Disclaimer: Thank goodness I don't own these characters or else all those Ron/Hermione people out there would be mighty disappointed. Of course...then I'd have money...hmm. Sigh. Money would be nice.
Author's Notes: I have nothing really important to say, so we'll get onto the story which is why you're presumably here in the first place;) Have a good read...I hope.
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An Organ of Fire
by Kristen Elizabeth
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"Hufflepuffs are hard-working and good at Herbology, so they grow the weed. The Ravenclaws are really smart, so they refine the weed. The Slytherins are kind of shady, so they push the weed. Why do you think the Gryffindors are so brave? It's 'cause they're smoking the weed!!" -my little brother Clifton breaks down the Houses and the side of Hogwarts we were never meant to see
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"Severus. You...you dirty traitor." Lupin spit the words out as though they tasted bad in his mouth. "Bloodless coward! How can you..."
Snape raised his wand to his old schoolmate. "Shut up." He turned back to Voldemort. "I await your bidding, Master. Ever your servant."
"Well, this is certainly an unexpected turn in events," Voldemort said, raising a blond eyebrow. "Severus Snape...trying to crawl back into my good graces after so many years."
"It was necessary to appear loyal to Dumbledore, my Lord, to maintain your work in the time when everyone believed you were dead. And when you returned, I was watched too closely. I humbly ask for your apology, my Lord." He bowed, careful to keep his wand trained at Lupin.
Voldemort snorted. "You expect me to believe this? You know better than anyone what I do to those who are disloyal to me."
Without blinking, Snape replied, "With all due respect, Master, I'm all the followers you have left."
This didn't please Voldemort, but he gave it a moment of thought. "Hmm, you could be right about that. Tell you what, Severus. Since you're so eager to prove yourself to me, I'm going to let you take care of something."
"Anything, my Lord."
Voldemort nodded at his genuflection. "Now that I have you...and Remus Lupin once he has a taste of my potion...I really have no need for Sirius Black. Kill him. And take your place at my side."
"No!!" Unable to keep quiet anymore, Harry snapped out of the stupor into which Snape's sudden betrayal had sent him. "If you want to kill my godfather, you're going to have to get through me."
Snape laughed, a short, barking noise, and gestured to Harry's bloody nose, broken glasses and the fact that he was still holding his ribs together. "That should take all of a minute. And have you forgotten who did that to your face?"
"It won't be just Harry you'll have to go through, Severus," Lupin warned him.
"Oh, go ahead and play the brave Gryffindor rushing into the fray like a fool, Remus. You're going to end up just like them anyway." He indicated Sirius and Hermione.
Lupin's eyes gleamed. "Don't make the mistake of underestimating me...or James' son, for that matter."
"And look at what happened to James." Snape turned his wand back on Lupin. "For all his efforts, he couldn't even distract Lord Voldemort away from his wife and child long enough to save them. Could he?"
"Never, *ever* speak about James Potter again, you bloody..."
Voldemort sighed. "If you're done squabbling, Severus, I do have an agenda to attend to."
"Of course, Master. I apologize for..."
He was cut off by a sudden shout and a burst of light from directly behind the Dark Lord. Lupin's disarming spell caught Voldemort in the back, knocking his entire body forward. His wand clattered to the wood floor. Lupin's chest rose and fell with spent energy. "I'd rather die than become your zombie, Voldemort."
"Funny..." In a flash, Voldemort had retrieved his wand. "Sirius Black said the same thing."
Lupin adopted a dueling stance. "I suppose I'll have to fight you on behalf of both of us, then."
Voldemort curled Draco's lips into a wicked grin. "This should be fun."
As soon as the first curse was cast, Snape approached the stony Sirius Black. But his path was cut off just before he reached the man by Harry throwing himself between his godfather and his former teacher. His green eyes shot daggers. "Stay away from him."
"Potter, get out of my way."
"Never going to happen."
Snape's hand shot out and grabbed Harry up by his blood-stained collar. "Listen! If you want to save your godfather, you will damn well do everything possible to follow my lead without drawing any attention," he whispered in a harsh tone.
Harry stared back and forth between Snape's tired black eyes. There wasn't any time to be wasted putting pieces together. There were only two options. Trust or don't trust. A little voice in the back of his head told him to nod. "Tell me what to do."
"Keep him occupied. I'll cure Sirius first so he can help; nothing against Hermione." Snape jerked his head. "Go, before he gets suspicious."
As Harry turned his attention to the duel across the room, he could hear Snape approaching his godfather. "All right, Black. If you'll follow him, you'll follow me. So, drink up."
There was fire piercing Harry's side in regular intervals; if the rib wasn't broken, it was at least fractured to hell. But he forced himself to focus. Lupin was holding his own for the moment, but Harry refused to let anything happen to the older man in a battle that was his responsibility.
A single curse sent Lupin flying towards the stone wall just at that moment. His body hit, shoulder first and he groaned in fresh agony. Harry gripped his wand tighter. "Voldemort!" He moved around to face the dark wizard; it was imperative to keep his attention away from Snape and Sirius. "I thought I was the one you wanted to kill."
"Good things come to those who wait. And I've waited for this good thing for a very long..."
"Yeah. I got that around the third time you said it." Harry used the end of his wand to scratch the back of his messy locks. "What I can't figure is this. If you kill me tonight, how are you going to explain my death? There's no scaffolding around to blame it on. Everyone knows that I came here to find Hermione." A little white lie that he suddenly wished was the truth. "What are they going to think if I don't come back?"
Voldemort lifted his shoulders. "Who am I to say why you decided to pick up and leave again, Harry? That's what I'll tell them at least. And the world will keep on turning, I promise you. Your Mudblood bed-warmer, sadly, won't live all that long after she gives birth. Remus Lupin and Severus Snape will work for me when I run for Minister of Magic. As for Hogwarts, it will under-go the most magical of transformations into an institution a pure-blooded witch or wizard can be proud to attend."
"Dumbledore will never..."
"Dumbledore won't be alive to see it."
Harry tilted his head to one side. "You've had far too much time to think about this."
"And you can thank yourself for that," Voldemort replied.
"You know what? You can kill me tonight. You can imprison my friends and my family. You can try to take over the Ministry and Hogwarts. But you will never win. There will always be someone who will stand up for what's right and good. Even you can't enchant everyone, Voldemort."
By that point, Lupin had managed to drag himself up using the very wall he had been thrown against as leverage. "Well spoken....Harry." He winced in pain. "It sounds like something James would have said."
"Welcome back. Ready for another round?" Voldemort pointed at Lupin's shoulder wound. It had re-opened and was oozing bright red blood.
Harry shook his head, smiling. "It's my turn now."
A long moment passed as the two wizards, whose pasts were so horrifically entwined, stared at each other. Harry could see nothing reflected in Draco's blue-grey eyes. He was truly the living dead. Suddenly, Harry's muscles grew tight. There was a new voice in his head and an invisible cloud around his mind.
**Come to me, Harry Potter.**
The Imperius Curse. It was strong, but he had overthrown it many times. His brow furring, Harry fought to let his own inner voice speak.
**No. I don't feel like it.**
**You have no choice, Harry Potter. It has always been your destiny. Come to me!**
Harry's feet wanted to move. He actually had to lock his knees into place. **You have no power over me.**
**Why do you fight? Come to me, and accept what should have been twenty-eight years ago. Your death. Your destiny.**
**I wasn't destined to die that night, or else I would have died.**
Voldemort continued to stare at him. **How long do you think you can resist me? Come to me, Harry Potter! Come to me, now!**
His foot lifted from the ground, despite the imaginary lead weights he placed upon it. **No...no...NO!**
**Yes, Harry. That's right. Your mind resists, but your body...it will bring you to me.**
There was a new voice out of the blue. **Put your foot down, mate. You're bloody Harry Potter, you are.**
"Ron." Harry's foot lowered and the fogginess over his thoughts dissipated.
The connection he had established had been broken. Voldemort blinked and shook his head. "Enough of this." He raised his wand. "Avada..."
"Expelliarmus!!"
The disarming spell hit Voldemort for the second time, only this time it not only knocked his wand from his hand, it also knocked him to the ground. Harry blinked and looked to the other end of the room.
Sirius lowered his own wand. "Fuck, I've wanted to do that for weeks."
Lupin put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Are you all right? He had you in some kind of trance for nearly half an hour. We tried...but he's too strong."
"It only felt like a minute." Harry licked his lips, tasting dried blood. "Hermione..."
Snape stepped out from around Sirius; Hermione was passed out in his arms. "Seems she was ordered to stop anyone trying go against her master. It was just a little stunning spell I had to use; she's not harmed."
"You didn't give it to her, did you?" Lupin asked the potions master. In response, Snape shook his head.
With Voldemort on the floor struggling to even sit up, Harry took Hermione from their former teacher. "I have no idea what's going on here anymore. I just want everyone to know that." She was light in his arms, despite four months of pregnancy.
"When it's over, we'll fill you in," Lupin promised. "But for now...let's finish it."
Sirius joined his godson. There was guilt on his face, but it was not the time for apologies. "You know what you have to do."
"Yes." Harry looked down at Draco Malfoy's body as Voldemort staggered to his feet. "But I'm not alone in doing it. Am I?"
"You're not," Sirius assured him. "Not this time." Behind him, Snape nodded. Lupin echoed the sentiment.
Harry looked down at Hermione. Her cheeks were deathly pale. And her body, so limp and pliant. The very idea of how Voldemort had wanted to use her...Harry forced the thought away. Gently, he let Hermione's legs drop until her feet touched the floor. He held her upright against his body with his left arm securely around her waist. The side of her face rested on his shoulder. With his free hand, Harry aimed his wand at Voldemort.
"This, Voldemort..." He closed his eyes for a brief moment. When they opened again, they were set like steel. "This is for my mother and father who gave up their lives for me. It's for Cedric Diggory who should have had a chance to grow up. For Draco Malfoy who was too twisted by you to know any better." Voldemort looked up at him with undiluted hatred. Harry continued, determined to get everything out. "For Hermione who saves my life every single day. For Sirius and Lupin...and Snape. For Ron...who should be here with us. For my children and their future. But mostly...this is for me."
His wand lifted. The curse was on his lips, a curse that was never meant to come from any good wizard's mouth. But for reasons that were beyond his control, this would be the second time he dared to utter it. Hopefully, it would also be the last.
But like the creature who he so thoroughly identified himself with, Voldemort struck in the blink of an eye, his invisible fangs bared. Instead of going for Harry's wand, the Dark Lord made a grab for Harry's chest, muttering a curse no one could understand.
Draco's nails dug into Harry's skin through the layers of his robes. From the moment Voldemort touched him, Harry felt only excruciating pain. The noise that came from his throat was primal; his oldest enemy was trying to gouge a hole in his chest to rip his very heart out and Harry couldn't even grapple his arm to stop him.
"Harry!" Sirius tried to pull Voldemort off, but with his free hand, the wizard stopped him. An invisible force sent Harry's godfather hurtling back several yards. He landed in a pile in front of the fire.
"Come any closer and suffer the same," Voldemort hissed between tightly clenched teeth when Lupin stepped forward. "I warn you now...this is my battle to triumph! And no one, most especially the great Harry Potter, is going to take that away from me!!" The sharp tips of Draco's fingers somehow tunneled through cotton and wool and broke Harry's skin.
"I can't move," he could hear Snape say. "Remus?"
"No." The other man fought with himself, but Voldemort's spells were too powerful.
Hermione's head lolled off his shoulder. She bent at the back over his arm, draped like a mannequin. Through his pain, keeping her from falling was the one task that kept Harry focused. Five little daggers pierced the thin layer of skin and thicker layer of muscle over his breast-bone and showed no signs of stopping. It was magical strength Voldemort possessed and if he wanted Harry's heart, he was going to have it if something weren't done.
"Voldemort..." he grunted, his face twisted. "Let...go of...me."
"I want to see it, Potter. In my hand...the source of all my troubles. This heart of yours..." The Dark Lord chuckled under his breath. Sweat beaded his forehead. "If I just...pluck it out, will you finally...and for all times...die?!?!"
Harry's entire body felt detached from what was happening to his chest. He was standing above himself, watching Voldemort use Draco Malfoy's fingers to dig into his body.
"Harry..." The word escaped Hermione's throat on a whisper.
Quick as that, he invaded his own body once again, taking charge. He blinked and released his wand. His hand now free, he grabbed his attacker's arm at the elbow joint. Harry said nothing, but his stare once again locked with Voldemort's. Both men's bodies shook with effort. One pushing forward, the other pushing back.
"I..." Harry began, his hoarse voice increasing in both volume and emphasis as he continued. "...will *not* die!!"
Voldemort broke eye contact; he dropped a strange look down to Harry's chest. Smoke curled around his fingers, emanating from the five puncture wounds. "What..." He stopped, Draco's eyes growing wide with sudden fear. "No...no!!!"
Harry could feel the heat in his heart although it was anything but painful. He closed his eyes and let it burn into Voldemort's skin. He needed no explanations. Hermione was stirring against his side, still lost to Snape's stunner and whatever it was that had been done to her, but she was there. Alive and breathing and close to him. Sirius was still unconscious on the floor and Snape Lupin were frozen, but their life-force was strong.
But more than that were the people who weren't present. His parents. His friends. Ron. The people who loved him, who had made sacrifices for him and for good in general. They were all there, concentrated in his heart and it was their power that made Voldemort pull away with a frightening cry, clutching his red, raw hand. He stumbled back several steps, his wound smoking.
"You see?" Harry panted, ignoring the lingering pain. "You can't touch me."
Lupin and Snape both relaxed in that moment, released from their binding spell. An angry groan and movement by the fireplace signaled Sirius' struggle to stand. Still holding onto Hermione, Harry bent down and slowly picked up his wand.
"This is not...happening again," Voldemort muttered over and over again. "It's not....I'm going to...it's my time...to kill you....Harry Potter."
With precision, Harry lined the end of his wand up with his target. "Do you know what, Voldemort? Just...bugger off already."
"Again," Lupin lifted his wand; Snape mimicked the gesture. "Something your father would have said."
Voldemort shot a look that could have been interpreted as worried at Snape. "Severus?"
The potions master shrugged at his long-abandoned master. "Everyone knows not to trust a former Death-Eater."
Sirius joined them, cracking his neck joints back into place. "All right. I've had just about enough of this sodding prick tossing me around." He raised his own wand.
The men exchanged glances. They each had the same, unspoken thought and just as silently, it was agreed upon. Harry clutched Hermione a little tighter to his chest; she groaned in protest. Before he spoke, he took another look around him. Lupin and Sirius on one side. Snape and Hermione on the other.
He squinted suddenly. Just over Snape's shoulder, he could barely make out another figure. A man in robes and red hair, his own wand poised and ready to go. The apparition turned its head towards Harry and winked merrily.
Harry's eyes shut for only the brief second it took to blink, but when he opened them again, Ron was gone.
His attention whipped back to the task at hand. He didn't have to glance around again. It was time.
"Avada Kedavra."
Their voices mingled together like a deadly four-part harmony. The green light followed, the light that had haunted Harry for his entire life. Voldemort's screams were those of a man dying without a final lifeline in sight. After what seemed like an eternity, the light faded and there was nothing but Draco's body left.
It dropped to the floor like a weight, still bearing the colors of life. But before their eyes, Draco's skin, dead for ten years, began to crack and peel. His lips rolled back, teeth and eyes protruded. Decayed flesh melted away to reveal muscles; muscles shrunk until there were only robe-covered bones. Harry watched it all without blinking or flinching.
Finally, there was silence. Harry was the first to move; he passed Hermione over to Lupin and took a tentative step forward. Voldemort's wand lay in the bones that had made up Draco's hand. He leaned down and carefully extracted it.
Snape came up behind him. "What do you want to do now, Harry?"
A moment passed as he stared at the wand that had brought about so much death and destruction while pondering the question. What did he want to do now?
Harry grasped either end of the wand and snapped it in half. He tossed the broken instrument onto the remains of Draco Malfoy. With that dismissal, he looked up at Snape. "Cure Hermione." It wasn't an answer; it was a request. An order, even.
The potions master glanced back at Lupin and Sirius. "It's not that simple, Harry."
"What do you mean?" Harry took off his broken glasses. "You did something to fix Sirius. Now do the same to Hermione."
Lupin approached with the woman in question in his arms. She was on the brink of consciousness now, her struggles lending proof to the fact that Voldemort might have been gone, but his control over her lingered. "While he had you in that trance..." He licked his lips, hesitant to go on.
"It was a potion, Harry." Sirius walked forward, his arms crossed. "I was wandering around Diagon Alley that day we were supposed to meet as Padfoot....and I was shot with some sort of tranquilizer. By the time I woke up as a human again, he had force-fed me half a bottle. I couldn't stop him from..." Taking a breath, he continued. "It was like my own voice was gone. I was there, under the surface, watching myself do everything he told me to do, but I had no will of my own. It was his will."
Harry touched his bruised cheek. "I think I understand. So, he gave this potion to Hermione. I still don't understand why..."
"The counter-potion." Snape pulled the half-empty beaker out of his robes. "It worked very fast for Sirius. But..."
"But what?" Harry felt like stomping his foot. "Give it to Hermione then!"
Lupin spoke softly. "We overheard from the fireplace... Is Hermione really pregnant?"
"Yes," Harry replied after a second. "What does that...." He abruptly stopped. "Wait a minute..."
"I'm sorry, Harry." For the first time since he had known the man, Snape sounded sincerely so. "The key ingredient of this potion is shrivelfig. Shrivelfig is also the main component of any abortive potion. Harry...if we give this to her, she will miscarry."
The heavy blanket of silence was ripped in half as Hermione came to all of a sudden. She gazed up at Lupin wildly. "Put me down!!"
Startled, Lupin looked to Harry. James' son was still overwhelmed by the news; he blinked several times and tried to focus on Hermione, who was by now kicking and fighting. Before she could do any damage, Lupin set her down onto her feet.
She immediately moved back a few feet from the men. "Where's Draco?"
Harry took a step towards her. "Hermione...it's me, Harry. Please, look at me. Please..."
"Stay away from me!" She jumped back another foot. "I want Draco."
"She really *isn't* Hermione right now, Harry," Sirius said. "The only thing she can think about is him. And the only thing that matters is whatever his next order is. She's lost without him. You can't talk her back."
"If I can't talk her back to me, then...then I can wait! I mean..." Harry plunged bloody hands into his hair. "She's about...four and half months along. Another four and a half...it's not that long to wait...to get her back *and* have our baby safe and..."
Hermione screamed, cutting him off. She had backed into Draco's bones; her heel caught his collarbone, crushing it. She dropped to her knees and fingered the edge of his robes. "You....you killed him...you all killed him."
Snape uncorked his potion. "Take a good look at her Harry. This is how she'll be until she has this potion."
He snapped back, on the edge of exhaustion, pain and impending sorrow. "You're telling me that I have to choose between the woman I love and our baby?! How can you....any of you expect me to do that?! After everything we've gone through tonight..." Harry rubbed his mouth with the back of his palm. "No. I can't do this. I won't...choose." He walked over to Hermione; she had draped herself over what was left of Draco. "Hermione. Come on. We're getting out of here and back to..."
"I'm not going anywhere," she spat. "Not with you. Not without him." Her arms cradled her belly. "I'm going to stay here and wait for my baby to come. Draco promised to take care of her....and me. Forever."
When Harry turned back to his companions, there were hot tears in his eyes. "There's another way. Please...tell me that another kind of potion can be..." Snape shook his head. "Lupin....a spell? From America, perhaps? Something..." He glanced at Sirius when Lupin lowered his head. "Anything. Please..."
Sirius reached for his godson's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Harry," he whispered.
His godfather's hand remained on his shoulder in the long minutes that followed, a link to some semblance of sanity. In all that time, Harry neither blinked nor moved. The only sounds were Hermione's quiet sobs. Finally, Harry nodded. "Give it to her."
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Little Harry woke with a start. He sat up in his sun-warmed bed, but didn't stay there for long. Hagrid was asleep in a chair by the door that had broken underneath his huge body, snoring enough to scare the model dragons on his bookshelves. The boy quietly got up and snuck out the door of his room.
He thundered down the stairs. The living room was cold despite the daylight; the fire had long since died. Little Harry ignored it and ran for the front door.
He scolded himself as he ran out the corridor, past Miss Belle's painting and through the Hogwarts hallways and staircases. How many times had his mother told him not to run? But he had to get there...quickly.
The sun had just come up and there was still fresh dew on the grass as little Harry came out into fresh air from the port trellis. He lifted a hand to his eyes to shield them from the bright light. There were dark silhouettes coming up over the hill from the direction of Hogsmeade. Four distinct shapes and as they came closer, he could see a fifth, cradled in one of the figure's arms.
He wanted to run to them, but his feet remained planted. The last pieces of his dream came back to him. The snake biting into his little sister's arm and making her cry.
The dark shapes turned into people. Professor Snape. Professor Lupin. A man with black hair who he vaguely recognized.
And his father. Carrying his mother.
They were obviously victorious, but none of them were smiling. When they were only a couple of yards away, little Harry realized why.
Blood soaked his mother's skirt turning the tan material dark crimson and caked her long legs all the way down. She was as pale as one of the lilies in his grandmother's garden. His father's glasses were gone; there was nothing on his face but bruises, blood and tears.
The boy cheeks were also wet. He rubbed at them with his sleeve, but then thought better of it. His dad had told him once that there were times when it was all right to cry.
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To Be Continued (like I'd end it there...)