Green forests, seemingly untouched by civilization. Behind them, in the background, mountains. Blue sky above. Wild animals running unchecked in the forests. Carnivores and herbivores locked in the eternal oscillation of predators and prey.
The scenery looked like primordial North America at first glance. A careful observer would notice that some of the animals looked a little bit different from what photos in our biology schoolbooks would teach us. Those knowledgeable enough in the history of Earth knew that the strangeness stemmed from two sources: "natural" mutation from radiation and genetic engineering.
A mockingjay sat down on a branch. There was a nest of tracker jackers nearby. The former was a halfbreed, never intended to exist. The latter was a left-over from a conflict which ended about three quarters of a century before. Neither was as interesting as a capsule which was buried under nearby mountains.
The capsule was a relic from a war which took place centuries earlier. Its design was a blend of technology and magic. It had only one purpose: to keep a person inside alive in a stasis. A short while after the mockingjay took flight again, the capsule's internal clock ran out. There was a hiss and the stasis field started to dissipate. Harry Potter started to breathe again.
At the brink of previous millennium, a war broke out. It's roots were even half a century older. They were quite humble and unnoticed at the time, overshadowed by a clash between two of the most powerful wizards of that time: Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald.
The matter drew so much of Dumbledore's attention (because of his history with Gellert) that he failed to realize when he trod over a little unremarkable boy named Tom Riddle. Dumbledore was first and only person Tom ever trusted. Unfortunately, his trust was terribly betrayed in less than a minute. Instead of delivering the expected salvation, Dumbledore caused Tom to suffer even more than before. Maybe he caused this unwittingly but that mattered little to Tom.
The most horrendous of Dumbledore's crimes was dragging a third major player in his subsequent conflict with Tom: Harry Potter, who would be Tom's natural ally under different circumstances. Luckily for Harry, Dumbledore was betrayed by one of his own servants, who finally saw through his lies and allure.
And so it was up to Harry to stop Tom Riddle and save Dumbledore's world. Alas, Harry had no desire to save anybody. He fled with his best and only friend, Hermione Granger. It was mainly her idea to seek an alliance with the British military. Harry's reason for supporting the idea was his desire to see the two worlds collide and destroy each other. Neither of them had any idea that they were starting a global war.
With one last hiss, the enrichment of the atmosphere inside the capsule ended. Though he was still drowsy, Harry started to come to himself slowly. A light appeared, emitted by several economic lights. They warmed up slowly. Harry raised his head. His vision was returning about as quickly as the light level increased. First thing he saw were letters painted on the outside of a small window in front of him, behind which was only the metallic hull of the outer shell of the capsule: "mione Gran" (only seen backwards, like in a mirror, from Harry's perspective). Harry's head sunk again and he was lost in waking dreams of memories.
To say that the conflict between the British military and the British magical underworld was unsuccessful would be an understatement. Maybe if the government had started with some kind of an anti-magical project decades ago, there might have been a chance - but they had not. Aside from Harry and Hermione, the military had only a few muggle-borns on their side.
Harry, Hermione, and their allies lost ground quickly. If there had not been a limit to how much people the Death Eaters could put under the Imperius curse, they would have lost even quicker. There was no other choice for the two magicals and a portion of the involved military personnel and selected civilians but to abandondon the country and flee to the only ally willing to offer a helpful hand: the United States of America. Probably because it could see its own fate mirrored in the doom of Britain.
A few minutes later, Harry started to wake up again. The light was so bright that his eyes hurt. Once he accustomed, the letters spelling a part of his friend's name gained focus again. He had no idea why had she defied their orders and convinced him to go in the stasis instead of her. Did she feel that he deserved to survive the "apocalypse" in spite of the wishes of their superiors? Was she angry at him and wanted him to see the results of his (their) actions? Maybe she simply had no desire to go through either herself.
The drowsiness started to pass. Instead, desire to stretch his limbs and feelings of claustrophobia pervaded. Suddenly, supports around him retracted. While he had expected that, he wasn't actually prepared and sagged to the floor.
He hoisted himself up after a while and grabbed a small ampoule of clear water which had been prepared for him. It wasn't like he was dehydrated from the centuries of stasis, it was more like a reflex after a long sleep. He drank the ampoule in three gulps, spluttering a little.
Once he collected himself, he glanced at a digital chronometer to his left. Two centuries exactly. That meant that he woke exactly as planned - nobody had come to dig him up and to wake him manually. Nor there had been any kind of a signal from the vault. The vault - the main ark of humankind (at least on continental USA). However, that was the last thing on Harry's (originally Hermione's) list which went as follows:
- Check the status and readings of the equipment on board of the capsule.
- Perform cursory health check of your own person.
- Determine whether it is safe to leave the capsule.
- Leave the capsule and destroy it unless there is a valid reason not to.
- Secure the immediate area of arrival to the surface.
- Perform further revision of your own status.
- Secure and scout the broader area of the "burial" site.
- Brief respite and recreation.
- Determine the status of the vault area. Retreat unless there is a valid reason not to.
Harry checked the displays again and took his "survival" kit. He wanted out. He wanted to stretch his limbs. There was a small keyboard by his left hand. He punched a code in it. A ten-minute countdown appeared on a display above it. Harry started to concentrate. Finally, he managed to teleport himself to the surface.
He wasted about two seconds to take a deep breath of fresh air. He started to survey his surroundings. There were five words to describe his findings: He did not recognize anything. Literally - what he saw was alien to him and completely different from what he remembered. Not that he expected any different. As he kept looking around, he found the forest around him stranger and stranger.
Once he determined that he was the only humanoid around, he granted himself some respite. His health seemed to be all right and there were no unexpected side effects from the stasis. More importantly, his magic suffered no permanent damage. While he inspected himself, a container of special acid opened in the capsule under him. Somebody else might have wanted to keep it (and possibly salvage it) but Harry saw no reason to diverge from the protocol. The capsule was quickly consumed and collapsed. Hermione had thought that it would be better than blowing the thing up.
Harry found fresh water and killed a badger to sate his hunger. As he roasted it over his camp-fire, he remembered a certain house of his old school. It gave him a certain satisfaction when he buried his teeth in the meat. He put the fire out, stretched on his back, and watched the sky. It was so clear and the woods around him were pristine. A stray thought ran through his mind: Maybe he was the last human on the planet. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant idea.
He saw no reason to hurry and took a little walk afterwards. After all, the vault had survived (if it had truly survived) for two centuries without him so it could wait for a little while longer. As he walked, a mockingjay sat down on a branch above him. Harry noticed it and studied the bird for a while. The similarity with mockingbird was obvious to him.
The mockingjay seemed to be waiting for something. Maybe it wanted to hear a new melody. When Harry remained silent, the bird started to sing by itself. Harry didn't recognize the melody but logic told him that the bird was merely repeating it. To test his theory, Harry whistled a few notes of the British anthem once the bird was finished. Some of the notes were off on his first try so he started again. The bird liked his song better the second time around and started to repeat it after a moment.
Harry finally decided that there was no point to delay any further and started his trek to the vault. He couldn't transport himself inside it by magic because it was warded and for all he knew, it had collapsed ages ago. He also elected not to teleport to the area. It was risky because there could have been slight terrain-changes (e.g. rock-slides). In the end, he opted to travel by line-of-sight teleportation, self-levitation, and (of course) walking. After all, the vault wasn't that far.
While he travelled, he kept expecting to see some signs of civilization. There were none to see so far.
Finally, he reached the mountains. When he got to the other side and started to descend to the vault, he decided to continue on foot and applied some light masking on himself. He was pondering how to approach and gain entrance to the vault when he saw it - a great city looming in a valley in front of him.
Harry applied better concealment charms and started to think about what he saw. A city had been built over the vault - that wasn't so surprising. After all, the vault had been designed to serve as a foundation for a city. Harry continued forward to take a closer look.
Obviously, the vault had survived and flourished. That meant that Harry was supposed to retreat and leave the people in there alone. And yet, he felt that he needed to know more. What if the city had no connection with the vault whatsoever? What if it was merely built over the area of the vault? What if the city was inhabited by vampires and all the people in there were dead? Not that it mattered to him.
Harry decided to observe the city from a safe distance. He could see traffic in the streets. He saw a hovercraft some time later. It bore a loose resemblance to some designs on which he and Hermione had corroborated. Finally, he saw a train. If it had not arrived, he wouldn't have noticed the rail-road. There was "CAPITOL COAL" written on the train in big letters. Capitol - that meant that there were other human settlements (there would no point in calling the city a capitol otherwise).
As he kept observing, he determined that there were some questions which needed answering. Who lived in the Capitol? Were they descendants of the original vault-dwellers? What was the current social, political, and strategic situation of the society living in the city? Were there other settlements indeed? Who lived in them? Were they descendants of the vault-dwellers as well or were they external survivors? What was their situation and what was their relationship with the Capitol like? The sign "CAPITOL COAL" rubbed Harry the wrong way for some reason.
Harry decided that the best course of action was to retreat away from the Capitol and slowly and carefully gather more information. Waltzing in there, revealing his identity, and starting to ask questions would be idiotic. However, creeping in there while veiled by magic was risky as well. He and Hermione had helped to develop sensors capable of penetrating rudimentary magical cloaking. He had no way of knowing whether those (or even better) devices were installed in the city. His best chance of learning more seemed to be following the rail-roads.
And so Harry Potter left the area of the Capitol quietly and unseen. In following days and weeks, he found himself remembering details of the events that led him to that point.
Harry started to question the magical adults who had power over his life after his second year. The Dursleys had proven that they were volatile and capable of just about anything. And yet, Dumbledore and McGonagall sent him back to them without a second thought. After he had saved the school from being closed! There was also the matter with the fact that it was the two of them who had left him there in the first place (Harry had managed to coax this information out of Hagrid). Harry made sure to have a big knife at hand at all times at least. After all, he had slain a basilisk with a sword - a knife seemed sufficient for his uncle or cousin.
Still, he didn't think about it too much. That changed after his third year. He was angry. He could have gotten away from the Dursleys forever and even Dumbledore wouldn't have been able to stop him. Personally, he blamed the whole fiasco on Snape. In his opinion, Dumbledore's word that Snape was trustworthy no longer meant that Snape could be trusted - it meant that Dumbledore couldn't be.
It was during his fourth year that Harry decided to show signs of rebellion. When he arrived to the hostages during the second task, he knew that he was supposed to save Ron. However, it was obviously Hermione who was his best friend. Cedric arrived shortly after Harry left and freed Cho. Last one to arrive was Krum. It was difficult to say why he took Ron instead of Gabriel. Probably because he lacked Harry's fantasy and knew that the little girl was meant for her big sister. Dumbledore was probably disappointed with Harry that day but he didn't show it.
When Fudge stormed out of the infirmary after the third task, Harry cursed himself for being so slow. To his defence, he was still in shock from the whole ordeal. He didn't understand what exactly had happened there but he knew that he missed a chance. He should have insisted on speaking with Fudge alone. It was too late however and Harry also suspected that Fudge believed Harry to be Dumbledore's man through and through. Harry was angry at Dumbledore for that.
That summer, Harry retaliated against the old headmaster and showed his true colors in the process. He didn't mean for it to happen so soon but the opportunity was too tempting. It wasn't as if he actually did anything bad - it was about what he didn't do. When he felt the presence of the Dementors, he wasted no time and ran, keeping his immobilized cousin between his pursuers and himself. If Harry had got any regrets that day, it was over the fact that the Dementors couldn't kill more people from Privet Drive. Each Dementor can digest only one soul at a time and since there were only two of them, Dudley and Ms. Figg were the only ones to die. A smarter sentinel would pursue Harry even with its greatest weapon temporarily disabled but Dementors don't operate in such a way. Once sated, the two Dementors returned to Azkaban.
Harry had to be moved, of course. With Dudley dead, Petunia had no reason to keep the wards powered. Not that she could consciously control them but her decision that she no longer wanted Harry under her roof was more than enough. Harry kept expecting Dumbledore to appear and question him but it didn't happen. Harry took it as a sign that the old codger knew everything already. It was Mrs. Weasley who asked him why he had not used magic. "I can't use magic during summer - Dumbledore made sure of that," answered Harry simply.
There was an investigation, of course. Fudge hoped to link the deaths with Harry at first. Fortunately, director Bones took a great interest in the case as well. Fudge turned around later and struggled to keep the whole thing under the wraps. Maybe because Umbridge advised him to do that.
When Harry learned the prophecy after his fifth year, he dared not to defy Dumbledore. He pretended to be enraged by Sirius's death instead. After all, Harry did not have to kill Voldemort - he just had to die by his hand and then Dumbledore would be able to finish the job. Presuming that the prophecy had any real power to begin with.
As mentioned before, Harry was saved from Dumbledore's machinations by none other than Snape. Not that it stopped Harry from trying to kill the potions master immediately after that. He was no fool and realized that it would be a madness to engage Snape head on. Instead, he grabbed a broom and quickly moved in front of the fleeing Death Eaters. His cloak kept him hidden while he waited in ambush. When his enemies appeared, he didn't attack Snape, no. He fired the Sectumsempra curse in Draco's back instead. He expected Snape to die but with the mission completed, he was no longer bound by the unbreakable vow.
When Harry took the fake locket from Dumbledore's body, he realized that something was missing - the wand. He went to search for it. It was no accident that he found it quickly. It was as if some subtle sixth sense was pulling him towards the wand. When he grasped it in his hand, he was surprised to find that it was aligned to him (though maybe not as well as his own wand). It was difficult for him to (temporarily) part with it but he wrapped it in his cloak and hid it well.
There was a meeting of the "inner circle" that night/morning. McGonagall asked Harry to give her all the information he had received from Dumbledore. Harry had a very clear idea how to respond to such a request. He stood up and laughed without humour in his voice.
"Curious. Now you are listening," he uttered while he stepped closer and turned away from her.
"Mr. Potter," responded McGonagall sternly. "Now is hardly the time for..."
She didn't get to finish. When he was in a perfect position, Harry spun around and punched McGonagall square in her face. There was a satisfying crunch of her nose and far less satisfying pain in his fingers. It was stupid and immature but he couldn't help himself. His reasons for doing such a thing were simple: not her dismissal of his suspicions earlier that year but her high-and-mighty treatment of him for all those six years. She was supposed to feel guilty for leaving him on a street in a middle of winter for crying out loud!
The room was thrown into chaos. Somebody, probably Lupin, moved forward to restrain him. Harry quickly took his wand in his other hand and summoned his anger. He expelled Lupin away from him with such a force that he hit a wall.
Harry was hit by two spells in quick succession after that. First, Flitwick hit him with a petrifying spell. Harry stilled and started to fall over. That was when he was hit by a bone crusher from Moody. The retired Auror probably meant to merely break Harry's left arm but he shattered his collarbone instead (thanks to Flitwick). Harry fainted.
Hermione rose to action and blew up Moody's prosthetic leg under him. He fell and hit his head on a table (luckily, he sustained only light concussion). Several wands turned on Harry's wannabe protector. She levelled her own at them.
They started to argue and it took some time before Harry arrived in the infirmary. Hermione had to remind the others that their survival depended on Harry. It was clear from the looks of everybody still standing that nobody was particularly trilled with the idea or truly believed it for that matter.
Harry and Hermione gave the wizarding world exactly one more chance: at Dumbledore's funeral. Harry originally planned to wait till the end of the funeral but when he saw that some generic ministry speaker was about deliver Dumbledore's eulogy, he got up from his chair and made his way to the front despite the cries of protests.
First, he told the crowd that there was no reason to be worried because their level of safety was in no way affected by Dumbledore's departure. After all, the old wizard was so weak that even the late Draco Malfoy had been able to defeat him and so stupid that he had actually harboured his own murderer for years. Needless to say, part of the crowd did not react happily to such slander. On the other hand, Scrimgeour welcomed anything that would calm people down. He stood up, turned back at the crowd, and called for silence.
He started to regret it in a little while. Harry proceeded with his address and laid out his ludicrous proposal. To defeat Voldemort, they all had to change their ways, according to Harry. He requested a total restructuration of their society, their laws, and the Ministry of Magic itself. The most heretical idea he voiced was to strengthen their ties with the muggle government. Most of the crowd (mostly the ones who had been silent before) was shouting in outrage by that time. Scrimgeour stood up again, this time to stop the tirade. There was a heated argument between him and Harry and then some threats from the chosen one.
It was Hermione who convinced Harry to clear the field. She believed that Harry revealed too much information to the public. She also thought that it was unsafe for them to linger around. They spent the rest of the day inconspicuously packing their things and "borrowing" books from the library. Hermione left that night to send her parents to Australia. Harry made an appearance next day morning only to walk away under a weight of angry stares from pure-blood students. He rejoined Hermione. The rest was history.
Of course, there was more to the story, including an explanation why Harry didn't have his father's cloak and Dumbledore's wand with him when he entered the stasis capsule. However, before he got that far in his reminiscence, he met a remarkable girl named Katniss.