Thanks for all the reviews. This one is different. There’s no Sirius, for one. And Harry doesn’t leave, for two.
I’m not overly happy with this one, the use of the word stubborn is abundant. However, I couldn’t think of any other word to use. My mind was just stuck on that word. Harry is being a stubborn git. Not determined, stubborn. Asshole.
What can I say, not all of them are going to have a happily ever after. Or HEA.
Anyway. Enjoy.
Hphphp
Harry Potter was sitting on the swing set at the park near the residence at #4 Privet Drive. The Dursleys are already gone. He was going to be leaving tomorrow for the Burrow on his seventeenth birthday. He wasn't sure how he was going to get there. The Order of the Phoenix was supposed to come get him. It was Bill's wedding soon.
He was supposed to stay there for the rest of the summer. And then he didn't know what he was going to do. Go back to Hogwarts maybe? But there was so much that needed to be done, he just wasn't sure what was going on. Dumbledore had left no clue as to what was going on and how he was supposed to win this war.
As he sat there contemplating on this swing, a voice sounded next to him.
“So, clueless, are you?” the voice said.
“Who the hell are you?” Harry asked, jumping up and brandishing his wand. He looked over and stared at… himself? The man next to him was only a few years or so older than him, dressed in dark clothes. “Why the hell do you look like me?” he asked, getting angry. That was the last thing he needed. Was this a Death Eater trying to trick him?
“I am you, from the future. Actually, I’m from a different reality,” the other man said. “If you go to the Burrow tomorrow, you're going to wind up just like me, and I'm here to prevent that.”
“What do you mean you’re here to prevent that? What do you mean wind up like you? What’s so bad about you?” Harry asked, bewildered as to what the man meant. How could he possibly have wound up so badly that he would have come back to warn himself of impending danger?
“Well, if you want to wind up a Dark Lord, by all means go on and do what you plan on doing,” the other Harry said, waving a negligent hand.
“A Dark Lord?”
“Yes, a Dark Lord. That's what happens if you continue the path you're headed down,” the other man stated as fact.
“But we are Light,” the confused teen said, lowering his wand and sitting on the swing again.
“Can you really tell me right now that all your thoughts are pure?” was the question that brought Harry up short.
Harry had to think about that for a moment. He had to really delve into his psyche and think about it. “No,” he said. “I can't say that in all truth.” He knew that there were some deep-rooted dark thoughts running through his noggin.
“I know you can't. I'm you,” the other man said.
“So, what can I do to prevent this from happening?” he asked, not wanting to be a Dark Lord.
“Well, there are a couple of things. You can leave, which, at this point in time is not a good idea. You can hunt for the Horcruxes, which is again not a good idea because it would be a long and tedious hunt. Or you can go to the goblins,” the other man said, ticking them off on his fingers.
“The goblins? How can they help?” Harry inquired, never even thinking about them as allies.
“The goblins don't like Horcruxes any more than anybody else. And if you pay them enough, they will do the dirty work for you. Once you get rid of the Horcruxes, then you can leave and be shot of this entire war,” the older man stated, nodding his head with the conclusion. It was the reasonable solution in his eyes.
“But what about Voldemort?” the teen asked with a scrunched brow.
“What about him?” was the honest question.
“He'll come after me no matter what,” was the defeated answer.
“True, that is very true, unless of course you are out of the equation,” the other man said, with a wicked grin.
“What, you mean like fake my death?” Harry said, wrinkling his forehead with concern and disgust.
“That's one possibility,” said the other Harry.
“What can I call you? I can't just call you the other Harry in my head,” Harry finally asked, getting tired of not knowing what to address the man as.
“You can call me Shadow,” Shadow said, nodding his head in the boy’s direction.
“I'm not going to fake my death or leave my friends to suffer at the hands of Voldemort,” Harry said, firmly. He clutched his wand in his hands like he would fight for his right to stand by his friends’ sides.
“Fine, I figured you were too far into this anyway. I know where all the Horcruxes are. I can give them to you. You can give them to the goblins and have them hunt them down. But don't go to Bill's wedding. That's the last place you need to be. If you do, then you'll turn into a Dark Lord,” Shadow said with a sigh. He wasn’t positive, but he was sure that the events that happened at the wedding would draw Harry into the war and that was what he was here to prevent.
“Are you 100% positive about that?” Harry asked, staring at the man’s face to perceive a lie.
“Yes, I am 100% positive about that,” Shadow said, lying through his teeth with a straight face.
“I don't believe you,” Harry said, seeing something that made him not believe the other man.
“Come on, man. How can you not believe me? I'm you. I've lived that life,” the older man stated, throwing his hands in the air.
“How can going to Bill’s wedding turn me into a Dark Lord?” Harry asked, his tone laced with disbelief. It just didn’t make sense to him.
“If you attend Bill’s wedding, Voldemort will attack the wedding. You will go on the run. You will be turned into the #1 most wanted fugitive in Britain. Ron and Hermione go with you. Ron will turn on you. You will get captured and tortured. Hermione will be tortured. Dobby will die. You will die. Remus will die. Tonks will die. Fred will die. Many other people will die. You will come back to life and finally win. You will be vaulted as the hero. And then people will turn on you once again, like they did so many times in your past. And you will turn into a Dark Lord,” Shadow explained in short succinct sentences.
“You don't know this will happen for certain,” Harry said, exasperated. He threw his hands in the air. But there was doubt in his tone this time. “Just because it happened to you, doesn’t mean it will happen to me,” he said, eyeing the man besides him.
“Oh my God man, grow up. How many times is this happened to you in Hogwarts?” Shadow stated, ready to throw curses at the stubborn teen.
“Just because it happened to me in school doesn't mean it'll happen to me in real life,” the mulish boy said, folding his arms over his chest. He wasn’t ready to concede defeat yet. He wanted to go to the Burrow and Bill’s wedding. Though what Shadow was saying was painting a scary picture.
“It happened in your first, second and fourth year. Your fifth and sixth were nothing to sneeze at either. The only year that people didn't have anything to hold against you was your third year. How can you possibly think that people are not going to turn against you? Once again, you have a bad history,” the other Harry said, trying to get it through the stubborn boy’s head that the public was not on his side.
“I'm not going to leave my friends,” Harry said, trying once again to make Shadow see that Ron and Hermione were important.
“Bloody hell. When was I ever this stubborn?” Shadow said, rubbing a hand down his face. “Look, I can't force you to do what I say, but I'm telling you, if you go the way you are going, you're going to wind up the bad guy.” He was beyond frustrated at this point.
“Fine, what do you want me to do?” Harry said, finally conceding defeat. He knew the man was right. He could see it in his eyes. He didn’t want all those people to die. He didn’t want to die and come back to life, and he was going to get the rest of that story from himself too.
“Just go to the goblins. It's that easy,” Shadow said, relief in his tone.
“And you'll go with me?” Harry asked, wanting reassurance.
“I said I would, didn't I?” the other man said, getting up from the swing.
“Right.”
“Do you need anything from your house, or do you have everything with you?” he asked, knowing that this was about the time he started carrying everything with him.
“No, I've got everything with me. Hermione taught me to carry it all on me,” Harry said, patting his pocket with his self-shrinking trunk in it.
“Right, let's go then.”
They walked down the walkway for blocks, with Shadow telling him all about what had happened during his seventh year including the dying and coming back to life. Harry was properly appalled in all the right places and was glad he had decided to come along with Shadow.
Hphphp
“We really need to talk about the Horcrux in your head,” Shadow said, once they had made it to Diagon Alley. They were walking toward Gringotts. The Alley was sparsely populated. There were only three people about and they were scurrying through the street like they were mice afraid of the cat.
“Bloody hell, I have a Horcrux in my head?” Harry whisper-shouted. His eyes were blown wide, and he stood stock still in the middle of the street.
“Yes, I thought I told you that earlier. Oh well, that’s okay, we’ll get it out once we get to the bank,” Shadow stated, moving him along with a hand to his back.
“How many things did that man make? I know he made more than one, but Dumbledore never said how many,” Harry questioned. He cursed the old headmaster for not telling him straight out just what they were looking for and how many.
“Well, let's see. You got the diary already. Dumbledore got the ring. That leaves the cup, the diadem, the necklace, the snake… and you. However, you were a mistake, so you don't really count,” the older man said, ticking them off on his fingers, looking at a distance as if trying to remember them all.
“That's seven, including Voldemort and not including me,” Harry said, doing the math.
“Right. And seven is a magical number which you would know if you had taken Arithmancy instead of Divinations,” Shadow said in a teasing manner, hoping to relieve some of the tension.
“You took it to you know,” Harry snapped back. It was a sore subject with him. He hated Divinations.
“I've had this conversation before, and I'll tell you the same thing I told him. I was an idiot for doing it,” Shadow said, getting snippy. He didn’t like being snapped at by teenagers it seemed.
“Whatever. So, all I have to do is tell the goblins where to find these things and for a price, they'll go after them. How sure are you of this?” Harry asked, changing the topic.
“Almost positive. I haven't tried it before. Usually, I just get you guys to leave the country, but I have a feeling that you're not going to do that because you're a stubborn sod,” the other man stated, giving him a withering look.
“You're an arsehole,” Harry said, glaring at him.
“You'd be right,” Shadow agreed. He had no qualms about being called one. He’d been called worse.
“I can't believe I turned out to be like you,” Harry said, rolling his eyes.
“That's what you get when you let public opinion sway you,” Shadow stated, shrugging his shoulders. He knew how he got to where he was. He was here to prevent that from happening.
“I've never let it sway me before. How come this happened?” Harry said, waving his hand up and down to indicate Shadow’s body.
“Let's just say they pushed the right buttons this time,” the other man said, once again shrugging. He wasn’t going to go into the nitty-gritty here on the streets.
“Alright.”
“You have to admit, we do have a short temper,” Shadow said, stopping in front of the bank. They couldn’t talk about this inside.
“I guess,” Harry said, agreeing with his older self.
“Anyway. Now that we're here, let's go inside and talk to the goblins,” Shadow suggested, wanting to get this over with. He’d sit Harry down and tell him all about how he became the Dark Lord when they were done.
“All right.”
The two went inside, where there were more people than in the Alley. They went to the nearest vacant teller station. “I need to speak to somebody in charge of curse breaking,” said Shadow a bit harshly. Not that he was being rude, he just knew that the goblins hated wasting time.
“May I ask what this is pertaining to?” said the goblin behind the counter. He looked up from the book he’d been writing in.
“Soul jars,” Shadow said, trying to be discreet. He didn’t whisper it, but he didn’t shout it either.
“Blasphemy,” said the goblin with a hiss, causing others to look their way.
“Hey now, I'm trying to be discreet,” the older man said, holding up his hands.
The goblin pushed a rune and spoke into it and then said, “Come with me.” He then hopped down from his stool and moved to the door off to the side.
“Right,” said Harry, following Shadow who was following the stomping goblin. “What did you say to him to piss him off?” It was a bit funny to watch the goblin stomp.
“Just told him about the Horcruxes. I told you they didn't like them,” Shadow said, trying not to laugh at the little being throwing a wobbly.
“Well, if I get killed because you decided to anger them, I'm gonna haunt you,” the teen warned him. He’d been told that the goblins killed wizards for such things. So had Shadow, but the older man knew better now.
“I have a way of leaving this reality I doubt you can follow,” Shadow said, rolling his eyes at the teen.
“Arsehole,” Harry said, pouting for all he was worth.
“I keep telling you, you're correct. If you're going to insult me, call me something I'm not,” Shadow said with a smirk.
“I just can't win with you, can I?” Harry said, throwing his hands in the air as they continued to follow the goblin, who was miffed that they weren’t taking him seriously.
“I just told you how,” the still smirking Shadow said.
“In here, humans,” said the goblin, coming to a stop and opening a door to a room. It was a conference room that held a table, four chairs and a stuffed wolf’s head on the wall.
“What do you want?” said the goblin inside the room. He looked like he had just arrived and was spreading parchments around the table.
“These two humans said they know about some Horcruxes,” said the teller goblin, pointing to the chairs that Shadow and Harry should sit in.
“What would you two know of these vile things?” the new goblin asked, picking up a quill and making notes.
“We know that Voldemort has created six of them. And we would pay you, to rid the world of them,” Shadow said, taking control of the meeting.
“We can do that for a fee. Are you sure you'll be able to pay that?” the still unnamed goblin asked, jotting down something else.
“Harry Potter has the money for it,” Shadow said, waving at Harry, who looked shocked, but nodded.
“I thought you were Harry Potter,” was the confused remark.
“I am, I'm just not from this reality,” was the firm answer.
“I see,” said the goblin. “You may call me Goldfist.”
“Thank you, Goldfist, I am Shadow. Now that we're properly introduced, Harry here will be paying you to get the one out of his scar, and finding the others, I will let you know where they are. Uh, we can get rid of them and get rid of Voldy once and for all,” Shadow stated, leaning back in his chair with an air of someone who was in charge of all he saw.
“That sounds like a viable plan,” Goldfist said, scribbling down what the man said, and doing some figuring. He came up with the sum that Gringotts would charge.
“Doesn't anybody want my opinion on this?” asked Harry, folding his arms in an affronted manner.
“You have something against the plan I just laid out?” asked Shadow, laughing at the teen.
“Well, no, I just felt like I should add my two cents worth,” Harry said, pouting.
“Don't you mean two knuts worth?” Shadow said, grinning like a fool.
“Does it really matter?” the teen asked, tilting his head.
“Well, we are in the wizarding world. You should use wizarding currency.”
“Whatever,” Harry said, rolling his eyes once again.
“Which do you want to do first?” Shadow said, to Goldfist, but Harry got there first.
“Hey, I have a question. Will I lose my parseltongue ability when I get rid of the Horcrux?” he asked, wondering if that was something he wanted to lose. He never used it, but it made him different.
“Actually, no. I thought I would too, but once it was gone, the ability was still there,” Shadow said, winking at the teen as if he knew just what he was thinking. Which he did.
“That's weird,” Harry said, scrunching his forehead in thought. He thought it was something to do with the Horcrux.
“Yeah, I thought so too. But it was useful in the end because it got everybody to see that I was a Dark Lord, even though I sucked at it,” the other man said, laughing aloud.
“Yeah, I never understood how you said we were going to turn into a Dark Lord when we're not that… Dark,” Harry said, still confused as to how that happened.
“It worked out in the end. I got my point across. I took over England,” Shadow said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Did you have to kill people?” the teen questioned, not wanting to know if he had it in him to do that, but wanting to know the answer as well.
“As fun as this conversation is, can you have it outside of Gringotts? We've got things we have to do,” Goldfist said, even though he too wanted to know the answer. He really didn’t. Ignorance was bliss in some things.
“Sorry about that. Um, here are the places where the Horcruxes are hidden,” Shadow said. And then proceeded to give him place by place where the artifacts were.
“This will help the search immensely and we will charge you less since we do not have to search for them. However, there are bound to be many wards and dangers surrounding these articles. So, you will be charged for those,” the goblin stated, making more notes and adding fees and doing more calculations.
“The one in your vaults has a protective charm that causes the contents to start multiplying exponentially and become searing hot every time something is touched. So, I'd be careful with that if I were you,” Shadows said. He could still feel the heat of the burns from that little trip into Bellatrix’s vault.
“We'll be sure to watch out for that,” said the goblin, making sure to note that.
“The necklace is being guarded by a house elf that has been guarding it for almost seventeen years. He is grief stricken and crazy. However, if you tell him that you're going to fulfill the wish of his favorite master, he might give it to you,” Shadow said, giving them one more head’s up. He didn’t know any more safekeeping’s, but those two should help.
“We will keep that in mind,” Goldfist said, more scratching was heard as quill met parchment.
“The rest are up to you how to get,” the reality hopping man said, scratching his head as he thought of where and when he got the last of them.
“You teach your grandmother to suck eggs?”
“Sorry, I was just trying to be helpful,” Shadow said, narrowing his eyes.
“No harm done. It should take us a day, maybe two. When we are done, we will send you an owl and then we will get the one out of Mr. Potter,” Goldfist said, handing them an itemized list of how much they were going to charge.
“This looks reasonable,” Shadow said, handing it to Harry, who looked it over and looked like he got hit with a fish.
“Damn,” he said.
“It’s worth it to get rid of Voldy,” his older self said, looking at him meaningfully.
“Fine,” Harry said, taking the quill and signing on the dotted line.
“It’s a pleasure doing business with you,” Goldfist said, taking the parchment back and signing his name. “We will only charge for those we obtain,” he added.
“How about we come back in two days instead of you sending us an owl because we are going to be in muggle London?” Shadow said as they stood to leave.
“Very well then,” said the confused goblin as he rolled the parchment up and put it in his pouch.
“Come on, Harry,” the older man said, leaving the room.
“Why are we going to muggle London?” Harry asked as they left the bank.
“Because we don't want people to find us,” Shadow said in his best duh voice.
“What about my friends?” asked Harry. He knew the Order of the Pheonix was supposed to pick him up later today and they were going to be worried about him when he wasn’t there. He was going to miss the wedding. That sucked.
“You can hook back up with them after we get all of this done. Look, hooking up with them now, you’re putting them in danger,” Shadow said, trying once again to make him see that he needed to disappear for a while.
“They’re in danger already,” said Harry, stopping and glaring at the older man.
“More danger then,” said Shadow, grabbing his arm and making him move along. “Good God you are but a stubborn bastard.”
“You should know.”
“Just come on.”
Hphphp
“We’ve retrieved all the other Horcruxes we could, and now it's time to get the one out of Mr. Potter’s head,” Goldfist stated, when Harry and Shadow came to the bank two days later.
Unlike all the other Harrys that Shadow helped, these two just stayed in the hotel for those two days. They studied the books in Harry’s trunk. Harry wanted to be ‘prepared’ for the war. No matter how many times Shadow tried to talk him out of being in it. That and Harry was sulking about missing the wedding and his friends.
“Great,” said Harry, moving to go to the Healing Halls. “Let's get started.”
“It shouldn't take but an hour,” Goldfist stated, going to the doors to lead the way.
“I'll wait here,” said Shadow. He was very put out about how stubborn the teen was.
An hour later, Harry came back Horcrux free. “Well, now that all the Horcruxes are dead, does that mean Voldemort’s dead? Or do we have to go and kill him still?” he asked, sitting next to Shadow.
“Yeah, I'd quit saying his name if I were you,” the older man said, looking at him queerly, like he had told him this before.
“What? Why? I thought we weren't afraid to say his name,” Harry said, shock evident in his voice.
“He's put a taboo on it and people will come and snatch you away. That's how you and Hermione got kidnapped the last time around,” Shadow said, confused as to why this subject hadn’t come up within the last two days. Then he remembered they had been calling the man Voldy for that time. He thought the boy knew.
“Oh,” said Harry, looking properly horrified. Then he shook his head and continued, “Anyway, that doesn't answer my question. Is he dead or do we still have to kill him?”
“You still have to kill him. Or you can just walk away. Anybody can kill him now. You've done your job,” Shadow said, once again trying to talk the boy into leaving.
“Now can I go to my friends?” Harry asked, getting a stubborn look on his face.
“Wait,” said the goblin, holding up his hands to forestall the argument he could see starting. “There's still the snake. We were unable to get that one.”
“I thought you said you got them all,” Harry said in an accusing tone.
“It was missing, but I did not mean to misinform you. We got all the ones we could get. We could not get the snake,” Goldfist stated, taking out their agreement and showing where he was not charged for the snake.
“Fuck,” Shadow said, putting his head in his hands.
“Looks like you're going to have to stick around after all,” said Harry a bit too smugly.
“I don't have to stick around for this, but I will,” Shadow iterated. He could leave if he wanted to. This was not his circus.
“Should we get the Order of the Phoenix together?” the teen asked hopefully. He’d been after his other self to do just that for days now.
“No,” said Shadow, clamping down on that hope. “You and I will do this together.” He felt the Order were just a bunch of information gathering idiots. The only worthy ones among them were Moody and Remus. Moody was old and Remus was a new father. No, he and Harry would do this.
“Are you sure we can?” the worried Harry asked, fretting his wand. He was turning it over and over in his hands.
“Yes, I know just where Voldy is, and I know that we can do it,” Shadow said, looking at Goldfist, who was watching them thoughtfully. He gestured for Harry to get up and follow him. He nodded to the goblin and left.
“Oh, he'd be surrounded by Death Eaters,” Harry said, also nodding to the goblin and following Shadow.
“Well, of course he's surrounded by Death Eaters. Don't be stupid. But I know where he is, and we have the element of surprise and we both have an invisibility cloak,” Shadow said, moving out of the building and down the Alley. He was going back to the hotel. He never went anywhere without his cloak. It was something he could call from anywhere. Magic of the Deathly Hallows worked that way for him now. The wand, the cloak and the ring all came to his call.
“There is that,” Harry agreed. He didn’t think he had it in him to kill anyone though.
“I'll get the snake, you get Voldy,” Shadow said, making Harry’s stomach sink.
“Or vice versa,” Harry said, hopefully.
“No, you're the one of prophecy. You get Voldy.”
“Fine,” Harry said, hanging his head.
“I'm just kidding. I'm the Dark Lord. I'll get Voldy.”
“You are an arsehole,” Harry said, relief surrounding his whole being.
“Guilty.”
Hphphp
They had a difficult time getting into Malfoy Manor, but with Shadow’s experience, they eventually made it in. It was the middle of the night, which actually worked to their advantage. Most of the Death Eaters were gone and everyone was asleep. Even Nagini.
First, they went to the snake, and Harry silently sliced its head off. The wailing of the Horcrux woke everyone else in the house, but the two just stayed under their cloaks and hid.
“I will kill whoever did this,” Voldemort stated, seeing his dead snake. The Malfoy family surrounded him, but stood as far back as they dared.
“You will try,” Shadow said, coming out from under his cloak. He was between the Dark Lord and the Malfoys. Harry was up against the wall, nearer to the family.
“Harry Potter, come to die?” Tom Riddle asked, looking closely at his nemesis. “Wait, what is different about you?” he asked, peering at the ‘boy’.
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Just know you are going to die by my hand tonight,” Shadow said, readying his wand and stance. “Let’s dance,” he said, casting the first spell.
And dance they did. The house was almost destroyed by their movements and spellfire. There were gouges in the walls and floors, burn marks everywhere. The portraits, furniture, curtains, and decorations were not left unmarked. They, themselves, were harmed as well. Voldy was in worse condition than Shadow, for he had been letting his Death Eaters do his fighting for him since he’d been back.
The Malfoys tried to interfere, but Harry stunned them and tied them up, while still hiding under his cloak. He made sure to stay hidden in case he was needed later.
It only took ten minutes to destroy Malfoy Manor and kill the famed Dark Lord. But Shadow did it. Then he Obliviated the Malfoys and got the hell out of Dodge.
“Why did you erase their memory?” Harry asked as they were settling in the hotel room. He was treating Shadow the best he could with what he had. Which was quite a bit, giving he had been preparing for war.
“They would say you did it,” was the answer.
“They are going to say that anyway,” Harry said, shrugging his shoulder as he put the medical supplies away.
“We’re going to the Burrow now,” Shadow stated, gathering up his stuff with the one arm that was unharmed. “Well, you are,” he reiterated.
“Finally,” Harry said, packing his things with a swish of his wand. Everything flew from all around the room into his trunk in good time.
“Here,” Shadow said, taking out a Time Turner.
“Where the hell did you get one of those? I thought we destroyed them all,” Harry asked, looking at the device in the other man’s hands.
“I bought it in Knockturn Alley the other day when you were moping around the hotel,” he said, taking up his bag and walking them to the hotel room next door and then putting it around their necks and turning it back twelve times.
“Why did we come to this room?” Harry asked, when the world righted itself.
“We’ve never been to this room,” Shadow explained, looking around, making sure that there was no one there. He didn’t want housekeeping catching them. He had rented the room yesterday, but not today. Or in the future, but not the past. Damn, but time travel gave him a headache. “Now let’s get out of here. You go to the Burrow and stay there. Don’t go to Diagon Alley, no matter what,” he stated.
“Where are you going?” Harry asked, hefting his backpack on his shoulder. His trunk was in there and all the stuff that he needed in case he had to run. Shadow had bought him some things while he studied.
“To the next Harry. And I hope he’s not as stubborn as you,” Shadow stated, ruffling his hair.
“Arsehole,” Harry said, this time fondly.
“Bye, brat,” Shadow said, leaving the room.
Hphphp
They did try to pin the death of Voldy on Harry Potter, but he had an airtight alibi with the Weasley’s. Bill’s Wedding was on the day that Harry had Time Turned back, so he was there for it. It wasn’t crashed, for some reason. Harry thought that Shadow must have done something to prevent that. Or perhaps, Voldy felt his Horcruxes die that day, who knows. All Harry cared about was he was there.
Somehow Dolores Umbridge died a horrible death that day too, but again Harry had an alibi, and wasn’t even questioned. She bled to death via blood quill. Someone forced her to write, ‘I am a Bitch’ over and over until she died. It must have taken hours. Or a bloodletting curse was used to help it along.
There were rumors that Voldy did it, but they were never proven.
Umbridge and Voldy’s deaths were celebrated throughout Britian and a hunt was on to find out who had done it. They never did locate the hero.
Harry never told anyone about Shadow, not even Ron or Hermione. He took it to his grave.
Harry lived a simple life in Britian. He was an Auror and married Ginny Weasley. They had three children, but none of them were named Albus Severus. Harry stuck it out with his friends and lived a long time. He was never as happy as the other Harrys, but he was content.