Harry Potter One-shot, suspense, comfort

[Ninsaneja]

Unforgivable
A short, short fanfiction of unknown type and origin

A Harry Potter began to stumble down the short steps off the Hogwarts Express, but it was I who finished that motion, coming to a clean stop on the edge of Platform 9 ¾.

For a second, I was disoriented, searching surreptitiously by only moving my eyes. It took a few seconds for me to figure out where I was, and by the time I'd nearly finished, I was caught in an unexpected embrace by a tall woman that I didn't quite recognize.

“Harry, are you alright?” she said softly, rocking me slowly back and forth, “You looked a little lost. I know you've been lonely at school.”

I took a moment to process.

…

“Mom?” I asked plaintively.

“I'm right here, Harry.” She confirmed, mistaking my attitude as a cry for comfort.

I let her comfort me for a while. For a second, I let myself think: So this is what it's like.

But then, as usual, I was interrupted by a voice that I had started to dread.

“Lily,” Dumbledore spoke from the other side of her, “step away from him.”

To her credit, she didn't immediately comply. Lily Potter held onto me and merely spun around, her arms loosely around me, to face Albus Dumbledore.

“What are you trying to say?” Lily asked, hostile.

This is my mother, I thought. This is what I missed out on. She's gone up against him for me.

“Harry has done something very foolish, I fear. Something very foolish indeed.” Lily's grip on me only tightened, though never getting to painful.

Dumbledore continued. “There is a spell that has managed to stay dissociated from its three brothers. From the Unforgivable Curses. For you see, it doesn't seem to ever be cast.

It was hard to even discern its existence. Its only evidence is in its aftereffects. It's a spell that reaches back in time to destroy.”

Lily turned a little pale. I began to cry. “Please.” I started, but Dumbledore merely spoke louder.

“We know that the spell has been used quite a bit recently. The more powerful the wizard or witch who casts it, the further back it can go. Over the past decade, we tracked the development of this mystery caster in reverse, with the help of the Department of Mysteries. People and objects burned out of time itself in reverse order.

You may remember the recent unexplained death of Lucius Malfoy several years ago. Before that, your own friend Peter Pettigrew spontaneously combusted during a neighborhood picnic. Several fires in the upper floors of Hogwarts itself were identified as this spell, being used to incinerate as-yet unidentified items.

But most damning...

Lily, you may recall that night.” Dumbledore trailed off.

“When he... when Voldemort...” Lily managed.

“Yes,” Dumbledore continued, “That was the most recent casting of the spell. He reached a power that could extend all the way to his own infancy.

We finally identified him after the time when he actually cast the spells had passed. Harry Potter, a Harry Potter from an alternate timeline, has been destroying and murdering people to change his present.”

“But how,” Lily gasped, “How can you hold him responsible when he isn't even -”

“Isn't even the one who cast the spell?” Dumbledore interrupted, tone grave, “that is the true evil of this spell. For the caster is taken to the new timeline, replacing his double.”

Lily backed away from me. I felt betrayed, but I knew. I knew that this was coming.

“That means that...” Lily choked, prompting Dumbledore to finish.

“That person isn't even your son. He's another version, a version willing to kill and destroy just to take his place.”

“Please,” I said again, tears streaming down my face.

Dumbledore turned to me and slowly shook his head. “It's a shame that there is no procedure to return the real Harry Potter to his family. But you will face justice for your crimes.”

He took from me again. They all wanted to take things from me.

I had killed them to save others. I had killed them to save myself. I had never used this supposedly irredeemable curse in anger, even though I was tempted.

Even though Peter had as good as killed my parents himself, I waited until he tried to kill me.

Even though Lucius had given that diary to Ginny and caused the basilisk to kill dozens of students, I only killed him and took back his vile actions when he tried to finish me off.

Even though Voldemort was so horrible, and ripping him from the timeline as early as possible was practically the duty of anyone capable, I only destroyed his soul containers. I had waited for him to inevitably attempt revenge on me before finally killing him, changing the world, and getting a glimpse of what I could have had if he had simply never existed.

But now my reward, my family, the things that were due me simply as a human being were being taken away. Taken away for defending myself, saving lives, and protecting the world.

“I just wanted,” I sniffled out, “I just wanted to live like a normal person!”

I finished in a scream, and Dumbledore, alarmed, drew his wand.

But death and time had agreements. Death and time, for lack of a better term, talked. They took lunch together and shared all the dirty little secrets they had between them.

His wand was mine.

“BANE!” I yelled, pointing at him and consuming whatever esoteric assault he'd aimed at me along with the rest of existence in a blinding light.

I blinked out the spots in my eyes and noticed that I was still being held.

“You know, I didn't think you missed me this much,” a very similar Lily Potter gave me a loving grin and set me back down in front of the Express.

“You know, it's a shame that Albus isn't still around,” she mused, “McGonagall is a wonderful headmistress, but Headmaster Dumbledore made children feel at home. I bet you wouldn't have felt as lonely if he was still here.”

I privately disagreed.

“Well,” she continued, not noticing, “Better get your little sister off the train as well. Your father and his friends are waiting with a welcome back dinner, you know.”

Finally.

EDIT: Some slight wording changes and spelling/grammar fixes.