Twice in a Lifetime: Chapter One – Twists of Fate

By Ptath and Lady Raina

Beta-ed by Silver Rayne

Warning:

Disclaimer:

Important note: this story is set after book 5, with one small change: Bellatrix Lestrange fell through the Veil, not Sirius. We will explain how this happened in a later chapter. As that chapter has not yet been written, we cannot tell you which one it will be in. Please bear with us, we need Sirius alive.

'This' mean thinking to one's self ('My name is George.')

"This" means talking out loud("I like cats.")

---

The attack began early one evening in July after one Mundungus Fletcher left his post at Number 4 Privet Drive early. The Death Eaters who swarmed the quiet street found The-Boy-Who-Lived and his cousin in the park nearby.

At the sight of the Death Eaters, Dudley Dursley began to gibber in terror and attempted to hide behind a tree, with little success. His cousin, however, did not gibber and did not hide. He was a wizard of considerable power, despite still being in school, and the aggravation, irritation and worry for the wizarding world he'd felt all summer had suddenly found an outlet.

The Death Eaters found subduing the boy harder than they had expected, but in the end, they won with sheer numbers. With The-Boy-Who-Lived locked in a Full-Body Bind, they seized his wand and turned it over to their master, who had stood and watched the battle.

"Harry Potter," he hissed. "We meet again." Voldemort's red eyes glinted maliciously as he looked at the green-eyed boy. "You're irritating ability to do exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time will bother me no more." With those words, the Dark Lord canceled the spell holding Harry and shouted, "Crucio!"

Harry stumbled as the body bind was canceled, barely managing to dive out of the way of the Unforgivable rushing towards him. Voldemort continued to throw curses at the young wizard, but none found their target, as the young wizard began to dive one way and another in a frantic effort to remain unhexed. One particularly spectacular dive slammed Harry into a snickering Death Eater. His hands flailing blindly, he seized the wizard's wand and turned to face Voldomort.

Now armed, Harry and Voldemort began to duel feverishly. As they fought, Harry could feel himself growing weaker. 'My only chance,' he thought, 'is for the Ministry to send in Aurors when the notices about using Underage Magic don't do anything.' He grimaced silently. 'I'm doomed.'

The curses, jinxes and charms continued to fly back and forth. The wand Harry had stolen had gotten hot to the touch and was starting to vibrate badly. He struggled to maintain his grip, his thoughts darting from the memory of the graveyard, Cedric, Sirius's tired face and the memory of his mother's screams. His hate for the Dark Wizards in front of him began to boil. With the last of his remaining strength, Harry and Voldemort exchanged one last curse.

"Avada Kedavra," two voices cried.

The green lights of the two Killing curses impacted between them, each one striving for dominance. The stolen wand was smoking now and seemed to have a life of its own. Voldemort crowed in triumph as his cursed ripped the other apart.

At that same moment, however, the wand Harry had seized exploded, throwing him clear of the Killing curse. The remains of the wand, however, ripped through his left leg, rendering it completely useless and scattering his blood all over the ground. The force of the explosion had also thrown Voldemort back. He now lay unconscious on the ground several feet away.

Harry's limbs trembled as he dragged himself towards the Dark Lord's fallen wand. Just as he picked it up, one of the assembled Death Eaters let out a loud screech and threw the Cruciatus curse at Harry.

Looking back on the pivotal event, Harry would never know for certain why things happened the way they did. Perhaps it was trying to defend himself with the brother wand of his own; a wand seeped in Dark Magic. Another possibility was the Cruciatus being miscast. Or maybe the magic from the exploded wand, plus the magic from the duel, combined in a bizarre way with the Unforgivable Curse. Whatever the cause, when the spell hit Harry Potter, he vanished with in flash of white light.

---

Grey-green eyes watched from a distance, observing, but not interfering. The man who had hidden himself behind a tree (with much better success than the terrified Dudley) had long graying black hair pulled into a simple tail and leaned on a wooden cane.

He winced when The-Boy-Who-Lived disappeared, knowing better than anyone what had happened to him. The assembled Death Eaters milled around for a moment in shocked surprise, waving their arms and talking in loud, excited voices. The sudden, distinctive Bang that heralded an apparating wizard, however, stopped them in their tracks.

One Death Eater began barking orders, gesturing first at their unconscious leader and then at a stooped, quivering wizard. The wizard shook his head wildly, trying to refuse. A minute or two under the Cruciatus changed his mind. The man turned into a thin rat and bolted while the Death Eaters picked up the Dark Lord and vanished.

The man who had watched all of this narrowed his eyes as he tracked a small rat with a silver paw running through the grass. He waited for it to pass the limp form of a fainted Dudley, than brought his cane down sharply on its head as it ran by.

The man glanced at the Aurors who were just starting to arrive at the park before looking back down at the limp rat at his feet. He drew his wand from a slot in his cane and with a sharp gesture and a flash of light, the rat turned back into a man. The wizard smiled faintly, pleased with his work, and than turned and limped away.

---

Kingsley Shacklebolt held a long holly wand in his hand with a dismayed expression on his normally impassive face. While he had never had the honor of meeting the Boy-Who-Lived, he had heard a great deal about him. A wizard's wand lying in a pool of blood in a park in an area that housed no wizards save for The-Boy-Who-Lived…an area which, it had been reported, had been filled with Dark Wizards, mostly likely Death Eaters.

While Shacklebolt was in charge of the hunt for Sirius Black, the Aurors who had run screaming into the Auror Headquarters about Dark Wizards attacking Harry Potter had grabbed every warm body in the office and returned to the Little Whinging area.

The tall auror clenched the wand in his hand in determination. Seeing another Auror approaching, he asked the question that would soon be burning in everyone's minds. "Where is Harry Potter?"

The auror winced before replying. "No sign of him yet, sir. Not much sign of anything, actually. We know Dark magic was used, but not which spells. We know there was a large group of wizards here, but we don't know how many or what they were doing here. We found a wizard's wand, but not the wizard who owns it." The auror sighed, a look of defeat in his eyes. "Unless we can find a witness, we may never know what happened here."

"Good thing we might have one!" A female voice exclaimed. The two Aurors turned to look at the young woman with short, spiky violet hair in surprise. "Found two people, Kingsley. One's a fat lump of a muggle boy who probably saw what happened. Can't think of any other reason for him to have pissed himself and fainted. The other is a rather beat up chap wearing what look like Death Eater robes and has a silver hand. He looks like he was hit o'er the head with something."

Kingsley let out a sigh of relief. "Well done, Tonks. We'll send the witnesses to headquarters and question them there. We'll need to make it fast so the boy at least isn't missed." He thought for a moment before adding one more thought. "Send someone to the Potter boy's house to inform his relatives that their nephew was attacked and has disappeared. Let them know we'll keep them apprised of our search."

Tonks nodded and bounded towards the wizards clustered around their witnesses. After speaking with an elderly auror, she turned again and started walking up the street towards Number Four Privet Drive.

---

Update: Now going on six tries to get the section dividers in...

Chapters two through four are almost complete, so this story will be updated. Hope you enjoyed.

Please review! Let us know where you would like to see this story go. We can't promise we'll be able to use it, but we would love to hear your thoughts!