Weathered: Freedom Fighter
By Misha

Disclaimer- Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling and is not mine, however much I might wish differently. I don't own the songs either, sorry, they all belong to Creed. However, I am not making any money off of this, so please do not sue me!

Author's Notes- I decided to do something different-write a collection of song fics, each one set to a different song from the same album. Each story is completely seperate from the next, none of them coincide. In fact, I use a variety of pairings and ratings throughout the series. There's everything from Harry/Hermione to Harry/Draco to Ginny/Sirius and everything in between. One of the few pairings that I don't have in here is Ron/Hermione, 'cause I just can't bring myself to write it. Sorry. Anyway, this just one of the stories in the series. I hope you enjoy it and choose to read the others.

Pairing- Minor Harry/Hermione

Summery- He had become a faceless machine for the cause, fighting until the death, because he had nothing else left.

Rating- PG-13

The mouth of envious
Always find another door
While at the gates of paradise
They beat us down some more
But our mission's set in stone
'Cause the writing's on the wall
I'll scream it from the mountain tops
Pride comes before the fall

Every day was another death. Another loss. Another reason to give up hope.

The Death Eaters were good. They kept beating down on the resistance. They always found a way to inflict some damage and lower the moral.

It was a hard battle.

Sometimes, all anyone wanted to do was to give in and stop fighting what seemed to be a lost cause.

But they couldn't give up. They were fighting for what was right.

Besides, even when Harry himself was tired and breaking under the weight of everyone's expectations, he couldn't quite give up.

There had to be hope.

Voldemort had fallen once. Maybe their miracle could happen twice.

Besides, win or lose, he at least was in this fight until the bitter end. He had lost too much to give up now.

So many thoughts to share
All this energy to give
Unlike those who hide the truth I tell it like it is
If the truth will set you free
I feel sorry for your soul
Can't you hear the ringing 'cause for you the bell tolls

The truth was an ugly, nasty thing.

If growing up had taught Harry anything, it was that.

He had seen the truth in the people he knew. Saw the nastier sides of some and the better sides of other.

He didn't hide from the truth. He never had.

He didn't see the point of lies any more. The lies didn't make the world a better place.

Nothing could right now.

Of course, he didn't see the truth as much better, since all it did was show you the darkness which everyone possessed.

I'm just a freedom fighter
No remorse
Raging on in holy war
Soon there'll come a day
When you're face to face with me
Face to face with me

He wondered when he had become a mindless machine for the cause.

Once, he had been a young and innocent school boy, the idea of the war had terrified him.

But now, now faced with a reality much more terrifying than any he could ever have dreamed of, he was fearless.

He had no reason to be afraid. He had lost everything of value.

It was Hermione's death, though, that propelled him through the endless spiel.

That and the thought of coming face to face with Voldemort again and this time, making him pay for his evil deeds.

Can't you hear us coming?
People marching all around
Can't you see we're coming?
Close your eyes it's over now
Can't you here us coming?
The fight has only just began
Can't you see we're coming?

Sometimes, Harry wondered if the resistance were any better than the Death Eaters.

Oh, their beliefs certainly were, but... Well, most of them were fuelled by revenge.

It had been ten years since Voldemort had resurfaced.

Ten years filled with Hell and and those brave enough to still be fighting, did it out of the memory of pain and anguish. Of loved ones lost.

It was a war. Two armies both Hell-bent on destruction facing off.

And the worst part was that it had really only just begun.

He knew that it would get much worse before it ever got better.

I'm just a freedom fighter
No remorse
Raging on in holy war
Soon there'll come a day
When you're face to face with me
Face to face with me

Sometimes, he thought about what his life would have been like without Voldemort.

The life he could have had with his parents. He would have been spared all the pain and loneliness of his years with the Dursleys.

He would have grown up knowing what it was like to be loved and cherished.

But even if his parents had had to die, he still could have been okay.

If Voldemort hadn't come back, he could have seen himself having a happy life.

Probably with Hermione, God he had loved her. Maybe they would have been married by now with a couple of kids.

But no. She was dead. A victim of the Death Eaters.

They took special care with her, since he loved her.

In the years since her death, he had been plagued with nightmares of what her last moments must have been like.

Those nightmares sucked the compassion out of him. Just as his tender side had died when he looked down at her broken body.

Instead, he had been left with no remorse, only hatred and a quest for revenge.

If it hadn't been for Voldemort, he might have been normal and happy.

But instead, instead he had been turned into a fighting machine. A tool raging on in this war.

And one day soon, Voldemort would come face to face with his creation. And Harry vowed, that once more, he would be the one who would emerge victorious.

The End