Over Again

Chapter 13

The days after the attack were extremely hard on everyone, they panicked, they cried, they huddled together and they never, ever let Harry out of their sight. Slowly it seemed, they were losing apart of themselves to the fear bought on by the fear of what had happened and the hysteric happiness of the wizarding world. And Harry? Through it all, Harry watched, he watched as his parents matured and changed, but also as they lost their inner radiance, and that broke his heart, and even now he could do no more than watch, as he was pushed inside a cupboard beside Neville while his dad and the Longbottom's fought Bellatrix and her band of crazies. After a particularly insane article proclaiming him to be some sort of miracle, his mother had had enough and she had gone to Dumbledore to coerce his help. Unable to stay in the cottage after so many days and giving into the pleas of Lily's best friend, James decided to take Harry to visit the Longbottoms. Lily and Alice had been roommates and best friends along with Marlene Mckinnon, Mary Mcdonald and Dorcas Meadows. After the news that Marlene had been killed, Mary in hiding and Dorcas out on some mission, Lily and Alice were the only ones left, Lily was supposed to go over with James and Harry but she felt she couldn't put off the visit to the headmaster any longer and so had decided that James would take Harry to visit the Longbottoms while she went to sort things out with Dumbledore before joining them. The starting of the visit had been normal, Harry enjoyed seeing baby Neville and spending time with him, and he hoped that this way Neville would find his courage sooner, James had been talking with Alice and Frank, who was his senior in the auror office and his childhood friend while sneaking glances at Harry to make sure he hadn't disappeared within one blink and the next until the alarm had been tripped, until the kids had been pushed into the cupboard with hastily erected wards and the three adults taking up stances in front of the cupboard.

Bellatrix burst through the door, blasting spells and entrail expelling hexs tripping out of her mouth continuously, while behind her came the Lestrange brothers and Barty Crouch Jr. although Harry was the only one who recognised him through his voice. Frank fought Rodulphus and Alice fought Bellatrix, with James putting up continuous defensive shields and trying to hit the others when they were distracted, Rabastan and Barty did the same for Bellatrix and Rodulphus.

"Potter." Bellatrix cackled. "This is just perfect, where is he? Where is my Lord?" She screeched. "The cowardly rat said you did something, what did you do?"

Harry tensed hearing her words, luckily none of the parents were engaging knowing that it would be a waste of energy and nothing more. Harry longed to go out, to protect them, to kill Bellatrix and the Death Eaters, yet Evangeline held him back, she told him that some event's needed to happen, Fate could not be evaded completely, so here he was sitting beside a screaming Neville Longbottom, his ears straining to hear even a hint of what was happening as tears streamed down his face. He hated this, this wasn't him, he didn't sit on the sidelines, he couldn't, he was always the one doing the saving, not the one being saved.

Out of nowhere two voices screamed in gut wrenching pain as a mad cackle was heard, taunting the screamers. Harry knew those screams, he himself had screamed those screams when he was put under the cruciatus, and he began fighting harder to escape her presence, he couldn't let what had happened in past repeat, he wouldn't let Neville grow up alone again, and also mostly because one of the voices screaming was his dad's and the other was Alices', Neville's mom. He strained against the bonds holding him, his magic twisting out much more angrily with every scream of his dad's. Neville's magic too rushed out of him, hearing his mom in distress, unfortunately it was not enough to break through the barriers placed in front of them, one by Frank Longbottom and the other by the magic of the other realm.

And then just as suddenly, the mad cackling was cut off, instead an outraged scream erupted from Bellatrix's throat, and his dad's screams cut off.

"I killed you! I killed you!" Bellatrix screamed.