Chapter 32 – The Path Not Taken

Harry Potter, The Jedi That Would Not Die

Chapter 32 – The Path Not Taken

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wasn't going to say anything here but after reading some of the reviews I was sent I feel I need to make sure people are aware of the situation and the facts at this moment in time in case I was confusing in previous chapters.

As HP and HG left in their fourth year the DA does not exist and Harry and Hermione have never heard of the Order of the Phoenix and don't know any of its members other than those in previous books (this was a right pain when writing this chapter). They know nothing about the Horcruxes and Voldemort's origins other than being Tom Riddle but they do know of the prophecy as Dumbledore told Harry before he was locked up in this timeline.

Also Harry and Hermione are now both 19 years old which means they are technically two years out of Hogwarts.

Now here's my take on what has happened without Harry & Hermione.

"Tell me what happened here!" he demanded to the hood.

"Padawan!" came a stern call from behind him which he completely ignored.

The figure who had been struggling against him stopped as soon as he spoke before looking up at him strangely, only her eyes were visible under the hood and over the material that had been wrapped around her lower face to disguise her identity.

"Ha...Harry?" she asked disbelievingly.

The voice shook him the same way his shook her.

"I...I know that voice," he said more to himself than the others, all of whom on both sides seemed to have stopped fighting as the pair spoke, realising that they were not in fact the enemies they thought they were.

Pulling the hood back he was greeted by a face of light brown skin and a mane of dirty and dishevelled dark brown hair.

"It can't be," he stated disbelievingly pulling the material off her lower face. "Parvati?"

"Harry?" she repeated as he turned his lightsaber off.

Slowly he pulled her to her feet and lowered his own hood. "It is really...?"

"Yes...And you're really...?"

"Yes," she replied almost as ecstatically.

Despite the fact that they lived within fifty meters of each other for most of four years they had attended Hogwarts together and despite taking most of the same classes they had never really known each other at school. In fact after the way he had treated her at the Yule Ball they had not even spoken between then and when he had been incarcerated, but in that moment of utter relief and shock five years on they both pulled the other into a tight hug as they breathed and cried their relief into each other's shoulders that the other was still alive.

"I can't believe your back," she sobbed happily from his shoulder before pulling back. "Is Hermione...?"

She didn't get the chance to finish as the bushy haired girl in question rushed forward and pulled her into an equally tight hug.

"I'm so glad you're alright Parv."

"Oh I've missed you Herm."

"Hermione! Harry!" came the voice from behind them as the other Patil sister, who appeared to have been the opponent that Alema was fighting (and who was now sporting a rather nasty bruise and a bloodied nose from the twi'lek's kick), came running towards them and embraced them both. "You've came back to us."

"Yes, they're back, but please tell us what they have come back to?" asked Master Windu, stepping forward and lowering his hood, not willing to relax to the state of the padawans until he knew what was going on.

By now the jedi and their 'attackers' most of whom dressed like the twins to disguise their appearance had gathered around and were watching the interactions of the long missed friends.

"Sorry Master," Harry apologised, composing himself slightly. "Master Windu may I introduce Parvati and Padma Patil, two of our class mates from our time here, ladies may I present Jedi Master Mace Windu, Master of the Order of Jedi Knights and the leader of this mission."

"Greetings Master Windu," the two said in tandem, putting their hands together and bowing.

"Misses Patil," he replied.

"May I also introduce," continued Hermione, "Harry's Master Aayla Secura who you may remember from her last visit?"

"Good to see you again Knight Secura."

"Likewise."

"A member of the Jedi High Council with Master Windu and my Master, Coleman Trebor."

"Si-ir," the Patil twins replied slightly uncertainly as they turned to him and for the first time really observed his odd 'alien' looking appearance which some of the other masked opponents had been doing ever since they approached.

"There is no need to fear me young ones," observed Coleman, "I might be shaped differently but I am just the same as the rest of you inside. Also my padawan made an understandable mistake; I am no longer a member of the High Council."

Hermione spun around as he said this, her eyes wide in shock and worry.

"What! Why Master? Did I do something wrong? Did something I did get you removed from the-"

"No no Hermione, don't go blaming yourself for something which was no one's fault." he calmed. "Your actions as always have been exemplary; I simply came to the end of my term of office. I was never a life member of the Council like Master Windu or Master Yoda; I was only occupying a long term seat. It was time for me to step down and for Master Yareal Proof to take my place and bring his wisdom to the Council."

"Oh," she breathed in relief before continuing her introductions. "And err- And finally Explorer Alema Ani of the Antarian Rangers."

"Greetings," she bowed to which they replied in kind.

"And now Misses Patil, could you tell us what happened here please?" Master Windu asked again. "Who attacked this school?"

The pair looked around again warily before replying.

"Not here," replied Padma, "It's too exposed; we'll take you where it's safe for us to talk. Sir Nicholas!"

"Yes young miss, how may I be off..." replied the ghost a few seconds later as he appeared through a wall before spotting who was standing in front of him. "My goodness Harry Potter, I never would have known you. I must say I-"

"Sir Nicholas!" interrupted Parvati.

"Mmm? Oh yes, sorry young miss."

"No time for chat now, please tell the others to stand down, they are friends and we are bringing them back. Then have the ghosts and portraits resume their watch positions and please thank them for their diligence in spotting the intruders so quickly."

"Of course young miss, right away," he bowed before floating out of the hall.

"Come this way," Padma instructed. "From what we have been told by the Portraits Harry, you should know the place where we are now heading."

The twins and their 'troop' led them through the castle, wands drawn at all times and watching for possible signs of attack. Following their lead the jedi and Alema kept their weapons drawn, their eyes swivelling and their senses alert, though for Harry and Hermione that was harder said than done due to the surprise at seeing their former home in bits, they came to some sections where the castle was so damaged that whole multi storey sections had collapsed but almost every room and corridor showed some signs of damage.

As they walked through the remains of the corridors of Hogwarts Aayla pulled alongside Harry.

Padawan, you disobeyed and ignored my several times in that fight, and not only did you disobey me but you did so in front of Master Windu and put yourself at risk by doing so.

I'm sorry Master, he replied, his mental tone much more like the normal Harry than he had been.

Look Harry, I know this is a very worrying for you, not knowing what has happened and if your friends are alive but you cannot afford to be so reckless, not least of which because Alema always follows where you lead which puts her in unnecessary danger too. You're normally very good at controlling your emotions Harry; don't let worrying about the unknown undo all your long practiced training.

I'll try not to Master.

As they walked on it took no more than a couple of minutes for Harry and Hermione to realise where they were going and it was only when they arrived at a rather familiar bathroom that they realised their destination.

Once they were all inside the bathroom and the door was closed and locked, Parvati pulled out a scrap of parchment, a quill and a small inkwell from various corners of the room then scribbled on it before handing it to them.

"You all need to read this. Don't say the words out loud. Once you have done it you need to think about what you have just read."

Harry looked confused but read the words on the scrap carefully:

The Sanctuary at Hogwarts is in the Chamber of Secrets and can only be entered through Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Before passing it on to Hermione who looked like she knew what was going on.

As he thought about the words he was surprised when the sinks where the entrance to the Chamber was shimmered and disappeared showing only wreckage of their existence and a pile of brooms next to the hole that he knew led down to the Chamber.

"Excuse me Miss Patil," asked Coleman.

"Yes Sir?" she replied, still slightly hesitant of him due to his appearance.

"I am afraid I can't read this language."

"But... you speak English?" Parvati replied hesitantly.

"English," Hermione began to explain. "Or Basic as we call it out in the galaxy seems to be spoken the same way here as there but it's very differently written, we've never quite worked that one out. You had better create a privacy bubble and pass on the information verbally, while I explain to Harry what's just happened."

"Good idea Herm," Parvati smiled as she incinerated the note before moving towards the non-earthlings and creating the bubble.

Turning to Hermione with a confused look she quickly filled in the details for him.

"It's called a fidelius charm Harry; it's very difficult to set up but allows you to hide things perfectly and completely, that's why even though we knew the Chamber was behind the sinks we would not have been able to see it or enter it as we were not included in the charm. Padma must be one of the keepers of the spell and is one of the only people able to tell others of the Chamber's location."

"What if I went off and told someone else?"

"You wouldn't be able to," she replied. "Not unless the primary keepers died in which case anyone who knew the secret would be able to tell others."

He nodded his partially understanding of what she had just said before he took this change to ask Hermione a question he had wanted to ask her since the great hall.

"Herm?" he asked with a smile.

With a groan Hermione answered. "All of us in that girl's dorm knew each other by abbreviated names as three out of the five of us had long names. As a result Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, Fay and Alice became Herm, Parv, Lav, Fay and Al. I never really liked it that much but I let them do it to my name too as I wanted to fit in and if you ever call me 'Herm' Harry I will curse you so hard you will be in the Halls of Healing for a month."

"Noted," he added with a grin, being in the presence of their old friends again had taken away a lot of their anxiety about the situation, but they were in no doubts that it would return when they started finding out what had happened.

"Ooo, new people," came a familiar voice from the ceiling. "Or maybe old ones. Hello Harry, Hermione, long time no see."

"Hello Myrtle, how are you?" he replied as she floated out of the ceiling, righted herself and came to hover a foot in front of him with a huge smile on her face which in itself was an odd occurrence.

"Oh happier than I have been in decades, the other ghosts talk to me more now, as do the others. I never knew that if I got out of the bathroom and didn't cry that people would talk to me. I was never even this happy when I was alive."

"That's wonderful Myrtle," smiled Hermione. "We're so happy for you."

"I assume you still know how to fly a broom Harry?" asked Padma as she brought down the privacy bubble and one member of her squad threw a broom to him. "Hey Myrtle."

"Hello Pad," the ghost smiled before floating her way away from the sinks and through the wall.

"And I assume you still can't get more than two inches off the ground Herm?" finished Parvati.

"Correct on both fronts," Harry replied as Hermione went to defend her lack of flying skills, she wasn't brilliant on a speeder bike either, though for some reason she was fine in a star ship, maybe it was the enclosed cockpit.

"Thought as much," they both replied before gesturing the others to jump onto the backs of their brooms and those of the rest of the 'squad'. It was quite an interesting sight as none of the others had ever tried flying with Harry before and it was a completely odd experience for them, flying on a stick of wood with some twigs tied to the end of it.

They slowly descended the now not so fowl smelling pipe, the other members of the squad flying ahead of them.

As they descended Harry observed that both the Patils cast some glamour and cleaning charms on themselves, tidying their appearance.

"We try never to look too clean when we go up top," explained Padma seeing his confused look. "The idea being that if we are seen we look like scavengers rather than a group who are actually based here."

They dismounted and kept following the passages, passing the location of the rock slide from when Harry had last been here which had since been cleared until they came upon the Chamber, the entrance to which now had what appeared to be a basilisk's skull mounted above it with its skin on the now tidier floor as a rug.

"Well at least that's been put to good use," he remarked with a smile.

"We thought you would like that, the Weasley brother that..." Parvati explained before realising that she was likely bringing up memories of their deceased best friend. "Oh I'm so sorry."

"Don't be Parv," replied Hermione sympathetically, "We have had several years to get over his death and we're not as sensitive about it as we were when we left. You were saying?"

"Yes, that hot dragon taming Weasley brother skinned it and mounted the head before they all went into hiding."

"Hiding!" Harry exclaimed. "Please, let's get into the Chamber quickly so you can tell us what we don't know as I'm now extremely worried."

"Of course, but we no longer call it the Chamber of Secrets, though we hope our presence here remains one. It's now the Hogwarts Sanctuary."

The door at the entrance to the 'Sanctuary' that Harry had had to use parseltongue to get through back in his second year had been removed and now lay discarded to the side, the entrance was now protected by eight suits of armour that turned to watch them as they passed through the hole.

The inside of the Chamber was very different from what Harry remembered, instead of a damp room with a dead snake and stone statues filling most of it there was now a bustling room full of dozens of people all doing different things; there was a group of kids running around chasing after a miniature broom being controlled by an old witch in a rocking chair, a pair of young women moving their wands over some cauldrons containing potions of some kind, a few men chatting idly with a butterbeer in their hands and at the other end of the hall in front of the huge statue of Salazar Slytherin where Harry had slain the beast and where a shallow pool of water used to be there was now a series of long tables which appeared to have been scavenged from the Great Hall where a few people were talking idly over something.

As well as the people currently filling the chamber there had also been a great many cosmetic changes as well; the giant stone snakes heads down each side of the room appeared to have been blasted off and the pools of water under them had been removed revealing trenches about three foot deep on each side of the room.

The basilisk's body for the most part had disappeared but its ribs appeared to have been divided up and mounted on the wall in place of the removed snake's heads so that they created a partially archways over the trenches. Over most of the bones were hung drapes, curtains or blankets which divided the sides of the hall into what appeared to be small living spaces of varying sizes from a couple of feet wide to about fifteen feet. Between each seat of dividers were one of more beds, sometimes a chair or two, a series of personnel items and hung between opposite rib bones were metal bars that clothes were hung from allowing each person or group to have their own berth in the sunken trench which could be blocked off to allow them privacy whilst sleeping or changing.

The centre of the hall where most people were standing or sitting was full of piles of various equipment and stores; piles of blankets, stacks of brooms, crates of food, a series of bubbling cauldrons , a few handfuls of wands, piles of text books, medical supplies and many other things.

By the time they reached the other end of the hall where the table was a crowd had formed behind them as everyone crowded around to see them, the commotion only got worse when they recognised Harry.

"Alright everyone, that's enough!" called a voice from behind the crowd. "I might not be able to see you but I recognise the sound of an excited crowd when I hear it. Let's get the new arrivals settled in before you all start trying to drill them for information, break it up now."

The crowd slowly separated and reluctantly dispersed as a young woman who, judging by her words and her walking stick was blind was led into the room by a young girl dressed as a first year Hufflepuff. It took a second for Harry and Hermione to recognise who it was.

"Padma, Parvati are you here? Who are our new guests, let me meet them."

"We're here Cho and you'll never guess who it is," replied Padma excitedly.

"You're right, I won't," she replied irritably as the young girl brought her to a stop a few feet in front of the new arrivals. "So don't even bother trying to make me do so, so just tell me who it is."

"Cho?" asked Harry slowly, not quite believing that the poor blind woman in front of him was the girl in the year above him that he had had a crush on.

If she hadn't already been stationary she would have stopped dead as he spoke, her blind eyes widening as she turned to the sound of his voice.

"H...Harry?" she asked just as hesitantly, taking her hand away from the young girl and passing her the walking stick so she could reach towards him with both arms.

Moving forward so that her hand touched his shoulder, he waited and watched as she let both her hands run up his shoulders, up his neck, over his face and then slowly traced the slight dip in his skin that was his scar. She ran her fingers over it and its corners several times, not quite believing that she was feeling what she was.

"It really is you..."

"Yes."

"What happened to your scar? It feels like it's grown, is your eye ok?"

"Every battle leaves scars and thankfully my eyes still work fine, better in fact as I now no longer need to wear glasses, but what happened to yours?"

"My own battle scars," she replied with an accepting sigh. "You've really come back."

"Yes, I'm back and Hermione's here too and I've brought friends, but we're very confused; what's been happening since we've been gone, what happened to you all and what in Merlin's name happened to the castle?"

She sighed again and moved her hands down to his shoulders which were now higher than hers unlike five years ago. "I get the feeling that our explanation as what's been happening is going to have to go before yours." She replied before turning around to roughly where she had been "Jia, please help me to the table please."

"Yes miss," the young girl replied as she moved forward with the stick and handed it to Cho before guiding her around the 'head' table to sit in the centre of its long side, so her back was directly in front of Slytherin's stone face.

The Patil twins gestured for them to sit while they themselves took the two seats one away from Cho, leaving a space on one side of her while the other was filled by her 'caretaker' Jia. The jedi filled the spaces opposite them with Hermione and Harry taking the ones directly opposite the trio of women, the other jedi including Master Windu were content to let the padawans do most of the talking at this stage as they would likely have a better understanding of the situation than they would.

"It all started just after you left," began Cho, "There was instant uproar as news of the Azkaban break out came in, aurors flooded all the public areas and the school was completely locked down, it took several days of utter panic before the Ministry was able to confirm that it was only you who had been broken out and most of the panic dissipated but the Ministry had already released the news that you were a murderer so there was still much fear around, like the first year after Mr Black escaped. It didn't help at that point that we feared that the dementors were at large as only a handful of them had been found, we did not know then that they had been destroyed. How did our jedi friends do that?"

"They didn't," Aayla replied. "Harry did that when we broke him out."

"What!" exclaimed the Patils simultaneously; causing Cho to jump and several other people in the room to look around and then start trying to eaves drop the conversation.

"Don't do that," exclaimed Cho to the twins. "You know how much I hate being shocked like that. How could you possibly do such a thing Harry?"

"I wasn't really with it when I did it because of the dementor's effect on me; you remember how strongly they affected me. I just remember Hermione calling out for help and trying to cast a patronus, I just got a bit more than I bargained for."

"But how?" demanded Padma. "The magic required to do something like that would be...would be..."

"Huge," contributed Hermione.

"Yes."

"According to the jedi way of measuring genetic force ability, Harry has the potential to be the most powerful wizard/jedi in recorded history. I'll talk you through that later if you want but right now please continue."

"Wow, ok," nodded Padma before she took up the story. "Some of the rest of this we witnessed, the rest we were told by various people. After it was discovered that the dementors and you were truly gone the panic slowly began to fade away but the Minister still classified all the jedi who came with you as terrorists for attacking a government building and from then on any offworlders were to be detained as soon as they are discovered on suspicion of being enemy spies."

"Well that was nice of them," remarked Aayla.

"Yes wasn't it," Padma agreed with a grin. "Isn't it nice to know you are a wanted criminal, but it gets better; Hermione was charged with treason in her absence."

"Merlin, that's an automatic punishment of a dementor's kiss," Hermione said sounding shocked. "I never expected anything that bad."

"Well, the issue split the country quite badly, there were those who believed Harry was right, not many grant you, those that thought regardless of what had happened to him that the Ministry had behaved atrociously for locking up a boy without a trial and those who believed you were guilty as hell and should be left to rot. The first two groups decreased greatly when the break out happened and you were almost universally rallied against, only those that knew you and those at the school were on your side. Dumbledore was your champion but as you were off world he didn't push to get your pardoned as it would have weakened his position."

"What position?" asked Hermione.

"As a political figure, head of the Wizengamot, headmaster of the oldest school of wizardry in the world, take your pick," replied Parvati. "He went on a campaign to get the Minister out of the office, stating and restating his political mistakes like imprisoning you and Sirius Black unjustly without trial, he also used the fact that you both as well as Mr Black were never recaptured by the Ministry as evidence that he was hindering the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, something that its Director Amelia Bones quietly and unofficially supported as he had been cutting her budget and preventing her from doing her job properly for years. His popularity slowly fell but Dumbledore was very aware that the Death Eaters and Pure-Blood groups had planned for this as well and had people supporting them in every department including the Ministers Office. So when the next election was held a years after you left they had to fight tooth and claw to get someone descent into the role as Minister and thankfully they managed it as Director Bones got the job herself and while Dumbledore wasn't overly happy with her as Minister as she would not as he phrased it 'take advise' she was at least very competent and completely incorruptible."

"Once she was elected and started her sweeping Ministry reforms Dumbledore became quite elusive," resumed Cho. "We did not find out until later that he was actually trying to do what Hermione told him to do in her message and was trying to ensure that You-Know-Who never came back. We don't know much about what happened but he spent much time researching and no one ever knew where he went when he was not here. Apparently it was all going well until he appeared on the borders of Hogwarts one day after being missing for several days with this curse spreading up throughout his body rapidly. Madam Pomfrey was able to slow it with the help of Professor Snape but as he was out of the castle at the time it took them over an hour to find him, contact him and to get him back here. He had been out of the castle a lot and it was a miracle he was on his way back when they managed to find him...But by the time they were able to stop it the curse had spread completely up his arm and had penetrated his chest...The wound was mortal and he knew he was dying, he called Professor McGonagall to him and gave her several important memories and told her she had to continue his work before he died in front of her."

The table went quiet for several seconds before anyone dared speak.

"Professor Dumbledore's...dead," said Hermione slowly.

"...Yes," she nodded; several snuffles and cries were heard from people in the chamber as they remembered the bad memories of the past few years. "And I'm afraid it gets worse."

Parvati took over again.

"Within six hours of his death the Ministry was attacked by disguised Death Eaters, not an all-out assault but a surgical strike from both inside and outside with several specific people being targeted."

"Who was killed?" Hermione asked.

"Almost all the department heads, several important civil servants, a few senior aurors who were in the office at the time, several members of the Wizengamot as they were in sessions and most significantly Minister Bones herself and a significant portion of her office staff."

"They crippled the Ministry," Harry concluded.

"Perfectly," confirmed Padma, "But what was worse, very specifically. All the people who were killed had subordinated immediately below them of in a position to take over who were either Death Eaters, sympathisers, Pureblood bigots or sheep who could easily be pushed around or bribed."

"The perfect coup d'état," continued Cho.

"Hang on; did you say almost all of the department heads?"

"Yes," she replied knowingly. "And to answer your next question that unfortunately does include Ron's father, I'm sorry."

Harry sighed in loss before nodding for her to continue.

"In the emergency situation that followed the next most senior person in the Ministry declared herself the Acting Minister of Magic."

"Who was it?"

"A little toad of a woman called Delores Umbridge, she wasn't a Death Eater but she was on very good terms with several senior Death Eaters and definitely came under the category of Pureblood bigot."

"And that's describing her kindly," interrupted Parvati.

"What would describing her unkindly be like?" asked Coleman. "If I dare ask."

"Well let's start with psychopath," began Padma, as she and her sister began the list with a certain amount of venom behind their words.

"Followed by ruthless,"

"Cruel,"

"Brutal,"

"Corrupt,"

"Power hungry,"

"So completely obsessed with the colour pink that it's sickening,"

"Completely incapable of handling disobedience from others without losing her temper and acting extremely aggressively,"

"And completely without morals of any kind."

"...But other than that she's a wonderful person?" asked Aayla after a brief pause.

"Oh yes, a 'good' person...In the same way that leaving defenceless children in a room with a hungry dragon is a 'good' idea."

"What happened next?"

"The First Battle of Hogwarts, happened next," continued Cho. "This was still within ten hours of Professor Dumbledore's death and before we knew much of what had gone on at the Ministry. Apparently Umbitch decided or was told that Dumbledore was behind the attack and that Hogwarts was now being controlled by people loyal to him who he had led in the attack on the Ministry. The first thing we knew about it was when the wards alerted the then Acting Headmistress McGonagall that aurors had come onto the grounds. She immediately locked down the school and got all teachers and the senior students who volunteered into defensive positions, she even brought all the suits of armour to life to defend the school, but as soon as she had done that she left Professor Flitwick and a man who at the time we only knew as an auror named Kingsley in charge and said she had to go and follow Professor Dumbledore's last instruction."

"Hang on, who was attacking the Ministry and Hogwarts?" asked Aayla. "Who was leading the Death Eaters?"

"You-Know-Who of course."

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you OlorinTheMaiar for the suggestion as regards Master Yareal Proof and correcting the layout of the Jedi High Council before the first movie, I know you made the suggestion many months and many chapters ago but I didn't want to implement that correction until now so thank you for that, your efforts to correct my plot holes are greatly appreciated.

Also I guessed the name of the 5th girl in Hermione's dorm as it's never explicitly stated so I went for one of the unknowns from the DA signing list.

This and the next chapter were more nightmares to write, not only because I had to impart a huge amount of information in an order that made sense to everyone, but also because I had to work out how things would have happened in the absence of Harry, Hermione and the sword of Gryffindor, and this is only the first half, there are still many revelations left to come.

So what did you all think about the first half of my take on the last few years on Earth, I had several people suggesting that the wizarding world would be at varying levels of resistance but only one of you suggested anything close to the catastrophe that happened in this chapter.