The Difference One Man Can Make by joen1801

Words: 299k+

Link: -https://m.fanfiction.net/s/11132113/1/

( After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter decided to travel the world. Twelve years later when a new threat attempts to destroy the progress made in Britain he returns home to deal with the situation. During the fight that puts down the small group of upstarts Harry finds himself in a world of ice and fire )

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Harry Potter or Game of Thrones and no profit is being made from this story.

NOTE: I got the idea for this story from a challenge by MathiasNightlord01

It was odd returning home after twelve years. For Harry Potter the years had been interesting to say the least. Following his defeat of Tom Riddle, and he refused to use the man's preferred title, Harry decided he wanted to get away from Britain and see the world. The battle had been a bloody affair; fortunately it had been far worse for the Death Eaters than it had for the defenders but he was devastated by the loss of Remus Lupin, Tonks had survived the battle though. Despite his being perpetually away from Britain he kept in contact with both Tonks and Teddy. The Weasleys had lost only one member of their large family during the battle; Percy died shielding Fred's body from a curse sent by Rookwood. The family had been devastated that their wayward member was taken from them only hours after reconciliation.

Harry's decision was helped when he realized that all of his friends were hyper-focused on their relationships; he initially thought that he might get back together with Ginny but found that she and Neville had developed a serious relationship. He didn't begrudge them their happiness and wished them all the best before he first left for foreign shores. Hermione and Ron wanted to return for their seventh year of school and explore their relationship. Luna wanted to spend time with her father after the ordeal they faced.

Harry thought that he was going to die when he walked into the forest that night and when he woke up the day after the battle he realized he was finally free. Well mostly free anyway, there were things that needed to be taken care of before he left. First and foremost amongst them was settling the issue he had with the goblins. Despite their storied ruthlessness in matters of business they were willing to listen to what Harry had to say in defense of his break in. They were placated when he presented them with the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff, which upon being inspected by a goblin trained in dark artifact detection, was confirmed as a soul receptacle for the Dark Lord. A pensieve memory offered by Harry confirmed that it was in fact concealed within their bank. All of this led to far more lenient fines, instead of being fined the entire contents of his trust vault and a large portion of the family vault he had been uninformed of, they merely took the funds necessary to repair the stonework, which left him with about three-quarters of his original funds. It was upon realizing how much money he actually had at his disposal that he decided he would be traveling for quite some time. While he was not the richest wizard in Britain he did have enough to do just that.

Then there was the matter of informing his friends and the Ministry of his plans. Ron and Hermione initially offered to go with him but he could tell it was only a half-hearted offer at best and quickly told them to stay. Their relieved smiles were all the confirmation he needed that he made the right decision. Molly had attempted to demand that he stay but she backed down quickly when his temper was roused, that was the first time he realized how much the Horcrux had been affecting him magically. When he was angered magic seemed to shift around his body and it had ended all argument on the matter from the Weasley matriarch. The others of the family had simply wished him well after that.

He decided to inform the Ministry mostly out of respect for Kingsley, the interim Minister of Magic. Harry was stunned when the man merely smiled and put up absolutely no fight. He was informed that the pureblood supremacists, at least those that had actually survived the battle, had been removed from the government. The Death Eaters that remained were few and far between and many would likely leave the country. It helped that funding for the Aurors had been appropriated from the anti-Muggle and muggleborn programs of the previous administration and was now the fighting force it should have been years ago. Harry breathed easier knowing that the country wouldn't fall into the same cycle of self-destruction it had after the last war.

In retrospect, he supposed the real motivation for traveling was a desire to learn more about the world abroad and its magic. During the war with Tom, Harry couldn't deny that he was less than motivated in his magical studies and thinking about it after all was said and done he couldn't fathom why. He had a mad man hell bent on killing him yet he chose to spend time with Ron doing little to nothing and relied on Hermione to get him through his classes. Of course, part of that came from a personal character flaw from his youth. He wanted his friends to like him and in that pursuit acted the parts they both wanted from him. In his naivety he left himself vulnerable and ill-prepared to fight his enemy. Leaving to learn was his way of ensuring he was never ill-prepared again. Harry knew he could have gone back to Hogwarts but found the idea left a bitter taste in his mouth; he had no desire to be ogled and followed around for doing something that happened only because of a quirk of magic.

Then the summer between the battle and his departure he had a shocking revelation that made returning to Hogwarts superfluous even had he decided to; he had gained much of Tom's memory. Harry found that after the Horcrux was removed he had a much easier time progressing in occlumency. One night when filing through his many memories, he came upon ones that he quickly realized were not his. So he sifted through blocking out and even removing the less… pleasant aspects of the psychotic man's memories and puled all the knowledge he could of a magical nature. Harry could easily admit that he was repulsed by the depths Tom had been willing to go in his pursuit of immortality. Still, Harry found himself better off for the gift and began working to actually become proficient in the new knowledge. It took longer than the summer but within the year he was able to fully assimilate all of the new information.

So after seeing his friends off on September 1st he began what would be years of travel, he started by traveling to Ireland. While it was not a great distance to travel it was an excellent experience. He enjoyed the natural beauty of the country and found that there were pockets of purely magical communities in the west. These communities were made up of druids, men and women who did not need wands in order to work the magic of the world. Harry was thankful that he learned the translation charm before his departure as they all spoke Gaelic. So Harry spent six months in the Emerald Isle, three months exploring the beautiful mundane areas of the country and its people.

The other three months were spent entirely with the druids who taught him their brand of magic. Harry quickly found his love of learning and enthusiastically took in everything he could from the native magicals. It was a simpler sort of magic, more subtle and Harry had no doubt that Neville would feel right at home amongst the nature loving people. The thing he found most illuminating in his time amongst the druids was learning how to feel the environment around him, the vibrations of the earth under his feet and any little thing that happened to disturb the peace. Harry wished wholeheartedly he had the capability during the war, that sort of battle awareness would have made it far easier to predict and counter enemy movements.

While in Kilarney he met a young woman named Aoife who he had a brief relationship with, she was fun loving and didn't expect anything from him. She had blood red hair and ice blue eyes and he found her incredibly enticing. When he told her that he had plans to leave Ireland in the near future she merely smiled and told him they would make the most of the time they actually had to spend together. He spent three weeks in Kilarney and the night before he left they made love till dawn. He could honestly say that he would remember the country fondly between the magic it had taught him and the woman who had given him such an intense night of pleasure. She had told him to look her up if he ever returned and he had every intention to.

From there he made his way to Iceland where he spent only three months total. They had magics that shaped ice and snow in ways he wouldn't have even imagined. He was surprised to find that he actually enjoyed the cool climate of the place and took in everything he could about the small country. Truthfully though, it was one of the least educating of his destinations. He then booked passage to the America's.

He spent five years of his life there; most of his time was spent in the United States traveling the cities and amongst the remaining people of the Indian Tribes. From them he learned a great deal about the spiritual aspects of magic, how to work within the ethereal, the things that could not be seen. Their teachings gave him a greater appreciation for what was as he began seeing beyond the veil of life and death. Visiting Gettysburg was an incredibly harrowing experience after that as beyond the ghosts that lingered there for any magical to see he could see the scars of the great battle within the spiritual realm. He visited the major cities of the country from New York to LA and everywhere in between and quickly found that he preferred the calm of the country over the hustle and bustle of the cities, part of that was probably the electromagnets of the thousands of gadgets within them tended to give him headaches.

He also met people from the wider American Magical community when he visited each cities equivalent of Diagon Alley. He quickly realized that beyond fashion and politics most were just as antiquated as the magicals of Great Britain. They did not embrace the technological advancements though there were magical alternatives to certain things. When Harry took time to think about this fact it did not surprise him. Much of what muggles achieved through technology magicals could do easily enough. Science was for all intents and purposes just another form of magic, perhaps that was why the muggles were developing the same sort of laziness and complacency that magicals had over the years; the only exception to this trend being the highly driven and intelligent. Harry had a few brief relationships during his time there but found that most were nothing more than a means to relieving physical stress; he spent no more than a month with each of these women.

South America was a different experience for him as it was the first time he was introduced to the truly poverty stricken, at least in such an obvious manner. It was for this reason that most of his time was spent with the tribes of the Amazon forest where he learned their brand of magic. He had realized over time that his power was increasing and in the isolated areas of the forest he was able to truly flex his muscles. What he found staggered him as he had no doubt that he would have been Tom's equal if they fought that day. It was at this point that he was happy he had retained the Elder Wand despite what he told his friends. His holly wand seemed to be unable to focus everything he was capable of putting into his spells anymore so he began using the legendary wand in its stead. Of course he told no one that he also held onto the Resurrection stone but what others didn't know wouldn't hurt them. He had spoken to his parents again on rare occasion never lingering to long for fear of becoming lost in those moments. He did spend some time in a couple major cities. While in Buenos Aires he met a beautiful woman who he spent two very pleasurable weeks with. The relationship lacked any substance though, so it was no true struggle to part.

From there he made his way to Asia spending another three years in the various countries. Here he learned magic of the body and quickly realized just how useful the world awareness of the druids could be when fighting in hand to hand combat. He did not go in depth into martial arts training but two months of near non-stop work in the art amplified by magical honing made him fair at defending himself with his bare hands. Something that shocked him was that Magical China was far more antiquated than even England. In India he learned parsel-magic for the first time. He was glad he had retained that ability from Tom when he found how potent the magic could be.

Finally, he returned to Europe making his way to Greece. There was little new magic to be learnt there, instead he spent his time exploring the ancient monuments. He made his way north until he reached Scandinavia. In Norway he learned the last new pieces of magic of his travels, a group of men and women who still held to Viking principles welcomed him when he bested one of their men in combat. He was surprised to find that they were magicals, they taught him the art of weapon smithing and how to wield their weapons from the longsword to the great-axe. They were an impressive lot and Harry swore he built a great deal of muscle working the hammer on anvil and rowing their long boats. They also taught him some of the Norse equivalents of the bastardized Latin used in Britain. While there, he met a beautiful blue eyed, blonde haired girl named Eira. She was the first woman since his time with Aoife in Ireland who he actually felt a connection with, he loved that she was an entirely independent woman who was willing to fight him as she was to fuck him. He regretted leaving her most of all when he finally departed their company.

He traveled south again into Germany and France. He visited the battlefields of WWI and WWII and found them to be much the same as Gettysburg, filled with ghosts and marred by the many deaths that happened there. He saw the major cites of each country and it was while in France that he heard the news that would finally drive him home. He was in Paris actually shopping for clothing when he was met by a much older Gabrielle Delacour. He was happy to find that the young woman had gotten over the girlish hero worship Fleur had informed him of, though she still blushed prettily when he complimented her looks. Anyway, it was Gabrielle who informed him of the new British 'Dark Lord', though she used the term lightly, who was attempting to resurrect the pureblood agenda that had been all but snuffed out by Minister Kingsley. After spending a week with the Delacours, Harry decided it was time to finally go home, though if he was honest he wasn't entirely looking forward to the scolding he was going to receive for staying in contact with no one but his godson and his mother.

So that was why Harry found himself standing in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic. Harry had scheduled a meeting with the Minister to discuss the issue of the new threat that had reared its head. Harry cautiously made his way through the Ministry but was pleasantly surprised when not a single person had taken notice beyond a cursory glance and some slightly greater interest from a few of the women he passed. The again I'm not exactly a scrawny seventeen year old anymore. That was certainly the truth,while Harry was not a hulking man he had strong arms and broad shoulders with extremely good definition. Besides his physical changes his signature scar had faded to be almost invisible and his glasses had been rendered unnecessary after taking a potion provided by the Native American's. Ten minutes of traveling the Ministry and Harry found himself accosted by Kingsley's secretary as he came to the door of the Minister's office.

The young woman was clearly irritated with him as she called out, "Excuse me! Can I help you sir?"

Harry offered her his best roguish grin and was rewarded by her cheeks pinking slightly, "My apologies Miss but I do have an appointment with the Minister and we are old friends so I thought he might not mind my simply going in."

She looked down at the schedule in front of her and then back to him, "You are the HP listed here?"

Before Harry had the opportunity to respond the Minister's deep voice interrupted him, "Yes he is my two o'clock meeting Eva." Kingsley turned to allow Harry entrance to the room, he spared Eva one more smile before he entered the room.

Kingsley indicated the chair in front of his large desk and harry graciously took the seat. Kingsley sat in silence for over a minute simply appraising the man in front of him. When finally he spoke it was a simple statement, "You look different."

Harry snorted in amusement and a smile found its way to the Minister's face, "Really twelve years away from this country and that is the best you can come up with?"

"Well it was the most obvious thing to say, you do after all look entirely different than you did."

"I suppose that's true." Harry responded genially, "How have things been King?"

"Until recently things were great. The past twelve years have seen an increase in equality across the board for muggleborns and magical creatures. Our relations with the centaurs, goblins and werewolves are better than they've ever been. Your friend Hermione has been behind quite a bit of that, though she finally learned of the symbiotic relationship between house elf and wizard and stopped trying to free them; instead, there are actual protocols for their treatment and enforced punishments should those protocols be broken." Harry was happy to hear Hermione managed to make such a difference. "A study done into the magical potential of pureblood vs. half-blood vs. muggleborn children proved once and for all that the pureblood belief in superiority was nothing more than propaganda provided by the people in power. That did much to quell what remained of the pureblood supremacists."

"All good news." Harry smiled.

"Agreed but now there is a new group that is fighting for the pureblood cause," the words dripped with disdain, "fortunately with the increased strength of Auror forces we have been able to keep their illegal actions to minimum; they managed to a muggle family though."

"What do they call themselves?"

Kingsley smirked, "Those of the Blood, they wish to make it clear that each of them is a pureblood."

"How many are they?"

"As far as we can tell somewhere before twenty five and thirty, we have been able to keep their numbers in check."

"Do you know who their leader is?

"We believe it is one of your former classmates, a Theodore Nott."

"Aye, I remember him. His father was a Death Eater that died at the Battle of Hogwarts."

"That would be correct," Kingsley looked thoughtful for a moment, "we have intel from one of their captured number that they intend to raid the Department of Mysteries for powerful magical artifacts and inventions in hopes that it will make up for their less than overwhelming number and power."

"I assume there will be an ambush waiting for them?"

"Yes and I would like you to be part of it." Kingsley was expecting him to protest. Instead there was a slightly feral grin in response.

"I thought you'd never ask. I've spent twelve years improving my magical ability and I relish the chance put them to the test again."

Kingsley snorted, "I don't know how much you will be testing your abilities, they aren't overly skilled but your presence will certainly bolster the spirits of the others and make it less likely that we suffer any losses."

"Excellent, when should I be here?"

"Arrive here at nine o'clock tomorrow night. As far as we are to understand it they plan to make their move at midnight."

"I'll be there." Kingsley smiled and Harry bade the Minister farewell. Making his way back through the many corridors, Harry was excited about the prospect of using his new knowledge in a combat situation. Granted I have had to fight a few beasts in my travels but that's different than another human. He was pulled from his musings much more violently then he expected by a hard slap across the face. When he looked to the perpetrator he was pleasantly surprised to see Hermione standing there. She looks good; finally got her hair more under control. The slap was promptly followed by a fierce hug that Harry returned gladly.

After a few moments Hermione pulled back and glared at him, "You didn't write."

Harry smiled sheepishly, "Yeah sorry about that but I figured you would talk to Tonks and I did keep in frequent contact with her and our godson."

"Not good enough," she said primly before they both burst out laughing, "It's good to see you again Harry."

"You too 'Mione."

She took on an authoritative stance, something he hadn't seen since school, "You will be at Tonks' house for dinner tonight." It was a command and seeing as that was Harry's plan anyway he didn't much care to get in an argument about it.

"I will, I'll be seeing you there I assume."

She smiled, "Of course. You look good by the way."

"Thanks, I'll see you later tonight." They bade each other farewell and Harry was able to make his way to the Apparition point and after twisting with an almost inaudible crack he found himself outside of a pleasant little house outside of Manchester. He quickly approached the door and knocked. A few moments later he was greeted by the sight of a blue haired boy of twelve years. The boy eyed him as though he had seen him somewhere before but didn't speak. Harry figured he would have to be the one to break the silence.

"Hi there, you must be Teddy," he nodded, "I'm your godfather, Harry." The boys eyes widened and a small smile graced his lips. Without a word he grabbed Harry's hand and began dragging him into the house; happy about his godson's enthusiasm Harry let it happen. When they arrived in the kitchen he was met by the sight of a pink haired Tonks speaking with her mother, Andromeda. The pair looked up from the hustle and bustle the pair caused and fell completely silent for a moment. A moment later a large grin split Tonks' pixyish face and she rose to embrace her friend.

"Wotcher Harry." He was glad that Tonks went for a less violent greeting than Hermione.

"Hey Tonks, I just came from the Ministry and wanted to see you and Teddy over there." Not seeing Teddy over the years was the only bit of guilt he harbored from his travels. I hope the enthusiastic greeting was indicative of his forgiveness.

Tonks smiled, "Of course, Teddy has heard all about you over the years and has always loved your presents, isn't that right?" she looked over in her son's direction, and he nodded enthusiastically, "But I'm sure he would like to spend some actual time with his godfather; so, why don't you go have some boy time and my mum will help me make dinner." Andromeda snorted as Tonks while not terrible was not a particularly good cook. Harry nodded and turned to Teddy who promptly took him outside to what appeared to be a makeshift Quidditch pitch. Harry missed the game slightly but he still absolutely loved flying. They found a couple of old Nimbuses in the broom shed and quickly took to the air. Harry was impressed with Teddy's flying and the young man blushed slightly at the praise. When prompted about his embarrassment he quickly replied, "Well it's not every day that you're complimented by one of the most well-known flyers in Hogwarts' history."

"Well you deserve it, you're an absolute natural on the broom."

"Thanks." He smiled proudly.

"So what house are you in?" Harry had heard much of Teddy's life but some things he wanted to ask the boy himself.

"I'm a Hufflepuff like mom." Once again a hint of pride in his voice.

"Great house, though any would have been lucky to have you." Teddy seemed mildly surprised that Harry didn't insult Slytherin's but it was his opinion that cunning and ambition were not bad things. Besides if things had been different I would have been a Slytherin. The pair continued in that nature for a couple hours. Teddy told him of his school life and his friends; Harry was happy to hear that life at Hogwarts had calmed down since he was there. No first year should have to stare into the face of death as many times as I did. In turn, he told Teddy of his many adventures since leaving Britain as Teddy had already heard much of what happened in his teenage years from his mother and godmother. Harry left out his more sordid affairs, he was none too keen to face Tonks should he corrupt his godson's mind. They were called in for dinner finally by a recently arrived Hermione.

The meal was a pleasant affair. Harry congratulated Hermione on the different pieces of legislation she spearheaded. His old friend smiled and told her of her new work to see Vampire clans better integrated so that they didn't need to feed on the innocent, the major problem they were was dealing was the older vampires who refused to stop feeding on fresh blood. She was hoping for a compromise in which they would only feed from willing humans. Tonks was promoted to Senior Auror following the war and did mostly desk work for the first ten years. With Teddy in school, she began doing field assignments again but during the summer she worked as an instructor for the Auror academy. Andromeda spent most of her time with her godson, though she did travel to mainland Europe occasionally; clearly, she still missed her murdered husband.

When finally things came to Harry's travels, he was bombarded by questions from Hermione, which he expected, about the many different forms of magic he had learned over the years. He gladly told her everything he could, but there was only so much someone could explain about complex magic in a night. Dinner had long since been finished when Harry asked the question. "So how are things with Ron?"

Hermione's face darkened and Tonks began shaking her head. Harry was not expecting the venom that laced is old friend's voice, "Ron and I split up a year after you left."

Harry was surprised, they seemed so dead set on each other when he left, "What happened?" he asked warily.

"We spent seventh year together but as time went on we began bickering constantly much the way we did before we got together. He didn't appreciate that Justin Finch-Fletchley was made Head Boy and constantly accosted me about what was going on in our private quarters. Everybody told him to back off at one point or another; Ginny was particularly vehement that he leave it be. By the end of the year he finally got over it. She paused momentarily, gathering her thoughts, "Then came graduation. During the celebration at the Burrow, he kept on talking about how we were going to get married and I was going to stay at home when we had kids. I confronted him about it and we got in a huge row. The git thought I was going to be exactly like his mother and take care of him for the rest of his life. Now I have nothing against Molly, except she can be a little overbearing, but I have life goals and they all require me to have a career. I broke things off with him."

Harry sighed, "Well I can't exactly blame you 'Mione. How did the rest of the family take it?"

She smiled, "With the exception of Molly, they all supported my decision. That obviously irritated Ron but he got over it once he got back together with Lavender. We still see each other but are nothing more than cordial to one another."

"I imagine I'll hear all about it when I visit the Burrow tomorrow."

Hermione chuckled, "Oh I'm sure you will."

"So anybody new in your life then?"

The blush that adorned her face made it obvious there was, "I've been seeing Fred actually."

That was not the response Harry was expecting, "How did that happen?"

"He and George needed help with charm work for one of their inventions so they came to me," Harry wasn't even remotely surprised, "It took about a month to get it working the way we wanted it and during that time I got to see the serious side behind the ever joking face. Both he and George are brilliant in their own way, and since the war I find it more important to laugh; he does that for me."

"Well congratulations, I certainly hope things work out."

She smiled a little dreamily, "Yeah me too." Harry didn't even need to ask Tonks of her relationship status. She had tried dating once or twice but had yet to find a man who could handle the time she spent on her son. They talked long into the night until finally Harry and Hermione left around one o'clock in the morning. Teddy had long since been sent to bed. The old friends said their goodbyes and apparated to their respective homes.

Harry landed outside of Number 12 Grimmauld Place silently and quickly made his way into the old house. The place looked nothing like it did when he was a teenager. After destroying the locket, Kreacher became an extremely dutiful house elf and when Harry returned to the old house the summer before he left Britain the old elf made quick work of the grime and darkness he had allowed to linger over the years. The portrait of Mrs. Black was moved so that it could be closer to Kreacher something he was happy about. Harry made his way upstairs and as soon as his head hit his pillows he fell asleep.

Midmorning the next day, Harry was standing outside of the misshapen house he came to love in his youth. The Burrow hadn't change much in the last twelve years and being a Sunday morning the place was noisy as ever. Harry made his way to the door and knocked loudly. Silence rained inside the building for a moment before the door was opened quickly and the face of Molly Weasley met him. She looked at him for a moment before she smiled broadly and dragged him into one of her famous hugs. Being less malnourished than he was in his youth he found it substantially less crushing. "Hello Harry dear."

"Hello Molly, I was wondering if I might be welcome for breakfast."

"Of course, please, come in." With that she ushered him into the house where he was assaulted by hugs and shoulder pats. Hermione was there sitting next to Fred, George was there with his now wife Angelina and what appeared to be their two children, Bill was standing behind Fleur and their three children, Ron sat together with Lavender and their twins, Ginny was leaning against Neville with their two children flanking them, and Charlie was alone, ever the bachelor.

The kids were excited to meet the man their parents had told them so much about over the years. The parents seemed equally enthusiastic to see their long-time gone friend. Ron was surprisingly subdued in his greeting but that may have been because of the appraising look his wife gave Harry. God he is never going to grow up is he.

When Harry sat down everybody began relaying stories from the last twelve years. Fred and George were quite simple, they continued building up the joke shop. They now had five stores; with the success of the store in Diagon Alley they were able to expand in a drastic way over the years. Now they had a store in Hogsmeade, Dublin, Paris and Lyon. They were doing extremely well for themselves and Harry found out that he had been profiting as well. As their first investor he had been given a twenty percent stake in their company. Angelina and Ginny were now starting chasers for the Holyhead Harpies. The team had been extremely successful making it to the league finals six times in the past twelve years and winning three of them. They had both taken leaves of absence when they had their children, a common thing amongst the Harpies, it was the main reason they had two full reserve teams.

Ron initially went to the Auror Academy after school but ultimately couldn't hack it. Without Hermione there to help him along that isn't entirely surprising. He had spent five years as the back-up keeper for the Cannons but because of rampant inconsistency could not break the starting lineup. Still the contract he was given along with Lavender's career as a fashion designer kept them more than comfortable. Harry was happy to hear Lavender was doing what she could to pull magical Britain out of the Victorian era. Neville was now the Herbology professor at Hogwarts, something his children were not entirely happy about from the look on their faces. Bill continued his work as a curse breaker while Fleur worked part time for Gringotts as a warder.

Of the children, only their oldest, Victoire, was old enough to attend Hogwarts. Victoire was a Ravenclaw a year younger than Teddy. Dominique and Louis their younger children were only seven and five respectively. Victoire inherited her mother's Veela features while the other two children had the red hair of their father. Though all three were beautiful young children and would likely grow up to be good looking adults if their parents were anything to go and Angelina had Roxanne who looked just like her mother with her father's eyes and little Percy, who favored his father's look almost entirely. Though based on the mischievous glimmer in his eye he was not much like his namesake. They were five and four and Neville's two children were, Harrison and Alice. Neville had insisted they honor Harry in some way when naming their children as he was responsible for the changes in his personality during their late Hogwarts years and Alice was named in honor of Neville's mother. Their children were five and three, they planned on having one more in the and Lavender had a pair of twins named Arthur and James, Ron's way of honoring his father and longtime friend; they were only two years old.

The morning passed quickly as many questions were asked; he was glad Hermione had already heard much of what he had to say as she took some of the attention away from him. At around noon, Harry was convinced to play a game of pickup Quidditch. He enjoyed the event and was glad to see he was still on his game beating Charlie to the snitch despite his now much larger frame. They had a small lunch before everybody started leaving the Burrow. He had told everybody present of his plans for that night and was given many well wishes as the others left. It was nice for harry to see all of his friends happy and whole again, no war to mar the moment.

Nightfall came quickly and at the appointed hour, Harry made his way to the Ministry. He was met by both Tonks and Kingsley. Apparently the Auror-turned-Minister refused to be left out of the action. Harry wore a basilisk leather jacket that was tailored specially for him from the skin of the one he killed in his second year. When he returned to the chamber after the war he found that the creature was still in perfect condition, the magic of the beast keeping it preserved. He also wore metal grieves and vambraces magically reinforced that he made himself while in Norway. He had the Elder wand in a wrist holster on his right arm and a steel single bearded axe on his hip. Its shaft was about eighteen inches long and its edge perpetually sharp from the magic infused into the metal. He looked like a warrior mage and everybody present stared at him when he arrived. Well at least no one stares at my scar anymore. Before the fighting began, Kingsley informed everybody lethal force was permitted but they should endeavor to take as many as they could alive. It's nice not having an incompetent Minister for once.

They waited, in silence mostly, for Those of the Blood to trip the alarm they had put at the entrance to the Department of Mysteries. Just before midnight the alarm was triggered and fifteen Aurors plus Kingsley and Harry made their way to the Department of Mysteries. The alarm was designed to also place a tracker on their movements.

"They're in the research and development area of the department." Tonks whispered calmly. They all nodded and silently moved for that door. When they entered the room they could hear quiet bustling. As Harry extended his senses outward he could see them putting various objects into magically expanded bags; there were thirty of them in total. He relayed this information to the others and they quickly surrounded the enemy group. With a nod from Kingsley the first spells were fired. Reducto spells shot out from the array of Aurors. They would attempt to incapacitate once there were not so many who could revive their fallen comrades. They took down eight of their number in the first volley and quickly saw a return fire. Their enemy was being as vicious as expected, the sickly green of the Killing curse and burnt red of the Cruciatus curse flew back toward them. Harry heard a scream across the room and knew that one of the spells had hit home. I will not allow them to do any more harm. Harry employed parsel-magic as he began pressing toward the enemy group. Their number dwindled quickly under his assault. He was a blur of spell fire and glinting steel. The Aurors took down the few stragglers who thought to flee from his attack.

When there were only ten left he felt someone attacking from his left just as he had bound another. He turned only to be met with the face of Theodore Nott. The man in front of him snarled when he saw Harry's face, "Potter, what a pleasant surprise. I'm going to enjoy killing you." Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Even when it is obvious they've lost purebloods insist upon their foolish belief that they are somehow superior.

"I don't think that is going to happen Nott. I mean Tom Riddle failed on no less than six occasions and I know for a fact you are no match for the snake faced Dark Lord." Harry smirked when he saw his opponents temper raise. From there began the only true duel of the night. Harry probably could have ended it sooner but felt the need to embarrass the ponce first. So Harry began pulling out every first and second year jinx he could think of and bombarded the bastard with them. The jelly-legs jinx, tongue tying curse, which temporarily stopped the fighting as apparently the fool was not a hundred percent proficient in silent casting, he even made him eat slugs before it was over.

Finally, after two minutes of toying with the moron Harry moved in close and drove his axe into Nott's thigh drawing an anguished cry from his opponent. He ripped the blade out and then bound him in ropes quickly. Harry's vindictiveness showed a little bit in that last moment; he enjoyed the idea that he wounded the superior pureblood with a muggle weapon. He looked around and was pleased to see that all of their enemies were either dead or incapacitated. Harry turned to Nott and smirked down at the bound man.

His old schoolmate became enraged at the sight, "Enjoy your little victory Potter but someday we will have our rightful place in society."

Harry glared at him, "Haven't you been paying any attention Nott, the purebloods are weaker than ever and the smart ones are marrying muggleborns and half-bloods to actually introduce new genes and power into their families."

"Every one of them are blood traitors, had you never defeated the Dark Lord we would have had utopia."

Harry laughed in his face bitterly, "You would have had torture and torment at the hands of a half-blood who despised everyone and everything." Nott didn't get the chance as he was dragged to his feet by an Auror and taken to remain with the rest of the survivors. Harry made his way over to Kingsley and Tonks, they nodded at his approach and smiled.

"Well Harry," Tonks began, "pretty obvious the past twelve years have been good to you; you took out almost every one of them by yourself." Tonks expected to get a blush out of her old friend but this wasn't the Harry of twelve years ago.

"Why thank you," he winked at her, "the past twelve years have been more than good to me."

Kingsley spoke up, "We're going to take the survivors in for interrogation and find out if there any who didn't participate tonight, then they'll be sent to Azkaban." The island was no longer home to dementors. The vile creatures had been drive from Britain at the conclusion of the war.

Harry nodded, "Sounds good enough, did we lose anyone?"

"Thanks to you, no we didn't. Jenkins was hit with the Cruciatus and Proudfoot will need some skele-grow for his shattered arm but everyone will be right as rain within the week." Harry was extremely pleased to hear that; as he was looking around the room something caught his eye. Sitting on a shelf was what appeared to be a glass candle alight with a black flame. Harry found himself approaching the flame as if in a daze. Behind him he was completely unaware of the scuffle that had begun.

Nott apparently had a knife in his sleeve and cut himself free. Nott attacked the nearest Auror and wrested his wand from him. Now, Nott knew that he had no hope of actually escaping so he took aim at Harry. As he said the words that would take the life of the destroyer of Voldemort he was tackled by Tonks forcing his aim to go high. Harry turned and saw as the green spell connected with a green luminesce liquid just above the candle. The glass container that held the substance shattered and it fell onto the black fire below. The interaction was immediate and violent.

The black flame exploded and began flowing around Harry. He didn't hear the screams of fear from his fellow fighters nor did he see the look of triumph on Nott's face; instead he was too busy being shocked by the lack of pain. The fire just continued to spread across his body until it covered every inch. That was when the pain came but it was not the burning sensation he expected; instead, he suddenly felt cold and then in a flash of black and green he felt as though he were ripped from existence in an instant. He was pushed through the walls of creation from his own world, though he did not yet know it. He was thrown face first into freezing snow. After about a minute of simply laying there, every muscle of his body aflame in pain, he forced himself to rise.

Harry's first reaction when he rose to see snow around him in every direction was that he had been forcibly transported to Greenland or Siberia but then he saw it. Well I think I would have heard of something like that in my travels. A wall seven hundred feet high made of only ice stood maybe fifty miles away. Where the hell am I?

AN: Always happy to hear any questions or comments, hope you enjoy the rest of the story.