Current location:	my desk ~ B110
Current mood:	sleepy
Current music:	the D&D game down the hall
Entry tags:	fic, harry potter, what it means

FIC: What It Means.... ~ ...To Taste Victory ~ PG-13
Title: What It Means...
Author: batsutousai
Beta: magickmaker17
Rating: PG-13/T
Pairings: None
Warnings: Harry-in-Azkaban, betrayal, angst, Dark-but-not-Evil!Harry, Slightly-Too-Powerful-To-Be-Realistic!Harry, character death
Summary: At the end of Fifth Year, things go as planned for some and not for others. When Harry is sent to Azkaban for killing his best friends, who will stand at his side and who will turn their back?

A/N: Sorry about the belated update, folks. Alas, I'm more concerned with getting my end-of-term papers done than getting this fic updated.

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Chapter Seven ~ ...To Taste Victory
Written: 20/03/08
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Five months came and went while Draco stayed at Cottage Freedom. In that time, Draco learned to live with and even, to some extent, enjoy the company of his house mates. While the cottage out in the woods was far from the luxury he was used to, he became accustomed to life there. Full moons were nerve-wracking, even though he knew Remus had Wolfsbane Potion to dull his wolf as well as Harry and Sirius to keep the werewolf away from the house, Draco always found himself curled up under his blankets in terror and unable to sleep until the sun rose the following morning. Other than that, he had no complaints. When he asked one day in his third month at the cottage if there was a chance of him seeing his father again, Harry asked the Aurors if it would be okay for them to visit Lucius and got permission.

Really, Draco had decided, Harry wasn't so bad, for a Gryffindor.

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Harry continued to run around, depleting Voldemort's forces as Dorcha for months. When he could, he'd get the Death Eaters' families out of the country safely or find room for them at Hogwarts or Grimmauld Place. Only the residents of Cottage Freedom knew that Harry and Dorcha were the same, but Dumbledore had always approved of Dorcha's actions and was quick to offer safety to those in need of it, no matter who they were.

The Ministry remained torn over what to do with Dorcha. The Minister wanted him taken out. The Aurors wanted the African to join their ranks, or at least be given a medal. The Prophet ate the tension up and was constantly printing stories about either Dorcha's latest conquest, or the strife in the Ministry.

Voldemort was furious with the whole thing. He broke Azkaban open to get the few followers who resided there – the Ministry had taken to keeping Death Eaters either in Ministry holding cells or sending them out of the country to be imprisoned after Dumbledore suggested they not put too much faith in the dementors. Every time Voldemort was particularly furious, Harry would get one hell of a headache and have to go lie down. Even with his Occlumency, Voldemort could still affect him. On Voldemort's bad days, he would often hammer away at Harry's shields all evening until he could get in and give Harry nightmares of people he knew and innocent muggles being tortured and dying.

Every one in a while, Harry would think about Neville and go over to St Mungo's to visit him, usually without even Ginny or Luna's presence. When he visited, he simply sat next to Neville's bed and smiled sadly at his friend and his friend's parents, who lay in the beds next to Neville. He never said anything to Neville, for there was nothing he could think of that would make things better, and even if there was, Neville would never hear him.

Harry wished he could change the past.

It was one such visit to Neville's bedside that everything finally came to a head.

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Harry settled into his normal seat next to Neville's bed with a sigh. He offered his friend a smile and Neville smiled back at him, clearly not knowing who Harry was, only that he was smiling. Neville reached over to his table, where a vase of fresh sunflowers sat. He took one of them out and offered it to Harry. He didn't know who his visitor was, only that he came often and always sat in that same chair with that same sad smile.

Harry blinked at the sunflower. "Are you giving this to me?" he asked after a moment of confusion.

Neville nodded. "You're sad," he said, as if it explained everything.

Harry took the sunflower, a little surprised. The nurses had told Harry the first time he'd come for a visit that Neville was more aware of his surrounding than his parents and he would occasionally speak. Harry had never actually heard his friend speak before, but he took them at their word. "Thank you, Neville."

Neville cocked his head to one side. "Why are you sad?"

Harry's smile turned bitter. "Because it's my fault you're in here."

Neville shook his head. "No. The nurse says a woman put me here."

"Bellatrix cast the curse, yes," Harry agreed. "But I'm the one who brought you to the Department of Mysteries."

"Why?" Neville asked innocently.

"Why did I bring you there?" Neville nodded. "Because Voldemort sent me a vision that he was torturing my godfather there. I had to save him. But it wasn't real."

Neville blinked. This person's name was Harry. Where did that come from? "Harry..."

Harry's head, which he'd bowed in shame, shot up at his name. "Neville? Did you just say my name?"

Neville smiled, pleased he'd gotten it right. "Harry!"

"Merlin..." Harry breathed. No one had called him Harry in Neville's presence since he'd been cursed by Bellatrix. One of the nurses may have told Neville Harry's name after one of his visits, but Harry didn't know for sure. All he knew – all he cared about – was that Neville had remembered his name.

Before Neville or Harry could speak again, Ginny appeared in front of Harry. "Voldemort's attacking downstairs!" Almost as soon as Ginny had finished speaking, the hospital emergency alarms went off.

"Shit!" Harry stood and pulled out his waterberry wand, not caring if someone questioned him on its existence – he needed all of his magic to fight Voldemort.

Two nurses burst into the ward. As soon as they saw Harry, they turned towards him. "Anti-apparation and anti-portkey wards are up. We have to get the patients out of here!"

Harry nodded. "Do you have brooms? Or an extra fireplace upstairs?"

"No," one nurse said. "Our only Floo connection is downstairs. And even if we did have brooms, we can't take some patients on them."

Harry bit his lip, then nodded decisively. "Ginny, stay in here. I'm going to put a ward up over the doors that should, hopefully, keep them outside. Then I'm going downstairs to help with the fighting."

"It's dangerous down there!" the other, clearly more frightened nurse said.

"Yes, but I'm perfectly capable of keeping myself alive in a fight. I need you two to stay here and get the people in this ward ready to flee, just in case we have to. Was anyone able to contact Auror Headquarters?"

"No," Ginny said. "But Luna went to get the Baron and Peeves to send them for help. With any luck, help will start showing up soon."

"Merlin, I hope so," Harry murmured. He set the sunflower Neville had given him on the table next to the vase and offered his friend a sad smile. "Be brave, Neville. I promise I won't let them hurt you again." Then he hurried from the ward, pausing outside to throw his strongest wards up around the door, praying they would keep the Death Eaters out.

Once certain the wards would hold, Harry took the stairs down in a rush, jumping the last four steps or so to the landing and using his gift with air to make his movements just a little faster.

On the second floor landing, Harry finally ran into a Death Eater. It was Bellatrix Lestrange and she was cackling madly as she held a nurse under the Cruciatus. Barely pausing, Harry snapped out, "Avada Kedavra," and hurried on as Bellatrix fell to the green light. The nurse Bellatrix had been torturing took a moment to catch her breath, then picked up the vile witch's wand and snapped it with a vicious smile.

On the first floor, Harry ran right into another Death Eater. The Death Eater stumbled and fell backwards down the stairs. The wind at Harry's back kept him moving, though he let up on it enough to check and see if the Death Eater was still breathing. He wasn't; his neck was broken.

As soon as Harry exited to the ground floor, he had to duck a wild spell. The place was a madhouse of screaming patients and nurses as well as flying curses of all colours. Aurors were pouring in the main entrance and the Floo, crushing the Death Eaters between the fresh Aurors and the tiring staff.

Then Voldemort made himself known with a mad laugh and started killing the opposition. More people started screaming.

In the confusion, Harry had a crazy idea. If only he and Voldemort could kill each other, according to the prophecy, then Voldemort would only take Harry Potter seriously. However, if he were faced with Dorcha, he probably wouldn't, which would give Harry a slight advantage. Strangely amused by his idea, Harry morphed himself into Dorcha and transfigured his robes into an African style. A strip of blood- and fluid-free bandaging off the floor took the place of his normal wrap over his scar and the accent spell completed the costume.

Finally disguised, Dorcha joined the fray. Among them, he was just another wizard shooting curses at the Death Eaters. It didn't matter to anyone that he looked like the descriptions of Dorcha the Dark Hunter, as the Prophet had taken to calling him.

To keep direct attention off of him for the moment, he stuck to using Light offensive and defensive spells. A quick shield with his white poplar wand – which he'd taken to carrying in a sheath on his leg just in case he ever needed two wands – in his left hand saved a nearby mediwizard from a nasty curse while his waterberry wand in his right hand stunned a Death Eater bearing down on sobbing child who was clutching at her dead mother's arm. That same just-stunned Death Eater was picked up by a sudden gust of wind and got in the way of a Killing Curse aimed at a witch with a stone arm.

Dorcha caught sight of a Killing Curse green wand tip pointed his way and shot out and avis spell to get in the way. Two of the birds died in a wash of green while the rest of them made for the Death Eater's hands and eyes. To his far left, he saw a flare of fire and Dumbledore appeared with Fawkes. He immediately had to duck three Killing Curses and Dorcha made a mental note to never join a battle in so obvious a manner. Really. How many people in Britain owned a phoenix?

A cackle of glee and three stone globes hitting the heads of Death Eaters and taking them out announced the arrival of Peeves. The poltergeist ducked out of the way of various curses sent at him and a quick shield spell from Dorcha ensured that even if one of the spells hit true, Peeves would be fine.

A familiar shoulder bumped Dorcha's. "Fancy meeting you here, kid," Sirius teased.

Dorcha snorted. "You know me, always chasing after Death Eaters." Another gust of wind blocked a Killing Curse with an already dead body. "Did Remus and Draco come too, or is it just you and me?"

"Too close to the full moon," Sirius said, shooting off a stunner and shielding against a nasty return. "I made Remus stay home. Gave Draco a choice and he decided to stay with Remus."

"Best idea he's had all year," Dorcha quipped, aiming a cutting curse at a Death Eater's wand arm. "I mean, we've been training him and all, but he's not quite at fighting Death Eater level yet."

"Don't I know it. Remus can take him down even on one of his bad days."

Dorcha snorted. "In all fairness, you wore him down first."

"Forgot about that part."

A mad laugh from their left drew their eyes to where Voldemort was about to finish Dumbledore off. "Fucker," Dorcha spat, and sent a strong gust of wind to throw Voldemort's aim wild. The Killing Curse hit the wall and furious red eyes searched out the hate-filled caramel eyes watching him. The Dark Lord mouthed, "Dorcha," then immediately sent a Killing Curse his way.

Dorcha ducked, dragging Sirius down with him. The green curse hit a Death Eater stalking towards a fallen nurse. "Move," Dorcha hissed to Sirius, then stood and started towards Voldemort. "So we finally meet," he said when he was close enough to not have to shout.

"And then we say good-bye," Voldemort replied, then shot another Killing Curse at him.

A gust of wind moved a startled Death Eater in the way and Dorcha smirked. "Do you enjoy killing your own people off?" he inquired.

With a roar of fury, Voldemort started casting a variety of Dark curses. With two wands, Dorcha was easily able to keep a shield up and send a few Light spells back.

After a minute of Voldemort not getting anywhere against the shield, he spat, "Fight me!"

"Oh. You should have said that's what you wanted," Dorcha replied with a cheerful smile. Then he cast a Killing Curse of his own and jumped out of the way of the Dark Lord's return fire.

The two men danced around each other, shooting spells of various ranges of legal usage, though most of the spells they used were less than legal. An occasional gust of wind just barely moved Dorcha out of the way of a spell and Voldemort constantly found himself only just able to block one of his opponent's spells.

But, as Dorcha had hoped, Voldemort was confident that only Harry Potter could beat him and since the man he was dueling wasn't Harry Potter, he wasn't as careful. When Dorcha finally broke through his shield with a Light cutting curse, Voldemort ignored the wound. A fatal mistake, because Dorcha had already sustained at least one cut and he spelled some of his blood into the cut on the Dark Lord's arm. Mere moments later, Voldemort fell to the ground convulsing.

Dorcha picked up the tainted yew wand and snapped it. "Guess this is the end, mate," he offered cheerfully to Voldemort.

"What....do...?"

"My blood's poisonous. You're lucky that ritual you used required the 'ingredients' to be put into boiling water or you would have died then. Pity."

Understanding flashed in dying red eyes. "Po...tter..."

Dorcha tugged off the bandage he'd used to cover his scar and, even through the mass of other scars that he'd moved from around his body to try and hide it, his lightning bolt curse scar was easy to make out on his forehead. "The one and only."

Voldemort smirked. "Save you.....place in....hell...."

"I look forward to it," Dorcha replied, then stood as the Dark Lord finally died.

Dorcha blinked when he looked up, only just then realizing that the rest of the lobby was filled with Aurors, patients and staff staring at him. Apparently, he and Voldemort had been the last two fighting. "Err... He's dead."

The entire room filled with cheers and Dorcha grinned at them all. Sirius came over and hugged him carefully. "That was one amazing duel. And I always thought Dumbledore looked wicked fighting him."

Dorcha sighed and rested his head on Sirius' shoulder. "It was bloody exhausting, too."

Sirius chuckled. "I'll bet. And I know everyone's proud of you. Especially me."

Dorcha nodded and blinked back tears. "Thanks, Sirius."

"Sure thing, kid."

Three Aurors stepped over to them then. Kingsley and Tonks were among them and both looked a little worse for wear, but were smiling. Tonks bounced to a stop directly in front of Dorcha. "Wotcher. So, are you Harry, or Dorcha?" she asked cheerfully.

"Both," Dorcha said, then shifted back into his normal form. "I'm a metamorphmagus too, just not as strong as you are."

"Wicked!" Tonks decided.

Harry grinned. "Great for getting around unnoticed."

Tonks laughed.

Kingsley settled a big hand on Tonks' shoulder. "That was an impressive duel, Mr Potter."

"It was also a highly illegal duel," Harry agreed. "But, as Dumbledore's showed us a few times before, dueling using only Light magic isn't always the way to go."

Kingsley smiled. "I think I can safely get away with a gentle admonishment, in light of the situation. Don't do that again."

Harry grinned. "I'll do my best, Senior Auror."

An Auror Harry didn't know stepped forward. "Were you the cause behind all the wind in here as well?"

Harry winced. "Err, yeah. I'm a wind elemental." That earned him a couple of startled looks and a chuckle from Sirius. Harry had never mentioned his control over the elements to his three house mates, though they knew he had more gifts than just what he'd told them.

Tonks shook her head wryly. "Harry, mate, you're something else."

"In a good way," Sirius cut in.

"In a very good way," Tonks agreed, then smiled at him.

Kingsley chuckled. "Sirius, why don't you take him home? He looks like he's only just standing on his feet."

"Probably a good idea," Sirius agreed.

Harry shook his head and forced himself to stand and not lean on Sirius anymore. "I was up in the Janus Thickey Ward with Neville with the alarms sounded. I put a ward up on the door that I need to take down before we leave."

Sirius sighed. "Alright. Are the elevators running?"

"Only the emergency one, and you need a code for it. Hold on, let me see if I can find a mediwizard..." the Auror Harry didn't know said, then hurried off towards where the mediwitches and mediwizards were gathering at the reception desk.

Peeves floated down next to Harry while the Auror was gone. "Moldy's dead. Potty wins!"

Harry grinned at the poltergeist. "You didn't get hit with anything, did you?"

Peeves shook his head. "Potty's shield protected Peevesy. Thank you, Potty."

"You're welcome," Harry replied, while the two Aurors and Sirius laughed.

The other Auror hurried back over with a mediwizard that had a cut on his arm that was bleeding sluggishly, indicating a poor healing job. "I'm in charge of the wards on the fourth floor. Auror Fairbank said you placed a ward up around the Janus Thickey Ward?"

Harry nodded. "My friend Neville is in there, and it's not like the people in there can really defend themselves. They've got a couple of nurses with them and all..."

The mediwizard nodded. "Right. This way, Mr Potter."

As Sirius and Harry followed the mediwizard, Kingsley said to Tonks, "Go with them and make sure they get home all right. We'll probably have to have Harry come in for questioning tomorrow, but he's too tired right now."

"Right." Tonks hurried after the trio getting into the elevator and just made it. "Hey, my new job is making sure you two make it home okay."

"Sounds good to me," Sirius replied, once again bearing most of Harry's weight as the young man dozed on his feet. "When will we have to go in and give statements?"

"Kingsley's going to try and keep them off you until tomorrow. Of course, with as many people as were here and the clean-up we'll have to do on this place, it might take another day before we have to drag you two in. I'll try and make sure either Kingsley or I are the ones sent to get you."

"That would be best," Sirius agreed as the elevator stopped at the fourth floor.

Harry straightened and walked evenly over to the door. A swish of his waterberry wand dispelled the ward and he poked his head through the door with a smile. "It's safe," he offered to the two witches pointing wands at him. Behind them, Ginny relaxed. "Everyone all right in here, then?"

"Yeah," Ginny said, floating over to the door. "We got them to huddle in one of the corners, just in case. Did you fight a boar or something?"

"No," Tonks announced. "He killed You-Know-Who."

Ginny's eyes went wide, then she let out a loud cheer and twirled around. "That's wonderful, Harry!"

Harry offered her a weak grin. "It is, but I'm bloody tired because of it."

"What about her?" a quiet voice asked from the corner of bodies. Neville wiggled his way out and looked at Harry seriously.

Harry smiled. "Bellatrix is dead."

Neville smiled back. "Thank you."

"It's the least I could do," Harry replied. "How are you feeling?"

Neville's smile faded. "Confused. I-I remember things. Like Hogwarts and the Department of Mysteries and the D.A. and what it feels like to be under Cruciatus."

Harry stared at his friend in shock. "Y-you do? You actually remember things?"

Neville nodded, eyes wide.

Harry half ran over to Neville and hugged him. "That's wonderful, Neville."

The mediwizard who'd brought Harry, Sirius and Tonks up moved forward. "Mr Longbottom, may I run a quick test on you?"

Eyes wide, Neville nodded, so Harry moved out of the way. The mediwizard scanned Neville twice, looking impressed.

"Well?" Harry said when the mediwizard went to scan Neville a third time without saying anything.

The man shook his head and smiled at the two young men. "Whatever block you unconsciously put up to protect yourself from the Cruciatus exposure is now falling apart. I have no explanation for it. When did you start to remember things?"

Neville bit his lip. "I remembered Harry's name when we were talking earlier. And when Ginny showed up, I remembered her being placed under the Imperius Curse?"

"By Lucius Malfoy," Ginny agreed, smiling madly.

Neville nodded. "Yeah. And then, when Harry left, I started remembering more that had happened there. Like Harry acting funny and killing Luna. And Luna saying he was being possessed. And flying on the thestrals. It's coming back in bits and pieces, but it's there."

"So, Mr Potter was the cause behind the whole thing?" the mediwizard asked.

"Yeah," Neville decided. "Usually, he doesn't talk. He just sits next to me with a sad smile. So I thought he might like one of my sunflowers." Neville's cheeks reddened. "And I asked him why he was always so sad. And he started telling me about the Department of Mysteries. Then I remembered his name."

"Merlin's beard," the mediwizard whispered, looking at Harry like he was Merlin himself. Harry frowned and inched closer to Neville.

Sirius cleared his throat. "As wonderful as this all is, Harry needs to go home and get some sleep and I have to tell Remus and Draco that we didn't get killed."

"Draco?" Neville frowned.

"Draco Malfoy," Harry said. "He was in our year at school. A Slytherin. Blond hair, always walking around like he owned the place."

Neville's eyes lit up. "Oh. Malfoy. Yeah. I remember. I'm worth twelve of him."

Harry buried his face in Neville's shoulder, laughing.

Neville blinked. "Why are you living with him?"

Harry looked back up with a smile. "Never change, Neville." Neville flushed again. "Draco's living with us because when I turned Lucius in to the Ministry as a Death Eater, he requested that I protect Draco from Voldemort. Since Draco never took the mark, I agreed."

"Harry's just too nice," Ginny agreed.

Sirius cleared his throat again.

Harry sighed. "I know. We need to leave."

Neville smiled and hugged Harry. "You'll come back?"

Harry smiled. "You know I will." He turned to Ginny. "Do you want to stay here?"

Ginny nodded. "Are we close enough to the cottage?"

Harry cocked an eyebrow at Sirius, who said, "I think so."

"Alright. If not, come find me and I'll release you."

"Okay. Go get some sleep."

"Yes, mum," Harry teased, then scampered over to Sirius while Ginny kicked in the general direction of Harry's behind.

Sirius rolled his eyes at the two. "Are the anti-apparation wards down?"

"Yes," Tonks reported.

"Okay. I'll apparate with Harry. You know where the cottage is."

"I'll follow you. Go on."

Harry waved at Neville and Ginny, then let Sirius apparate them away.

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A/N: One last chapter and that should be it. Isn't that a happy thought?

Review?
~Bats


Next Chapter: ...To Live (May 8th)