
Movement drew his eyes to the man in a dress, Harry watching in horror as he pulled his hand back and threw a bolt of purple fire at the girl. He couldn't stop it, he wouldn't be able to get there in time to knock her out of the way of the spell… but he could do this.
"Protego".
Letting out a shuddering gasp as he felt what must have been his magic surging up inside his chest, Harry directed it all down his outstretched arm and into the shield charm, a half-dome of shining blue magic appearing before the girl. As the purple fire splashed across the surface of the dome, he could feel foreign magic pressing down on his own, a snarl escaping his lungs as he pushed back. After a split-second pause, the purple fire reformed into a bolt as it was deflected from the shield charm that fell apart as Harry's arm dropped to his side.
Launching himself into action as the man in a dress was forced to throw himself to the side ungracefully to avoid his own purple fire, Harry sprinted across the clearing towards the girl, ignoring how she turned to him with a whispered "Harry?" as he grabbed her still raised arm and almost tore it from its socket as he started pulling her away from the man.
Dragging her towards the forest, hoping they could lose the man in there, Harry refused to look behind him. He couldn't fight the man, he could only remember how to use the shield charm, he didn't remember any other spells he could possibly fight the man with. (Why couldn't he remember? Why was everything before this camp gone? What was this camp even for? And why did he recognise the girl when he didn't even know what he looked like?)
"Harry!" the girl hissed as they dove into the trees, having zigzagged through the tents to avoid the man's sight. "Harry stop!"
Finally allowing them to slow down, he pulled the girl behind a tree and nervously peered around it, hands ready to cast another shielding charm as he searched for the man. "Shut up!" he spat as the girl started talking, "Not yet". When he was certain that the man wasn't going to show up out of the blue uninvited, Harry slowly nodded his head, taking a deep breath as he stepped away from the tree and turned to face the girl. "Okay," he gasped out as he gently lowered his hands down to his knees, greedily sucking in the air their run had stolen from them, "Now you can talk".
"How are you alive?" the girl blurted, hovering there as her hands twitched with some unknown (to Harry at least) urge.
"Should I be dead?" he countered, blinking up at the girl in confusion.
Squeaking in response, the girl launched herself at him, making Harry stiffen as she pulled him into a crushing – yet familiar – hug. "That was the Killing Curse, Harry," the girl exclaimed tearfully, making Harry cringe at the idea of a crying girl, "Nobody survives the Killing Curse".
"Except for me, apparently," Harry muttered to himself.
"Again? Yes," the girl agreed, still not letting him go, "How did you survive it again?"
"Again?"
The girl nodded quickly, stepping back and reaching out to hold his hand, "Come on. We have to find the Weasleys," she said hesitantly. "We have to – Did you mean it?" she asked instead.
"Did I mean what?" was Harry's confused reply, neither knowing what 'it' was, nor what the Weasleys were.
"The kiss, Harry," the girl snapped, looking torn as she stared up at him, "You kissed m-" the girl stopped suddenly, her mouth opening and closing slowly as she frowned. "What happened to your eyes?" she blurted, making his hands rise up to tenderly touch the skin around them, "They've changed colour".
"What colour are they now? And what colour were they before," Harry asked nervously.
"Green. They're still green," the girl assured him quickly, "But they're not the same colour, they're… more pastel green, instead of the same colour as the Killing Curse and – of course!" the girl exclaimed, talking more to herself than to Harry. "The Killing Curse! Nobody has survived it before you, maybe changing your eye colour was one of it's side effects? You know, instead of killing you?" she finished uncertainly.
"Side effects?" Harry questioned, making the girl nod. "I think I've found another side effect," he admitted, leaving him the focus of the girl's beautiful brown eyes. "I don't know who I am," he said bluntly, making her blink at him in confusion, "I don't don't remember anything".
BLANK
If you want anyone to blame for this chapter, blame DZ2 for his awesome story simply entitled 'Run', which was based off his own challenge called 'Who Am I'. Reading his story sparked this idea in my brain, and I couldn't get rid of it any way other than writing it down – so here it is.