Songs of War and Love
Rating: PG-13.
Genre: Action/Adventure / Romance
Summary: After fifth year, Voldemort rises to power in Wizarding World and Harry is forced to run away. Six years later, he's back, and now needs to confront his nemesis, his friends, and the girl he loves. H/Hr, D/G, R/LL.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They belong to the wonderfully talented J.K. Rowling. Chapter titles belong to CLAMP. Plot is inspired by CLAMP's X/1999 novel.
Chapter 1: Prelude
On a dark alley of London, green eyes silently watched the starry sky. Locks of black hair are blown by the wind, crossing the sight. The young man in atypical black clothing brushes the hair away, exposing a lightning-shaped scar to the moonlight.
"London," he says, looking around himself. "It's been six years."
He reaches a crowded avenue, and looks around for a hotel. He had never walked on those parts of the city. In fact, he had barely walked on London at all. Both his childhood and adolescence didn't leave him enough time.
"Excuse me," he says, stopping a woman who passed by. "Can you tell me if there is a hotel nearby?" He asks, politely.
She turns her face to his, and then the street lights show him a face he didn't expect to meet so early. Though expression is changed by maturity, it still carries the signature beauty in its brown eyes and hair. He is sure it is her, but can't get himself to say her name. He can't.
"Oh, there is one right on that corner," she answers, pointing to a somewhat big construction five blocks away. In the few moments it takes him to hide his surprise, the same realization dawns on her.
"Hmm... Harry?" She asks, her voice weak and unsure. He silently thanks his hair that once again fell over his scar - and at the same time, he curses it - before he answers.
"No, I'm sorry. Name's John Greenwood," he says, and realizes it was more convincing than he expected. Last time he had tried to lie to her, years before, he had turned his eyes away in guilt confession. Maybe all the six years of distance had helped.
"Oh, it's okay," she says, in clear disappointment. "You just reminded me of an old friend," she added.
He forced himself to smile at her, and saw she turn away in something that seemed both embarrassment and longing. He sighed inwardly.
"Thank you for the information, miss," he said quickly, and turned away before she could reply with an unhappy "You're welcome".
Harry Potter had spent the last six years away, in France, along with the former Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore. That had been an emergency measure, when Voldemort suddenly stroked the Ministry of Magic, before his sixth year of magical training was started. During these years, Harry had no contact with any of his friends, and found out the one he missed the most to be Hermione Granger, whom he had just met.
When Harry was taken away to France, he was still mourning the loss of his godfather, Sirius Black. Back there, Hermione had been the only one who was able to talk to him properly, and the two of them were very drawn to one another. In France, after months without talking to her, Harry had finally realized that his feelings for his friend had changed. He loved his best friend; but couldn't say anything to her locked away in France.
At the end of the sixth year away, Albus Dumbledore passed away, his age being too advanced even for wizarding standards. In his last words, he had told Harry it was time to go back to England, and to confront Voldemort. Albus had also asked Harry to contact his former friends - the Weasley family, living in a hideout near their former house; Remus Lupin, living in the still unplottable Grimmauld Place; and Hermione Granger, who now lived as a muggle. Upon hearing of Hermione's fate, Harry had decided not to after Hermione again - it was probably safer for her if she remained as muggle, away from everything that was about to happen. That applied to pretty much everyone - the Weasleys probably had problems enough living in hiding, and also had Remus. In the end, Harry Potter had decided he would go against Voldemort on his own.
That's why meeting his former friend had been so shocking.
Hermione was living as a muggle, yes, but she seemed not to have forgotten him, and also not to hate him. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to tell her he was indeed Harry Potter, and to tell her he hadn't stopped thinking about her for a second, and that they could be happy forevermore. Unfortunately, Voldemort was still a threat, and Harry didn't know if Hermione's feelings matched his.
'It's better this way,' he thought while walking to the hotel, and his heart ached.
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Harry awoke in the middle of the night, in one of the hotel's bedrooms. He looked at the bedside clock; he had slept for three hours only. Yet, he felt refreshed enough.
'Maybe I slept too much on the trip from France,' he thought to himself.
He walked away from the bed, picked his wand from the drawer, and walked out from the bedroom. It was two in the morning, but he didn't care. He left the bedroom keys in the entrance counter, as the hotel rules said, and stepped into the streets.
Regardless of the unusual time, Harry had no problems in walking around the streets. His now impressive six feet build would scare away any street thugs that would otherwise walk on him, and his confident face was somehow intimidating.
He looked for a place he hadn't seen in almost seven years. The Leaky Cauldron, that was the entrance to the Wizarding World in London, wasn't visited by Harry since the beginning of his fifth year; he could barely remember what it looked like now. He just hoped it would still be there.
The sound of steps behind him interrupted him from his thoughts. He looked back to see he was being followed by a man and a woman. The man was very tall, and somewhat muscled; the woman was short, with attractive blue eyes and blond hair. Both of them were dressed in wizarding outfits.
"Who are you?" Harry asked, his hand reaching for the wand in his pocket.
"We're wizards," the woman answered, showing her own wand, "like you, I suppose." The man by her side also drew his wand, but none of them seemed ready to attack.
Harry drew his wand by instinct, and the saw the blonde smile slightly.
"So, it's really him," the man said. Harry thought the two of them were too suspicious. He couldn't see the insides of their left arms. 'Maybe they're Death Eaters in disguise,' Harry thought, and gripped his wand more firmly.
"You didn't tell me who are you," Harry said. They looked young enough to have been with him at Hogwarts; if Harry knew their names, he would know if they're trustable or not.
"Come with us, Harry, and we'll explain everything. Not here," the man said, and walked towards Harry. That was all the sign he was waiting. Swiftly, he muttered two disarming spells, that caught the two strangers by surprise, and before the tall man could reach for his wand, Harry shot a Stunner at him. As he turned to hit the blond girl, he was surprised to see her wand was already in hand, and that she had fired a Full-Body Bind at him.
"You didn't need to be so violent, Harry," she said, picking the man's wand from the floor. She suddenly stopped as she heard the sounds of muggle police coming. "Guess we made too much sound," she said, seemingly disappointed. "Catch your wand, Harry," she said, and with a gesture she dismissed her spell.
Harry was surprised by that, to say the least; but before he could ask her anything, or even apologize, she apparated away, taking her still stunned friend with her. Harry felt something familiar about her, but as the sounds of muggle police got louder, he apparated away, back to his hotel.
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Luna Lovegood arrived at the Weasleys' living room, at the same time a stunned Neville Longbottom came to his senses, in her arms. An anxious Molly Weasley ran towards him, looking somewhat nervous.
After Voldemort took control of the Wizarding Britain, the Weasleys, as big supporters of Albus Dumbledore and the "light side", went into hiding and joined several groups of "resistance", who were actually Voldemort's biggest problem and so far had stopped the dark wizard from reaching the muggle world. Luna and Neville, as friends of Ron and Ginny, had "joined" the Weasley family after their father and grandmother, respectively, have been killed by Death Eaters.
"Thank Merlin you're here," she said, and sighed in relief. "Now only Ron's missing. What happened to you, Neville dear?" She asked, as she noticed Neville's dizzy look.
"We found him," Luna answered quickly, as she handed Neville his wand. "I think he was walking towards the Leaky Cauldron. We tried to talk, but as we didn't say our names, he attacked us. My fault," she added, and looked down. Molly gave her a comforting hug.
"It's okay, dear," the redhead matron said. "Are you sure it's him?" She asked.
"Yes, I'm sure," Luna replied. "After he stunned Neville, I got him into a Full-Body and could see the scar on his forehead. Also, there are his eyes and hair, which remain the same."
Molly smiled at that, and was quickly followed by both Neville and Luna.
"Just as you said, mum, we found him alone," Luna said, after a while. "What happened to Dumbledore?"
"Who knows, dear, who knows," Molly replied, in a worried tone. "His letter just said Harry would be back to us, on his own, and that we should look for him because he probably would avoid us. I also wonder what happened to Albus, but for now, let's just rejoice on having Harry back."
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As Harry walked into the hotel, someone watched him from the window of a nearby construction. The red mane of hair on his head would be completely unmistakable, weren't him wearing a cap to hide it. Unfortunately, said cap wasn't of much help, also; after all, an orange Chuddley Cannons cap worn by a man more than six feet tall wasn't very discreet.
Ronald Weasley saw his best friend walking into a small hotel in the suburbs of London, and smiled. Six years had passed since the two of them had last seen each other; and Ron had anxiously waited for the moment of their meeting.
Ron reached the street, quietly humming a song from the Weird Sisters. He was about to cross it, towards Harry's hotel, when he felt a hand reach his shoulder, from behind. He turned around to see who it was. A greasy-haired man was looking at him, calmly. At first, Ron was reminded of Snape; then, he just recognized the man for whom he was.
"Rookwood!" Ron said, louder than he wanted. The man sneered, and the two of them drew their wands. Ron stepped back, and so did the Death Eater.
"Hello Weasley," Rookwood answered, his tone flat. "Seems like the rats from your family are a bit more courageous now, they are walking on the streets," he added. Ron's face went red, but unlike his adolescence, this time it was from pure rage, not embarrassment.
"How dare you speak of my family, traitor? And how dare you come here, in the first place?" Ron replied, before he shot a Stunner at the Death Eater…