Ad Astra Per Aspera

by fortescues2

Summary:

Iris Potter walked alone into the Forbidden Forest to die. She walked out of the forest and back into a war very different from her own next to a man who'd died long before she was born.

(This is a repost of a story I wrote and took down years ago.)

Notes:

I am reposting this story which I wrote a few years ago. It got some very nice comments back then. I have been thinking about it recently and wanted to return. I hope you enjoy it now.

Chapter 1: Prologue

Prologue

 

“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” -Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, pg. 297.

 

In one universe, a dark haired young man walked upright to his death. As the green light filled the clearing, he dreamed desperately of a future, of warm lips, of a beautiful woman.

In another universe, one not so dissimilar to the first, a young woman with bright hair stepped into the same clearing to meet her fate. She saw the man who tried to be a monster and thought of all that lay between them. She thought of four boys who were like brothers, ripped apart. She thought of flaxen hair, a knowing smirk and sightless grey eyes. She thought of another motherless child. And as this clearing filled with green light, she did not hear the high cruel voice as it uttered the killing curse, instead, the girl heard a familiar voice begging once again, “Not Iris. Please, don’t kill Iris.”

The young man regained consciousness. He went on to slay the monster and in that story all was well. But that, of course, is not our story.