FIC: Broken -- Chapter Five -- LVHP -- PG-13

[batsutousai]

Title: Broken
Author: batsutousai
Beta: tsuki_no_suzu and magickmaker17
Rating: T
Pairings: HPLV, others
Warnings: Dumbledore bashing
Summary: Dumbledore knew before Harry Potter came to Hogwarts what he needed the boy to do, and he knew exactly how to make him do it. A twist on the normal manipulative!Dumbledore story.

Disclaim Her: I do like Fawkes. Really I do.


-~/\~-
Chapter Five - The Wedding
-~\/~-

Harry apparated outside the wards to the Burrow and almost immediately found himself encased in a hug from Mrs Weasley.

"Oh, Harry! It's so wonderful to see you! We've been so worried..."

Harry eyed Ron, who only looked a little happy to see him, and vaguely apologetic. "I'm sorry, Mrs Weasley," Harry said to the woman who had been like a mother to him. "I guess the letters I sent must have gotten lost in the mail." Ron shuffled, looking guilty.

Once Mrs Weasley let him go, Harry shared a friendly hug with Ginny and a teary Hermione. He stopped before Ron. "Are you still mad at me?"

Ron frowned slightly. "A bit, yeah."

Harry cocked his head to one side. "Fair enough," he decided, then continued on down the line of Weasleys, sharing grins and handshakes, until he got to where Bill was standing dressed in a set of smart dress robes. "Well done, Bill," he told the elder wizard and they shared a firm shake.

Bill grinned. "Great to have you. Did you bring dress robes?"

Harry grinned and pulled forward a bag he'd slung over a shoulder before apparating to the Burrow. "Course."

"Excellent. Well, Ron or one of the twins can probably show you where to change."

Harry glanced down at the named Weasleys and found the twins grinning madly, while Ron looked a little disgruntled. "Hm, tough choice," he decided, then walked over to the twins, leaving Bill to chuckle behind him.

-0-0-0-

Harry somehow got volunteered to help Ron show guests to their seats. A few Order members gave him a disgusted look, while others nodded neutrally. Those among the other guests who recognised him – which were quite a few – seemed torn between giving him the evil eye or asking for his autograph – the former having heard of his decision to not fight Voldemort, the latter having either not heard, or not caring.

As things calmed down, Harry turned to Ron and asked, "You and Hermione still together?"

Ron glanced at him briefly. "Yeah," he said shortly.

Harry sighed. "You both still determined to fight him?"

Ron turned to him fully and glared. "What, not like we have a choice now, do we?"

"I got you another chance," Harry replied, quietly. When Ron simply stared at him, disbelieving, Harry said, "Ron, you and Hermione are my two best friends. I don't want you dead anymore than I want you to fight with me, but if I must pick between the two, I'll have the latter."

"Harry, you're asking me to stand back and watch my family fight and die for the cause I believe in as much as they do," Ron said, desperately trying to get Harry to see his side.

Harry swallowed and turned away. "I know. I'm sorry."

Ron shook his head. "All you thought about was protecting a few of us–"

"No!" Harry hissed, spinning and staring at Ron. "No, Ron. I protected who I could. I protected the people who, at the time – and even now! – wouldn't be able to face the Death Eaters and hold their own."

"You think I can't fight Death Eaters?" Ron asked, a note of warning in his voice.

Harry took a deep breath and quietly replied, "After this past year, Ron, I can't help it." Then he turned to where Fleur was walking over to the canopy the wedding was to take place under. He smiled at her and her father, then turned and took his own seat on the groom's side of the seats. Ron sat next to Hermione, in the row in front of Harry shortly after, and the wedding got under way.

-0-0-0-

The reception was a loud affair, and Harry spent a lot of time avoiding his friends, especially since Ron kept shooting him murderous looks. He did take a minute to approach a laughing Bill and Fleur and held forward a bag of gold he'd withdrawn that morning. "I wish you many happy years together," he told them. "Hopefully, this helps."

Bill took the offered bag and looked inside while Fleur kissed Harry's cheeks. Once Bill realized how much was inside, he gave Harry a surprised look. "Harry, I can't take this much–"

"You sound like your mother," Harry teased lightly. Bill gave him a fond grimace. "I didn't know what else a newlywed couple would need, and since money is good for anything, I figured it worked. Take it. Spoil your first kid, if you want." He winked cheerfully and skipped off into the crowd, Bill and Fleur chuckling behind him.

Harry was caught by Moody before he got far from the party. The man looked him over with both eyes before his fake eye rolled back in his head and watched the crowd behind him. "You think Voldemort won't betray you, boy? You think you're free of him because you have a deal that's protecting your friends for the moment?"

Harry tried tugging his shoulder from Moody's grip. "On the contrary, Mad-Eye, I'm certain he'll leave me alone, if only because it's in his best interest. And he knows that if my friends die at the hands of his people, without them joining the fight first, I'll do everything in my power to bring him down. But, right now, we are at peace with each other. I'm rather fond of it, thanks."

Moody bared his teeth at Harry. "So you'll protect a few kids, but leave the rest of the world to the wolves?"

Harry glared. "The rest of the world needs to stand up for itself every once in a while, rather than leaning on the strongest wizard around or a kid who got lucky. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to go back to enjoying the wedding."

Moody let him go, but warned, "You'll have to join the fight eventually, Potter. With any luck, it won't be too late."

Harry huffed and hurried away from the mad old auror and jumped back into the mess of people near the dance floor. There, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up at Tonks, who grinned at him. "Wotcher, Harry."

"Not you too," Harry groaned.

"What about me?" Tonks asked, looking mildly hurt. "You don't want to dance?"

"You going to pester me about being neutral?" Harry asked suspiciously.

Tonks rolled her eyes. "Moody jumped you, didn't he?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah."

Tonks shook her head helplessly. "No, I'm not going to pester you. I respect your decision, thanks. Remus and I both do. It's your life."

Harry smiled honestly. "Thanks, Tonks."

At that moment, Kingsley's patronus appeared in the middle of the dance floor and told them about the Ministry's fall, as well as about the Death Eaters coming their way.

"Get your friends out of here," Tonks ordered Harry, drawing her wand.

Fawkes appeared next to Harry in a blast of flame as Harry heard the sounds of multiple people apparating in. "I don't have the time to deal with you right now," Harry told Fawkes angrily, then set off after his friends, having spotted a shock of red hair that he recognised as Ginny. He had taken his anger at Dumbledore's betrayal of his parents' will out on the phoenix and told him to piss off and not show his face around Harry again.

Fawkes let out a disgruntled chirp and followed Harry anyway.

Harry reached Ginny at the same time as Ron and Hermione did. The four stared at each other for a long moment before Harry ordered, "Into the Burrow. Come on!"

"I'm fighting!" Ron snapped back, waving his wand around, which Ginny snatched from his hand.

"You're not fighting without a wand," she informed her elder brother firmly. "Let's go." Ginny turned and started hurrying through the panicked crowds towards the door of the Burrow.

Hermione grabbed Ron's arm and started dragging him after Ginny, leaving Harry to bring up the rear. He thought he heard Ron muttering angrily about Ginny, but was rather glad the girl had decided to take his and Voldemort's offer of protection to heart. Harry had a feeling, however, that once Ginny graduated, she would quite happily join the fight. And there would be nothing Harry could do to stop her.

Ginny had almost reached the doors when a Death Eater appeared out of the melee and shot a familiar bright green curse at her.

"Ginny!" Harry, Ron and Hermione all shouted.

Just before the curse hit the girl, she disappeared in a column of flames and reappeared next to Harry, Fawkes on her shoulder.

Harry let out a breath of relief and drew her into a shaky hug. When Ron and Hermione ran over, Harry snapped, "Now do you understand why I asked for your protection?" at Ron. Then he pulled away and stalked angrily towards the Death Eater, who promptly let out a painfully familiar cackle. "Bellatrix," Harry hissed.

"Hello, ickle Hawwy. Snapey's not here save you this time," she threatened in a baby voice, aiming her wand at him.

Harry smiled nastily. "Oh, I don't need to hide behind Snape, Bella," he taunted. "In fact, from you, I don't even need to hide behind Voldemort's promise of my friends' and my safety, which, by the way, you just broke. I wonder, would it be kinder to die by my hand, or Voldemort's?"

"Harry, no!" Hermione screamed from behind him.

Bellatrix pulled off her mask, cackling. "Aw, ickle Hawwy lost his temper," she cooed. "Should I be scared, little boy?" she added tauntingly, before shooting off a purple spell.

Harry thoughtlessly shot the curse to one side, wand drawn, and continued to advance, completely ignoring his friends' shouts from behind him. "Oh, Bella," he replied in a sweet voice, "I think you should run for your life." And then he started shooting curses at her, curses he'd taught the DA and learned over the past year in Snape's class.

Bellatrix managed to block most of the curses, but a diffindo got through and sliced her arm to the bone. The woman just cackled all the more. "Look at the boy! Thinks he's grown up and dangerous! Here, little Harry, let me show you dangerous!" She turned her wand on Harry and just before she could start cursing him, a tall form appeared between them, red eyes glaring at Bellatrix, who immediately hit her knees, begging forgiveness.

Voldemort turned to Harry, whose eyes glinted angrily. "I had her!" he shouted at the Dark Lord.

Voldemort snorted. "Harry, I think she was about to have you."

Harry bared his teeth. "She attacked Ginny."

Voldemort inclined his head. "And she will be punished. But not by you." He spun and grabbed Bellatrix by the arm, then disappeared with her.

Harry kicked at the ground furiously. "Damnit!"

Hermione and Ginny both ran to Harry and enveloped him in a hug. Ron came up much slower, looking pale and shaky. "Mate," Ron whispered while the two girls practically sobbed, "you're mad, you are."

"Oh, Harry, you weren't really going to kill her," Hermione begged. "Were you?"

Harry looked at his two friends and felt his anger cool. He wrapped his arms around the girls and closed his eyes, not sure how to answer Hermione's plea. Because he'd had every intention of killing Bellatrix. For Sirius and Neville. And for attempting to curse Ginny, who had been under Voldemort's protection.

"Are you kids all right?" Mr Weasley asked softly, walking up to them.

Harry glanced behind the man and saw that all of the Death Eaters were gone and the wedding guests were all slowly picking themselves up and counting the dead.

"We're fine," Ron said, voice trembling.

"What did they want?" Hermione whispered, clinging to Harry with Ginny. "Why did they come here?"

"We don't know," Mr Weasley said. "He didn't say anything, did he?" he asked Harry, nodding to the empty expanse of ground behind the teens.

Harry shook his head. "No."

"Why didn't you just curse him?" a voice demanded angrily. One of the distant Weasley relatives stepped forward, wand gripped tightly in one hand. "You're the only one who can save us, and you just let him get away!"

"Auntie," Mr Weasley tried.

"No, Arthur. I want this boy's answer."

Harry carefully detangled Hermione and Ginny and stepped forward, eyeing the woman calmly as he put his wand away. "Fight your own wars. We make our own destiny, and I refuse to let mine be akin to Atlas'. I won't carry your hopes on my shoulders. I'm only seventeen, for Merlin's sake!"

"You've already defeated him once, though," a younger male said, also stepping forward. "Can't you do it again? Give us peace." Around him, the voices of the wedding guests whispered their agreements. Even a few members of the Order were nodding.

Harry stared at them, feeling sick. "I'm only a child," he whispered to their pleas. "I can't..."

"Stop this!" Hermione shouted, dashing forward to get between Harry and the crowd's hopes. "Leave him alone!"

Ron rested a hand on Harry's shoulder and Harry glanced up at him. "I'm sorry, mate," Ron whispered, looking as ill as Harry felt.

Harry just closed his eyes and wished it would all go away.

-0-0-0-

Hours later, the wedding guests had gone home to lick their wounds and Harry had hidden himself up in Fred and George's old room. He'd spelled the door shut and ignored Hermione and Ginny when they'd asked to come in earlier.

Bill ended up being the one to talk him into coming out, in the end. He'd knocked on the door and, when Harry didn't answer, said, "You can't be expected to live your life for other people, Harry. I know Ron and Hermione have been prats about this whole thing – hell, they know they've been prats – but hiding up here isn't going to change that. I know you want to be left alone, but sometimes you just need to be with your family and your friends. Please come down? We promise not to pester you about anything, but we want to spend time with you."

Bill was silent for almost five minutes, hoping, when the door finally creaked open and a distraught Harry poked his head out. "I..." He swallowed and shook his head. "You think of me as family?"

"Oh, Harry..." Bill sighed. "Both you and Hermione are as good as Weasleys. Especially as far as Mum's concerned."

Harry bit his lip and came fully out of the room. "You'll really leave me alone about Voldemort? All of you?"

"Really. They promised before I came up," Bill replied with a smile. "You'll come down?"

Harry smiled faintly. "Yeah. I miss Mrs Weasley's cooking."

"Excellent." Bill made for the stairs, Harry following quietly.

Bill was halfway down the stairs to the first floor when Harry said, "Hey, Bill?"

"Yeah?" He asked, turning to look back up at Harry.

"I thought you were supposed to have a honeymoon after your wedding."

Bill smiled a little sadly. "Yeah. Fleur's family got us a nice little cottage next to the sea, but we both decided to spend one last night here, since today was such a mess."

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered.

Bill shook his head. "We mostly stayed for Mum, Harry. And maybe to spend a little bit of time with you, since we haven't seen you all year."

Harry grimaced. "Yeah. Wasn't sure I was welcome here over Christmas. Not with the way Ron was acting."

Bill grinned. "I'm sorry about my brother, at any rate. He's a bit thick. Think he was cured of that today, though."

Harry grinned back, remembering the horrible understanding on Ron's face when his relatives kept pestering Harry. "I reckon he was, yeah."

Chuckling, the two made their way into the kitchen, where Mrs Weasley had just made a delicious dinner. No one mentioned anything about the attack for the rest of the night. And, for once, Harry felt rather at home.

-0-0-0-

The Order apparently decided to use the Burrow as a base, of sorts, for the rest of the summer. After the first meeting, where he was stared at and pestered to re-join the fight every ten minutes or so, Harry decided to make himself scarce during meetings. Ron and Hermione would sit in on meetings, still determined to help, despite Mrs Weasley's attempts to get them to wait until they'd finished school. After everyone had cleared out, the two seventh years would come up to Harry's room, where he and Ginny would spend the meetings playing card games, and let them know anything they thought they might be interested in.

Two weeks before school was set to start again, Harry took a nap during an Order meeting, feeling rather disgusted with the lot of them and found himself in Voldemort's mind. He glanced around for a moment, rolled his eyes at the fake Voldemort behind the desk and was heading for the bookcases when the real Voldemort appeared.

"Harry," Voldemort warned.

Harry grinned at him and walked back to his red chair. "Just wanted to see. It's not like you haven't played with my memories, you know."

Voldemort snorted and took his own green chair. "What brings you to me, then?"

Harry shrugged. "The Order's invading the Weasleys' again, so I took a nap."

Voldemort blinked in surprise. "I know you declared yourself neutral, but I would have thought you'd sit in on the meetings anyway."

"Yeah, and I'd planned on it," Harry agreed drily. "Right until I realized it meant being asked every ten minutes or so when I was planning to start fighting again. So now I avoid them and Ron and Hermione update me afterwards."

Voldemort snorted. "Do those idiots think they'll pester you into fighting me?"

"Apparently."

Voldemort sneered. "I almost think I shouldn't have had Dumbledore killed. I think their intelligence has decreased since his demise."

Harry snickered. "I'll be sure to tell them you said that."

"Hm, I wonder if I could get you to let me know when these meetings are?"

Harry looked at Voldemort like he was mad. "Uhm, neutral, remember? Not playing both sides?"

Voldemort chuckled.

"Why do you want to know, anyway? Planning to attack the Burrow and murder everyone at their weakest? They've fixed the wards since the wedding."

"Nothing so large-scale."

"Of course," Harry nodded, as if he'd expected as much. "So what are you plotting, then?"

Voldemort eyed Harry as if he was weighing whether or not it would be useful to tell Harry.

"Or I could try and find out on my own," Harry added, waving a negligent hand towards the shelves of books.

Voldemort smiled nastily. "We'll make you a Slytherin yet, Potter."

"Mm-hm. Still a compliment. And I'm still waiting," Harry replied with a nod.

Voldemort cackled. "All of the professors who stay over the summer at Hogwarts are members of the Order," he said, then waited to see if Harry could figure it out on his own.

Harry blinked, then, when he realized Voldemort wasn't going to continue, thought over what he'd said. All of the summer professors were in the Order. Voldemort wanted to know when the meetings were. When the building was empty... "Taking over the school," Harry murmured.

Voldemort cackled a bit more. "Very good."

Harry cocked his head to one side. "That's almost peaceful. How very not like you."

Voldemort sneered.

Harry grinned. "So you want me to tell you the Order meeting schedule so you can take over the school when there's no one there?"

"Basically," Voldemort agreed grudgingly.

"Well, for that, I'd love to. Except I don't know when the meetings are. I don't think the Order knows when they are."

Voldemort muttered some choice words at that.

"But, if you can have your force ready, and we can decide on some way of quickly passing a warning, I can let you know next time they gather."

Voldemort visibly brightened, which was a little odd to see. "Do you think that phoenix would help?"

Harry thought about it. He still wasn't pleased with Fawkes, but he wasn't as annoyed since the fire-bird had saved Ginny's life. "I can...ask him, I suppose. What if that doesn't work?"

Voldemort looked behind Harry at his desk, then stood. He conjured a bell and set it next to the sign about him not being there and to wait a moment. "Ring this. I've set it up to bring this conversation to mind as extremely important when it's rung."

Harry's eyes brightened. "Teach me how to do that?"

Voldemort sighed and returned to his chair. "Very well..."

-0-0-0-

Harry waited until everyone else had gone to bed before throwing up a silencing ward and calling, "Fawkes!"

The bird appeared and gave Harry a grumpy look, since the teen had told him he needed to stay away, unless he thought his presence would save someone.

Harry shrugged. "I'd trust you more if your last master hadn't left me with people who he knew would abuse me, you know."

Fawkes firmly turned his back on Harry and flipped his tail feathers at the boy.

"Yeah, yeah. I have a request for you, if you'll do it?"

Fawkes glanced over his shoulder at Harry, as though he was still angry, but also intrigued.

"It means helping Voldemort take over the school," Harry added, watching to see what Fawkes would think of that.

Fawkes clearly thought about it for a moment, then turned his body to face Harry fully and waved a wing, as if to say, 'go on.'

Harry nodded. "Voldemort wants me to let him know when the next Order meeting is, so he can take over the school when there's no one there. Scarily peaceful of him, really."

Fawkes twittered in laughter, then nodded.

"You'll let him know, then?"

Fawkes nodded again, then gave Harry an intense look.

"Mmm... I sense a 'but'," Harry deduced.

Fawkes nodded and tugged a feather from his tail. Harry winced in sympathy, then looked on in shock as the bird magically directed the feather to write out a note in fire-like writing on a scrap of parchment.

"I didn't know you could do that," Harry said, picking up the parchment as the feather fell dead.

'I will play messenger bird if you agree to let me stay with you until I do something against your person. I'm not Albus.'

Harry winced. "Okay, I'm sorry for taking my anger at Dumbledore out on you."

Fawkes chirped agreeably.

Harry sighed. "I suppose you can stay, then. But I can't promise I won't be grumpy with you."

Fawkes chirped and gave a little bird shrug.

Harry looked at him oddly, then said, "I think you've been spending too much time with humans, Fawkes."

Fawkes chirped cheerfully and disappeared, only to quickly reappear with his stand.

Harry snorted in amusement at the bird and took down his silencing wards to sleep. (The last time he'd slept with silencing wards and Mrs Weasley had found out, he'd been yelled at. She'd told him she liked knowing when he had nightmares, so she could come in and wake him.) "Good night, Fawkes."

Fawkes cooed, then started singing a peaceful song which lulled Harry to sleep.

-0-0-0-0-0-

A/N: Poor Harry. I'm so mean to him.

A lot of people keep asking about why Fawkes is with Harry. For those of you wondering about this, please feel free to go back and read the ending of the prologue at the beginning of chapter one. You will find your answer there.

This is your official warning: I'm doing NaNo next month. Unless Harry decides to be difficult again, you will get chapter 6 at the beginning of the month, but nothing else until December. (Chapter 6 is currently about half written, so I feel safe in saying it might be done by November 1st...)
If there is a miracle – read: if I fail at NaNo again – you may get another chapter before the end of November.

~Bats ^.^x

Chapters:
Pro - The Real Prophecy / 1 - The Summer of Change
2 - A New Term ||| 3 - Confrontation ||| 4 - Betrayal
5 - The Wedding ||| 6 - The Light ||| 7 - The Dark
8 - Magic's Story ||| 9 - Ghosts ||| 10 - A Lifetime Mended

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