Harry Potter Story: The Journey of a Heart(Searching For Replacement!)

[Notorious]

LONG STORY SHORT!: Put together this story with another writer and went through all of the steps of planning together in the hopes that we could explore a dark alternative Harry Potter universe together. Unfortunately, though, we weren't able to continue together, but that's okay! That's already been discussed, and I'm redacting the story so that someone else can pick up on it with me if they would like to. SO! IF you're a fan of Harry Potter based story lines and would like to try this one out with me then PLEASE! Feel free to contact me here or privately by PM! : ]

Yes! I'm willing to adjust the characters within the story if we want a different take, say if Harry and Hermione ended up together, or if someone's interested in adjusting bother roles so that we can play two ORIGINAL characters, that could be just fine too and I'd still be intersted.

Original character x Cannon character
Original character x Original character
OR Cannon x Cannon character

ALL of these options are fine and if you're curious to see what combinations that we can come up with then again, just reply with your interest here or shoot me a PM.



Link to the Story starter post: The Journey of a Heart, A Perfect Circle[HP]

Contents of the Starter post...

November 16th, 2007 - 8:35 PM
The home of Harry Potter



Almost ten years since the death of Lord Voldemort...



It had only been a couple of hours since Ron and Hermione had stopped by his beach side home in Liverpool where he had been hiding like a recluse for nearly five months since his divorce from Ginny, and even though he'd spoken to them both briefly by phone, he hadn't seen either of them in at least six. Both had been busy with the two kids that they had given one another years ago, and now that they were growing up Harry saw that perhaps they could have been a couple of the reasons that his and Ginny's relationship had fallen apart. Of course, they would never be truly responsible for the love lost between Harry and their Aunt, but it was they that Ginny had referred to more than once when they had spoken about their lives together and where they were going with things. They'd had no children of their own up to that point, after all, and now that he was ten years older from when they'd fallen in love with one another it did seem troubling that they hadn't at least tried. Or rather, they hadn't tried not to, but they most certainly hadn't put forth the effort to make sure that his seed might take and that she might give to him a son or a daughter for their efforts. That, though, was only the beginning of the heartbreaking tale that followed and had lead them to that oh so depressing day when they had decided to call and end to their marriage to one another, ever the rogues that they had become after having grown so very far apart.

It had been partly their careers that pulled them in different directions and had them working at odd hours in relation to one another, of course limiting their time with one another during the typical days. Then their date nights began to suffer what with the traveling that Ginny had to do and the overnight investigations that Harry was sometimes called away for in different cities and towns. And without children to connect them, even after years of refusing to use contraceptives, it was becoming abundantly clear that there was something amiss. In fact, their trip to the doctors in relation to their issues producing a child was perhaps the last straw for Ginny, even though Harry himself was still up for the fight to carry on. She'd been convinced that something must be wrong with him, even though Harry had known her to sometimes project her feelings rather than embrace them when she was nervous or concerned. His virility had not been questioned after just their first visit, however, though sadly Ginny's news was indeed what worst she had feared.

The argument they'd had that day was perhaps the most fierce that Harry himself could remember as she stormed out of the office, her purse being punished with her slinging and flipping it about during her frustration. She'd even gouged Harry with a slight or two as she threw open the door to their car and dropped into the passenger seat before slamming it again and crossing her arms. It didn't take long for her to drop her face into her hands, however, and the tug upon his heartstrings caused his chest to swell tight before he took those long, careful strides to the car, pulled open her door and knelt down atop the pavement so that he could embrace her for a time. A long enough time for it to begin raining, which truly didn't matter considering the mess she'd made of the front of his shirt with her tears. She was crushed by her lacking potential to have children, and she'd been told that she only had a few years left to bear them, despite her slim chance to be able to give that gift of life at all.

It only too about six more months for them to fall apart after that, no matter how hard they had both worked at keeping things together. When too much had been sacrificed to get them no further along than they had been, though, their love had begun to wither away, like a burning leave slowly graying into ashes.

"Oi...", Ron's voice billowed deep, yet he kept his tone as light as he could as he aimed to take back Harry's attention. "She's not any happier about this than you are, mate.", he told him as Harry's long, black hair slipped in ribbons across his broad, left shoulder to hang down freely along his neck. "Yea, I know.", He said in response to his best friend as Hermione watched Harry from across Ron's shoulder while rubbing her ginger husband's back with a warm, gently hand. "She still loves you, but you both know that this is what's best, right?", she asked him, to which he nodded in reply as he silently stared at the carpet between his bare feet.

For a time there was silence again as Ron glanced back at Hermione and allowed his lips to become a thin line as he expressed a look of concern to her, to which she responded with one of equal displeasure for the moment they were sharing with their dearest of friends. When he was tired of that silence, though, Ron glanced back at Harry and perked up just a bit, trying as best as he could to look a bit more positive in nature as he said, "Hey. You have got to get out of this house, yeh?", even though it wasn't truly a question at all. It was a statement of truth that Harry himself could not deny, and so he raised his head of long, dark hair in response so that he could reply while eyeing his friends before he would acknowledge the truth.

"Yea, I know that too.", he told them, though it wasn't there that he decided to stop. "I've got plans to go out tonight. Have a few drinks. Catch up with some old friends of ours.", he explained as he reached up and fixed the glasses that were hanging across the bridge of his nose. "Neville and Hannah are in town... Luna and Rolf too, I believe.", he said with a small spark of hope in his eyes that he would get to see them and catch up, even though both Luna and Neville had told him already that they would likely not be able to make it out tonight, but that they would try for another time. That, however, was not something that Ron or Hermione needed to know, and so he had intentionally omitted that fact in lieu of the truth for the sake of their mutual excitement that he might get to relax a bit and get his mind off of things.

"That's wonderful, Harry. Please do let them know that we miss them and we must have a little house party soon.", Hermione advised to which Ron nodded in agreement. "Absolutely!", he said with a bit of excitement of his own before he continued. "We'll get some tickets to the next Quidditch tournament for everyone. Maybe have the girls cook up something delicious that we can enjoy with some wine and then we'll all head out to the tournament for a day or so. Maybe pitch a tent with an expansion charm like dad used to.", he explained to them both, as if he'd had it all planned out already. That, however, didn't sound at all like anything that Hermione could possibly disagree with, though, and with her own excitement she bore a big, bright smile, laughed lightly like the angel she'd always been and wrapped her arms around her husband for just a moment before she looked up to Harry and said, "Then it's settled."

"Sure.", Harry whispered in response as he forced a smile that he hoped looked genuine, and as the three of them stood to embrace one another he assure them one last time that he had places to be so that they might hurry on their ways back home.

"I've got some shaving and cleaning up to do, now, so go on home. I'll be fine.", he assured them, and before he'd known it their final farewells were shared before the both of them shrank into a writhing, snapping single point of color and motion, blinking into nothingness in but an instant...

---   ---   ---

November 16th, 2007 - 10:52 PM
Diagon Alley - The Soggy Grindylow Pub



Over two hours later...



The night was still young for those of seasoned experience with prowling and drinking in the evenings, but Harry, despite his age, hadn't ever been the type to find himself at pubs or clubs or anything of the like. In fact, he and Ginny had married so young that they had often enough found themselves attending house parties rather than doing anything more adventurous, and that had been primarily based upon their disinterest for the livelier and less resolved crowds. They'd been married, after all, and more times than not a loose young Witch or Wizards was typically out and about visiting pubs and attending more lively parties than he was used to because there was the prospect of "hooking up" that was always on the table. Of course, that didn't always come to fruition, nor was it always a good idea when things didn't quite go according to your personal plan of what was expected, but the efforts often enough times did bear fruit as well.

This would mark the first time since he'd been married that he'd actually gone out both ready and willing to let the die fly and fall as they may, but in truth he had been hoping for something more controlled. It had been Neville and Luna that he had been hoping to see again that night, regardless of whether or not their significant others were in attendance, even though he hadn't been displeased with either of them. Hannah had been rather snotty back in school, but she had most certainly made up for that after years of friendship with harry and the rest of their mutual group, and so her marriage to Neville hadn't ever crossed him in any sort of negative way. Rolf, on the other hand, he didn't know enough about to have much of an opinion on, for even though he had been a student of Hogwarts as well, he had kept separate social circles from Harry and his friends and had never been much of a social butterfly until he'd matured a bit by the end of their days at school.

Whether it be one, two, or all four of them, Harry had been hoping that he would not be sitting alone within the Soggy Grindylow as the night slowly churned on, but low and behold it had been over an hour and half of waiting for them and still neither had arrived. The buzzing in his pocket a moment later was of course felt, but not acknowledged, for he knew that it was one or the other of them apologizing before explaining that they promised to catch up another time. A sentiment that he would have appreciated if he weren't already five beers in and counting his sixth as he took a long, deep gulp from the cold steel mug before placing it back down on the table in front of him. He then reached back and pulled it long, loosely flowing hair up into a bun behind his head before tying it off with a leather strap and dropping his hands into his lap.

"Looks like it's stag then...", he whispered to himself while overhearing some sort of party that was being had in the connecting ballroom that the Soggy Grindylow had added on after it had done quite well for itself following it's fifth year of existence in Diagon Alley since opening back in 2002. It had become a sort of local hot spot for the younger crowd who found the newer furnishings, bar and cleaner facilities far more appealing than some of the older pubs around the area. As Harry took the last bite of his turkey sandwich, though, he rather found the thought of lingering with the older, more quiet crowd a pleasureful one, even though it was too late to up and leave now that he was there. After all, it would do him no better to leave one pub just to head to another after already getting comfortable in his leather booth seat that was etched into the far wall of the establishment from the front door.

"One more, please. An amber.", he said to the young waitress who came by the pick up his plate and previously dried up mug of beer that he'd left at the edge of the table. "Sure thing.", she said before she turned and hurried away, and as she did he watched her for a time and wondered if she had even known his name, or for that matter, cared at all who he was. It had only been a decade since that fateful day, after all, but he supposed that was more than enough time for him to be forgotten while his love life fell into decay and he let his previously unheard of spot of depression begin to cloud him. Not only that, but he'd let his hair grow out, and the scar above his right eyebrow had expanded into a rather unsightly gash that ran from his hairline, across his eye, cheek, and all the way down to the edge of his jaw. Something that he would have expected to go away with the death of that awful Dark Lord so long ago, but in truth he had made sure to have one last laugh at Harry's expense by leaving such a terrible scar that would forever label him as precisely who he was.

"The Boy Who Lived...", he whispered as he thought about those words and what they'd meant to him long ago when he was still growing into the man that he was that very moment. "...left scarred and half the man his father was.", he said before he glanced down into that golden pool of beer within his stein. "Half the man that Sirius was...", he then included, of course because he held no two men in higher regard than his true father and his stand-in father, each magnificent in their own rights.

For now he'd wait until his sight might blur, and when it did he'd take a long walk somewhere until the sun came up and he could find his way home.

"Harry Potter"

Name: Harry James Potter
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian/White
Species: Human
Orientation: Heterosexual
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 192 lbs
Eye color: Green
Hair color: Jet-Black
Birthday: July 31st, 1980
Blood status: Half-blood
Marital status: Divorced
Nationality: British
Profession: Auror
Rank: Senior Auror in training for command
House: Gryffindor
Known As: "The Boy Who Lived" and "The Chosen One"

Current wand: Harry's wand is a 13 and 1/2 inch, elegantly carved, spiraling wand made of the exceedingly rare and sometimes volatile Cherry wood coupled with a core of Dragon Heartsring. This particular wand was created after the Elder Wand was destroyed by Harry and he was left without a wand that was truly his own. He kept Draco's wand, who's allegiance had settled upon Harry after he had defeated Draco, but ever since the day he had rightfully bested the eldest son of Lucius Malfoy, Harry had felt himself incomplete, even when using Draco's wand that now answered to him.

In an effort to settle his heart Harry set off to foreign lands, collected some of the rarest and most attractive woods that he could find before he returned home, visited Gringotts vault and reclaimed a core of Dragon Heartstring that his father had acquired with Harry in mind before he had passed away. He then contacted Garrick Ollivander and convinced him to forge a wand for him with the Dragon Heartstring and Cherry wood, the Cherry of which he was not used to working with. Despite that, though, the old wand maker was excited to experience a new wood to craft with, even though he had firstly urged Harry to choose a different would because the combination of Cherry and Dragon Heartstring was said to be an absolutely terrifying one that could prove to be too powerful and unstable for even the greatest Witches and Wizards. Harry's mind was made up, however, and he insisted that the master wand craftsman construct for him a wand that would only truly ever answer to "The Chosen One".

Garrick reluctantly fashioned the wand over the span of a few weeks, making certain to seal it properly, carve it carefully and unlock it's predestined spirit with ease and care, but even as careful as he was he still bore the pain of touching it one last time as he finished his work because the wand had rejected him. In fact, it severely damaged the nerves in his left hand once the wand had come into it's own consciousness, which effectively ended his career before he relinquished the wand to Harry whom, as expected, the wand immediately yielded to.

Harry hand't understood just how vicious a wand could be, but learned the hard way that some wands were never meant to be made due to dangerous combinations of the elements that they were born of. Selecting a proper wand was one thing, but creating one of the finest and most powerful materials was a dangerous game that had cost Garrick his career in the effort Harry had implored of him. That, however, was of no concern to Garrick, for he had known that his wand making days were already at an end, and so he forgave Harry and reassured him that this last masterpiece would be a privilege more than it was a curse. A sort of final work of art that would sum up his legacy of wand creation through the years.

It was only three years later that he finally pass away in 2001 to complications of old age.

Thanks peeps!

- N

[Levi]

Love Harry potter just reading the journey at the moment and really enjoying the start of it!

[Notorious]

Love Harry potter just reading the journey at the moment and really enjoying the start of it!

Thank you so much for the compliment, Levi. It's greatly appreciated and I hope the read is inspiring for you!

^_^

[Notorious]

THIS STORY HAS BEEN CLAIMED!

Thanks to anyone who gave it a read to see about their interest in it. Happy writing everyone!