Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 02: The End of an Era, Part 1
Almost one thousand years later. June 24, 1995
Harry Potter did not have the best life. Growing up with the Dursleys was not easy, and even after finding out that he was a wizard and that there was a whole secret world filled with magic and wonders, things did not get better.
If anything… they got worse.
Instead of having to deal with some spiteful family members, now he had a powerful dark wizard coming after his life, a maniac who called himself Lord Voldemort, whom he had somehow defeated when he was a baby and who now wanted revenge.
Harry had already stopped his plans twice while barely knowing any magic. Was anyone grateful for that?... No, most didn't know, and the ones who did didn't seem to care all that much.
Other than his two friends, Ron and Hermione, Harry didn't have much to be happy about.
But this year, things had gotten even worse than before. He was once again dragged into one of Voldemort's plots, and his name appeared out of that blasted Fire Goblet.
This cost him what little reputation he had left, turning the entire school against him.
It had also cost him one of his only two friends… or perhaps both.
He wasn't sure what hurt more… Ron's betrayal, or Hermione abandoning him because she would rather spend time with Ron, even though doing that left Harry alone.
And that was exactly how he had spent this entire year… alone. Either that, or being berated by some angry students who continued to call him a cheater.
He only managed to survive the tournament thanks to Professor Moody, who gave him a few tips here and there.
If it wasn't for him, Harry would have likely gotten eaten by the dragon.
It was still better than the second task, where he had to rescue Ron, of all people… At that point, he hated Ron so much that he had seriously considered leaving him there and failing the task.
However, Harry was sure the Headmaster was not going to let him. And all that he would have accomplished would have been a few howlers from Molly Weasley and another look of disapproval from Hermione.
The third task came around, and this made Harry somewhat happy. At least it was close to being over. Not just the tournament, but also the school year.
He was almost looking forward to going back home with the Dursleys this year. That just went to show how bad this year had been for him. At least at home, he only had to deal with three people who hated him, instead of hundreds.
He even considered telling his uncle and aunt that he didn't want to come back to Hogwarts next year.
'None of that really matters anymore…' Harry thought.
His tired green eyes moved to the ground on his left. The corpse of Cedric Diggory had been left there, after he took a Killing Curse to the chest.
'They are going to blame me for that too…' he thought bitterly. Although it didn't seem likely that he was going to survive this one.
His body was secured to a marble statue, only allowing him to move his head a bit, and he had no idea where his wand went.
Wormtail had ambushed him and Cedric, and they lost immediately.
The traitorous rat then used his own blood to perform some nasty ritual that he didn't understand, but it somehow brought Voldemort back to life.
This was not the same one he met during his first two years. This was the real Dark Lord in all his glory. Even if he had his wand, Harry didn't believe that a few Expelliarmus were going to do much to solve the situation.
Wormtail handed Voldemort some black robes and a wand. The two of them began to talk about something that Harry couldn't hear.
'Are they going to make me wait much?' Harry wondered. The prospect of dying… didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. That was worrisome by itself, to be honest.
Voldemort finished his conversation with Wormtail by stabbing his wand into the man's shoulder, making him scream loudly.
Harry had no idea what that was about. The rat may be a coward, but he did do his job quite well… and even lost an arm to bring Voldemort back.
A moment later, Harry saw many more individuals arriving at the cemetery. There was no way to tell who they were because they all wore black robes and had their faces covered with masks.
Although he was sure that Draco's father was somewhere in the group.
"Oh no…" Harry felt a shiver run through his veins, and his body temperature began to drop.
He cared little for the masked men, but the creatures appearing from the sky were a different story.
There must have been hundreds of dementors flying above them. There were enough to cover the moon and stars, and even at a good distance, it was enough to make Harry very uncomfortable.
'Is he going to make them eat my soul?' He hoped that was not the case.
His green eyes looked at the dead Cedric again, and for an instant, he kinda wished to have the same fate as him. A quick death with the Killing Curse seemed preferable to whatever Voldemort had planned for him.
Harry watched as the Dark Lord welcomed his followers. These ones kneeled and praised him for his return.
Voldemort wasn't exactly happy and complained about their lack of action to bring him back to life.
Eventually, he calmed down and turned to look at him.
Harry felt shivers across his body. His mind had already had time to go through dozens of different scenarios of what was going to happen next. None of them were pleasant.
"Harry Potter," Voldemort spoke with a raspy but still threatening voice. His fingers moved the wand around in a playful manner as he moved closer to him.
"What shall I do with you now?"
A.N.: The events of this fic take place in an alternate universe. You will realize that things happen a bit differently here. The students antagonized Harry much more, and his falling out with Ron was much more severe. Even after the first task, things didn't get easier for Harry, and he never reconciled with his friends.
This is why Harry's state of mind is much darker and filled with despair than how it was in canon.