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A New Hope | ||||
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Category: Alternate Universe Characters:Albus Dumbledore, Dumbledore, Harry/Ginny, Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black Genres: Comedy, Romance Warnings: None Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 3 Summary: Harry has defeated He Who Was Evil. Now what? Hitcount: Story Total: 430 Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights ? J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work. |
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It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of optimism, it was the age of terror, it was the epoch of hope, it was the epoch of desperation, it was the season of light, it was the season of dark, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. The wizarding world had everything before it, it had nothing before it. Such was the era of Voldemort and the fight between good and evil, love and hate. Harry Potter was born into this world on the last day of July in 1980. Fifteen months later, his parents died protecting him, and when Voldemort tried to kill him, his mother’s love protected him from the most heinous of curses, marking young Harry and banishing the Evil One for many years to come. Poor Harry was left by Albus (many more names) Dumbledore in the care of Harry’s aunt, Petunia Dursley, and her rotund husband, Vernon. Also in this house was his tormentor, Dudley, Petunia and Vernon’s son who was a few months senior to Harry. There are many ways to describe Harry’s life in the Dursley house, none of them kind or caring. Harry had been left in the unloving care of his relations as a result of the unlawful imprisonment of Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black. Sirius was assumed to be the holder of the secret to Harry’s little family and therefore the one who led He-Who-Must-be-Hyphenated to the Potters’ home and thus the one who was responsible for the parents’ deaths. The true betrayer was, however, a false friend of the small group who called themselves Marauders, Peter Petigrew. Peter had the unenviable ability to turn both literally and figuratively into a rat, and was the true keeper of the secret of the Potters’ location and the one responsible for the parents’ deaths and Harry becoming an orphan. Peter escaped as a rat and lived for some years as a rat. He took refuge in the odd edifice known as “the Burrow,” home to a large and honorable wizarding family, the Weasleys. But, being as small minded as the rodent whose body he had adopted, he turned himself back one day into human form as he rummaged around in chest drawers of his owner, Percy Weasley. And thus, in the summer of 1987, Percy Weasley screamed in surprise and his brother Bill, who was just descending on the landing outside Percy’s door, saw the unidentified man and without thought stunned him. Mr. Arthur and Mrs. Molly Weasley, father and mother, respectively, ran up the stairs, and, seeing the strange man, each stunned him again. By that time, the rest of the family had responded too. Charlie Weasley, being underage, whacked the man in the chest with the beater’s bat he had grabbed as he ran in response to the scream. Ever the one for a direct action, the seventh child and only daughter, Ginny, directed her efforts, as she had been taught by her older brothers, into a swift kick into the man’s nether regions. The aurors (wizarding policemen) were summoned to the Burrow and, after stunning the hapless rat again, place him in manacles that not only held him but also inhibited his magic. In particular, Senior Auror (and soon to retire) Alistor “Mad-eye” Moody recognized the captured man as a previously assumed dead Pettigrew. This recognition started a chain of events that led to Pettigrew’s outing as a rat animagus, his involvement in Harry’s parents’ deaths, and ultimately in the freeing of the prisoner but never convicted Sirius Black. And so it happens that Sirius appeared at the doorway of number four, Privet Drive, in Little Whinging, Sussex, early in the afternoon of July 31, not long after his release that was occasioned by the capture of Peter. However, when he knocked on the door, he was greeted by only silence. Now Sirius, both the curious and unconventional fellow that he was, decided to change into his animagus form of a large, Grim-like black dog. While sniffing around, he heard whimpers coming from within the house. Reverting to human form, he magicked the back door open and found little Harry locked in a cupboard under the stairs, battered and bruised. Fighting the impulse to light the home on fire, or track down and hurt the Dursley’s, instead he apparated to the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and carried Harry up the hill, into the castle and from thence on to the Hospital Wing, where he was met by the matron, Madame Pomfrey. In addition to treating and calming Harry with appropriate potions, she also summoned Headmaster Dumbledore. To say that Dumbledore was less than pleased would be one of the greatest understatements of the age. The Durleys, of course, were properly punished for the treatment of Harry. Petunia and Vernon were arrested, tried and eventually convicted by Muggle courts, and would spend some amount of time in the “lock up.” Dudley was more severely punished, being sent to live with his Aunt Marge, who cared more for her dogs than her little Duddley-poo. (Eventually, Petunia and Vernon were paroled, and upon petitioning received custody of Dudley back, damaged though he was by his time with Marge. Thankfully, no more mention of them need be made in the telling of our story.) Initially, Harry went to live with his Godfather at the hereditary Black home, number twelve, Grimauld Place, in London. The house was dark and dingy, not having been cared for by the long-term family house elf, Kreacher. Kreacher and Sirius did not get on at all well, with their history reflecting the conflict between Sirius’ more enlightened tendencies and the family’s traditional beliefs. Both were insulting and surly with each other. Kreacher did not take kindly to Harry, but focused his ire upon his now-master, Sirius. Godfather and Godson were not pleased with the depressing environs of Grimaldi Place, and Sirius was so disenchanted with Kreacher that he threatened to give the elf clothes, setting him free and effectively kicked out of the family he had served and revered all his life. Harry took exception to Sirius’ treatment of Kreacher and dissuaded his godfather from carrying through with the threat, but only by pointing out that his disdain for and bullying of the elf was similar to his previous treatment by his muggle relations. In an actual turn of events, Kreacher held a grudging appreciation of Harry and a measure of rapprochement in all of the relations within the small family. Shortly after moving into the dilapidated London townhome, Sirius and Harry agreed that they would prefer to live somewhere lighter, more open, and with more spacious grounds. It didn’t take long for Sirius to find a place in western Wales, along the coast, in an old (and relatively small) but refurbished castle. The many acres of land afforded them the privacy and space they desired. Shortly before the move, Sirius had reestablished contact with another of the old Marauders, Remus Lupin. Remus was a werewolf. Sirius had long known this and had no problems with it, but both had feared Harry’s reaction. Harry, however, surprised them when he showed only curiosity. When asked why he was not afraid, Harry had pointed out that Remus was dangerous only a day a month, that he certainly must take precautions for everyone’s safety, and that it was “cool ” to have him as a friend / pseudo-uncle. Sirius and Harry settled into their new home, and there was a room for Remus for his frequent stays. The property was put under a fidelius charm, to which they cleverly made Harry the secret keeper. Sirius and Remus undertook Harry’s education, with occasional assistance from Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall (“Aunt Minerva”). With the one-on-one attention, Harry progressed rapidly in both his muggle and wizarding studies. Harry didn’t venture into London for a fitted wand, but made do with a close-enough one from a drawer of legacy wands retained from previous Black family members. Unfortunately, Harry’s parents’ wands had been buried with them. Although he was advanced in his studies, everyone agreed that Harry could start at Hogwarts when he turned eleven. Harry especially looked forward to it, since his isolation had left him with a cobbled-together family, but no friends his own age. Fate did not, in this case, favour the good at heart. During Harry’s first trip to Diagon Alley, and for his purchase of supplies, as well as his fitted wand and a beautiful snowy owl (subsequently named Hedwig), they prepared to leave the Alley and return home via the Floo in the Leaky Cauldron pub. They chanced upon Quirinus Quirrell, the newly appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts and host to a piece of Voldemort’s soul. When Voldemort directed Quirrell to attack Harry, Harry somehow grasped him and, surprisingly, Quirrell seemed to burn up and shatter to pieces, leaving a dark, howling cloud to form before it dissipated. This was unusual, even for a place like the Leaky Cauldron, so Sirius rushed Harry out the front door before apparating them home. The odd bit of magic in the pub was the subject of gossip and conjecture, until the next day, when Rita Skeeter published a story in the Daily Prophet about one of the Weird Sisters’ relationship with a hippogryph named “Gertrude.” It was decided by everyone but Harry that Harry would not go to Hogwarts, that year or thereafter. Instead, his learning would continue at home. The odd behavior of Quirrell had naturally intrigued Dumbledore, who spoke with Sirius and Remus out of Harry’s presence. Dumbledore didn’t immediately say he knew how Quirrell had been possessed but had ideas he wanted to follow up on. He found his clarity more than a year later, when a cute, red-headed girl was abducted and forced into the legendary Chamber of Secrets below Hogwarts. Harry had been summoned to help because they had previously discovered he spoke parseltongue (snake language), which Dumbledore had determined was necessary to enter the Chamber. Harry was never supposed to get close to the basilisk, but in keeping with his overwhelming good luck, found himself facing the monster and getting Godric Gryfindor’s sword, with which he slew the giant snake and thereafter saved the girl, one Ginevra Weasley. Miraculously, he survived a bite from the creature when Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes, wept in the wound. What would have been Harry’s third year passed unremarkably, but not his fourth. He was entered into the Tri-Wizard competition as the fourth contestant. He visited Hogwarts for each of the first two tasks, performing admirably after suggestions in preparation from all of his mentors. He also attended the Yule Ball in the first social occasion of his life, having asked the only other magical person his own age with whom had enjoyed contact. He had a wonderful time with Ginny and was sorry at the end of the evening when he had to depart, but was very happy with his first ever kiss. The third task didn’t go as well, since Harry won the tournament. Unfortunately, the prize was a trip to a cemetery in which Voldemort was returned to his body, disfigured though it might be. Harry managed to escape, and Dumbledore finally found from Harry’s description the clue he needed to ascertain how Voldemort had survived and then returned. After a loud and vehement discussion with Sirius and Remus, Dumbledore chose not to publicly reveal the substance of Harry’s abduction, only explaining he had been kidnapped and escaped. Crouch Jr. was, however, apprehended and received a Dementor’s kiss. Thereafter, Dumbledore, Sirius and Remus spent a years hunting down and destroying Voldemort’s horcruxes. It was not, however, until Harry’s second abduction by Voldemort and his Death Eaters (yes, what a stupid name) that Harry learned through his mental connection with his opponent that Nagini, Voldemort’s pet snake, was a horcrux, too. Harry killed the snake, but was attacked by Voldemort and hit by the killing curse when he was trying to escape with Mr. Olivander, the wand maker, and a blond-haired girl with protuberant eyes. But Harry didn’t die. His selfless act, coupled with the bond formed by his blood taken during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, killed the horcrux he had never known lived within him. In death, he had met his parents, and after their urging chosen to return alive. When Harry returned, he found Voldemort laying on the ground, too. All of his Death Eaters had turned their attention toward He Who’s Name Scared Everyone and so no one saw as Harry stumbled to his fee. Tom Riddle, though, saw. He rose to his knees and pointed his wand at Harry and spoke the two awful words directed at Harry for the third time. Simultaneously, Harry used the wand expelling charm “ why he chose that particular spell he could never explain “ and the two spells clashed against each other. Harry’s spell reflected back against him and his wand fell to the ground. Tommy’s spell also reflected back, killing him in his place. The Death Eaters all clasped their left arms as they collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Harry retrieved his wand and used the derivative of the patronus charm he had learned, sending a message to Sirius. Shortly thereafter, Sirius, Dumbledore and Remus arrived. Accompanying Remus was Auror Tonks, her hair pink. Both Remus’ and Tonks’ clothes were askew and rumpled, a fact that Harry observed and banked into his memory for further use. All five of the people took it in turns to stun the slowly reviving Death Eaters, and the other Aurors that Tonks had summoned arrived and quickly secured and transported all of the Death Eaters to holding cells at the Ministry. And that is how it came to pass in May of his sixteenth year that Harry was proclaimed both the Saviour of the Wizarding World and the Man Who Lived Again. |
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