Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Harry Potter and the Ashes of Hope ❯ Chapter 4: The Death ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I do not own Harry Potter and please read the rest of the disclaimer in Chapter 1

Chapter Four

The Death

On July 31, 1997, Harry Potter was escorted out of his cell and side-apparated out of Azkaban to the holding facilities in the Ministry of Magic. During the several hours when he was being held in these rooms, Fudge and other Ministry officials were discussing the fate of the boy-who-lived.

As usual, the fickle Wizarding populace had gullibly turned their backs on the boy-who-lived as soon as they were told that he was a Death Eater. The capture and imprisonment of the boy did well for Fudge's approval rating but long-established ministry laws prevented Fudge from acting any further by executing an under-age wizard. However, now that the boy was 17 and legally an adult, he was eligible to be executed, as Fudge had originally wanted. It was soon decided that the boy would be Kissed and then his body would be cremated as soon as possible.

By now, several hours of freedom from the dementor's presence lifted some of the confusion from Harry's mind. By no means was the mental damage reversed but his fragmented thoughts were making more sense and for the first time in several months he recalled Remus's visit. He remembered Remus's wish for him to pursue his Animagus form and a deep urge within in, probably due to his sole trust in the only one who trusted him, beckoned him to please the man and accomplish the feat.

However, an obstacle existed between Harry and the acquisition of his Animagusform. Although he, Hermione, and Ronald had been receiving lessons from Remus and Sirius during their fifth year of Hogwarts so that they would have some value to the Order of the Phoenix and could be inducted, Harry was never successful. Both Ronald and Hermione had discovered their Animagus forms and made progress in the complete transformation. Hermione had the form of a bobcat and Ron had the form of a red fox.

Harry had not even succeeded in discovering his form. The potion and psychological training he endured proved fruitless as his form eluded his mind. For awhile, they all believed that maybe the boy did not have one, much to the disappointment of Harry himself.

However, the Animagus test potion turned blue, thus indicating that he was capable of a transformation. Therefore, while Hermione and Ron pursued the transformation with some insight towards their final form, Harry went forth blindly. The next steps involved a series of potions and mental and magical training. Due to the presence of the experienced Remus and Sirius, the process was greatly accelerated and all three students quickly went through the necessary requirements.

One of the final steps was the mental transformation. Many scholars and scientists had theorized that if a person was to physically transform before they mentally transformed, they were likely to go insane and stay in their animal form forever because the human mind would not function properly within an animal body. Other more pessimistic scientists foresaw an even worse result and believed that the person would be stuck in a middle stage between human and animal and would die due to the inefficiency of such a hybrid.

Surprisingly, Harry had the easiest time with this step.

While Hermione and Ron struggled to get into the enlightened mindset of their respective animal forms, Harry could easily shift into the mindset of his still undiscovered form and retain his human insights all the same. However, the benevolent, objective, and optimistic mood in which Harry found himself gave him no indication to the identity of his inner animal. All the same, this was his only Animagus strength that Hermione and Ron lacked.

Unfortunately, Harry's transformation would go no further. Every time he attempted to complete the physical transformation, a searing pain would consume his limbs and inhibit him from continuing his efforts.

It was memories of these lessons that reached Harry during the last moments of his confinement in the holding cells. When guards made him stand up upon his weak and shaking legs, the urge came to him to again try the transformation. With a newfound determination instilled by the desperate Remus several months prior, his fragmented mind cleared and molded into the animal mindset once more. Even though months had passed since he last tried to transform, it was just as easy as the last time.

With an animal mind that retained its human insights, Harry suddenly found everything to be clearer than it had been in months. He could now think in objective, complete thoughts rather than the fuddled, confused tangents that he was used to thinking. Furthermore, his despaired mood now was countered by a foreign optimism that he couldn't explain. Harry suddenly comprehended what was about to happen and illogically resolved that the only solution would be to complete his animagus transformation. There was no logical or rational support for this conclusion, but an animalistic sense of reasoning supported it anyway.

The Aurors half led, half dragged Harry through the corridors with no idea that the boy, who otherwise showed no difference in his physical appearance, was somehow different than a few moments before. For the first time ever, Harry found himself before a dementor with no change in his mental demeanor.

For the first time ever, Harry was not affected.

Still, when the dementor's skeletal hands grabbed hold of him, he struggled to avoid the monster, still recognizing the danger this creature presented. Harry was still as weakened as before and his struggles were in vain as the creature pulled his face up to its own and lowered his own hood. The boy witnessed the rarely seen grotesque face of a dementor for the second time in his life. The only difference this time was that the demonic lips actually met his own.

It was an odd feeling. It felt as if an evil foreign presence was foraging through his veins attempted to grab hold of a soul it could not grasp. It appeared to Harry that the animalism of his mind somehow shielded him from the dementor's attack, much like Sirius had been emotionally unaffected by dementors while imprisoned for 12 years.

After a few moments in which the creature vainly tried to acquire a soul behind a fortified mind, their lips parted and Harry crumpled to the floor with no support from either the guards or the dementor. Something told Harry to not expend any energy. This and the fact he had little energy and strength to spend anyway made Harry appear the perfect model of a soulless person and this image satisfied the guards who then levitated the body towards the cremation room.

Harry of course did not notice the presence that entered the room at the last moment. Harry did not see the remorse that molded Dumbledore's features as he entered the room and discovered he had been too late to save the child from a soulless state. Harry did not notice and would not have thought to remedy these incorrect notions by moving even if he had noticed.

The guards dragged the boy to a giant machine, which appeared to take up the entire room. Of course, this machine wasn't like any muggle machine that ran on gears but rather a magically-powered device used to incinerate lifeless or soulless bodies.

When Harry was levitated onto a giant slab of stone and pushed into the enclosed cavity of the device, realization struck him. He was going to be cremated! With little strength, the child flailed around in vain until the heat began. At first it was a tolerable warm but then a fire erupted that began to burn his flesh. In a moment of panic, he attempted the physical Animagus transformation.

As usual, a searing pain erupted in his limbs and torso and the pain consumed his animalistic mind. However, unlike the last times, the pain of not pursuing this transformation was worse, and so he continued anyway. Soon, the fire coursing through his veins became unbearable and with one last attempt he pushed all of his magical effort into the transformation.

At that moment, the fire of the machine flared and Harry Potter was incinerated into a pile of ashes.

That same moment, Amelia Bones as well as several others who had been at that farce of a trial felt a fatal sense of fatality hit them like a brick. Most shook it off....

But for those like Amelia....

Fate has a way of giving a warning to what is to come if this action continues....

And Fate does not like to be ignored.