.:writings on the wall:.
New Outlooks
Title: New Outlooks
Author: Chickalupe
Feedback: ooh, makes me feel all tingly… chickalupe@juno.com
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: HP/DM, RL/SB
Rating: let’s say NC-17 just to be safe
Spoilers: SS/PS, CoS, PoA, GoF; AU OotP (The Thing That Did Not Happen To Sirius, Dammit!)
Warnings: slash, alternate universe, minor angst
Disclaimer: J K Rowling, literary goddess of all things HP, owns everything you see here. I just make the pretty boys do naughty things without her permission, but the boys secretly enjoy it.
Summary: After Harry’s horrible 5th year, his outlook on a few things changes…
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To say that fifth year was hard for Harry Potter would be a gross understatement. None of his years so far at Hogwarts were what any sane person could possibly call uneventful, but this past year had been almost beyond Harry’s ability to bear without going stark raving mad. First the awful summer of no information; the Dementor attack; that farce of a hearing; having Umbridge as a teacher and her torturous detentions; the lifetime Quidditch ban; his damn recurring dreams; Occlumency lessons with Snape; his doubt about his father’s character; and all of it culminating in that scene in the Department of Mysteries. Those horrible few moments when he thought he had lost Sirius, the closest thing he had ever known to a family, he had nearly been destroyed.
When Bellatrix Lestrange hexed Sirius, he had fallen dangerously close to the arch that the whisperings came from, almost disappearing behind the veil. Only Remus Lupin’s werewolf reflexes managed to save him at the last possible second, coming seemingly out of nowhere to snatch Sirius back from the brink and tumble them both to the floor. But Harry could *swear*, and later would, that he had not only seen Sirius fall through the veil, but Lupin dive in after him and disappear. Perhaps it was a hallucination brought on by stress in the midst of the battle, or perhaps more mind tricks from Voldemort, but whatever the cause, what Harry thought he saw caused him to temporarily lose his grasp on sanity.
Suddenly, all the anger, frustration, and confusion he had been feeling over the past few months was bought to a head, and Harry quite literally snapped. Bellatrix, abruptly faced with an irate Harry Potter screaming for her blood, proved that she retained some measure of reason by fleeing quickly in the opposite direction. Harry was hot on her heels, howling insanely.
"YOU KILLED REMUS AND SIRIUS! YOU KILLED THEM - I’LL KILL YOU!"
Harry chased Bellatrix down, deaf to the cries of everyone who shouted for him to stop, that Remus and Sirius were fine. She led him through a maze of corridors, but Harry had a Seekers’ trim build; fuelled by an all-consuming need for vengeance, and kept up with her. He finally cornered her by the Fountain of Magical Brethren. Bellatrix looked confused, and a little afraid. It was a new experience to have someone after her for something she actually *hadn’t* done. She hid her fear behind cockiness.
"Oh, Potter, did I make you angry?" Bella sneered. "Have you come to avenge my *dear* cousin and his pet wolf?"
"Yes," Harry hissed, eyes blazing. "I’m going to make you pay!"
"Awww… did you *love* them, little baby Potter?" She purposefully used the past tense, knowing both were still alive, but wanting to goad him.
Harry’s face was set in stone. "Yes. I loved them. And now you’ll find out what happens to someone stupid enough to hurt the people I love." He lifted his wand, and was surprised when she didn’t raise her own. He noticed that Bellatrix had no wand in either hand, and Harry realized she must have dropped it while she was running. An almost cruel smile curled his lips. He pointed his wand at her chest, arm steady, and his mouth opened to say the forbidden word on the tip of his tongue…
"Harry! Stop!"
"Don’t do it, Harry!"
Harry whipped around at the familiar voices. "Remus, Sirius?" he asked, voice shaky with disbelief. His wand hand dropped limply at his side. There stood the two people he was certain he had just seen die, accompanied by Albus Dumbledor. Had they not shown up just then, Harry would have done something irredeemable. He would have cast one of the Unforgivables and felt no remorse.
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More to Come!!
