Harry's irregular steps echo on the debris-strewn castle floor. Somewhere to his front right, curses hiss through the air, and he tries to keep track of the action as he runs through the wide corridors on the third floor of Hogwarts. He's on his way to the Weasley twins. Fred's Patronus was sent a while ago, and the stone in his stomach weighs heavier the longer it takes to fight through the castle's floors. The sounds draw nearer; Harry slows down, his steps becoming quieter. Silently, he forms the words 'can I pass by unnoticed?' with his lips. The blood in his ears is too loud, his focus too fixed on the sounds of battle for him to hear his own thoughts.
He takes a slow, deep breath, exhales halfway, holds his breath, and cautiously peers around the corner from the wall, where he can now hear the spoken spells. "George!" This time, a sound escapes him as he speaks, but the combatants don't react. George is dueling a Death Eater and appears to be trying to push away from his brother. Fred, heavily breathing with a bleeding wand arm, is still closer to the Death Eater than to his brother. With a powerful, bile-colored curse, the masked figure throws George aside, turning a bit more with their back to Harry. Instinctively, he casts a Stunning Spell at the Death Eater.
Even as the latter stiffly falls to the ground, doubt shoots through Harry's mind. A Stunner is easily countered, and the affected person quickly reengages. He can't bring himself to cast a malicious curse at someone defenseless on the ground. Instead, he rushes to Fred's side, supporting the other redhead with his other arm.
"Some of us blocked off a passage on the second floor," George blurts out, exhausted. "Pomfrey is there, tending to the injured. It's best to get Fred there, but we were heading to the fourth floor to help Oliver. He was supposed to fly there with a broom and break a window to evacuate a few third-years." Harry looks at the limping wizard in their midst. "Fred?" "I can't do it," Fred says softly. "Sorry," he adds even softer. Harry swallows and offers to take on this supporting mission. George looks at him for a long moment, then provides directions.
In a brisk trot, Harry heads toward the nearest staircase. The corridors on this floor seem quiet compared to the screams and curses echoing around the castle. Unfortunately, the stairwell isn't as unused as the previous corridors. A fight seems to be occurring at the level of the fifth or sixth floor. Harry wipes the sweat from his forehead and keeps an eye on the skirmish while climbing the stairs.As he gets closer to his target floor, the seventh-year wizard invisibly disapparates, moving backward in the fourth-floor corridors, his gaze fixed on the battle happening about one and a half floors above him.
The hideout of the third-years is empty. With clenched jaws, Harry heads to the next window. He needs more visibility. The castle walls are partly charred, damaged, and... slimy? An arched opening in the outer wall of the castle seems to have been struck by lightning. Charred lines extend from the damaged edge across the wall and even along the floor. The grid for fall protection covering the opening is bent.
That's where Oliver Wood must have entered the floor. Harry sees Wedged between the steel bars Harry sees a piece of wood. He shakes it and, after a long moment, holds a broom in his hand. He doesn't dwell on why Oliver might not have had time to free his broom or where he and the third-years are now. The window arch where he stands is not far from the corner to the side of Hogwarts that faces the courtyard.
A girl's scream distracts him from his spinning thoughts. The tones at the end of the scream remind him of Hermione. Harry quickly mounts the broom. He takes off so swiftly that he can barely release the bars on the castle wall fast enough.
With a Protego spell on his tongue, the experienced flyer whizzes around the corner. His first protective spell dissipates unused, and the second almost activates too late. Harry fires a Disarming Spell, a Stunning Spell, and a Confundus Charm in rapid succession at his attacker, swiftly defends himself with a Protego to the rear and, at the same moment, engages Hermione's assailant.
Harry leaves his moral thoughts from the third floor behind and casts a Bone-Breaker Curse at the dark-haired Death Eater in front of Hermione and him. He grabs Hermione's arm, initiates another protective spell, and together they turn toward the ongoing battles under the open sky. The Protego his best friend casts crackles against his own. Amidst the reverberation of both spells, the double shield holds long enough to deflect two targeted spells and a grazing curse. Harry's feet finally gain purchase on the cobblestones.
He dislodges the broom from his footwellbetween his feet without taking the time to observe precisely where it clatters to the ground. He's simply too vulnerable in the air. Loving flying is one thing; fighting in the air is another. Right now, Harry prefers the apparent safety of solid ground beneath his feet. "Voldemort is over there. Um... ten o'clock," Hermione gasps. Covering each other, the pair navigates across the courtyard. At one point, Harry stumbles over loosened cobblestones from a missed spell, and this time, it's Hermione who grabs his arm.
"Harry Potter!" Voldemort's voice jeers gleefully and slightly hissing across the yard. The Death Eater in front of them is thrown aside by a suspiciously green spell from his own master, giving the hideous figure of the Dark Lord a view of two-thirds of the Golden Trio.
The man in the tattered brown cloak, who was fighting the fallen Death Eater, hurries from that spot toward a smaller figure with pink hair—Remus and Tonks.
"Come... to die!" Voldemort jeers further. "Like your own man did just now? Is that the only curse you’re still able to cast?" Harry taunts, a sour taste in his mouth. Not too much, just enough taunting to make his archenemy careless. Voldemort snaps his wand toward Harry with a green light gathering at the claw-like tip. Just behind him, Remus' spell hits the ground, another causing a stumble.
Next to him, Hermione emits a whimper. She knows that a distraction means it's time for Harry's plan. Both of them understand the chance that the seventeen-year-old might not survive his next spell.
As a final gift to his friends in the wizarding world, Harry begins to incant the Soul-Squeeze Curse. This spell from the Black Library is meant to compress the soul. Weak witches and wizards are restricted in their magic; young magic students are severely hindered in their magical development or even completely cut off from further progress. Harry has noticed that this curse might draw back Riddle's soul fragments to him, potentially hindering him. He pours all his strength and magic into it, letting go of what ties him to this world. The young leader of the resistance against the dark wizard firmly believes that one of the wizards on his side can obliterate Riddle and win the fight after Harry's death.
As the curse begins to take effect, Riddle, entirely focused on Harry again, sends a bright green Killing Curse toward him. The ominous light approaches Harry and the young man registeres the sensation of what can only be the Soul-Squeeze Curse. It feels exactly as he imagined it would when a horcrux is forcibly torn from his soul. The hope of having assessed the curse correctly feels bittersweet. He yields to the pull. As the Avada Kedavra strikes, Harry, with aching heart, is ready to embrace death like an old friend.
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Severus catches only brief glimpses of the scene between the Dark Lord and Potter. As the stature of the Dark Lord seems to convulse in movement, Nagini, half behind her master and well within Severus's field of view, begins to twitch unnaturally.
Reality seems to warp, expand, and contract again. A black substance, not liquid and not smoke, surrounds the snake one moment and vanishes the next. The headmaster deployed by the Dark Side casts a precise cutting curse at the distracted snake. Without ensuring the reptile's death, Severus's gaze rushes back to the Dark Lord and Potter.
The strange blackness now envelops the Dark Lord, seeming to suffocate him. While the former Potion Master casts several curses and now dodges attackers from both sides, he witnesses Avada Kedavra green lights striking Potter. Desperately hoping that the cursed Gryffindors have found and destroyed all the Horcruxes, Severus Snape aims a killing curse at the Dark Lord.
His master's figure freezes and begins to stagger moments later. With wide eyes, Severus tries to ascertain whether the deadly curse had an effect. A pain on his side tells him that he misallocated his attention for too long on the busy battlefield.
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Ginny fights her way through the combatants. She picked up Dean and Luna on her way. The two hurry behind her, trying to cover the redhead as she runs. Voldemort's mocking call informs the youngest Weasley that Harry must be in the courtyard. Ginny would rather be with him in the midst of the battle than leave Harry to fight alone.
The four-person defense combination was easiest for her in Harry's D.A. classes, but now it has to work for three. She left the Great Hall with Ron, who separated from the group to help Oliver escort a few younger students to a safer place.
Dean, Luna, and Ginny reach the gate to the courtyard, quickly slipping through it behind a makeshift Protego and pressing against the wall. The atmosphere in the courtyard seems strange. Reality seems elusive. For so many wizards engaged in battle, it doesn't seem loud or fast enough.
The redhead disarms two Death Eaters and immobilizes one with a spell. Her classmates do the same on her right and left. Ginny casts a Protego in front of Dean as an ugly orange spell approaches him. The eldest of the three sends a cutting curse to the origin of the orange magic, severing three fingers of the wizard's wand hand and part of his forearm. The Death Eater collapses, revealing the sight of Voldemort.
Seeing the tyrant on his knees, surrounded by something black, somehow insubstantial, seems completely surreal to the youths. The blackness almost seems to physically press upon him. Green light envelops him. Ginny's gaze flicks to Snape, who falls within shooting range behind Voldemort, still pointing his wand at his master. The same orange curse from before pierces the hated Potion Master's side.
"There's Harry!" Luna's hollow voice comes from Ginny's left, and the sixth-year follows her classmate's gaze to a bundle on the ground a few meters away from the center of the courtyard. "Cover me!" growls Ginny, sprinting toward the twitching heap. Aggressively and determinedly, she casts curses in all directions at the black-clad fighters. Colors flashing through the air force them to dodge and slow down her charge. Terror fills her at the thought of what she might find under the pile of clothes.
Ginny falls hard on her knees beside the bundle, landing with her left knee much too close to a familiar pair of round glasses. Her breath cuts through her throat painfully after the quick sprint. Carefully, she pulls the gray fabric of a bloody and torn shirt off the squirming being and takes a pained breath in shock. Wrapped in Harry's clothes lies a green-eyed, black-haired baby with a troubled expression.
Numbly, she frees the child from Harry's pants, wraps it in the gray fabric, and holds it protectively to her body. With wildly wandering thoughts, she stares at the small body in her arms. Around Ginny, the baby, Luna, and Dean, the sounds of battle and cries of pain give way to the jubilation of their friends and acquaintances.
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At St. Mungo's, Atticus Marvelus Famley, a Healer specializing in consciousness, memory, and mind, casts one tracking and diagnostic spell after another on his young patient. The emergency room Healer was able to identify and heal the traces of several grazing curses, as well as multiple bruises, abrasions, and minor cuts. However, it's the highly ionizing curse wound on the patient's forehead that led to the patient being transferred first to the Curse Neutralization Department and then to Atticus's department.
Remnants of dark magic cling to the intricate scar covering a third of the patient's forehead. Unlike the most famous scar in the British wizarding world, this one resembles more of a Lichtenberg figure. The wound will continue bleeding until the young patient's body can expel or neutralize the dark magic. Given that the child is severely malnourished and magically exhausted to the brink, an experienced Healer needs to magically guide the process to give the baby a chance of survival.
Every witch and wizard reacts differently to magic. In the extensive and rigorous training, a Healer specializing in the mind initially interns in the Curse Neutralization Department for the first few years. Trainee Healers in the CND specialization learn diverse healing methods tailored to the combination of the patient, magic, and sometimes even the astronomical timing.
With unknown curses, CND Healers often cannot do much more than isolate the curse's effects and side effects as best as possible, and block environmental influences. In the case of old or unfamiliar curses, the patient is either urgently referred to the Department for the Resolution of Magical Mysteries or Atticus's Department for Consciousness, Memory, and Mind.
Although the emergency room Healer was able to ascertain the cause of the patient's forehead injury through questioning upon admission, unfortunately, this circumstance does not help at all in the treatment. Healers have never dealt with the victims of the Avada Kedavra curse. Additionally, the wound, above tear-streaked, green eyes, appears fresh but exhibits characteristics of a one decade old curse.
The 48-year-old Healer administers a mild calming draught with an apple taste for children under three and leaves the child in his cot not far from the emergency room. As he opens the door of the treatment room, the noise from the crowded emergency room floods back to him. The end of the war and the battle at Hogwarts have instantly provided him and his colleagues with dozens of patients. Despite facing a long night ahead, Atticus eagerly and relievedly sets to work.
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The little Harry is sitting in a nest of blankets on a crumb-covered hospital bed that is placed in the room with the crib. He hastily stuffs the freshly served vegetables with turkey strips and dumplings into his chubby cheeks from the tray in front of him. Hermione, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, and Ron sit around, observing the scene with concern. Mrs. Weasley had initially tried to slow down Harry's binge eating. Harry had looked at her so desperately and horrified, flinching slightly and recoiling when Mrs. Weasley reached out to calm him down again. So, she let it be.
The family looks up as the door to the hospital room opens and a tall healer with a light brown shock of hair enters. 'Good day. My name is Healer Atticus Famely. You're the patient's mother, Mrs...?' 'Molly Weasley. Thank you for taking care of our boy,' the redhead woman introduces herself. 'I'm not Harry's mother, but he has no one else.'
Hermione grabs the old book from the bed in front of her, stands up from her chair, and approaches the healer. 'Harry is 17 years old. I suspect a backlash to an unexplored spell from this Grimoire found in the Black library caused the rejuvenation. I've marked the relevant sections and put my notes about it in the book. The spell is called "Compranima Suctus" and was used by the Black family to control their opponents and obstinate descendants. Absolutely abhorrent, and I strongly advised Harry against it. Another chapter delves into sacrificial magic. A very complex subject, but also one that runs like a thread through Harry's life. That should not be disregarded in researching the effects on Harry.'
Hermione takes a quick breath and is almost ready to continue her monologue, but in the background, Ron grumbles, 'Let him at least say what he's found out so far.' The girl with voluminous dark curls blushes and mumbles an apology to those around her.
'Those are invaluable pieces of information, and I'd like to interview you later in my office about it. Thank you very much, young lady. What's your name?' Hermione blushes even more at Healer Famely's reminder that she hadn't even introduced herself before a torrent of words had burst out of her. But she quickly regained composure. 'Hermione Granger. I'm Harry's school friend.'
Then she almost reluctantly adds, 'And then there's also the matter of the Deathly Hallows. Personally, I think it's all nonsense and a children's story, but Harry and Ron believe in it.' Healer Famely furrows his brow, 'You mean the story about the three brothers encountering Death, Miss Granger?'
'Yes. Harry has an old invisibility cloak that has been passed down in the Potter family for generations. Then there is the wand that used to belong to Professor Dumbledore for a long time. At least Voldemort thought it was the wand of power. He killed for it. Harry also briefly had a stone that showed him apparitions of his lost family.'
Healer Famely hums in agreement. 'You are right, Miss Granger. This assumption must be taken into account in the research. Good,' and the healer's posture changes from thoughtful to decisive. 'Then, let me explain the findings of our young patient.“
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A few weeks later, Mrs. Weasley and the young Miss Granger, find themselves in Atticus's office with the still small Harry. Atticus folds his hands on the dark wooden desk and begins his discharge conversation for Harry Potter, glancing at the spread-out parchments before him.
"Harry has recovered well. The primary curse wound is also considered healed, its ionizing effect neutralized. His brain activity and magic levels are normal. Harry has grown slightly over the past few weeks. Height, weight, and mental development are normal for a child approximately 18 to 20 months old. Everything indicates that the rejuvenation back to Harry's physical and mental state shortly after the time of his first encounter with Voldemort is permanent."
Mrs. Weasley smiles tiredly but lovingly down at the babbling boy on her ample lap, stroking his wild locks. Harry laughs with delight and snuggles against Mrs. Weasley's soft curves. His little hands grip a few threads of her reddish-brown cardigan. He appears much happier and more trusting to Atticus than on the day of his admission to the hospital.
"My husband and I will take care of him and raise him. We've raised seven children; what's one more?" explains the Weasley matriarch with a contented and proud smile.
Atticus nods in agreement and hands the new foster mother a parchment with his signature. "I have here a referral to a mind Healer named Joris Thickey. He oversees the outpatient care of patients who suffer mental impairment from curses and long-term traumas. I'd like you to bring Harry to him for at least a year, once —ideally twice— a week. The prolonged effects of a form of possession, Harry's condition after the sudden withdrawal of his caregivers and subsequent admission into your care, and lastly, the effects of rejuvenation, require long-term monitoring. Healer Thickey will keep me informed and especially correspond with me regarding any complications in Harry's healing."
Mrs. Weasley thanks Atticus, stands up, placing the toddler on her hip, and leaves the office. Miss Granger follows her but turns back to Atticus on her way out.
"That's what Harry always wished for," she says, not toward the departing woman. "To grow up in a loving family. It seems that everything has turned out well for Harry, and he has the chance to grow up once again without the threat of Voldemort breathing down his back."
Atticus respectfully bows his head. With a smile, Hermione Granger also bids farewell and follows the foster mother and child down the corridor.