CHAPTER 17
DEEP UNDERGROUND
The throne sat in front a huge pit. From the throne you could see the red glowing from it, lava looking as if it were in a pot, boiling. On the throne sat the Dark Lord, though the chamber, deep within the ground, was stifling hot, one look from Voldermort's red snake eyes would send shivers down your spine. Many of his minions gathered, vampires, werewolves, demons and the humans.
"Wormtail, come forth." The Dark Lord said. "Tell me what news you have brought."
One of the shorter, fatter humans, dressed in a black cloak, stepped forward from across the pit and kneeled, "Master, the location of the prisoners has been found and retrieval is in the process."
"Good," Voldermort replied, "Good. Any inquiries of why they failed?"
"I'm sure Lucius will inform you, when he arrives m'lord." Wormtail answered.
"And what of our informant at Hogwarts? Have they found out how we got into the castle?" Voldermort asked, with a tone of boredom.
"Our informant tells us that they have yet to find our means of entrance. Nor has anyone suspected that we have an informant."
"Good, good. I do not need another set back especially what happened at Holic. Frank and Patricia were good
servants, but too `good'. Had that Potter boy not condemn me to my doom all those years ago, I would have raised
that girl myself. She would not have turned out to be weak if I did the job myself. Imagine Wormtail, put brother and
sister against each other and see who wins." With that Voldermort gave out an evil laugh. Then he stopped,
"But that is not going to be the case, as soon as Lucius and the rest are retrieved, you may move forward with our
plans."
*
Harry woke up in a cold sweat. Hermione was still asleep beside him. Harry cursed at himself. He had been practicing his Occlumency religiously, yet he had a dream last night. He didn't know if he should believe it or not. He glanced at the clock, it read 8:14. He looked back at Hermione, he didn't really want to wake her up, but they had been sleeping for about twelve hours. But then he looked back at the clock, and he could see the clock clearly, and he had yet to put on his glasses. He quickly snatched his glasses and put them on, everything was all fuzzy and out of focus, "Bloody hell." He blurted out. Hermione bolted awake and was in a sitting position.
"What, what is it?" she asked in alarm. Harry was still fumbling with his glasses, sliding them on and off. Then looked at Hermione.
"I'm sorry," he quickly apologized, "I didn't mean to wake you like that. It's just I woke up and could see properly, can't see anything with them." He said finally tossing the glasses on the night table.
"How did that happen?" she asked laying back down again with one hand propping her head up facing Harry.
"Don't know." He replied. Hermione studied his face; she could tell he was in deep thought.
"What's wrong?" she asked him, "besides the glasses thing."
"I had a dream last night or a vision if you want to call it that, about Voldermort." Harry said, he explained what he saw.
"Do you think it was real?" Hermione asked.
"I'm not sure." He simply replied still with the face of thought. Harry looked over at Hermione who was smiling. "What?"
"I was just thinking," she paused, "that you look better with out the glasses."
"Really?"
She didn't answer, Ron had knocked on the door, "Harry get up already, some people are staving for food and unfortunately this mansion doesn't have any." Hermione gave Harry a quick kiss before she got up and hurried to her room to go get dressed.
"Be right out."
*
Somehow Harry and Hermione managed to find their way into a large workout room where the others were gathered. Lupin was sitting in a chair looking at the Daily Seer, the American version of the Daily Prophet. While Ginny and Ron were on lookers to a fencing match between Aeryn and Draco. They wore no protective gear of any kind. Aeryn, in fact, was dressed up to go out, short black skirt, red sleeveless halter top, with knee high, four inch heel, black boots, making her almost as tall as Draco. Harry was amazed how well Aeryn could fight with those boots. The match was quickly called to a close when Draco was distracted by the arrival of Harry and Hermione, and Aeryn easily disarmed him.
"No fair." Draco said, "That's something a Slytherin would do."
Aeryn held her arms out as if presenting herself, "Well, what can I say? I'm just getting into character."
"What do you mean `in character'?" Harry asked. Everyone had to look twice at Harry because of his lack of glasses on his face. "And before anyone asks, I just woke up to perfect vision, hence I'm not wearing my glasses, and no I don't know why or how."
Aeryn cleared her throat, "Well, what I mean by in character is that I have some business to attend to today. That letter I received yesterday was from a lawyer stating that I have no right to all this." She gestured to the mansion, "And that they will take it all away."
"Is that a bad thing?" Harry asked.
"If I don't have all this," Aeryn gestured again, "then it will probably go to a distant cousin of mine, one who will most likely be in the service of a certain Dark Lord. And that gives him more power. So yes that would be a bad thing. Now legally they can't do this, I was officially adopted by my parents and they left everything to me in their Will. But you know evil they never do anything by the rules."
And with that they all flooed out of the mansion, to a floo station deep in New York City.