Fallen and Risen

Summary: Harry Potter died. As his friends mourned his death, a new student is transferred to Hogwarts. But why does she look so striking like the late Harry Potter? FemHarryXDraco

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling.

Warning!: They are many spoilers of all the 7 books of Harry Potter.

Fallen & Risen 1. To Protect a Smile

United Kingdom. England. London. No 12, Grimmauld Place.

From the window, an eighteen-years-old boy with messy black hair was looking at the people in the street, his emerald forest eyes watching every single moving being visible from through the glass. Harry James Potter, known as The-Boy-Who-Vanquished-the-Dark-Lord, was reflecting on the aftermath of the war against Voldemort. Though the Dark Lord was dead, the war hadn't really finished. The Aurors were still chasing after the remaining Death Eaters who had yet to be captured. Their purpose was to avenge the death of their master by attacking more Muggles and wizards. Everyday, wizarding newspapers, such as The Daily Prophet, The Quibbler and others, sent out reports about various attacks from across the United Kingdom as well as and around the world - places where wizards lived. It seemed that the Aurors were exhausted because of all the post-war work overloading them. Since the Death Eaters had no real purpose in their attacks, they acted base on their foolishness only and caused greater problems to the Muggle and the wizard world. It was ironic to say that, but when Voldemort was still ruling them, it was better because they were at least in the control. Now that nothing properly controlled them, their insane madness was unleashed.

'Will this war ever end?' Harry wondered.

He was answered by silence. Harry watched an old couple walking on the street just outside his window. The two people were holding hands, walking as fast as their weak legs could carry them. Despite knowing the fact that it was still dangerous to go outside by this time with the few crazy Death Eaters running around, they still wanted to enjoy the sun and fresh air, even if it could be the last time they would ever enjoy it. They knew they didn't have much time left on earth, so they decided to fully enjoy the remaining time God had granted them. Harry watched their laced hands. Their fingers were tightly joined, showing how insecure they were. Yet their face had such a serene smile, a smile which should be able to disperse all worry and ugliness of the world. Harry's heart clutched itself in his chest.

'Everyone should be able to smile like them. No one should feel unsure of what might happen to them in the next minute. Everyone should have the right to live happily until their last moment with a peaceful life,' Harry told himself.

The black hair boy watched the old couple again. Slowly, his right hand trailed up his left arm, rolling up his sleeve along the way to reveal a red mark. He looked the three spots that were arranged as though in a triangle. The color, which was supposed to be a deep red, had faded. The mark wasn't as clear as it was last year or the years before. More precisely, the mark had started fading from the moment his late headmaster, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, died.

'It won't be long before it will completely disappear…' Harry observed.

Once the mark disappears, his deepest secret would be revealed.

'I don't have enough magic to protect this secret any longer,' Harry thought.

Harry brought his eyes back to the old couple, watching them again. To be more precise, he watched their smile, the mysterious kind of smile only old people knew to do - the kind of smile which could be produced only when one had understood the real secret of the existence of humanity.

'They have such brilliant smiles, yet so calm.'

Harry didn't know how long he watched them, but he knew something: the more he watched them, the more he knew what he had to do in order to guard the old couple's smile until their last minute in this world. Harry squeezed his upper arm harder, where the red mark was.

'Might as well make use of the remaining time of the charm…'

Harry turned around on his heels, grabbed his robe and left.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had been elected as the new Minister of Magic after the fall of The-One-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, gazed out his window, scanning through the mass of wizards that loitered around Diagon Alley without really seeing them.

The atmosphere of the Alley was strange. It was filled with happiness at the fall of the Dark Lord, but it was also mixed with the fear of another probable attack from Death Eaters. Shacklebolt saw a pair of civil Aurors on a corner of the street. They diligently scanned through the crowd of people, making sure there wasn't any surprise-attack which could hurt any civilian, but their grey colored skin and strained face showed how tired they were. Could those two Aurors have be in the team who arrest another Death Eater last night? Today's Daily Prophet featured the news.

'Probably,' Shacklebolt thought.

After the success of their mission, they should be granted at least a few days break. But the Aurors Department was running out of men. They had no choice but to ask the Aurors to keep on their usual routine work. The only thing the Department could do for them was assign them less tiring work for the day, such as guarding the civilians. Shacklebolt frown deepened.

'Everyone should be able to live peacefully, without fear of being attacked at any moment,' Shacklebolt thought.

"Mister Shacklebolt," his secretary called. Shacklebolt turned around.

"What is it, Ashley?" Shacklebolt asked.

"A visitor for you," the young Ashley said in a eager voice. Shacklebolt raised an eyebrow.

"And who is it?" he asked. Ashley's eyes shined thousand of stars and his smile stretched ear to ear. Seeing his expression, Shacklebolt immediately knew who his visitor was.

"It's mister…" Ashley started.

"Okay, you can let him in," Shacklebolt said, cutting him off with a half smile. His usually stern and grumpy secretary only behaved like that when this person was around.

"Yes, sir! I should cancel all your appointments, right?" Ashley asked, sounding as if he already knew the answer. Shacklebolt nodded, still smiling.

His secretary was a weird one. Anton Ashley knew nothing and wanted to know nothing about anything unrelated to his work. That was the reason why no one wanted to befriend with him. Looking at him, people tended to think that he was a Dementor because everything around him became gloomy and sad whenever he appeared. Add in his ugly face and stern personality, no one wanted to employ him or give him a decent job to earn enough money and survive with three meals a day. That was until he met Kingsley Shacklebolt.

During a cold and rainy night, as Ashley was roaming through London streets, he collapsed in a park. It had been three days since his last meal, which was only a raw bread no one had wanted to eat. As he laid on the ground, he waited for Death to hurry and came to take him away. He no longer saw why he should be living in this sad world any longer. He even wondered why Life even bothered itself to bring him in the world. The only thing he knew since the first day he was born was suffering. As the cold of the rain crept under his skin, he felt a hand touching his face. He thought it was the hand of Death and smiled, thinking that it was finally his time to go. Before he completely lost his conscience, he realized it was the first time he ever smiled in his miserable life.

That was how Shacklebolt, who was the Muggle Prime Minister's secretary and bodyguard at that time, found him. Shacklebolt brought him to his place, nursed him, gave him food and shelter. When Ashley's health was recovered, Shacklebolt trained him to be a secretary assistant and made him his personal second hand to help him with his work at the Muggle Prime Minister cabinet. Ashley thought that Life finally decided to show him fairness after all the suffering he had endured and had him be reborn in the hand of his protector. Since that day, Ashley followed Shacklebolt everywhere. Shacklebolt never regretted picking up Ashley in the street. Of course the young wizard was uglier than a ghoul, but he did an excellent job. It was like he could read Shacklebolt's mind, at times even anticipating what he'd say before he even thought it. Shacklebolt had always thought that his ugly face was like a balance to Ashley's too high competence as a secretary.

People often told him to change his secretary, but Shacklebolt refused. The poor Ashley never had anyone to trust him or need him. Leaving the boy was no different from killing him, which wasn't better. Shacklebolt tried to help him developing a sense of people relations, but failed because no one wanted to get near Ashley. That was until Harry Potter came in the picture. The first time he met Ashley, Harry Potter greeted the ugly secretary with a smile and gave him a solid and warm handshake. It was the first time Ashley had met someone, besides Shacklebolt, who treated him so nicely. Harry Potter immediately became Ashley's idol. From that day, Ashley learned to smile, which happened each time he saw The-boy-who-lived. Eventually, Ashley smiled more often because Harry Potter's picture often made the front page of the Daily Prophet. Ashley changed to a point that Shacklebolt sometime regretted making him meet Harry Potter. At only mention of the name of the Golden Boy, Ashley started ranting nonstop about how wonderful and awesome Harry Potter was for hours, acting like a fan girl. During these times, Shacklebolt would give anything to find his grumpy-Dementor-ghoul secretary again. But, well, Ashley was still a competent secretary Shacklebolt didn't want to lose.

Shacklebolt smiled as he watched Ashley promptly skipped - skipped! - out of his office to invite in his visitor. There was only one person who could make his secretary behave like a child who got an early Christmas gift. Speaking of which, his visitor stepped in.

"Minister Shacklebolt," the visitor greeted.

"Harry Potter, welcome," Shacklebolt greeted back. Harry gave a sheepish smile, a little bit disturbed at Ashley's greeting. Shacklebolt chuckled. "I'm sorry Harry, but I can't really change Ashley's enthusiasm toward you," Shacklebolt excused.

Harry nodded. The Minister's secretary just shot him another of his thousand watt smile while crushing his fingers in his and asking him for another signature. He thought that he would never be able to get used to such enthusiasm of Anton Ashley.

"Here, take a seat," Shacklebolt invited, showing the chair in front of his desk. "How may I help you today?"

Harry sat in the pointed chair and his eyes fell on the newspaper open on the desk in front of Shacklebolt. The newspaper was screaming 'Death Eaters attack again'. Harry's smiled disappeared. Shacklebolt saw it.

"It's not your fault, Harry," Shacklebolt said. "No one blames you for anything. We are even grateful that you defeated the Dark Lord."

"But there are still innocents being attacked everyday…" Harry muttered.

"Harry, as long as the Light exists on the world, the Darkness will also remain. You cannot get rid of the Darkness without killing the Light. It's the Law of the balance between good and evil. When the Dark Lord rose, he broke the Law. To restore the balance again, he had to be vanquished, but that also implied sacrifices." Shacklebolt stopped momentary.

'Sacrifice…' Harry thought, casting his eyes down. He thought about his parents, Sirius, Professor Lupin and all the other who lost their lives in the War.

"I'm sorry, Harry …" Shacklebolt muttered. Harry snapped out of his thinking and looked at the Minister again.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry for all the burden we put on you from the day you were born… just because of a prophecy…"

Harry didn't say anything. He wasn't denying that he also found it unfair. Unfair that he couldn't have a normal life just because of a damned bloody prophecy. Unfair that so many innocent people died just to help him accomplishing that damned prophecy. Unfair that even after vanquishing Voldemort, he would live with guilt weighting on him for the rest of his life. Unfair that even after the dead of Voldemort, there were still innocents being attacked in daylight because of revenge. Unfair that even old people who have lived all their life in fear couldn't even have a small moment of peace before they would leave this unfair world.

'All this unfairness must stopped. Everything must be stopped…' Harry thought. 'I will stop everything, even if this will be the very last thing Harry Potter will ever do in his life!'

"Minister, I thought of a way to make all these attacks stop. And probably a way to get all the hiding Death Eaters arrested as well," Harry said. Shacklebolt look at Harry's serious face.

"What do you mean?" Shacklebolt asked.

"Because of Voldemort's death, it is normal that his supporters will want to avenge him. That's how humans and wizards are. Sadly, their desire for revenge leads them to be foolish and causes more pain to the world, pain for the innocents and pain for themselves."

Shacklebolt slowly nodded.

"However, if we remove the purpose and the cause of their anger, then probably it will also kill their desire for revenge," Harry continued. He pointed to the newspapers. "That way, these daily attacks will stop," Harry finished.

Shacklebolt nodded again, understanding Harry's reasoning.

"And how do you think we can remove the purpose and the cause of their anger?" Shacklebolt asked.

Harry looked outside the window behind the Minister's back, contemplating the blue sky. Shacklebolt respected his desire of a minute of silence.

"Minister Shacklebolt, the only way to stop the remaining Death Eaters from causing more disasters is to remove the purpose of their anger and desire for revenge," Harry said in a sad voice. "There is only one way…"

The silence took place again for a minute. Then, Harry turned to face Shacklebolt.

"Minister Shacklebolt, Harry Potter must die."

A/N: I'm also a fan of Harry Potter, but I never write any fanfic about it. So, this is a try - my first try. I hope you will enjoy it. Please, tell me what do you think about this first chapter. Thank you.