Chapter 1
It was a chill autumn evening. The air was filled with smoke, gun shots and screaming echoing over the field.
Bombs going off here and there, blood splattering all over. Shouting in all different languages, commands getting yelled and the running of footsteps were the only sign they were people still alive.
A ’pop‘, too quiet to be noticed appeared out of what seemed to be nowhere into the cold night, leaving behind a young looking boy.
Harry looked at the scene of destruction right infront of him, eyes getting wider and wider.
He couldn’t’ move.
Time seemed to have vanished, moments passing, feeling like hours, until Harry suddenly got pulled back into reality, by men in uniforms running right pass him.
He turned to look after them, only to witness a loud screeching noise and smoke appearing, swallowing the men whole.
‘Shit’ he had to move. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, into the dark void.
He didn’t care, where he went he just wanted to get out of here as quick as possible. Tears started to form in his eyes, slowly running down his cheeks. He didn’t know how long he had run. His throat started to hurt, but the screaming and yelling didn’t get quieter.
So he continued running. He ran. And ran. And ran. Until his legs gave in and the ground kept coming closer and closer until his face finally hit the dry ground, clouds of dust surrounding his head.
This felt nice. His body immediately started to relax in this familiar position. It was then, that he realized how tired he really was. Harry could feel his eyes closing, a dark void sucking him in.
A firm pull on his collar woke him up again. He felt himself getting pulled back onto his feet. Harry panicked and turned around, coming face to face with a handsome stranger. He had dark brown eyes, like polished spruce wood, that were filled with emptiness. It was like looking into a dark tunnel, with no light guiding you. His hair was slightly pulled back, a big curl at the front. He was wearing a dark grey uniform, Stars knitted into his shoulder pads. He kept his grip firm on Harry, not letting go, while his other hand was holding a rifle.
Harry gulped. Upon studying the other guy, he could clearly make out the outline of a small gun and knife underneath his uniform.
He felt a sense of awareness rushing through him. He now understood the seriousness of the situation. ‘If I am already getting killed, I should at least put up a fight’ he thought, trying to shake off the man’s hand.
The hand loosened it grip slightly and Harry took that as his chance and started running again. This time in zickzacks. But the moment didn’t last long as he heard running behind him, his legs getting kicked out of the way shortly after, making him lose his balance once again.
‘For fucks sake’ Harry thought as he closed his eyes, waiting for the moment his body was gonna greet the ground again.
But that moment, didn’t seem to come.
Harry opened his eyes, staring right back at the man holding him. It was the same guy, he had just tried to escape from, moments ago. Embarrassed he straightened his shoulders, hopping back onto his feet. He could still hear the loud screams and sounds of violence surrounding him. Forgetting about the handsome stranger infront of him, Harry tried to make out where he was and how he got here.
His gaze wandered over the steppe, landing on piles of dead bodies. A shiver ran down his spine. He quickly focused his eyes on something different. There. He saw a different man in uniform, one he hadn’t seen before, running towards him, coming closer and closer. A few metres ahead, he came to a halt. His hands were shaking as he reached for his gun aiming at Harry.
‘The fuck?’.
Harry didn’t have enough time to think, so he quickly grabbed his wand ‘Why didn’t I think of that earlier?’ and shot a quick Disarming Spell at him. Luckily it apparently also worked for guns. ‘Huh, interesting’ but he was quickly ripped out of his thought’s, as he heard a loud bang behind him, the man infront of him dropping to the ground.
Harry almost threw up, at the sight of this. He couldn’t stand to look at the empty eyes that were now looking up to him, from the ground, that were filled with terror and pain just moments ago. He couldn’t stand it. ‘No, no, no, no, NO’ Death wasn’t foreign to him, but still after all this time, he just couldn’t stand it. Some might think he would have gotten used to it but the fact is, he didn’t. Harry didn’t want this. He didn’t want any of this.
Disturbed he turned around, to face the one guilty for the loud bang. The handsome stranger, he had somehow forgotten AGAIN was looking at him. His facial expression had changed. But instead of it being disturbed, he was smiling?
His empty eyes were replaced with intrigued ones, intensively watching Harry’s every move. His hair wasn’t as neat anymore as before, even though it was still nothing compared to his owns and he really was smiling. But not at the dead body, no. It was like he didn’t even care about that. He was smiling at Harry.
And Harry? Oh, how he wanted to smile back at this handsome man.
But he didn’t. He just saw him killing someone, as if it was nothing and he should just smile back, pretend like nothing had happened? Certainly not. Alarm bells inside his head started to ring. If he was able to just simply kill a man like this, he definetly was dangerous. Which meant, Harry had to get away.
Who would know what would happen to Harry, if he didn’t?
His gaze still locked onto the stranger, he slowly started to back up.
One step after another.
But the stranger didn’t even need a minute to catch onto Harry’s plan. His smile only grew wider, stepping forward, closing the gap between him and Harry. He was even closer than before.
Harry wouldn’t even have to reach out his hand, to touch him. His breathing intensified. ‘This is bad. This is really bad’
Harry tried again. Slowly moving away. Step after step.
But once again, the stranger followed, keeping the distance between them as short as possible.
„I’m afraid my Dear, I can’t let you just walk away. I wouldn’t want to see your pretty face laying on the field. Especially not after what you just … did.”
The stranger calling him pretty and not wanting to let him go, didn’t make the situation better in the slightest. Harry wanted to scream. He wanted to get out of here.
Home that’s where he belonged. Not here, standing inches apart from a handsome stranger, greeting Death like he was an old friend.
Harry pulled his hand through his hair, his eyes widening and a frustrated laugh escaping his lips.
‘Ha-, … Ha, Fuck it’ He really was going crazy.
Straightening his posture he confidently faced the stranger. His change in behavior didn’t go unnoticed, as the stranger had steadied his grip on his rifle, pulling it closer to his body.
Harry laughed. „You think I want to go with you? You think I want to be here? No”, he hissed
„I don’t want any of this. And as you can see I have nothing to lose”, he stepped closer „so why would you think I would just go with you? What makes you think I won’t simply kill you?”
Harry got so overwhelmed of his speech, that he didn’t notice himself stepping closer and closer towards the stranger, closing the gap between them.
Their faces were inches apart and Harry could feel the stranger’s hot breath on his face, in the cold air.
He studied the strangers face even closer. His skin was smooth and didn’t have any wrinkles on it. He probably wasn’t that old yet, but certainly older than Harry himself.
After all he had just turned 20 this night, going out to celebrate before getting magically teleported here. Fate really wanted to test his patience. ‘Wait. Fate? Why am I talking about Fate?’
The stranger chuckled in response. It was a low chuckle, almost as if he was amused. He leaned towards Harry, his lips almost touching Harry’s before turning to the side and stopping at his ear.
„Hm, is that so? If you wanted to kill me my Dear, you already would have.” ,he sighed „but if you’re going to be this stubborn and won’t come with me on your own, I guess I have no other choice then to do this.” Harry was taken aback by those words, but he couldn’t move in time.
A stinging pain flooded through his neck, as tiredness began to seep into him. His eyes closed, leaving him in a black void. The last thing he felt was arms wrapping around him and lifting him up, before he completely drifted away.
Harry could hear commotion around him. There were people talking, groaning and whimpering.
He couldn’t quite pinpoint where the sounds were coming from, but he also didn’t really care. He felt warm. Harry liked this feeling. For once he felt free. It seemed like all the pain, frustration and thoughts just vanished. He was one with himself, not caring about anything else.
Just as he thought that nothing could get better, he felt a light thug on his arm.
Harry groaned, protesting against whoever dared to wake him up. A smile made its way across his face when the thugging stopped. What he didn’t expect was someone now pulling on his arm harder and harder.
The more Harry ignored it, the worser it got. Defeated Harry opened his eyes.
A huge flash of light greeted him. After adjusting his eyes to the light, he could see he was staring at a white ceiling. ‘What happened?’ Was he celebrating with his friends a little too hard and was now in St. Mungo?
‘No, St. Mungo doesn’t look like this.’ Suddenly, the memories of last night started to form in his head. Harry’s breathing intensified.
„Morning Dear, slept well?” Harry looked to his right, to see the man from last night sitting beside his bed smiling. His hair looked a little more flattened and he looked a lot more handsome, now that his features didn’t seem that set anymore. For a moment, Harry forgot that he was the reason, Harry ended up in here, wherever here is.
„Y- You- What did you do to me?” Harry brought out, while trying to steady himself on his arms. The stranger just smiled back at him. „Oh, that. Right, well I apologize for that, but in my defense, you didn’t really care to listen to me did you?”
Harry sighed, burying his head in his hands. He was trying to compose himself, but he really just was on the verge of crying at this point. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. He didn’t know how he got here, he didn’t know why he got here and most importantly he had no clue on how to get back.
He just wanted to go home.
„Remind me, where am I again?” „At the British front.”
‘Oh great’ That’s exactly what he wanted to hear. He was somewhere on a battlefield, in the midst of a war, without his friends. Oh how he missed Hermione. She would have a plan, even in a Situation like this.
„And who are you again?” The stranger chuckled. „I’m the British commander. But more important is, who are you?” Harry looked at the stranger a little taken aback. He knew he had to make up a good story eventually, which would be believable so he could go away and figure out a plan on how to get back. He just didn’t expect it to already be so soon.
„Alright, I think there’s been some misunderstandings here. I’m not a soldier, I don’t belong here. I got captured by the uhh enemy, who were trying to use me as bait? So I’d be really happy if you could send me back home to my uhm family.”
The last words didn’t want to come out of Harry’s mouth, but he couldn’t think of anything better in the moment. After finishing his sentence, he realized he really should have tho. „Mhm, is that so? And who is your family?”
Yep, he really should have. It was clear that the stranger didn’t believe a word, that was coming out of his mouth but what was he supposed to do? There wasn’t really a better thing he could have said, was there?
„Uhm well the uhh Potter’s?” ‘Fuck, come on why did I have to use my real name?’
But something in the stranger's face changed. Something that told Harry that his name wasn’t unheard of in this Universum he was in.
‘Shit. Here we go.’