Harry Potter and the Other Child

A boy ran through the grass looking behind him to see where the others had gone. He stopped and looked around, wondering where to look, they could be anywhere. "Ron! Hermione!" the words echoed as the forest grew darker, and the night closed in to wrap itself around him. The birds squawked and gradually, hooded figures began encasing him in a circle. Ropes twisted around his arms, and burnt his skin. A scream. A long, howling, scream that sounded so like hers. The one he heard so often, too often, the one that cut through his soul, and made his heart burn with revenge.

The hooded figures moved closer now, muttering under their breath, words of dark, deep magic. Wands prodded the air, and he knew that there was no escape from the destiny of his life. He turned and stared into the red eyes of his living hell. And he felt at a strange kind of peace as death feasted its way to him. The next words uttered were cold, uncaring and ethic less. The green light streamed its way towards him. It hit him squarely in the chest, as he faltered to the ground. He breathed no more. And that's was when Harry Potter woke up.

Harry breathed in gulps of air as sweat plagued his brow. He glanced around finding the same dream reoccurring, it would haunt him until he found the rest of the souls. He glanced to the left of his bed, into the cot that contained his baby son. Harry's child coughed slightly, and as the heat of the summer closed in around them, the baby began to wriggle. Harry walked over to the cot, and looked in, just to check he wasn't awake. Other nightmares had caused Harry to scream and wake his son. He often wondered whether his baby was troubled by the eerie presence surrounding his father, whether the ringing bells of death could travel to his son's ears.

The bedclothes moved and a flame of hair moved as his wife rolled over. She looked peaceful when she slept; it was practically the only time where she could escape from the worries of the day. Harry watched her, and felt an overwhelming wave of love. That was until she opened her sleepy eyes, and looked directly into Harry's. "Come back to bed, Harry. Sirius will be fine. He's not hurt; he's not crying/ Harry! Oh my god, you're bleeding!" Ginny rolled over out of bed and rushed to his side, stroking his arms.

"What happened? You had a nightmare again didn't you? You should take some sleeping pills. It will make you sleep without trouble. Come on, let's get back to bed. We can go put some flowers on the graves tomorrow. It will make you feel better. Taking Sirius to his grandparents graves for the first time, it will calm you."

"You don't understand Ginny. I'm too scared to go. I've been once, but never got close enough to put flowers on."

"You should try again. Go on your own. Leave some flowers. Talk to them. I'm sure they can hear you."

*****

Harry crossed through the gate and stepped into the quiet graveyard. It had been ten months since he had been here last, just on his seventeenth birthday. Before Bill and Fleur's wedding. Just after their deaths. Harry had reached a low point then. Ron and Hermione had been forced to into hiding; or rather Harry had forced them to. He wouldn't have been able to cope if Ron and Hermione had died. He would never have forgiven himself. Shortly after that Ginny had found out that she was pregnant. The one gleaming hope in Harry's life. Ginny had said she didn't want Harry to marry her for the baby's sake, but really Harry had regretted breaking up with her after the funeral. So they got married in a small church near the burrow, quietly and discreetly.

Harry edged closer to the graves and looked around at all the names. 'Susannah Lions, died fighting for freedom from the dark lord, aged twenty seven, sorely missed by her husband. What she did not achieve in life, may she achieve in death.' Harry realised that he was in a wizarding graveyard, and that most of the people buried here, were either killed by Voldemort, or by a Death Eater. Harry walked on.

He had looked for the Horcruxes, but ht overwhelming shadow of death had prevented him from doing so. He didn't know where to start. How could he start? The world had been thrown into a state of despair, and all Harry could do was hide. He knew he was better than that, but he also knew he was no hero. He knew he had to face up to the world sometime. As the people of England began to be thrown into an outright war, other parts of the world began to begin having "freak accidents". 'Hurricane causes death to hundreds, how could no one have predicted it?' 'Number of cot deaths rises, scientists at a loss to explain why.'

Harry looked around at this section of the graveyard. He felt sorry for the people buried here. The grass had frown long, and nobody had bothered to come and tend to the weeds of the graves themselves. He suddenly thought about who could have left part of their family to be degraded like this? He looked at the grave names, and saw that they were incredibly old. Most of them were killed by Grindewald. He turned round to face two lovely, clean kept graves. They even had fresh flowers upon them. The name 'Potter' flashed up on the top. Harry, shocked, rushed over to the graves and read. 'James Potter leaves a loving wife and two beautiful children behind' Harry read his mothers grave, 'Lillian Potter leaves behind a loving husband and two beautiful children'

Two children. Harry read and re-read that line over and over. His parents had had another child. But who was the other child?

*****

Ginny struggled with Sirius as she tried to get him into his high chair. "Come on, Sirius. Be a good boy for mummy. Do you want some food? Does the big boy want some food?"

Sirius gargled and smiled. Ginny got the bottle out of the fridge, and began to heat up the milk. Sirius began to let out a wail, and tears spurted from his wonderful green eyes. Ginny sighed and got out the milk from the heater, she quickly checked it on her wrist. This was the first time in his short life that he had cried for milk. She picked him up and began to feed him the bottle, gently rocking him as she did so. But as she did so Sirius began to start coughing and sputtering out the milk, breathing too heavily for a baby. Sirius quietly shut his eyes. Ginny felt for his pulse and felt none. He started to go very cold, as black burn marks began to appear on his soft skin. Ginny raced to the fireplace and threw in some Floo powder. She took a last look at the kitchen as she rushed her baby to hospital. "St. Mungo's" she screamed. Ginny disappeared within a matter of seconds being sucked up into the network. What she didn't realise was that she had left the house unprotected.