The fire had burned out hours ago. Cold crept through the floorboards, curling up Harry's spine like smoke. He sat hunched in a creaky chair, elbows resting on his knees, staring blankly at the darkened hearth. The silence in the little cottage was complete—no ticking clock, no whisper of wind. Only the stillness of a place long untouched by joy.
Ron had left. Hermione too.
That truth clung to him like damp cloth, soaking through his skin, chilling him to the bone.
It hadn't been a fight. Not really. Ron had grown bitter, impatient, angry with the constant fear and uncertainty. And when he finally snapped, it was Hermione who was forced to choose. She didn't scream. She didn't cry. She simply whispered "I'm sorry," and walked out into the night.
Just like that, they were gone.
Harry hadn't moved from that chair since.
He didn't blame them. Not entirely. What had he done, really? Run from place to place, hiding, scavenging, pretending he knew what he was doing. He wasn't Dumbledore. He wasn't even Moody. He was a half-trained teenager with a wand and a burden no one else wanted to carry.
A hero in name only.
He leaned back slowly, eyes tracing the cracks in the ceiling.
"I should have been ready," he muttered.
He had known. From the moment he looked into Quirrell's face in first year, from the echo of Voldemort's voice in the Forbidden Forest, from the dreams, the visions, the pain—he had always known the Dark Lord would return.
And what had he done with that knowledge?
Wasted it.
He had wasted his time at Hogwarts goofing off, chasing a sense of normalcy that was never meant for him. He played chess with Ron, listened to Hermione panic over exams, flew through the skies chasing Snitches—all the while pretending that he was just another student.
He wasn't.
And now, he was paying for it.
"I should've spent every bloody day learning magic," he said bitterly. "Real magic. Combat spells. Wards. Tracking enchantments. Not just school theory and essays."
He pushed to his feet and began pacing, fists clenched at his sides.
"They knew he'd come back," Harry hissed. "They all knew. Dumbledore. McGonagall. Lupin. Moody. They knew, and no one ever taught me how to fight him."
They taught him how to take notes. How to brew potions. How to wave his wand the right way. But no one ever prepared him for war.
Not even Dumbledore.
The weight of it crushed his chest—years of expectation, of whispered prophecy and distant gazes, all building to this moment. Alone. Abandoned. Unready.
And for what?
"So I can die in the dirt while the Ministry debates blood status laws?" he whispered.
He sat again, slower this time. Tired.
"Why should it be me?"
The words sounded childish, but he didn't care. He had never asked for this. Never asked to be a symbol. Never asked to be chosen.
Voldemort had killed his parents, yes. But so had a dozen other Death Eaters to a hundred other families. The war hadn't just taken James and Lily—it had torn apart half the wizarding world.
So why wasn't anyone else fighting him?
Why wasn't anyone else chosen?
He thought of the prophecy. The one that said neither could live while the other survived. A few lines of ancient nonsense that doomed a child to death.
"Why should I fight for them?" he asked softly.
The magical world hadn't fought for him. They called him a hero when it was convenient. But in truth, they feared him. Resented him. Abandoned him.
They cheered when he lived, and doubted him when he struggled.
"Where were they when I was starving in the cupboard?" he asked the empty air. "Where were they when they thought I was the Heir of Slytherin? When they called me a liar in fourth year?"
No answer.
Only silence.
The wand on the table glinted in the dim light.
He looked at it for a long moment, jaw set.
He could keep fighting. Keep hunting Horcruxes. Keep bleeding for a world that never once gave him more than a hollow title.
Or he could walk away.
No one would stop him.
And if they did… he still had his wand.
"I owe them nothing," he said.
This time, he believed it.
The decision had come to him during a moment of weakness.
But the more Harry thought about it, the more certain he became.
There was no dramatic flash of rebellion, no sudden burst of courage. Just quiet resolve. Calm. Cold. Steady. The kind of clarity that settled in slowly, like mist rising from the forest floor.
He would leave.
Not tomorrow. Not someday. Now.
He was done fighting for people who had never once fought for him. Done bleeding for a world that turned its back on him the moment it was inconvenient to stand beside him. Let Voldemort have it. Let the Ministry collapse. Let the Order play at heroism while the rot spread under their feet.
Harry Potter was finished.
He would go somewhere new. Somewhere far. He would disappear.
Live.
But there was one problem.
He was out of money.
Even if he escaped, even if he crossed borders or found refuge in some quiet corner of the world, he couldn't live on willpower alone. He needed gold. And only one place in the world held what was left of his parents' legacy.
Gringotts.
Harry remembered what Hagrid had once told him. That the goblins didn't take sides. They answered only to gold and to law. They would not care what the Prophet printed or who ruled the Ministry. If his vault still existed, and if he could reach it, they would open it for him.
They had to.
Because otherwise, if he died, all of it—everything his parents had left behind—would end up in the hands of people who had never deserved it. The Weasleys. The Dursleys. Dumbledore's little collection of secret schemes.
He wouldn't allow that.
His wealth. His inheritance. His legacy.
No one else would touch it.
No more rash charges into danger. No more Gryffindor recklessness. He would move like a shadow. Quiet. Invisible.
He took a deep breath and wrapped the invisibility cloak tightly around himself. The fabric shimmered, then vanished into the air.
Harry made his way to the nearest Muggle street. He stood by the roadside until a night bus trundled into view, headlights flickering in the mist. He didn't board it.
Instead, he climbed silently to the roof, careful not to disturb even a single leaf of his cloak.
He rode all the way to Charing Cross, unseen.
Unnoticed.
Untouchable.
The Leaky Cauldron was nearly empty when he arrived. It used to be warm, welcoming—smelling of smoke, mead, and stew. Now it felt hollow. Cold. The hearth was unlit. Most of the tables were pushed into corners. Only two wizards sat inside, hunched and whispering over a shared tankard.
But it wasn't the silence that struck Harry the hardest.
It was the posters.
His own face stared at him from every wall, enchanted parchment fluttering slightly in the airless room.
UNDESIRABLE NO. 1
WANTED FOR QUESTIONING
REWARD: 5,000 GALLEONS
DO NOT APPROACH. REPORT IMMEDIATELY.
The image of himself looked haggard. Angry. Eyes shadowed, jaw clenched.
It didn't even look like him anymore.
He slipped past the wizards without a sound, heart hammering in his chest. He kept close to the wall and waited near the brick archway, breath held tight, until one of them stumbled out into the alley.
Harry followed closely, stepping through the bricks just as they parted.
Diagon Alley,
Or what was left of it.
The cheerful cobblestones were cracked and blackened. Most of the shops had boarded windows and broken signs. The smell of sugar and roasted nuts was gone—replaced by dust and the faint tang of burned wood.
It felt like a graveyard.
Ollivanders was nothing but ash.
Flourish and Blotts was locked behind thick metal bars.
Madam Malkin's shop stood dark, a single robe fluttering in the wind like a ghost's sleeve.
There were no laughing children. No parents dragging excited first-years toward their first wand. Just silence, and the occasional Auror patrol, walking slow, hands on their wands, eyes scanning every shadow.
Harry watched them pass.
He knew.
The Ministry had fallen. It no longer mattered what badge the Aurors wore. They belonged to Voldemort now, whether they admitted it or not.
If they caught him, they wouldn't take him to court.
They would take him to the Dark Lord.
So he moved like a whisper. He silenced his steps with a charm. Wrapped the cloak tighter. Slid along the wall like a ghost that had forgotten its name.
No noise.
No light.
No mistake.
He reached Gringotts and waited, crouched in shadow near the marble steps.
The goblin guards stood motionless at the doors, jagged armor gleaming in the half-light. The hall beyond was mostly empty now. People came to the Alley out of desperation these days, not for errands.
He could not afford to be seen.
He waited.
And waited.
For the last witch to leave the bank, her cloak fluttering behind her, clutching a bag of what little coin remained.
Then—
Silence.
Harry slipped forward.
He pressed himself against the massive stone pillar at the entrance, waited for one of the guards to turn his back, and moved.
Past the threshold.
Into the marble hall.
As he walked carefully across the gleaming floor, a wave of memories surged to the surface.
His first time here.
Hagrid at his side. The echo of his boots on stone. The sound of goblin claws scratching on ledgers. The wonder in his eleven-year-old eyes.
He could still remember the smell of new parchment, dragonhide, and gold.
But now…
Now the vaults felt like tombs. The chandeliers flickered with green-tinted light. The goblins looked up from their desks with weary expressions.
The goblin looked Harry over slowly, from the tips of his muddied boots to the faint gleam of his glasses beneath the hood of the invisibility cloak. Though Harry was hidden, he had revealed himself to the teller discreetly, away from the eyes of others, and now stood with the hood pushed back just enough to be seen.
The goblin's lips curled into something resembling a smile. Sharp. Menacing. Almost pleased.
"What can I do for you, Mr. Potter?" the goblin asked, voice like stone scraping metal.
Harry didn't waste time.
"I want to close my vault," he said flatly. "Permanently."
The goblin raised a thin eyebrow. "Running away, Potter?" he sneered.
There was a challenge in his tone. A jab. The goblins were a warrior race. They did not flee. And they held no respect for those who did.
Harry kept his voice steady. "No. I'm fighting. But when I fall, I want to make sure what's mine doesn't end up in the wrong hands."
The goblin considered this. His smile grew wider, revealing a row of pointed teeth.
"Wise choice."
He snapped his long fingers, and another goblin appeared to escort Harry deeper into the bank. They walked in silence through the long corridor of dark iron doors and stone-carved archways until they reached a small room—an office, polished and grim.
A second goblin sat behind a low desk, parchment and quills neatly arranged. His eyes gleamed in the torchlight as Harry entered.
"Name," the goblin demanded.
"Harry Potter."
The goblin looked him over. "And what do you wish to do?"
"I want everything that belongs to me—transferred out. I'm closing my account. For good."
The goblin nodded slowly and drew out a scroll from a thick ledger. "Standard procedure requires magical verification. A few drops of blood, here—" he pointed to a small glowing circle on the page "—to bind the contract. Read it."
Harry narrowed his eyes. He knew goblins. Tricksters. Wordsmiths. He read the fine lines carefully, his brow furrowing.
The parchment stated, in sharp and precise language, that he would reclaim all items legally registered to his name, with the exception of goblin-forged artifacts, which would revert to the control of Gringotts upon account closure.
That was fine.
He didn't need goblin-forged weapons or jewellery.
Just his gold. His artifacts. His birthright.
He pricked his finger and let three drops fall on the parchment.
The runes shimmered. The deal was sealed.
"Please wait here," the goblin said.
Harry nodded and sat stiffly in the chair, every muscle taut. The room was quiet, save for the scratching of the quill behind the desk.
Minutes passed.
Then the goblin spoke again, almost conversationally.
"The Ministry has been pressing us," he said without looking up. "They want us to pick a side."
Harry glanced at him. "And?"
The goblin's smile returned. "We serve gold. Not men. The Ministry forgets that."
Harry allowed a small, grim smile.
He was about to reply when another goblin entered, holding a small trunk.
It was black, etched with deep magical sigils, and bore a single silver clasp shaped like a fang.
"This contains the entirety of your holdings," the seated goblin explained. "Gold, documents, heirlooms. Everything you owned in your vault—aside from goblin-made items—has been sealed within. The trunk responds to your blood and a spoken password."
Harry touched the lock.
"Sirius," he whispered.
The trunk clicked, then settled. Bound.
He slipped it into his enchanted pocket and stood. "Thank you."
"Good fortune in your... war," the goblin said.
Harry turned to go.
He had nearly reached the exit when he froze.
Bellatrix Lestrange had just entered the lobby.
Even through the hood of his cloak, he recognized the cruel set of her jaw, the wild eyes, the madness coiled beneath her skin. Her long black robes trailed behind her like smoke, and in her arms was a package—wrapped, but not enough to conceal its identity from Harry's trained eyes.
The Sword of Gryffindor.
He felt the heat rise behind his ribs. Rage. Loss. Memory.
Sirius.
She had killed Sirius.
She had laughed when he fell.
And now she was here, cradling something that did not belong to her. The sword—Godric Gryffindor's sword—was meant for the worthy. Not a twisted, murderous fanatic.
But he couldn't act.
Not yet.
Drawing a wand inside Gringotts was suicide.
So he followed.
Bellatrix was led by a goblin down a side corridor toward the carts.
Harry slipped silently behind them, keeping close, invisible. When they reached the tracks, Bellatrix stepped into the cart with the goblin.
Harry whispered a charm and stunned the goblin for just a moment—long enough to slip in behind them before the cart launched forward.
The world blurred.
The cart flew like lightning through the endless dark, metal groaning and tunnels racing past. Wind tore at his cloak, but Harry clung tight.
Finally, the cart slowed.
Lestrange Vault.
Bellatrix stepped out first, waiting impatiently as the goblin reactivated the vault doors. As she moved forward, the package still tucked under her arm, Harry slid forward.
Quick. Precise.
His hand shot forward, fingers grasping the sword.
Gone.
Bellatrix spun, wild-eyed.
"My sword!" she shrieked. "You disgusting little thief! You vermin!"
She turned on the goblin, madness overtaking her. "You!" she screamed. "You took it! I know your kind—filthy, stealing things that were never yours!"
The goblin raised his hands, protesting—but Bellatrix didn't listen.
Her wand flashed red.
The goblin fell, lifeless.
Harry had seen enough.
He tore the cloak from his shoulders.
Bellatrix turned.
A grin split her face.
"Well, well," she whispered. "Undesirable Number One himself."
She raised her wand. "You're coming with me."
Harry didn't speak.
He moved.
Spells burst in every direction. He dodged, rolled, cast—Stupefy, Expelliarmus, Protego—all quick, all basic, all defensive.
Bellatrix cackled, unleashing dark magic that scorched the stone. The walls groaned with heat.
And then—
She screamed.
"Fiendfyre!"
Flames exploded from her wand—massive, living fire, twisting and roaring like a dragon born of smoke and hatred. It ate the ground. Climbed the walls. Devoured everything.
Her control slipped.
The fire turned on her.
Bellatrix screamed as the cursed flames consumed her. Her robes caught, her wand dropped. Her body vanished in a storm of fire and ash.
The vault door collapsed.
From deep inside, Harry heard a scream—not hers.
Something else.
Something inhuman.
Then silence.
The Horcrux.
Destroyed.
The fire surged outward.
Harry ran.
He sprinted down the tunnel, breath burning in his chest, heart pounding like a drum.
Then—
Chains.
Claws.
A dragon.
A massive white dragon, chained and writhing in agony.
Harry didn't think.
He couldn't.
He raised his wand, screamed "Reducto!", and shattered the chains.
"Go!" he shouted as he climbed on it's back. "Fly!"
The dragon roared, reared back—
Then dove.
Not up.
Down.
Into a vast well of darkness below the bank.
And Harry, clinging to its back, vanished into the depths.
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