Chapter 179: Funeral

29th January 1995, Hogwarts Earth 2

(Harry Potter POV)

It’s been a few days since the event that was now named, the Hogsmeade Massacre and Harry was still shaking from what happened. He really didn’t know what he was expecting when he gave Sayre permission to kill Voldemort herself. He thought that she would assassinate him, somehow. But he never expected her to be able to straight up walk towards him and kill him and his army.

Harry remembered hearing the explosions coming from Hogsmeade, and the giant beam of white fire that illuminated the night sky as if it was noon. The entire school body had watched the duels from afar, well, they had no idea who was whom, only that there was a fight that involved fire.

Harry’s counterpart had been ruthless in her elimination of Voldemort’s forces, massacring what the Aurors assumed to be five hundred werewolves, three hundred dementors and two hundred Death Eaters, that’s not counting Voldemort himself, and the ten inner circle members.

And now, the Ministry of Magic was trying to do some damage control over the death of almost every dementor in the world, meaning that Azkaban was officially unguarded. And while they didn’t seem to care about the fact that most of the werewolves in Britain were also dead, they did care about the Death Eaters’ demises, especially the ones who had a lot of influence in the Ministry.

With the death count being so high, a lot of Harry’s fellow students had their families die in that massacre. Adding in the fact that Dumbledore was dead, Sayre was missing, and Snape had resigned the minute the fight was over, poor McGonagall, was pretty much left out to dry, needing three professors in the middle of the school year at once.

Until she had found suitable professors, the students were all told to go home, with all lessons being suspended and examinations postponed.

In other news, with the clear evidence that there was some truth to his words, Fudge was immediately booted from his office, with his administration leaving with him. His entire time as minister was currently under investigation, but even in the magical world, legal cases of corruption of that scale will probably take years to finish properly, but even then, things didn’t look good for the former minister.

In his place, until an election takes place that is, was Amelia Bones who was deemed to be levelheaded enough to deal with the crisis. She ended up meeting with Harry, where they asked him to say that the current Voldemort was an impostor who had tried to revitalize the efforts, and not the genuine article. That the impostor had fooled him during the third task, and that the Ministry should have investigated the matters further and not negated it outright. With Sayre being presumed dead – no one other than Harry knew what the blinding white light was at the end of the duel – they wanted to use this to stop fear from spreading in the population.

This left a bad taste in Harry’s mouth, but Minister Bones didn’t seem to like it either, but she had made the point that telling the people that Voldemort could come back from the dead would cause even more panic, which no one wanted, and Harry was able to get a reinvestigation of Sirius’ case, since he had told her that his godfather was innocent. It would be done in a few months when things calmed down, but things were looking up for Sirius Black.

As for the Death Eater families, they wanted to sue Sayre for murder and get access to the infamous Sayre fortune, not that there was any. Everything she owned was pretty much off the books, in a mansion that only Harry could access, apparently. He still couldn’t go the Gringotts yet; the members of the Order had chosen to not let him out of their sight, in fear of a Death Eater fanatic attacking him or something.

Still, it was very stifling, but there were some entertaining moments; Harry had chuckled when Kingsley came back, grinning while telling him that the only sign of wealth that Sayre had was a vault in Gringotts that barely had more gold for it to consider a medium security vault, which essentially contained around a thousand galleons, a very respectable sum for a young wizard or witch, but nothing like the mountains of gold that the Sayres were rumored to have. With how many people Sayre killed, the best they could hope for is a few couple of galleons each, a paltry sum that wasn’t worth the hassle.

That woman had really thought of everything, hadn’t she. Harry couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed with himself when comparing himself to his counterpart. The woman was so powerful, so smart, so knowledgeable, so cunning that she was able to turn the world upside down, just so that she could return home. Harry still didn’t understand how the whole prophecy dimensional travel thing worked, and he didn’t care. For the first time in his life, Harry Potter was free, and even if it had cost him his mentor, he wouldn’t change anything about it.

It was still hard to believe that Voldemort was dead, just like that. He was such an important part of his life in Hogwarts, and this chapter was over. He didn’t have to keep looking over his shoulder, he didn’t even have to return to the Dursleys ever again; Dumbledore wasn’t there anymore to reinforce his idiotic commands.

It was amazing, this level of freedom, of the possibility of choices in front of him. He was always worried about Voldemort, about the inevitable war, but with that out of the way, what did he want to do with his life?

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Harry’s counterpart had given him every tool he needed for any future he wanted. He understood that now, it was all part of her clever manipulation, for him to reject the prophecy, in favor of having the possibility of the life he always wanted, with a family, with wealth, with power. She had manipulated him, by destroying those who wanted to see him stifled and locked away, like the Ministry, and in some ways, like Dumbledore, to entice him into rejecting his position as martyr, and breaking the prophecy. But even then, he couldn’t be mad at her; after all, even if she had done so for selfish reasons, Sayre had ensured that he would be able to live whatever kind of life he chose, and he could never resent someone who had done that for him.

Speaking of Dumbledore, they found his body in the middle of the Hogsmeade; Voldemort was probably going to parade it around. It was something that he would do. Anyway, they found out that Dumbledore was killed by being hit with a killing curse, but he was also hit with a very powerful dark curse which was going to kill him anyway. For some reason, they didn’t find his wand though.

And now, in Hogsmeade, was the funeral of Albus Dumbledore. It had taken some time to arrange it; people from all over the world came just to witness it. It was odd, seeing people from all over the world, who probably have never been in a room together, meeting for the first time in a funeral of all things.

It was a beautiful ceremony, and everyone told stories about how wise the man was, or how kind, or how powerful. It was like the man was a saint, something that Harry knew the man wasn’t even close to being. He still didn’t know how to feel about the man. He had ruined a boy’s childhood, subtly controlled everything in his life, and planned to kill him, to ensure Voldemort’s death. The problem was that Harry was sure that the man hadn’t done it with any malicious intent. He was simply that desperate. After all, what is the life of one boy, compared to the lives of thousands? Harry didn’t know what he would have done if he was in Dumbledore’s position, something that he would never become, in fear of turning out like him. It sounded like a miserable future, if he was honest, and Harry didn’t lose his childhood ‘for the greater good’ to waste his life trying to guide the magical world and protect it. Sayre was right, he didn’t owe these people anything, and it was his right to live his life as he saw fit.

Finally, it was time for Harry to come forward and speak his words. He walked up and stood in front of the most influential people in the world, and he honestly didn’t know what to say. He took a deep breath and spoke from his heart, “I was asked to come up here, and say a few things. The truth is that I shouldn’t. The truth is, that I have no stories about Albus Dumbledore because I didn’t know the man, not really. Many of you think that I was his secret apprentice or something along those lines, the truth was, that I barely spent an hour in total in his presence, and I wouldn’t dare insult the people who actually knew him by pretending like I did. But from what I know of him, a lot of people got the wrong impression of him.

“People around the world think that he was this paragon of justice and wisdom, of goodness, but the truth is, that in the end, he was just a man who had taken it upon himself to guide the magical world towards peace and love. He was a great man, yes, but the question is, was he a good one? Perhaps he was, or perhaps he wasn’t, I am not the one who should be judging him. The truth is, that all he wanted was for the magical world to be at peace, so that children would grow up happy and kind. It was a beautiful dream, one that was never realized considering the rise of Lord Voldemort, and yet he never gave up on it. He failed many people trying to achieve that dream, including myself and countless others, and yet I can’t judge him for what he has done, the choices he had to make, because no one else would. I don’t think I know of many people who had as many regrets as Albus Dumbledore, and I sincerely hope that he finds closure in death, and that his dream never dies, because as unrealistic as it is, it’s still something worth striving for. Thank you.”

Harry knew that he ruffled a few feathers with his speech, but this was his way of moving on with his life, of letting go of Dumbledore’s plans for him. Still, Harry got a lot more applause than anyone else, especially from the foreign visitors, who had given him approving looks.

He sat down next to Daphne, who had subtly held his hand to comfort him, and he gave her a warm smile, in return.

After the funeral, Harry decided that it was time to go to Gringotts to get the map and the key that he needed to get to the mansion. A part of him was even doubting this; breaking into Gringotts is supposed to be impossible, but didn’t Quirrell, while he was possessed by Voldemort, break into the bank trying to steal the philosopher’s stone? And considering how Sayre pretty much stomped on a fully powered Voldemort, she could probably do it. But even then, breaking into Gringotts without anyone knowing was a little farfetched.

Still, he arrived at his vault, and in front of the pile of gold was a golden key and a piece of parchment. He took both of them, and a little bit of gold before getting out. When he went to get a meal in the Leaky Cauldron, he took a look at the parchement, which was empty for some reason. When he turned it around, he accidentally got a paper cut, but somehow the cut healed instantly, and Harry was immediately pulled from his navel, and taken towards a large field, next to a very big lake. The parchment was a portkey.

Harry looked around towards the empty field and saw a floating keyhole. He took the key he just got, put it into the keyhole and turned. Immediately, a giant mansion appeared in front of him. It was almost as big as Buckingham palace. Immediately, some ink started to spread on the piece of parchment, reminding Harry of the Marauder's map. But instead, it was titled, ‘Potter Manor’, Underneath, there was a small message, ‘I hope you don’t mind me renaming the mansion. It’s only right you get one, after the last one burned down when your grandparents died. Have a nice life, Harry’

Harry looked around and saw a map of the entire mansion, including some secret passages, and both the library and vault room. He walked around, discovering the secrets of the mansion. The library was almost as big as Hogwarts’. How the hell did she have time to write all of this in a few months?

The vault though, was a surprise, it was almost as big as the great hall, and filled with mountains of gold. Harry was sure that even his many times great grandchildren wouldn’t have to worry about gold in their lives.

But it was at the basement, that Harry saw a familiar name, ‘Peter Pettigrew’. The map functioned like the Marauder map, using the mansion instead of Hogwarts. The boy who lived, walked towards the dungeons, to find an unconscious Wormtail, who was missing his silver hand.

Well, that made Sirius’ chances at freedom soar, and the Minister did owe him one.

His counterpart really thought of everything, didn’t she?