I debated as to whether I should write this, as I already have four in-progress projects on my plate. However, I eventually decided that I wanted to write something…just not them.
With that said, I don't own Harry Potter.
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Chapter 1 – Project: Endwar
JUNE 24, 2009 – LOCATION, UNKNOWN
Somewhere outside the observable realms of space, there were a series of interconnected rooms that was formerly the British Department of Mysteries. Within these rooms were many strange and fascinating things, as well as some mundane things such as the barracks where its inhabitants slept. In one of these barracks, a twenty-eight year old Harry James Potter laid in his bed, looking at the makeshift calendar stuck on his wall. The man had gone through several physical changes since he had left Hogwarts. He had hit a final growth spurt, setting him at an average sixty-eight inches in height. His hair, once an untamable mess, had been lengthened to just past his ears and pulled back in a ponytail. The characteristic lightning-bolt scar over his right eye was gone, replaced by a smooth scar he had received when a stray curse slashed his face; he was lucky that it had only caught his flesh and had not blinded him.
As he lay there, he idly noticed that it had been twelve years to the day since his friend, mentor and headmaster Albus Dumbledore had died, and granted him a mission to stop the fearsome Lord Voldemort once and for all.
Twelve years since everything had gone to Hell.
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Soon after Dumbledore's death, Voldemort began taking over the Ministry of Magic piece by piece. Because of the government's already corrupt influence, this was far from a difficult task for him. Through his puppets, Voldemort began to lay his influence on the masses. At first, it was higher prices for goods and housing for Muggleborns and semi-human beings. Then, he made it impossible for them to gain anything but the most menial of employment. He had imposed a "Muggleborn Registration Act," demanding that any and all muggleborn witches and wizards be registered and monitored "for security purposes," they would say. Any who did not register were swiftly arrested and imprisoned. He also imposed heavy restrictions on portkey usage, crippling any attempts to escape.
When the new school year started, Voldemort exercised his influence there as well. Gone were the houses of before, instead replaced with tables based on blood purity. The purebloods would sit at the front, half-bloods and above in the middle, and the muggleborns in the back. The so-called "mudbloods" were only permitted to learn the most basic spells and charms, while the higher-ranked students were taught many advanced spells and curses, many of them undeniably dark. They were also indoctrinated to believe that muggles and muggleborn were inferior, worthy of little more than indentured servants or permanent slaves. A few of Harry's friends, including Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood tried to stir up a resistance within the castle, much as Harry did during their fifth year. However, they were discovered, and executed for treason.
This swiftly silenced any further attempts of resistance.
Voldemort had taken control of the muggle government by casting an Imperius curse on the Prime Minister, making him the twisted wizard's puppet. A few "accidents" later, and Voldemort was well on his way into turning Great Britain into his own personal army. Men were automatically conscripted into the military at age seventeen. Those who tried to resist were quickly made examples of. He had also all but eliminated any travel to or from the British islands, isolating them from the world.
Meanwhile, on the continent, Voldemort's supporters were setting up their own power bases, and the darkness began to spread like a cancer. Within a decade, Voldemort directly or indirectly controlled most of Europe, and had begun to forge an alliance with Communist China. In 2005, Voldemort had led an attack on the United States, eliminating his last real threat. The Americans fought valiantly for over a year, but were unable to stand up to the combined European forces. In a final bid of desperation, they launched several nuclear missiles, annihilating much of Western Europe.
Meanwhile, while the world crumbled apart around them, Harry and his two friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger wandered through the countryside searching for the horcruxes, the mystical artifacts containing pieces of Voldemort's soul and ensuring his immortality. Unfortunately, Dumbledore had failed to inform them of where the horcruxes were, so they wandered aimlessly through the wilderness for over a year, trying not to be caught by Voldemort's spies.
The trio was eventually discovered by one Jonathan Waters, who claimed to be a former Unspeakable. After swearing a magical oath that he meant them no harm, he explained to them that when the Ministry fell, the Unspeakables activated a failsafe that disconnected the Department of Mysteries from this realm of reality, rendering it inaccessible except to its residents, and that they had been searching for Harry and his friends for some time.
Walters led them to a doorway standing in the middle of the woods, and opened it to reveal the familiar black marble halls of the Department of Mysteries. There, Head Unspeakable Nebuchadnezzar Hawthorne explained to the three teenagers that shortly before his death, Dumbledore had approached the Unspeakables to discretely assist them in their task by searching for and destroying Voldemort's horcruxes. Hawthorne further reported that they had located and destroyed one of them: Hufflepuff's cup, which was being held in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts. When Hermione incredulously asked how they managed to obtain it, Hawthorne merely smiled and said, "I'm afraid that's classified, my dear."
While going through a routine physical, Harry's scar became a topic of interest because of the dark energy that emanated from it. It took several dozen tests before it was discovered that his scar was another horcrux, explaining his connection with Voldemort. It would be almost two years before they could safely extract the soul fragment from Harry's body into an inanimate vessel for disposal. For ease in said disposal, they transferred the horcrux into a spun-glass orb, much like those used to store prophecies.
While many of the Unspeakables were researchers, there were several who were also trained in combat, and over the next several years, molded the three frightened, inexperience teenagers into hardened soldiers perfect for the war that they were living in. They were taught spells that toed the line between the light and the dark. They were also taught how to use a knife, as well as the creative application of spells, runes and potions to create several devices, many explosive in nature.
Over the years, they captured and interrogated dozens, perhaps hundreds of Death Eaters, pumping them for every scrap of information they had. After they had ascertained all that they could from them, they granted them the mercy of a swift death and disposed of them. One such Death Eater was Severus Snape.
After thoroughly checking him for any portkeys or tracking devices, the three began to interrogate him. It had turned out that Snape had not killed Dumbledore out of malice, but because of a prior agreement that, to protect Draco Malfoy as well as himself, Snape would kill him. However, it had been in vain, for the junior Malfoy had become an almost exact copy of his father. After any strategic information had been culled, Harry began to press Snape for personal questions. In his questioning, Harry learned that Snape had an infatuation for his mother, a fact that thoroughly disgusted him, and that Snape had told Voldemort of the prophecy on the promise that only Harry and his father would be killed, leaving his mother for himself. When asked if Snape would be willing to assist them in bringing down Voldemort, he said:
"No. Not only has the Dark Lord exerted too much control to be defeated, I will never work with the bastard Potter again. I hope that he burns in Hell." With a grim look on his face, Harry drew his wand and placed the tip between Snape's eyes.
"You first," he spat before firing a drilling charm into Snape's forehead, boring a neat hole into both sides of his skull.
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In the aftermath of the holocaust that the Americans brought down on Europe, the trio had tried to infiltrate one of Voldemort's bases for information. Unfortunately, they had underestimated the security within the building, and were forced to retreat empty-handed. It was here that Hermione Granger died; struck by a stray killing curse. While both men were stricken with grief, they quickly stamped those feelings down and went back to work, determined to not let her death be in vain.
Two months later, Harry and Ron were leading an attack on a known troll clan to eliminate them. They had snuck into the valley where the trolls were resting and began placing bombs at strategic locations to cause as much damage as possible, setting the timers to detonate at five minutes. But, as they began to make their escape, a pack of werewolves appeared; apparently, it was some kind of sport for werewolves to hunt larger and stronger creatures than themselves. The lycanthropes spotted the team of Unspeakables and began to fire on their position; this in turn awakened the trolls and sent them on an indiscriminate rampage. In the ensuing battle, the other two Unspeakables accompanying them were killed, one struck by a killing curse and the other crushed underneath a troll's club, and Harry lost his escape portkey.
"How long has it been?!" Harry yelled as he and Ron ducked behind a boulder to shield them from the curses.
"Two minutes, I think!" Ron replied as he fired hexes at the general direction of the enemies.
"Shit!" Harry swore. "We can't trust the timers now, one of us is going to have to stay behind and detonate them manually." Both men were silent as they realized the unspoken words: One of them would have to die.
"I'll do it," Ron volunteered. When Harry opened his mouth to argue, the redhead cut him off. "You are our last hope of ever ending their war, Harry!" he said as he fired off several more spells. "I'm just a grunt; I'm expendable!" Harry's jaw clenched in frustration but eventually nodded. Ron yanked his portkey off from around his neck and handed it to Harry. "I'll say 'hi' to Hermione for you," he added.
"Thanks," Harry said. "The closest bomb is at the cave. You make a dash for it, and I'll cover you until you get there." When Ron nodded in agreement, Harry continued, "On three: One, two, three!" When Ron dashed from his cover towards the cave mouth, Harry arched his wand around his cover and began firing random jinxes and hexes. They would not do any permanent damage to anyone that they hit, but they did little to tax Harry's magical reserves, and would provide ample distraction for Ron to run to the cave mouth. Once Ron's feet crossed the cave's threshold, Harry activated his portkey and disappeared.
Ron scrambled to the bomb and waved his wand over it, bringing up the runes controlling it in a holographic display. With several swishes of his wand, the runes that connected the timer to the detonation sequence were erased; several more runes were added to synchronize the detonations of the other bombs. As Ron put the final touches on the activation rune, he heard a deep, nasal growling coming from the cave entrance. He turned around to see a troll stomping towards him, club held high. With a heavy sigh, Ron completed the rune and activated it, automatically detonating the explosive. A bright flash of light filled Ron's vision, and then…
Nothing.
Harry watched grimly as the settlement was destroyed in a flash of light and sound. With a weary sigh, Harry opened the door that would lead to the Department of Mysteries and stepped inside. Immediately, he was confronted by one of the senior Unspeakables.
"Potter, what happened? Where's the rest of your team?" Harry looked up at the man before him, a tired look in his eyes.
"Situation went FUBAR," Harry said simply, stepping around the other man, "they didn't make it."
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Harry was snapped out of his reverie by a sharp knocking from the door. He turned his head to see the Hawthorne standing in the doorway.
"Potter, I need to talk to you," he said gruffly. Harry silently stood up and walked towards Hawthorne, who beckoned Harry to follow him. "Potter, have you ever wondered what you would do if you could go back and change it all?" the elderly wizard asked.
"Sometimes," Harry said simply as they stepped into the main atrium of the Department of Mysteries, the doors quickly revolving around them. "Why do you ask?"
"Because what I'm about to show you may help us end this war once and for all," Hawthorne said, seemingly completely unrelated to the previous conversation. He walked over to a door that Harry recognized from the first time he visited the Department of Mysteries: a sealed with no lock or knob.
Hawthorne waved his wand over the door in a graceful, intricate pattern, softly muttering words that Harry could not understand, until the door gave a soft click and slid open. Hawthorne opened the door and beckoned Harry in.
"Mister Potter, allow me you introduce you to the Department of Mysteries most treasured secret: The Endwar Project."
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Thus ends the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Endwar Project. What is the Endwar Project, exactly? Find out, next chapter!
Oh, and don't forget to leave a review on your way out.