What If… Harry Potter

Harry Potter dreaded going home again after his latest end of year test. This time it had been a 60 foot long basilisk and he had slain it with a sword. He had also been bitten and almost died. If it hadn't been for Fawkes crying into the wound, he would have been a goner for sure.

The train ride home was a quiet affair and even Draco Malfoy seemed to be less enthusiastic with his normal appearance and taunting visit that he did every single time they were on the train. Funnily enough, Harry thought he would miss it if it didn't happen. The blond ponce was good for entertainment and relief if nothing else.

Vernon was waiting for Harry on the muggle side of the station and he barely grunted at the dishevelled boy when he appeared. He didn't offer to take the trunk or helped him get the thing into the car's boot, like usual. Harry sat in the backseat and stayed quiet for the entire ride back to Surrey from London.

Little Whinging was the same as it always was and Harry held in his sigh at nothing ever changing there. He knew it was going to be another summer of daily chores, cooking meals, and regular beatings from his cousin Dudley and his gang of thieves and troublemakers. They had made it their personal mission to make sure Harry was hunted down at least once a week and left hurting and bruised.

Harry barely had the trunk out of the boot of the car when Vernon demanded that all his freakish possessions be locked up in his old bedroom, the cupboard under the stairs, just like every summer. Harry sighed at not being able to sneak his wand out of the trunk before Vernon slammed the cupboard door and padlocked it.

With nothing else to do that evening, he was ordered up the stairs to his room and was locked in with Hedwig's cage, which was also padlocked. Harry apologized to his precious owl, his very first friend, and laid down on the bed. It was only a short reprieve from what he knew would be another long summer of hard work and barely enough food to live on.

*

Harry's feet inside his over-sized and barely held together trainers slapped the pavement. Some of the tape holding them together tore off and the extra loose flop of the sneaker as his foot hit the pavement, made his footing slip and Harry fell and tumbled to a stop between two houses. Before he could do more than curse at tripping over his own feet, Piers Polkiss dove onto him and started punching him.

The others of the gang were soon joining in with kicks and more punches, hands holding him and stopping him from fighting back, and then Dudley finally arrived and looked winded. He also had a manic look on his face at finally catching his prey.

Harry tried to not sigh in defeat at the harsh beating he was about to receive. He grunted in pain as Dudley's large fist slammed into his face and resigned himself to suffering for a week or more with sore muscles, various cuts, a lot of bruises, and two black eyes.

When they were done administering the appropriate punishment for defying them, Dudley and his gang finally stopped hitting their favorite punching bag. They all stood there with blood on their hands and pleased looks on their faces as they stared down at the mangled mess they had left on the ground. He was bleeding a lot more than usual, since they hadn't held back at all.

“We sure... showed him.” Piers said, winded.

“Yeah, Dudders.” One of the others said. “He won't... mouth off to you... again.”

“Yeb I wibb.” The freak managed to say between severely swollen lips.

Piers hauled his foot back and swiped it at Harry's face. There was a crack and a spray of blood as Harry cried out in pain and stopped moving.

Dudley felt several wet drops hit his face and he wiped at them and tasted blood that wasn't his own. “You're going to pay for that, freak.” He said and started to lift his foot to kick Harry as well, then felt woozy.

The other boys didn't realize anything was wrong until Dudley's face started turning green.

“Dudders? Are you okay?” Piers asked, concerned.

“M'fine.” Dudley mumbled before the world seemed to tilt on its axis and he felt the grass for only a second when he fell to the ground unconscious.

The boys started panicking and a couple of them tried to wake Dudley.

“Go get help!” Piers shouted and one of them ran off to go find an adult.

As the time seemed to stretch on forever while they waited, each of the boys started to turn green as well. It wasn't nearly as quickly as Dudley had changed; but, it was just as deadly. They had each gotten Harry's blood on their skin and had been exposed to the strongest and deadliest magical poison in the world. Basilisk venom.

Even diluted like it had been by Phoenix tears and Harry's blood, it was still a virulent poison, especially to muggles. They had no magic inside them to help fight off the poison, so the boys succumbed to it fairly quickly and had thrown up before they collapsed. Since Dudley had ingested it, it had worked almost instantly on him.

The sounds of an ambulance siren cut through the quiet suburb and it gained everyone's attention. The vehicle skidded to a stop on the street and two paramedics jumped out and ran over to the pile of boys between two of the houses. The third paramedic had stayed inside the vehicle to tend to the other boy that had fallen ill after they picked him up.

“Oh, god.” The man on the right said when he saw the bile and blood that covered them all and realized there was a very badly beaten boy on the bottom of the pile.

Thankfully, the paramedics wore surgical gloves and didn't touch the blood directly as the boys were moved off of the pile to be dealt with while the first one handled the actually hurt boy.

“They nearly beat him to death and he's barely hanging on. We have to evac him ASAP!” The paramedic exclaimed.

“I'm calling this in. We can't handle all of them on our own.” His partner said and ran back to the ambulance to call the dispatcher and grab the stretcher.

“Hang in there, kid. We'll get you back on your feet in no time.” The paramedic lied and tended to the various open gashes, especially the boy's torn lips and broken cheek. He had clearly been kicked multiple times and punched more times than the paramedic could count. He couldn't check for other broken bones until he was stabilized.

“They're on their way.” His partner said and set up the stretcher to hold a patient. He helped put Harry onto it and strapped him down. “I'll check the others while you load him into the back.”

The paramedic nodded and rushed the stretcher over to the ambulance and the other paramedic helped bring it in.

The second paramedic bent down to check the vitals on the largest of the boys and felt nothing. “Bloody hell! He's in cardiac arrest!” He shouted and grunted as he pulled Dudley's large body over from laying on its side and set him on his back. He started to do CPR as several more ambulance sirens cut through the air.

*

Harry groaned in pain as he woke up and opened his eyes. Everything was blurry and he tried to move, only to find his arms were secured. The machines monitoring him started to beep loudly as he panicked and a person wearing hazmat gear entered the room and hit several buttons to stop the noise.

“Easy there, Harry. Calm down.” The woman said and leaned over him to let him see her face through the plastic window of the yellow suit.

“What... what's going on?” Harry asked.

“What's the last thing you remember?” The nurse asked.

Harry didn't have to think about that, since it was one of the most painful things he had felt in a while. “Piers kicked my face in.”

The nurse looked a little sick at hearing that and took a moment to compose herself. “What about before that?”

Harry tried to not get angry at the stupid question, especially since he was in a hospital. “What do you think happened? Dudley and his gang hunted me down and had a lot of fun beating me up again!”

The nurse moved back at the anger on the boy's face and tried to not take it personally. She knew he must be upset with what was going on and she had to ask some standard questions to make sure he wasn't suffering from memory problems.

“Well, you won't have to worry about that happening ever again.” The nurse said to reassure him before she realized she shouldn't have told him that. She quickly turned away from him so that he wouldn't see the horror on her face and she walked away from the bed as Harry asked her if that meant he was finally being allowed to get away from his abusive relatives that hate him.

The two police detectives waiting in the anteroom let the nurse strip off and wash up before they berated her for letting that secret out. She didn't defend herself and asked if they were actually listening to what Harry had asked her as she left. Their explanation that it didn't matter if they were abusive, since Harry wouldn't be allowed out of containment, didn't sit right with her.

“Are you telling me that all of his beatings and broken bones don't matter, because he's not going back? Really?” The nurse asked and they nodded. “So, it doesn't matter that they are the cause of the poison outbreak and contamination? That if it wasn't for them and their horrible son, no one would have been in danger at all?”

That shut both men up and the door behind them opened up. The three of them turned to see a short woman wearing a business suit and a monocle on her face. She also had two well dressed men in suits behind her.

“Amelia Bones, Scotland Yard adjunct. I'm taking over this case.” The woman said and flashed her badge.

The two detectives made disgusted sounds and started to complain about it, then the two suited men pulled sticks out and obliviated the detectives, confunded them, and told them they handed the whole thing off and didn't have to worry about anything anymore. The two detectives left without a word.

“It's about time you got here.” The nurse said and her face changed to become younger and her hair changed from honey-brown to bright pink.

“Report.” Amelia said and Auror Tonks filled her in on everything she had discovered about the case of Harry Potter so far. It had massive holes where Albus Dumbledore had stonewalled several of the witnesses and stopped her from investigating about what happened and she couldn't even ask innocent questions.

“Then we have to get it from the main witness himself.” Amelia said and nodded at the rack of suits. The two of them dressed and the two men in suits guarded the door to stop anyone else from entering.

“These aren't really necessary, you know.” Tonks said as they entered the room.

“The medical report said the virulent poison was adapting to permeate all of the body's fluids. In time, even his spit and sweat could be considered diluted basilisk venom.” Amelia said.

“Wh-what? I didn't see that in the medical report!” Tonks almost shouted.

“It wasn't added to the public one.” Amelia said and stepped over to the bed. “Mister Potter, I'd like to ask you a few questions.”

“Where are my glasses?” Harry asked instead of agreeing.

“Broken beyond repair. I won't take up much of your time, as long as you're honest with me.” Amelia said and didn't react to the boy's frown. “If you could tell me about...”

“Why?” Harry asked and interrupted her. “No one else ever listens to what I have to say.”

“I assure you that I will.” Amelia said in her best reassuring voice.

“Why should I believe you?” Harry asked.

Amelia took a breath and let out a sigh. “You are making this more difficult than it needs to be.”

Harry glared at the blurry blob. “I get beaten up for the hundredth time, my face kicked in, and I'm the one making things difficult?” He asked incredulously and then closed his eyes and decided to ignore her. “Piss off.”

“Mister Potter...” Amelia started to say.

“Piss. Off.” Harry said and started to fake snore. He did a great impression of Ron's timbre.

“Do you want the muggles to lock you away forever?” Tonks asked.

Harry's snoring cut off and he opened his eyes to look at her. “Wh-what?”

“Auror Tonks.” Amelia said sternly and Tonks closed her mouth.

“What's going on?” Harry asked and tried to squint his eyes to see her. “Who are you people?”

That started a long explanation about who Amelia was and what her job was, then about her department. When she was done, Harry was back in severe pain from laughing so hard.

“You've done... absolutely nothing... to protect me or anyone else at the school.” Harry said and calmed down enough to not chuckle after every few words. “Why in the world would I believe you want to help me now?”

“It's my job.” Amelia said.

“Then why didn't you do it before?” Harry asked.

“I didn't know it needed to be done before.” Amelia said.

Harry thought about that. “You're telling me that your niece, one of the girls that cursed me and spread rumors about me all year, didn't tell you about the petrifications that happened? Or about the Heir of Slytherin hunting mudbloods? Or about how I saved the WHOLE bloody SCHOOL from a BASILISK?”

Both Tonks and Amelia jerked slightly at his yell.

Harry did his best to glare at them before he sighed and closed his eyes again. “You kind of suck at your job if your own family won't tell you anything.”

Amelia tried to not let his taunting comments anger her. It was difficult, especially since she thought her niece told her everything. Now she knew Susan didn't and had kept some very important information from her.

“We will be back.” Amelia said and she and Tonks left the room.

“He's really hurting if he can attack us for just asking questions.” Tonks said as they cleaned up and stripped off.

“He's not wrong, unfortunately.” Amelia said and used her wand to sanitize herself and Tonks. “Stay here and make sure no one else enters, especially a certain headmaster. I'll leave the guards, too.”

“Thanks, boss.” Tonks said, appreciatively.

Amelia left at a fast walk and with a determined look on her face.

*

Susan was having a great time in the pool with Hannah as they splashed around and enjoyed the rare sunny and warm weather. Suddenly, she felt a feeling of dread and a chill went down her back.

“Susan. Amelia. Bones.” Her aunt's angry voice came from the back door of the manor house.

“Oh, no.” Hannah whispered as she looked over to see the very rare sight of an angry Amelia Bones.

“Y-y-yes, Auntie?” Susan asked and reluctantly turned in the water to face her.

“I've recently received some very disturbing information and I would like for you and Hannah to confirm a few things for me.” Amelia said, her voice deadly.

Both Susan and Hannah swallowed nervously and climbed out of the pool. They quickly dried off and followed Amelia into the house to the sitting room. The older woman pointed at the small loveseat and sat across from it herself. She served tea from the set there and then glared at the two clearly scared girls.

“Tell me what happened at school this year.” Amelia said and sipped her tea.

Susan and Hannah exchanged looks and looked back at her. “N-nothing happ...”

“Knock it off with that shite!” Amelia spat and both girls jumped. “The HEIR of Slytherin!”

Susan's face drained of color and Hannah started trembling.

“You are going to tell me everything. Every. Thing.” Amelia said, almost with a growl. “Now.”

Both girls nodded and started talking.

Amelia felt sick to her stomach when they were done. She didn't blame Harry Potter for his angry reaction to what she now knew were empty platitudes. No one had been there for that boy since he was a baby and it was probably too late to correct any of it, because he would never believe that she really wanted to help him.

She was also supremely disappointed with her niece and her behaviour towards the savior of the wizarding world and Susan would be grounded for the rest of the summer. Hannah was also grounded by her mother for the same reason. Both girls cried because they wouldn't see each other again for the rest of the summer.

*

Minerva McGonagall tried to refuse access to the castle, on Albus Dumbledore's orders, only for her to be placed under arrest for obstruction, child endangerment, wilful ignorance of the law, and failure to report the hundreds of crimes that had been committed in the school while under her care. Her sputtering denial of any wrongdoing didn't help her case, especially since she couldn't coherently justify her actions.

Amelia Bones herself conducted the interrogation of the Deputy Headmistress as an Auror squad scoured the empty school for evidence. The things they had heard about would be easily discovered, now that there were no students or teachers present to actively hide the proof. Detection spells galore were used and each and every infraction was recorded.

Minerva mentally cursed at Albus for dumping things onto her while he was away at a magical conference for the ICW, or the International Confederation of Wizards. When she refused to answer certain questions that called doubt upon Albus Dumbledore's sanity, a man she had known for over half a century, Amelia asked her to reconsider.

When Minerva still refused, Amelia applied veritaserum and noted it with a dicta-quill, then Minerva sang like a canary in a coal mine that was warning there was a gas leak. Amelia fought off her growing horror as Minerva continued to talk and tell her things that she did not want to hear. An offhand comment about the previous year, set Minerva off again.

Amelia pretty much sat there and stared at the woman she had lost all respect for. The things she allowed to happen to her students, children she was supposed to be taking care of, made her decision to arrest her and Albus Dumbledore the right and proper one.

When Minerva started going on about their younger years and the things they got up to back then, Amelia told her to keep talking and she would be back later. The last thing she wanted to do was sit there and have all of her heroes and public figures destroyed in her eyes. Just Minerva had been enough to unnerve her. If any of it got out to the public, their reputations would be destroyed.

Amelia sent word to the Ministry to have Albus Dumbledore be detained when he returned from his trip. She would have to wait until then to suspend the man's positions and to put into place the means to talk to him in a controlled setting without him catching on to what she was actually doing. Interrogating a criminal.

*

Harry Potter wasn't sure what was going on now. He had been sequestered inside a different room than he had woken up in a week ago and had no idea how he had gotten here. Thankfully, the nurse had come along as well and did her best to keep him calm and occupied while at the same time she refused to tell him anything.

Why am I being kept separate from the other patients? Harry asked himself, because he felt fine. Why didn't I have any visitors? Where are my friends, Hermione and Ron?

Harry's thoughts were interrupted when several healers entered the room and moved the nurse aside. They still wore their hazmat suits and fussed over him, quickly checked him over physically and with a few spells, then they made several non-committal sounds before they left in a rush.

“What was that about?” Harry asked the nurse.

“It's more trouble.” The nurse said with a sigh.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked her.

She gave him a sad smile. “They decided that their usual course of treatment won't work on you.”

Harry wasn't sure what she meant and it showed on his face.

“Because it's your blood that's causing all the problems, they would normally vanish it all and give you blood replenishing potions to make up the difference. Once your body produced enough on its own, they would stop the potions and that would be that.” The nurse explained.

Harry thought about it. “Then what's the problem?”

The nurse sighed. “You're malnourished, have stunted growth, have had several broken bones that healed wrong, and the successive beatings have caused your body to adapt to working inefficiently.”

Harry was confused by that and his attention went to a healer as the man entered the room.

“What she means is that the basilisk venom is already bonded to your bone marrow, thanks to the breaks and cracks in your weak bones. We're all surprised you're not dead already.” The healer said, quite bluntly.

The nurse made an angry sound and whacked the healer with her gloved hand. “Say something like that again and you're going to feel my foot in a particularly sensitive area!”

The man looked embarrassed and back away from her with his hands over his crotch. “There's no need to be so hostile.”

“You just told your patient he should be dead, you idiot!” The nurse exclaimed and lifted her foot.

The man made an 'eep' sound and left the room at a fast walk.

“Send someone in that has half a brain!” The nurse shouted before the door shut.

Harry was a little flattered at her defending him like that. “Um... th-thanks.”

The nurse turned back to him and she had that same sad smile on her face. “I shouldn't have to remind people to have some basic respect for their patients.”

Harry wasn't sure how to respond to that.

A woman came in and Harry saw it was the same one that tried to get him to talk a week ago. He barely held in his sigh when she pulled over a stool to sit beside his bed.

“What do you want this time?” Harry asked, his voice flat.

Amelia didn't react to his tone of voice. “I came here to tell you that Madam Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, and Albus Dumbledore are in holding cells in the DMLE of the Ministry of Magic.”

“The what?” Harry asked, surprised.

“The Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic.” Amelia clarified. “Once I had Madam McGonagall dosed to the gills with truth serum, she told me all about your adventures at school and how they covered everything up.”

Harry really didn't know what to say to that.

“Madam Pomfrey has lost her license to practice healing, because she allowed someone with basilisk venom in their body, to leave her care untreated and didn't warn you, your family, or the Ministry of Magic that a Five-X creature had petrified and poisoned students.” Amelia told him.

There was only one part of that Harry objected to. “The Dursleys aren't my family. They're just relatives I was forced to live with.”

Both Amelia and the nurse frowned at the distinction.

“I think that's a harsh thing to say, Harry.” The nurse said.

Harry huffed. “You can ask them if you want. They don't want me there any more than I want to be there. If it wasn't for Dumbledore forcing me to go back every summer, I would never go back.”

“What do you mean Dumbledore forces you?” Amelia asked.

Harry sighed and gave up trying to keep it all to himself. So, he started talking. He told them everything about his life. How he grew up. Never celebrated a birthday. Never had any presents until he went to Hogwarts. Never received any mail. Never had any friends until Ron and Hermione. How they hadn't called or written.

Both Amelia and the nurse had to fight back tears as Harry unloaded everything onto them. His story was... horrific was too weak of a word to describe it. No child should ever have to deal with what he had gone through.

When Harry was done, he let out a long sigh of relief. The nurse left to grab his lunch and Amelia sat there as she thought about what she was going to do with all this new information. Harry felt a bit warm when the nurse came back and some sweat had gathered on his forehead, so he wiped it off with his hand. When he reached for a piece of lightly cooked toast, it immediately turned green.

“Out! GET OUT! OUUUT!” A male voice yelled from the other room.

Both Amelia and the nurse scrambled to leave. Neither of them saw the scared face of Harry Potter.

*

“We only have two choices left to us now.” Amelia informed the Wizengamut a day later. “We can prepare a sequestered living area and arrange for both his well being and dietary needs...”

“Just off the brat and be done with it.” Lucius Malfoy said and a bunch of people clapped. “I doubt the boy has enough money to do what you propose. The building of whatever you need would severely strain his Gringotts account and no one else is going to agree to waste good money to feed and keep alive a potential plague upon our world.”

“Here here!” Several other reformed Death Eaters agreed.

“After he dies, the Wizengamut can claim his inheritance, since he is the last Potter, and put his meagre fortune to good use instead of throwing it away on such foolishness.” Lucius continued.

“Now wait a minute...” Amelia started to say, only to be cut off.

“All in favor of Mister Malfoy's proposal?” Minister Fudge asked and more than three quarters of the gathered members replied with lit wands. “All against?”

No one lit any wands, which put an abrupt end to Amelia's plan to hide and save the boy.

“Motion passed. Harry Potter will be disposed of and his fortune will be turned over to the Ministry forthwith. Meeting adjourned!” Minister Fudge said with a grin.

*

Harry Potter wasn't sure why they were moving him again and no one would tell him anything. His nurse had been abruptly called away and she was the only one he knew would care that he wouldn't be in his bed when she came back.

“Stupefy.” Someone said from behind him and blackness claimed him.

When he woke up, he was standing in front of some weird stone archway and there was a large crowd gathered and sitting around the room. Whispered voices called to him from under a tattered curtain and he couldn't make out what they were saying.

“Harry Potter, you have been sentenced to death for being a threat to the Statue of Secrecy. Do you have any last words?” Minister Fudge asked him.

Harry was too stunned by the man's words to even register that he was supposed to say something.

“Very well. The walking plague refused to say anything in his defense. Toss him through the Veil.” Minister Fudge said and motioned to the two cloaked men.

Harry was grabbed by his arms and lifted up. With sudden realization and his imminent death upon him, he took in a huge breath and said the only thing he could say. “NOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The two cloaked men swung the boy back and forth before they hefted him through the Veil of Death. Because of the darkness of the chamber, no one had seen the light green mist that had come out of Harry's mouth during his very long scream. A small cheer came from the audience and Minister Fudge looked happy, until he felt a small prickling on his skin.

No one would find the pile of dead bodies until the next day.

The End.

Alternate Ending:

During the investigation and identification of all the victims, dozens of people touched them and their possessions. It spread the contamination of diluted basilisk venom quite far before anyone realized what was going on. By then, the families had reclaimed the possessions of their loved ones and spread the contamination even further.

By the end of the week, most of them were dead. Only Amelia had been smart enough to recuse herself from the case and hadn't been involved with the outcome. Unfortunately, everyone she could have said, 'I told you so' was dead, so her gloating only happened in her mind as she attended all of their funerals.