Chapter Number: 31
Chapter Name: Incidents, revelations
Malfoy was one of the few Slytherins who took their wands out when they saw Harry near the serpentine creature. Most of the Gryffindors did the same, but their reasoning were a world apart. Where Harry's house were afraid that Harry was in trouble, Slytherins saw it as an opportunity to hit Harry from the back. It didn't matter to them that it would be a cowardly act - attack from the front or back didn't matter, the end result did.
The delight that Malfoy had, for an opportunity to "help - and - accidentally - hurt - Harry" in public, was shattered when all but him put their wands down on Harry's order.
Crabbe and Goyle too. ' The dunder heads'.
It irked him to no end that, even the Slytherins were suddenly taking orders from Harry and only a few months ago the dark lord made his return from beyond the grave. It was an insult to the DarkLord and his holy quest that he wanted to rectify.
He whispered a curse that he had learned a long time ago.
It was light magic, but it was painful none the less. The tip of his wand grew blue when all of a sudden Hagrid who had just come behind him turned him around.
" What the hell do yer thin yer do... aaahhh" Hagrid did not get to finish the sentence when the blue light from Malfoy's wand erupted, sending Hagrid flying back a fair few meters through the air.
The ground underneath shook when this happened.
Giants were particularly resilient when it came to curses hurled at them, even two of the unforgivable curses ( 'Imperius' and 'Cruciatus' ) had no effect on them. Most light and dark magics need to be performed by two or three wizards together, to make a spell work properly. Though Hagrid was only halfgiant, he still was able to take the curse in stride... well the pain part anyway.
Several of the students rushed to where Hagrid was to see if he was all right, while Malfoy stood there with panic written all over his face. " Malfoy..." boomed Hagrid's voice across the whole of the school ground, as he got on his feet. The voice was enough for Malfoy to fear for his life. He made a mad dash for the castle. " ... that lil ferret... When I get me hands on 'im I swear I'll skin 'im alive"
Hagrid then turned his focus on to Harry who was still standing in front of the Veloron cage. What Hagrid (who was half giant) saw standing in front of him scared him enough to take two steps back.
He could see waves of green emanate from Harry's body like a halo and just reach the group of students in front of him. Giants were blessed with an extra ordinary gift. It was not their size or strength, but they could literally see the magical potential inside a person.
Only the yesterday, when Harry was in class, Hagrid had noticed that as always Harry's slight green glow was brighter than the other students. Hermione and Malfoy were the other two on the in the class that had a above average potential, but they were no where close to what Harry had around him self.
The level of brightness reminded him of two very different people. One was the current headmaster of Hogwarts. Brave, cunning and working for the good.
The other was a man, whose name to this day he could not say without flinching. It was the same man who some fifty odd years ago destroyed his father's dream of seeing his halfgiant son become a wizard. The other man was Tom Riddle.
Also known as, Lord Voldemort.
When the brightness suddenly flickered away he was surprised. Even Professor Dumbledore, was never able to return to his original brightness so soon. It had two possible reasons. Either Harry was very strong or he was too weak to sustain his magical potential.
Hagrid suspected that Harry was too weak to sustain it, but he hoped like hell that Harry was actually so strong that he could reduce his magical potential very easily. He made a mental note to talk to him later about his. Finally recovering from his shock he said, " Ye OK there 'Arry?"
" Yes!" Harry yelled back much to Hagrid's relief.
But it really was a lie as Harry could barely stay in the position that his body was in. He probably would have had fell to the ground right after his magical potential went down, had it not been for Scaly, who had seen her benefactor slowly weakening in her defense.
She had grabbed his cloak from the back with her tail and held him in place. It was not a sense of self preservation
that made her do this. It was simply because she sensed that Harry did not want to show weakness. None of the other
students dared get any closer to Harry then they already were. They were afraid that the fire breathing beast would
harm them. Hagrid slowly made his way to the front of the class. Harry whispered to Scaly, " You can let
go now... I think I'm fine. Thanks."
" No worriesssss...." she replied back.
" Hagrid..." said Harry when he was close enough.
" ... what?" he asked gently.
" Don't put the cloth back on again.... It was cold and the babies - the need the light… I had to take it
offfffff......." Harry did not get to finish what he had wanted to say as his speech slurred and then suddenly he
fell to the ground, unconscious.
Across the school grounds and in the castle somewhere near his office, Professor Dumbledore came to a full stop before a door. He turned to the west side of the Castle. He knew what was happening to Harry and he knew the benefits it would bring the light side in the upcoming war with Voldemort and his minions. He murmured in a foreboding tone that no one was there to listen to, " So it has finally begun..."
Far from the castle in a place where few dare to travel, Lord Voldemort stopped in the middle of the imperious curse that he was performing on a helpless muggle man. The man was in mid air doing a back flip, when he suddenly regained control of his own body. He fell to the stone floor and with a loud crack that broke several of his bones.
" So he has finally started his journey..." said Voldemort.
Someone in his place would have been very afraid of what was happening, but he was positively thrilled. He knew that the prophesized battle is another three years away and there'll be only one victor.
He made his first mistake as Lord Voldemort when he fought the prophecy and went after the Potters. He had tipped the scale in favor of the boy then and now he was well protected. He had ordered his minions that if they had an opportunity to kill Potter not to do it. It was because the prophecy did not say whether the heir of Merlin would win or not in his final battle. Voldermort had no intention of giving Harry another opportunity to tip the scales more in favor of the light side.
He knew that the only hope he had of defeating Harry was to regain his former powers and that was only possible by creating chaos to mask what he was really doing. He looked at the muggle man on the floor whimpering... but careful not to make too much noise as he did not want to die soon. Voldemort did not even think as he uttered the words, "Avada Kedavra". The room was illuminated with a bright green light for a split second as the spark impacted on the man on the floor, killing him, where he was. Out of misery.
Two men in cloaks quickly came to where the dead muggle was and dragged him away. A strong and confident man with a silver hand emerged from the shadows to face his master. He went on his hands and knees and awaited a signal.
" Rise," said Voldemort, " What news do you bring from the giants?" His cool voice was sending shivers through his own followers.
" They had an emissary already my lord." Voldemort kept his eyes on the ground. " The grounds keeper from Hogwarts"
" I know of him... they have allied themselves with Dumbledore?"
" Yes, my lord. They do not wish to take part in the war."
" If they are not with us, they are against us."
" What is it that you wish me to do?...."
Voldemort sat up. " What did you do them?"
" I took my wards and destroyed their village... we killed three hundred of the
giants.... they are a threat no more...." he replied.
" Excellent... You'll be rewarded for this." he hisses.
" I seek no reward other than to please you my lord...." Voldemort gave a dry laugh at this.
Back in the castle...
Neville was sleeping peacefully on the bed thinking of things he would like to do to Professor Snape if he was allowed to. Things included Neville being every thing from a barber ("accidentally killing him while he was sitting on the chair") to being a wild-beast removal person (Snape getting attacked by a supposedly "escaped" Manchurian Maneater).... ' or maybe be like that Veloron thingy...'
His daydreams were interrupted when Hagrid brought in Harry's unconscious body. It was only a few minutes ago that Harry had visited him, and he seemed very well back then. Harry suddenly becoming sick, made Neville worry about his own health.
Hagrid put Harry down on the closest bed. Several students in the same class followed him in. " Gerr out all yer..." Hagrid said in his booming voice. All the girls promptly left the room, the guys were a bit more slow but were prompt none the less. Hagrid saw that Ron and Hermione did not leave and as much as it pained him to do so, he did not think it was good of either Ron or Hermione to see what was going to happen to him next. He looked at the pair and said, " I said everyone!"
" But..." started to say Ron, but stopped when Hermione started to pull him back.
" We should go.. We'll only get in their way and Harry might." she paused as a lump got caught in his throat, " ... something bad might happen to him..." Ron gave up trying to stay.
After they left Hagrid, looked at Neville and said, " Ye got yer wand?" Neville nodded. " Well get it out... if any one tries to get past yer... blast...er.... Ye know how to do a body-binding charm right?..."
" Yes..." said Neville. Not many people knew it but that was the only spell in charms he could do flawlessly. After the end of his first year, he studied that specific curse very well. Over the course of the last three years he had become very good at it, because of his constant practice.
" Lock the door after I leave. Professor Dumbledore will open it when he comes" with that he closed the door behind him and Neville locked the door from inside. He sat down on the bed next Harry's and waited patiently. He was a bit afraid of the mob (he could hear their loud talk) outside.
About five minutes when Professor Dumbledore had come to a stand still in front of the door, he waited patiently for what was to come next. Sure enough at that very moment, Hagrid appeared at the closest corridor to where he was standing. He looked tired and was huffing and puffing when he reached the headmaster.
" Professor... 'Arry... he fainted..."
" I know. I assume you've put him in his hospital wing?" it was not a question since Hagrid knew the professor already knew the answer to that question already.
He simply nodded. " ... professor..." Hagrid was going to ask the headmaster a question but was interrupted in the middle.
" I know you've many questions, Hagrid. Follow me, please. ..." the headmaster did not head for his office instead started to head for the Hospital wing.
Hagrid saw the professor do something with his wand, when a bright white light exploded for a fraction of a second, over them. Suddenly all the student's walking past them made no noise what so ever. Hagrid saw them open their mouth, but nothing came out. Realizing it was some kind of advanced privacy spell he said nothing about it. After about a minute of silence, the professor spoke. " I assume from your silence you've had experience with something of this sort... Ms. Granger perhaps."
" Yes, Professor." Replied Hagrid.
" You saw him emanate... didn't you?"
Hagrid could only nod in response. Even though the headmaster was actually walking in front of Hagrid, he reacted as if he saw Hagrid nod. " I'm sorry, I should have had told you before..."
" It's the same as I saw with To..." he stopped himself. "... HIM. Is the same going to happen to him? "
" In a way...." he turned his head back to smile at the half giant "... he'll go through it faster... It's a good thing he's going through it here. I can look after him."
" HE turned evil right after that" said Hagrid meaning about how Lord Voldemort became evil after going through the same thing Harry was going through.
" He was a lost soul long before this happened to him and Harry..." his voice held pride as he said the rest of the line, " Well he's Harry. Too much good in him to be tempted to abuse it... I suspect he'd rather want to hide this fact from everyone. He won't change mentally. He's too strong for that. That's why Voldemort wants to kill him...."
It finally made sense to Hagrid why Voldemort had been after Harry from the time he was born. If Harry was weak minded like Tom had been then the transformation would have had corrupted him over the years and eventually Harry would have had joined the dark side. But since Harry was stronger willed; he was a threat to Voldemort's plan for world domination.
" Is that why..." he did need to finish his question when he got the answer.
" Yes, partly." it was an ominous answer.
" Will you tell him?..."
" No... not yet...."
" Why?" asked Hagrid curious.
" He's not ready yet. He has to know himself before, I can give his answer to that question.... Hagrid. I know you know the reasons for Harry's life, if you don't want history to repeat then..."
" I want you to do the memory charm on me Professor... I don't think I can stop myself if he asks...."
" I'm sorry Hagrid, but that is not acceptable. He'll see the spell on your mind. He'll want to know what's there. But if you don't say anything.... he won't know."
" You're trusting me to keep this a secret..."
" No... I'm telling you if you care about Harry, forget what you saw today"
" I will... for Lily's sake... for James and most of all Harry's sake, I'll forget what I know." This time Hagrid decided was not going to be like the first year with Harry. Every sentence involving Harry, Lily and James would go though his brain several times before he'd let it out of his mind.
Voldermort laughed when Wormtail made the speech about how all he did was to please his master. Voldemort knew why his followers followed him. None of his followers were the ' Make master happy ' types. There was only one that had died the year before.
Barty Crouch Jr. He was almost like a son to him - indeed if he had only managed to get a mortal body, and die a natural death - he would have had named the boy his successor. Even if he did have an immortal body, he would have made that boy his other arm, after the LeStranges as his right.
All his other servants had a bigger master than him. It was greed. They all wanted power, fame, or glory and they would do almost anything to get it. That is why they followed him. Then again he did know this. He wanted them to follow something higher than himself - he knew then what motivated them.
" You and I both know that's not true, Wormtail." he hissed at the man crouching before him, ".... But I'll punish you later since your reward out weighs the reason for your punishment - for today."
" What do you wish of me?... my lord" Wormtail said, breathing a sigh of relief.
" You'll lead the attack on the muggle born children of Hogwarts at the end of the year..."
Lucius Malfoy emerged from the shadows and said in an outraged tone of voice said, " My lord... you promised me...." he didn't get to finish the sentence when a Crucious curse went through his body. There was not an incantation or anything of that sort heard by anyone but the caster himself.
Severus Snape.
" Do not interrupt the lord again..." he said as he released Lucius from the forbidden spell.
" Ahhhh... What news do you bring of Harry Potter?...." his red eyes glowed as he said this.
Ginny's charms teacher was very impressed with her spell to change the color of the pig that was in front of the class. She was the only person who had gotten the charm right on the first go, but it had exhausted her. She asked Professor Flitwick for permission to go outside the class to get some fresh air. Just as she stepped out of the room... she collided with someone moving very fast.
( A/N: The whole of the Gryffindor house seems to under a tripping over each other curse… hmmm )
The force of the blow sent her along the corridor a few meters before friction from the floor brought her to a halt.
" Awww..." said Ginny to look up to see who was her assailant. It turned out to be a hyperventilating Dean
Thomas.
" Sorry... no time... got to go" said Dean and he made a run for the hospital wing. He didn't even stop
to see if Ginny was alright. She started to grumble to herself about rude boys when someone she didn't know came
over to where she was. He extended his hand and said, " Here... let me help you."
" ...er..thanks..." she said as she got off the floor, with the help of the sandy haired boy. He had a mop of hair much like Harry's though his were ruffled because it was evident that something big was going on outside the class. " What's you name?...er... if you don't mind me asking?"
She could have had sworn she saw him blush, but dismissed the thought since someone actually blushing over her was a concept totally unknown to her. Even Collin her current "not-my-boy-friend" did no such thing. She sometimes thought that Collin was a bit too involved with Harry for his own good, but being close to him also allowed her access to some really good photos of the person she was head over heels for. Harry.
" Ginny..." she paused as she blurted out her name then realized she had forgotten her last name, " Ginny Weasley"
" Well Ginny Weasley..." he beamed a smile at her as though he approved of her name, " I'm Terry Boot. You're a fourth year aren't you?"
" Yeah..." she said amazed, " How did you know?"
" errr... I have to go... Harry Potter's been injured." he said as he was about to leave. She quickly grabbed his hand before he could fully turn away from her.
" What's happened to him?" she asked. Her voice was loud and it was frightening enough to scare Terry who was a year older to say, " He fell unconscious...."
Ginny didn't look happy at the news and he thought she was going to hit him really badly. A bit frightened, he tried to get away from her. " Where is he?" she asked.
" Hos....Hospital...." he didn't get to finish the race when Ginny made a mad dash for the Hospital wing.
When Snape was in school, he wanted more than anything to get acceptance from Professor Dumbledore. He worked hard trying to get James and his band of Marauders to get expelled because of the pranks that they pulled. Professor Dumbledore knew of the activities of the James and his gang, but did nothing to discourage them, only increasing Snape's hatred for James.
James also was much better than him, academically. Always coming second to James in every thing including to the one girl that he thought he loved was something he did not want to see. When that happened he latched on to the one person that recognized his brilliance.
That being Voldemort.
Even though he was naive in the beginning about Lord Voldemort's need for him, he soon realized that Lord Voldemort did not really like him the way he wanted Professor Dumbledore to like him, rather Snape was just one of his tools.
Realizing that he set out to correct mistakes of his past... one of the very first things he did was to give warning to James and Lily of the danger to their lives. Even after the warning Snape never felt that he had done enough to prevent their death. That is why he helped Harry in his first year against Professor Quirrell/Voldemort.
It was a risk... a grave risk for him to come back to the dark lord's side. The dark lord knew of his betrayal, and knew that he was working as a double agent. But this allowed him information from Professor Dumbledore's side (real or fictional) and in return he fed Snape information, some real - others not. But that did not mean that Voldemort was going to spare Snape from the Crucious curse... not when he had to endure so much, for so long.
" I have only one news my lord, he's sick. If you wish, I will poison him." said Snape in a toneless voice, almost as if he was an automaton. He did not mean it and both he and Voldemort knew it. Voldemort was happy that finally his enemy was becoming visible... He laughed in his high pitched voice, sending shivers through all the death eaters present in the dark, damp and cold room.
" I know of the his "sickness" as you call it...." he paused. His eyes glowed more red as he spoke, " you can't poison him.."
Voldemort stopped himself from saying that no poison could kill Harry anymore, as he knew that might tempt his followers to remove him. Together they were a lot stronger than he was right now. He couldn't expose his own weaknesses. "... I want to kill him myself. Remember that. No one tries to kill him other than me."
" I apologize, my lond."
" Shut up, Severus. I grow tired of you... If you do not want me to kill you right now... leave."
" Yes my lord" Snape did not dare get up from where he was. With a small pop he was gone.
Voldemort turned his eyes on Wormtail, who was still kneeling before his master and said, " Wormtail...."
" Yes my lord..."
" I want you to go to Russia.." he hissed, " Do you know what you have to do there..."
" ... I think so, master. But I dare not presume to know what you are thinking my lord."
" ... There is a place near Siberia... you know what to get from there?"
" Yes my lord" he replied
" Take 20 of the new recruits with you." Voldemort was smiling in a cruel way. " They have yet to taste the blood of the dead - they need to do it. They need to love it. "
" By your order my lord..." said Wormtail as he got up to leave. Half way out of the chamber he heard his master utter the word " Crucio" and his body was wracked with pain as every nerve ending in his body felt as though they were on fire. He was hit with a Crucious curse.
" This was only a taste of what is waiting for you if you fail. Do. Not. Fail. Me. Wormtail."
Voldemort knew it would take him, years if not decades, to reach his true level again. It was his punishment for tampering with fate, that he was forced to live so long without a body. It had been foretold long before that Harry and Voldemort were to face off each other at the age of fourteen... to the victor would go the world, for a long time until another evil or force of good comes up.
Voldemort killed one Centaur to gain that particular bit of prophecy a long time ago and only a few days ago he killed another gaining a brand new one. This one was even murkier than the one before. This one predicted that Harry and Voldemort would fight a battle a day in three years time.
When and where could not be told from the stars, but it was to take place when Harry was a full grown Wizard. For interfering with the prophecies, he was deprived of his body for over a decade and now that he had it back - Voldemort dared not defy the prophecies of the Centaurs again. For this time without his experimentation with immortality like he had done so before, he would certainly die.
When Wormtail left the room, Voldemort focused his gaze upon the shivering body of Lucius Malfoy. " Lucius... It was a good thing that Severus did what he did. Had he not done that You would have been killed... no... I think life worse than death would be more appropriate. More like the ones the Long Bottoms went through..."
" I apologize master..."
" I care not for them, I want you to send messages to the Dementors in Azkaban. They'll join us soon enough. I want you to organize their revolt. It won't take you time to organize that, so leave that for now. Organize a group of thirty Death Eaters to hunt down the traitorous scum... Karakauff. I want his head on a platter."
" As you wish..."
" Lucius,"
" Yes master."
" I will kill your entire family if you fail."
" Yes master."
" And Lucius, 'Crucio!' - "
Voldemort's laugh filled the air, as Voldemort threw yet another curse at Lucius.
<<~~~>>
END OF CHAPTER
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