A green flash and a jolt of pain, this was the moment when Harry realised he had failed to protect Daphne. And after that,… he was falling, falling through pure white. After a while he realised these were clouds and slowly he started seeing specks of blue sky. He now also felt the air flowing over his wings and when he tried to move them, he realised he was flying and he was slowly gaining control of his path.
Above him was the endless sky dotted with clouds, below him there was a huge forest that stretched as far as he could see and he flew in no particular direction. He spotted a clearing in the forest and he had the feeling that this would be a nice place to be, so he approached it.
When he got closer, he saw a red-haired woman standing in the middle of the clearing, when he reached her she held out her arm and he landed on her hand. Her green eyes were watching him and he felt comforted by her presence. "What a beautiful bird you have become" she said while stroking him with her free hand, "but now I would like to meet my brave, little boy."
She lowered him on the ground and Harry transformed into his human form. The woman opened her arms and he stepped forward into them. He snuggled his head to her chest as she pulled him close and kissed his head. For the first time since long, Harry Potter was held by his mother.
They stayed like this for a while, tears were slowly falling from Harry's eyes as he held onto her. Finally he asked, "Mum, am I dead?"
"You might be, my son. I came to meet you here and I can guide you on the rest of your journey if you want to. However, you have the chance to return one more time, if you choose. The spell I cast on you, which contained my love for you and which saved your life many years ago, has protected you one last time. It has protected you for years from the dark parasite that latched onto your soul. But now thanks to the pride of a dark wizard, the love of a mother and the courage of a boy, this dark piece has now been removed from you."
It was only now that Harry noticed a black wheezing creature that lay on the grass near them, it looked like a cross between a baby and a leech. It repulsed him, but at the same time he also felt sorry for it.
He looked up to his mother's face and told her: "I am not really sure I understood all that, but does this mean to I get to stay with you?"
His mother smiled at him and said: "If you want, you can come with me and you can stay with me forever and I would be so happy. I watched you lead your life, all the sorrow that you had to go through without me or your father there, my hart bled when you were so lonely. However you also have a very special opportunity, a chance to go back and lead your life. I think that you have finally found some people that could become your family, if you choose to return to them. And I would be equally happy in watching you lead the rest of your life. And at the completion of that, me and your father will be here waiting for you."
"I cannot go back, mum. Voldemort was winning, I was killed and Daphne will soon be next. If I return, it will be to a life of sadness. In the end your spell did not work, I could not protect her." Harry said as he cast down his eyes.
His mother placed her hand on his cheek and said: "My sweet boy, if you return you will find that your efforts were not for nothing. You will see that Daphne is safe and that the world has a real chance of ending the existence of Voldemort."
Harry smiled and snuggled closer to his mother as he took in her scent. Would he really be able to let her go?
Amelia Bones was pinching the bridge of her nose, with a deep frown on her face she sighed deeply. This day was turning out far more worrisome than expected, or at least a different kind of worrisome than anticipated. She was sitting at a table in Greengrass manor, in front of her sat an agitated Cyrus Greengrass, a worried Daisy Greengrass and their inconsolable daughter that was sobbing over a dead crow that was lying in her lap. Meanwhile a mediwitch was trying to treat some wounds on the girl while her assistant aurors were busy taking notes and coordinating the initial research efforts.
She took a steadying breath and spoke: "So, Lord Greengrass, let me get this straight, you are telling me that your daughter was attacked by Voldemort and two of his deatheaters? Voldemort who we believed to be gone from this world for over ten years? Meanwhile the crow that your daughter is holding is Harry Potter? The boy-who-lived that we have been looking for during the past year? And finally that Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, had all this information in his possession and did not see it fit to inform the department of magical law enforcement?"
"That is precisely what I have been trying to explain for over the past half hour to you and your colleagues." Cyrus Greengrass replied.
It was a story that was hard to believe, but the few things that she could verify at this time did confirm it. She had two aurors that had been called to the manor for an emergency notification ward that had been set off, they had confirmed that lethal spells had been fired in the garden by the figure that had been detained, who vaguely looked like the dark, evil wizard. Also they had witnessed two figures in death eater robes and masks flying away.
How could this have happened? When Amelia had entered in her function as head of the DMLE, it had been her goal to build up the department to the point where they would detect and deter any threat by Dark Wizards. Her brother and most of her family had been murdered by Voldemort and his terrorist group, she only had her niece Susan left. And now that very same dark wizard had been able to rise again under her nose?
But when she considered the matter critically, she knew why they could have missed the reemergence of Voldemort, law enforcement had not been the priority of this administration for a while now. The last year she had just felt swamped more and more. Just look at this day for example, the first two hours she had been busy reading and signing of all the reports on the interventions her aurors had made over the last week, a requirement that had been enforced by the Wizengamot two years ago. Also this month new legislation, proposed by Lucius Malfoy, had been passed requiring her to approve all expenditures over twenty sickles personally, which added a huge pile on her already massive workload and had occupied her for the rest of the morning. This was to 'finally get their budget under control', if the budget had not been shrinking every year she would have had everything under control.
Their resources were spread so thin and her time was occupied by so much, that she had slowly lost control of the situation. But this would end now, she would not repeat the mistakes that were made by her predecessors in the previous war. She was enough of a politician to realise that in a good crisis lay opportunity. It was time to throw her weight around and gain some allies.
"Dawlish, get Croaker here ASAP" she ordered her senior assistant.
"Croaker, the Head of the department of mysteries?" he asked.
"Yes, how many other Croakers do you know?"
"Well, it is just that in order to get another department head on site, I need to complete form 301-B, which needs to be signed by the Minister himself. It is part of that new cost saving law that was passed…"
Amelia cut of her auror, "Dawlish, I am giving you a direct order, get Croaker and one of his best teams here now! Or would you rather explain me which form I have to complete to assign you to cauldron inspection duty for the foreseeable future? Oh, and when you are there at the ministry set up teams to observe all known death eaters that pleaded the imperius defence."
John Dawlish swallowed, he should have informed his boss that this second order would require form 242-C and a signed approval by the Chief Warlock in register 72-A. Also the minister had decreed that all imperiussed death eaters were victims of you-know-who and could not be specifically profiled in any way. But the look in Amelia Bones's eyes was fiery and told him to just do as she asked on this occasion and worry about the other consequences later.
It was at this moment that the room heard a loud gasp from the crying girl. Amelia looked over and saw the crow in the girl's lap twitching. Oh no, she thought, some post-mortem movement that would no doubt raise false hopes for the girl.
But the movements did not stop, the bird's body jerked more until his head and body started moving clearly. Finally the crow opened his eyes and in front of the surprised room it turned into a human. Harry Potter had just survived the killing curse for a second time.
Dawlish was watching the scene with his mouth open as Daphne and Daisy Greengrass were hugging the boy tightly and the mediwitch was trying to cast diagnostic charms. He startled when his boss repeated her order loudly: "Get me Croaker now!".