St. Mungos (August 5th)...
The healer scowled and pushed past the Order member guarding the door. She had managed to keep them out of the room itself with a little help from security, but it was becoming increasingly more difficult, especially with the Minister on the Order's side.
Harry Potter winced and sat up in bed, looking at Healer Watkins.
"Well, Emily? How am I today?" he asked with a wink.
Healer Watkins ran her wand over him a few times, muttering spells and checking the results.
"You're much improved, Harry," she replied, then her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "I'd release you, but you know what will happen when I do."
Harry nodded silently. He had made friends with the healer and she had been keeping him informed of what the Minister and the Order were doing. They were just waiting for him to be released from the hospital before taking him into protective custody.
"I feel pretty good. Am I well enough to be released?" he asked in a hushed tone.
Emily nodded.
"Can you get away from them?" she asked in reply. Half her family had been killed by Voldemort and she didn't like what people were doing to the man who had killed the monster. In the past few days she had come to know and like Harry Potter for who he was.
Harry nodded, grinning slyly.
"Very well. Let me get you some creams that I want you to apply daily to those burns, then you can go," Emily replied worriedly.
When she left the room, he slipped from the bed and waved a hand, transfiguring his hospital gown into jeans and a t-shirt. He gestured and his wand appeared in his hand, vanishing from wherever they had hidden it. He didn't need the wand anymore, but it had sentimental value to him.
His magic had started to radically change at the beginning of the summer, but something had happened during his battle with the Dark Lord that had accelerated the change. In fact, it was the only reason he had succeeded in killing Voldemort. No one except Emily knew about his wandless magic, and even she didn't know the extent of it. There had been a few rumors leaked, but no one believed that he was that powerful. It was a mistake they would come to regret.
Emily came back a moment later, carrying two large containers, which she gave him.
"How will you get out of here?" she asked, the concern in her eyes evident.
Harry smirked. "Watch, and don't worry. I promise it will wear off in twenty four hours."
"What will wear..."
There was a brief flash of light, and she blinked. Harry was gone! Outside the door came a shout and she rushed toward the sound. Opening the door, she skidded to a halt. Everywhere she looked she saw Harry Potter. He had changed everyone in the hospital to look like him.
She looked at her own hands and slid to the floor laughing while the aurors and Order members scrambled, trying to figure out who was the real Harry Potter. It was several hours before they realized the extent of the change.
Scottish Highlands (August 6th)...
Harry rolled in his bed and sat up slowly, still aching from his wounds. He slid out of bed and shuffled over to the small kitchen, thankful that he had purchased the self-stocking model yesterday. After his escape from St. Mungo's, he went on a short shopping spree in Diagon Ally, charging things to his vault. With everyone in the Alley also looking like him, shopping was incredibly easy. No one believed he was the real Harry Potter.
His wizarding tent contained a small bedroom, suitable for two, a kitchen/dinette area and a small sitting room. It wasn't the best tent he could have bought, but he wasn't sure of his finances, so he bought an economy model. Besides, he didn't need much, just enough to be comfortable. The tent was under a masking charm, so no one would be able to track him.
That was another change. He knew there were masking charms, but he didn't know them. It was just another case of his magic complying with his wishes and setting up a spell that did what he wanted. He didn't want to be found by other wizards, magically or physically. His magic took care of it for him.
He sat at the table pushing some food around on his plate. He thought back to the final battle and what it's cost him. The Dursleys were no more. He had visited Privet Drive briefly yesterday and found Dudley in the process of moving out. He explained what had happened to his family and, while surprised, Harry thought it was poetic justice.
He thought about the battle and the tears fell from his eyes. He hadn't been able to mourn at all in St. Mungo's.
A flash of flame caught his attention and he looked up in shock and surprise. The small phoenix circled over his head, trilling with happiness. Thunderstruck, he held up his arm and the phoenix landed gently.
Compared to Fawkes, she was small, maybe half the size of the Headmaster's phoenix. And unlike Fawkes, who was red and gold, she was a pure, snow white with black tipped wings.
She looked at Harry, staring deeply into his eyes, connecting to his very soul and he shuddered as the bond was made. Once the connection was complete, she sent him a rush of images.
"Hedwig?" he whispered in disbelief, tears started spilling down his cheeks.
The phoenix bobbed its head and trilled at him. He gently pulled his friend into a light embrace, talking to her and weeping for joy.
Harry wasn't totally alone anymore.
Scottish Highlands (August 10th)...
Hedwig trilled a good morning to him from her perch. She watched him fondly and wished she could help with his healing, but she was still too young to produce healing tears. He held the flap to the tent open so she could easily fly outside and hunt for her breakfast. She did sing for him at night, which helped greatly with his nightmares.
Harry stepped out of his tent and stretched. The last ten days had seen a major change in his life. Voldemort was dead, and they would be picking up pieces of some of his Death Eaters from Privet Drive for weeks to come.
His injuries had been severe enough that he had required a week long stay in St. Mungo's. While there, he had been befriended by the young healer, Emily Watkins. It was Healer Watkins who had told him about all the things going on outside of his hospital room door.
The Order and the Minister had combined forces and were just waiting for the Healers approval to remove Harry to a 'safe' location. Emily told him that from the sound of it, it was going to be one slight step above being arrested. Minister Fudge seemed to think Harry was his ticket to re-election. He wasn't sure what was driving the Order, but he intended to find out.
They had confiscated his wand as a precaution. Apparently, no one had told the Order about his ability to do wandless magic. When Healer Watkins told him he was free to go, he summoned his wand from wherever they were keeping it.
Harry sat outside his tent and bowed his head. Since his escape from St. Mungo's, he had been on an emotional roller coaster. Hedwig helped him enormously, but he was still coming to grips with the idea that he had killed. He was barely able to walk around without pain and he tired very easily. His escape hadn't been magically difficult, but his injuries were still taking a toll on his body. Hedwig sang every night for him, helping speed his healing and ease his nightmares.
Over the summer he had discovered some interesting facts that placed the Order and Dumbledore in an entirely new light. Those new facts made him seriously consider leaving Britain and vanishing into muggle society.
The Dursleys had been charmed to be more abusive than usual. They would have been abusive without the charm, but with it they were ten times worse. The charm reeked of the Headmaster's magical signature.
Harry had started to come into wandless magic at the beginning of the summer. Using the new ability, he had redirected the charm so that the target of the Dursley's ire would be themselves. His wandless magic had been fairly limited, until the battle with Voldemort. Something happened during that battle to change that.
He stretched his legs out in front of him and reached to touch his toes, wincing as some of his injuries caused him pain.
Voldemort had shown up on Privet Drive on his birthday. He had been alone in the house at the time.
"Harrrrrrrryyyyyy, come out and play," sang Bellatrix LeStrange.
He looked out the window and cursed. The two Order members watching the house were down, probably dead, and there was Voldemort with at least twenty of his Death Eaters.
He grabbed his wand and ran down the stairs and out the front door, all the while thinking to himself that he needed to talk to the sorting hat about bravery being a less desirable quality than some others.
Harry didn't hesitate. He jumped off of the stoop and fired off a reductor that hit Bellatrix square in the face. She had been taken completely by surprise and Harry had decided that he was no longer going to hold back because it was the Gryffindor thing to do.
Bellatrix's head exploded, killing her instantly and showering the nearby Death Eaters with blood and gore.
The attack had come as a total surprise, not just to the Death Eaters, but to Voldemort, who had fully expected to banter with the boy before killing him.
Her body fell to the ground and continued to twitch as nerves sent urgent messages of pain to a brain that no longer existed.
It was exactly what Harry needed; surprise. "INCENDIO!" he cried, aiming at a cluster of six Death Eaters. The spell hit the Death Eater in the center and he exploded in flame, catching the others around him and setting them on fire, as well. The six scattered, screaming in agony.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" shouted Voldemort.
Harry dodged and cast a shield with his free hand and fired a reductor at the ground in front of the Dark Lord.
Voldemort grinned when he saw the spell would miss him and he stood up. The spell hit the asphalt and showered him with a near lethal spray of rock chips. He staggered back, bleeding from dozens of wounds.
"KILL HIM!" he shouted as several of his Death Eaters rushed to his side to help him.
Harry rolled, firing reductors at anything dressed in black. He was unaware that his spells were exploding like grenades among the Death Eaters. He came to a stop behind a car and took a second to breathe. A curse hit him in the side and he screamed, then whirled and fired another reductor, killing the Death Eater who shot him. Pain shot through him from his thigh to his shoulder.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" shouted Voldemort.
There was a bright flash of white as Hedwig flew into the path of the spell, vanishing in a flash of flame. Harry choked back a sob and refocused his energies. Later. There would be time to mourn the loss of his faithful friend later.
He popped up from behind the car.
"REDUCTO!" he shouted, catching one of the Death Eaters holding Voldemort upright. The robed figure staggered backwards, dragging Voldemort with him, then fell to the ground with a gaping hole in his belly.
Harry ducked back down, letting the car shield him. In the back of his mind he thought it was a shame that the car didn't belong to Uncle Vernon.
The car he was hiding behind was slowly being torn to pieces. He took a breath and lunged for another car, stopping only long enough to lay down a pattern of explosive hexes at his enemies. Then it happened.
As he dove for the nearest parked car and the cover it would provide, a curse hit him in the back of the head. He clutched at his head for a moment, screaming in agony, and then the pain was gone.
He shook himself and stood. It seemed like time had come to a standstill and a sense of serene calmness enveloped him. He knew what he had to do.
A killing curse arced through the air towards him and he held up a hand. That was all it took. The killing curse changed directions, plowing into the ground. He saw Voldemort being held upright by two Death Eaters and he raised his wand.
He didn't remember what incantation he used, he wasn't even sure he used one at all. A bright white beam lanced from the tip of his wand and hit Voldemort square in the chest, leaving a hole big enough to crawl through.
With Voldemort dead, Harry turned his attention to the Death Eaters. One by one he hit them with the same spell until they were all dead. Their spells splashed harmlessly against a shield he didn't even remember casting. Some tried to apparate away, or pulled out portkeys, but somehow Harry had closed off those avenues of escape. He was implacable and relentless. Not a single Death Eater would survive the day.
When it was over, he looked around blearily and slowly came to realize he was in a lot of pain and bleeding heavily. His wand slipped from his numb fingers and he slowly slid to the ground. The last thing he heard was sounds of dozens of other wizards apparating in.
Shaking himself from his memories, he checked his watch. It was nearly noon and he was hungry. He could cook himself something, but it was time for him to reenter the wizarding world and discover if there was still a place for him there.
"Might as well go get something to eat," he said to himself with a bit of a grin. With that, Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Killed-Voldemort, vanished from the hilltop without a sound.