Harry Potter and the Journey Through Extinction

Chapter 1

Harry scowled at the various glares the directed at his person as he made his way back to the common room after the week's final class of the day. For the umpteenth time he cursed his luck when it came to Halloween. For once, he had hoped, since, oh, a Tournament that only those of age could enter, that he could have a nice calm year.

Wrong. Of course, he would get dragged in unwillingly and now most of the school and the visiting ones were calling him a liar and cheat. He quickly made it to the common room and after dropping his things off, decided to wait out of sight of most students until dinner. As he waited, his hand slipped into his pocket and wrapped around an object that on one else knew of.

It was a rather large coin, like that of a military challenge coin or a medallion, made of a smooth grey metal. There was a raised "A" shape on one side, with a blue gem at the vertex and red and green gems on the ends of the legs. The gems, in darkness, faintly glowed. Harry thought back to when he had been given it.

It was the year before he started Hogwarts. While the details surrounding the event were fuzzy now in all that happened, he remembered an older teen, about 14 named Stephen, though he was preferred to be called Centurion by most for some reason. At five foot eleven, fair skin, grey eyes and very dirty blonde hair, the teen was quite unremarkable. Harry remembered gaining the coin.

"Should you ever wish to start anew or are ready to come home to a place that you can truly grow, all you have to do is answer the question when the time is right. It is etched on the back. I tell you this now, where it leads will be rigorous, it will be difficult, it will be deadly. Do not answer now. Give it a few years."

He had forgotten about it for the first few years, but after the dementors were posted, Harry started carrying it around in his pocket. Of late, the gems had been glowing brighter, especially after Halloween. Now they were bright enough that if you were paying attention during the day the glow could be seen. Just then, Hermione rushed in.

"Harry!" She gasped, grasping his hand. Her eyes were wide. "You need to come to the Great Hall. You have to see this." "See what, Hermione? The hate of the rest of the school?" The bushy haired witch shook her head, "No! Just come see!" With that, Harry allowed himself to be pulled along by his only remaining friend down to the Great Hall. As they reached the main floor, students began rushing from all points of the castle. Whatever was in the Great Hall, the news had spread about it.

-An hour previously, the Beauxbatons Carriage

A silvery-blonde haired, blue eyed witch in pale blue robes paced in the temporary office of her Headmistress, Madam Olympe Maxime. Fleur Delacour was a veela and not one in a good mood. After informing her father and mother of the outcome of the selection, she had received a reply back. It was not a good one.

Her father was infuriated with how she had acted upon finding out what she had said to Harry Potter, explaining in no short terms that the two families had had been friends since the Hundred Years War for actions involving the rescue of her ancestor. What was worse, there was a marriage contract involved, dating from that time. Unfortunately for Fleur, she was the first daughter in the Delacour family since that contract was written. Her father had immediately demanded a meeting with her headmistress.

And so, here Fleur was, waiting. The fireplace flared green and her father Jean Sebastian Delacour stepped out. "Mr. Delacour," Madam Maxime greeted, "You wanted a meeting, yes?" "Yes, Headmistress. A rather urgent one at that. You see, after Fleur's almost understandable reaction on the night of the Champion selection, she came very close to breaking a very important alliance and contract with the Potter family that has existed since the Hundred Years War."

"But Mr. Delacour, the boy must have entered his name, regardless of the age line. It is cheating, in fact-,"

"Olympe Maxime!" Jean Sebastian roared, "That is quite enough. You forget, Harry Potter has no need of further glory, what with the way the magical world reveres him after the demise of that fool of a Dark Lord! Furthermore, as you are very well aware of, there still are supporters of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named out there, many of them adults. One of them could have easily taken a potion or used other measures to bypass the Age Line and put the boy's name in. Such things are not infallible after all. Also, several of my contacts have informed me that though Mr. Potter has gained credit for several impossible events over the last few years, the boy most certainly does not seek them out. In fact, he is quite shy, to the point that it clearly indicates abuse by his guardians. I fully intend to gain custody over the boy and have Fleur apologize to him."

Madam Maxime was thoroughly cowed. Even she would dare not challenge Senator Delacour's argument now, not with an alliance and the life of one of her favorite students on the line. "Very well, Senator Delacour. I will leave matters to you. Hogwarts is serving dinner in an hour so that would be the most likely opportunity for Fleur to make amends. Which you will be doing, young lady."

Fleur inclined her head in acknowledgment. She knew that there was going to be no arguing with either her headmistress or her father. "Of course, headmistress, papa."

"Very well, Fleur. You may go. Please inform the rest of your year to prepare to leave for dinner immediately. Senator? Is there anything else?"

"Yes, Madam. A couple of other things." Fleur quickly slipped out of the office and went to gather the rest of the Beauxbatons students. The veela knew that she got off easy. After fifteen minutes of popping her head into rooms and passing of the headmistress' instructions, they were all finally ready to head up to the castle for dinner. Madam Maxime emerged from her office and lead the French students out from the carriage and to the Great Hall. What none of them knew, however, was that their meal was about to get interrupted by something that none of them would ever believe.

-With Harry

As Harry and Hermione entered the Great Hall, things were most certainly not normal. The ghosts were floating there staring, the only one who acknowledged them was Nearly Headless Nick, and he merely nodded in greeting. The House tables were toppled over each other and against the walls. The reason for this lay etched deep into the very stone floor of the Great Hall. What was etched there made Harry reach for the coin. Just then, the doors slammed open as students flooded the Great Hall, and as one, froze. Not far behind were the professors.

"Potter!" The unmistakable voice of Severus Snape sounded out. "That will be three weeks detention for-." "For what, Professor Severus Snape?" The House Ghost of Gryffindor remarked, "The Hall was already like this when the boy entered and as such, you have no reason to punish Mr. Potter for something that he clearly did not do."

The cool voice of the Grey Lady then echoed through the room, "I must agree with Sir. Nicholas. I was the one who found the Hall like this and not even Peeves could have etched the stone this deep. Something else is at work here." "So? Potter must have done it, after all he'd love more attention," the voice of one Draco Malfoy spoke up as much of the school nodded in agreement, however, Draco lost his argument when the Bloody Baron stopped that.

"Mr. Malfoy, I seem to remember Mr. Potter being in class at the same time as the etching was found. Before you rush to assign blame, first we must ask, where were you during that time." The murmurs of agreement died off as the most intimidating of all the ghosts poked large gaping holes in Malfoy's argument.

As this was going on, the etchings seemed to move and flow into a shape. One that Harry was very familiar with. The same one on his coin. Something pulled at him, and in his mind, he knew. If he stayed, he'd be punished for something he didn't do again. Then it would be like a repeat of second year. Harry grasped the coin with his fingers and slowly took it out of his pocket. The gems glowed strongly, easily visible now as he turned it over. When he turned it over, on the floor, the very question on the back of the coin showed up on the floor. All could now read it.

Do you wish to start anew, or finally come home?

"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione asked as he slowly approached the etchings. The Hall was silent, everyone's breath was held as something was about to happen. The professors grabbed their wands as Harry took one last look at the school, his mind made up. He was done with Hogwarts, with wizards, with magic in general. His owl Hedwig flew in and landed on his shoulder. He held up the coin to look at the gems. And then…

"I am ready," the Boy-Who-Lived began, "to start anew. To Finally come home!"

AND CUT! Alright folks that's the end of chapter 1. Cue to spewing of hatred now. Just kidding, guys, I'm not that evil. However, for this next bit, please have up on youtube in the background Ark Aberration Ascension 4K by Epic Ark. It will help set the mood and visuals.

At this, the coin flew from his hand and shattered, the gems growing in size and planting themselves into the floor of Hogwarts as a bright flash lit up the Great Hall. Then pillars of light, blue, red and green soared high into the sky and everyone was blinded momentarily. When they could see again, in the middle of the pillars were three people, an owl, and a cat. Harry, Hermione, Fleur, Hedwig and Crookshanks. And then they vanished from sight, as a female voice was heard, "I'm going too!"

There was a whooshing sound and Harry looked around. He was flying through space it seemed. Whizzing by him were floating islands? Deserts? Islands that were space stations? He was in a tunnel of multicolored light and below was a planet. It seemed strangely familiar, yet it looked completely barren. Harry then heard several feminine squeaks, indignant ones, from behind him. Three in fact. He could not turn around to look, but he could see his own body, he was stripped down to a pair of white boxers and his left arm hurt.

However, that wasn't his main focus right now. The tunnel/hole in space/ tube of light was connecting to another that was coming from one of the space station things. A broken one, if the shattered remains of the gargantuanly titanic pillars that held the station up was anything to go by. In that tunnel there were several humans in a similar state of undress.

The first was an eighteen-year-old male with very dirty blonde hair, whose hand seemed be in the grip of a long pink haired teen girl. Following them was a brown-haired male, of similar age, who seemed to be tumbling after colliding with the other three people. One had blue hair and a very well-endowed chest and bottom, the next was a black-haired little girl, and the last had short purple hair and a lollipop in her mouth. There were others in the group, men and women, around six, but Harry couldn't make them out. The groups met as the tunnels collided, the two in the lead, being the only ones who noticed the newcomers.

The male in the lead spoke only six words, but they were enough to identify him. "Good to see you again, kiddo." Centurion. Just as he said this Harry noticed that their bodies began to dissolve into particles of colored light heading straight down to the planet below them and the tunnel passed by faster and faster until a bright white light blinded them all. A voice, female, was heard by all, but it couldn't be located.

"Where you're going survivors, you will need help. I grant you all from each of your previous challenges one of the friends that can be weapons to assist you in your final and most rigorous test. Two from the initial trial. This is all I can do for you right now. I wish you the best of luck." And then they knew no more.