Chapter 1
Eighty seven. That’s how many times Harriet Potter had died since Voldemort had won the war. Only twenty three of those had been by her own hand.
When she had walked to her death in the forbidden forest she had felt calm and at peace. She hadn’t been scared. She had felt a sense of relief to be reuniting with all the people she had lost.
Sirius. Fred. Remus. Her parents. She would get to see her mum and dad. Had wondered if they’d be proud of her for her sacrifice or ashamed for all of the destruction she had left in her path to take down Voldemort.
She had the resurrection stone in her hand, but what was the point in using it if she would be with her loved ones soon enough anyway?
And she was tired. Merlin, she was so tired of fighting..
Which is why she had attempted to take her own life so many times. She felt cheated. She hadn’t used the stone to speak with her parents, and then her temporary death had been bulldozed by Albus fucking Dumbledore. And now she could never meet them in the afterlife.
Once the Battle of Hogwarts was over, she had been taken prisoner. She was Voldemort’s little war trophy. That’s what most people thought, anyway. Of course he wouldn’t let people know that the real reason he kept her around was because he was incapable of killing a half starved witch who could be blown away with a small gust of wind.
Voldemort had tried to kill her in every way his twisted mind could think of. Accio her heart from her chest? Check. Dismemberment? Poison? Been there, done that. Incinerated by fiendfyre? Twice.
The only benefit to his creative attempts on her life was that there was a loophole of sorts to her imprisonment. If she died with her body mostly intact, she would just wake up where she was. However, if her body were destroyed beyond repair, she reawakened where she most longed to be.
It was never the exact same place, as Hermione and Luna had gone on the run after the final battle took place, but her heart was always guiding her to Teddy.
Andromeda had been killed in an attack just days after the battle and Harrie hadn’t known for weeks whether or not Teddy was safe. After the first time she’d been obliterated by a bombarda to the face, she awoke to find that Hermione and Luna had been with Andromeda at the time. Andromeda had held the death eaters off long enough for them to get to safety. Or as close to it as possible in this new world.
Harrie never stayed with them long, too afraid of putting them in danger, knowing Voldemort would eventually find her. But Teddy was everything to her. He was her son in all but blood and it broke her heart that this life on the run was all he was likely to ever know. This was no life for a child, for her child.
It was a surprise for her when she woke up in the Department of Mysteries this time. She was disoriented as she tried to remember how she had died this time.
Oh. Right. Voldemort had decided to let Greyback and his pack tear her apart on the full moon. She wondered briefly if that meant she would be a werewolf now. She didn’t think so, as she never came back with the scars of her previous deaths. Well, except those that were self inflicted. Non-lethal scarring also stayed.
“Harriet Potter. How lovely for you to finally join us.” Voldemort’s cruel laugh cut through her like a knife. This wasn’t right. She was supposed to wake up with Teddy. If Voldemort was here and Teddy was here..
“You didn’t truly think I wouldn’t figure it out? That I couldn’t piece together the pattern?”
Harrie’s heart sank into her stomach when she saw Voldemort with his wand at Luna’s throat and an unconscious Teddy at her feet. Bellatrix, the bitch, had a knife held to Hermione’s side. She lurched forward to bring Teddy into her arms and saw his small chest rising and falling. Just sleeping.
She stood, shaking, to her feet and noticed how uncomfortably close to the veil they were standing. Visions of her godfather falling through the very same veil flashed through her mind.
“What do you want from me?” She asked Voldemort. “I am powerless. I don’t have a wand. I’m not even sure I can do magic anymore.” It had been years since she’d even felt a spark of it inside of her. “Whatever you want, you can have it. Please, just don’t hurt them.” Tears were streaming down her face now. There was nothing she could do. He would kill them and she was powerless to stop it.
He laughed again. “Harriet, I have solved the dilemma of your existence. You die, you come back. You somehow find your way to these worms. Now I have a solution.”
He gestured to the veil. “If you cease to exist then you are not alive, meaning you can not die and continue to be a thorn in my side. And just to be sure it sticks…”
Harrie watched in horror, a scream building in her throat, as Bellatrix drove the knife into Hermione’s side and shoved her towards them.
Voldemort forcefully shoved Luna towards her as well, and as the four of them tumbled through the veil, Voldemort said, “They will cease to exist as well.”
Her final thought before her world went black was Perhaps this is the best case scenario. Maybe we’ll all finally be free.
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Sirius Black remembered the day he fell through the veil as if it was yesterday. He didn’t know how Voldemort had gotten Harrie to the Department of Mysteries, all he knew was that he needed to be there to protect her. She was all he had left in the world and he’d be damned if he failed her once again.
His last thought when he’d been hit with that stunner and fallen through the veil was If Harrie is safe, then this was worth it. All of this was worth saving her.
He thought he’d died at first, but when he’d woken up bound to a chair he realized something else must have happened.
There had been four people surrounding him. All quite beautiful, yet with terrifying expressions on their faces. A tall, gorgeous blond with chocolate eyes and long, pointed ears, wearing a silky red dress. Two large men with dark hair and hazel eyes. The bigger one had longer hair swept up into a messy bun and blood red stones adorning his leather armor. The other man was only slightly smaller, but looked even more terrifying than the first. The shadows swirling around him were ominous, and both men had enormous bat-like wings folded behind their backs.
The scariest person in the room, however, was the tiny woman with chin length black hair and silver eyes. There was something about her that screamed unnatural. She wore storm grey, loose fitting pants with a matching top that was cropped to show a sliver of her stomach, and her jewelry looked as if it belonged in the Black vaults at Gringotts. She had also been holding his wand.
He shook himself from thoughts of the past. He wondered about Harrie, as he did every day. She would be twenty by now. What was she doing?
Was the war over?
Had they won?
Was Harrie happy?
He had tried to find his way back to his home world at first, but this world was in distress as well. Anyone who could help him was being held prisoner Under the Mountain and this city was the only place that guaranteed safety right now.
As he took his daily walk by the river where he had been found upon his arrival, he heard a crack like thunder as the sky split open for the briefest of moments. What appeared to be three figures fell from the sky and into the Sidra. He waited a moment, but they didn’t emerge.
Quickly changing into Padfoot, he dove off the bridge and into the cold water just as Cassian and Azriel dove from the sky. He reached a thin female with almost white hair first and grabbed the back of her shirt with his mouth to drag her back to shore.
Once he made sure she was still breathing, he turned back to help Cassian, but the warrior was already resurfacing with the person held tightly against his chest, Azriel behind him with another female. He turned back to the girl on the beach. She couldn’t be older than eighteen or nineteen. She seemed human and judging by the apparel… She was from his world, Harrie’s world! She looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place a name with the face.
Cassian arrived next to him, gently placing the other girl next to the blond and he noticed there was a child as well, a toddler, unconsciously clinging to her. His hair was dark and messy, and he looked better fed than the girls.
Azriel said something about the girl he held having a bleeding wound and flew her away to find the healer.
The girl Cassian had rescued coughed and spit up some water as her eyes fluttered open. Emerald eyes met his grey ones and she gave a small smile.
“Padfoot.. It finally happened.. I’m finally dead..” That was all she said before she fell unconscious again.
Sirius was in shock.
“She knows you?” Cassian asked. “She’s from your world?”
Sirius shook his head in disbelief. “It can’t be..” He looked her over. She was skeletally thin, bruises under her eyes. Her hair was shorter than he’d last seen it, and terribly matted. Horrific scars marred her arms.
With shaking hands, he brushed the hair from her forehead and there it was. Her signature lightning bolt scar.
“Sirius. Who is she?”
“Harriet,” Sirius whispered. “My Harrie.”
“The girl you’ve been trying to get back to? How did she get here?” Cassian asked.
Just then, they heard a quiet sniffle. The toddler had woken and reached up to pat Harrie on the cheek.
“Mummy? Mummy, wake up.”
Sirius promptly fainted.
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Miles away, Under the Mountain, Rhys was in a hidden alcove. He’d barely gotten away in time to hide his distress.
Now he was on his knees, clutching his chest and gasping for breath. Rhys couldn’t remember ever feeling emotions so intense, passing through him at such a rapid pace. Terror, hope, and finally peace. He closed his eyes as his breathing calmed and saw Velaris from above, as if he was falling rapidly. As he hit the water, the vision faded.
He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew one thing.
Something was happening in Velaris, someone had gotten in, and he had no idea how to keep his people safe now.