This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Shadow of the Dark Fortress Part 2: The Xanthius
By Triggy
March 2004
Prologue
Voldemort's newly built fortress was called the "Xanthius". Like Hogwarts, it was unplottable. It stood on a mountainous rocky island in the middle of a large lake, near one of the wizard world's dragon reservations deep in Scotland. It was also sometimes referred to as the Dark Fortress by Voldemort's followers due to its dark blue walls and the very powerful dark magic that protects the place, marked by a constant gloomy, cloudy, and lightning-filled sky. It was here the Dark Lord planned to rule the wizard world with an iron fist, and it was expected among his inner circle that soon, wizards who opposed Voldemort shall also fear the name of the fortress alongside his name.
Aside from his servants, Death Eaters, and minions, no one had ever seen Xanthius and lived to tell the tale. Except for the most unlikely of all survivors Harry Potter and three of his friends: Ron and Ginny Weasley, and Hermione Granger. They have been here just days before, face to face with the Dark Lord himself. Despite being boasted as impenetrable and inescapable, Harry and his friends miraculously escaped, returned to Hogwarts, and warned the wizard world of its existence. This was not supposed to happen and this in itself angered Voldemort immensely. Fortunately most of the wizard world seemed to be unbelieving that Xanthius really existed, but this didn't make Voldemort feel any better - his secret had been revealed prematurely.
The old clock chimed twelve midnight in a very lonely section of this seemingly centuries old castle. Had it not for the panicked screams echoing around its walls, it would have been the only sound present in the still night. A flurry of activity had suddenly taken place at this usually quiet time of the night: running footsteps, doors banging, shrieks of terror and pain, and eerie growling and mirthless laughter. Something dreadful was happening.
Owls perched on the large foyer's horizontal flagpoles were startled as the 20-foot silver doors separating it from the receiving room opened with a loud bang. A man, draped in white robes drenched in fresh blood and his mask askew, limped away from a towering figure following him closely with a wand. He fell over painfully to the cold stone floor, gasping for breath, and crawled further away from his attacker. A group of similarly dressed men cautiously followed the figure that had a face with a frightening likeness of a snake, and a set of glowing eyes that provided a dim red light in the fire-lit foyer.
"CRUCIO!" yelled the figure, and the man screamed in intense pain. The spell lasted for only a few seconds, but he might as well have been brought to the brink of death. He panted, feeling relieved although the deep pain inside him lingered. "M-My Lord…" he gasped.
"You have failed me for the last time, Daedelus!" growled Lord Voldemort. "Harry Potter has escaped me again! The plans that I have painstakingly conceived for months to kill him inside this castle was all for naught!!! This worthless build of yours is supposed to be impenetrable and inescapable as you have boasted…"
Some Death Eaters smirked behind their masks as they gleefully watched Daedalus being tortured. Voldemort had sensed this and turned his furious stares towards them, and their smiles faded at once.
"M-my Lord," Daedelus repeated, clutching his broken rib. Voldemort slowly gazed upon him.
"The dragon came from nowhere… it-it blanketed my imps with fire that was unsurvivable… and the boy and his friends rode off with it…"
"CRUCIO!" Voldemort commanded, and Daedelus' speech turned back into screams. "You naive fool! You are ever so arrogant to think that nothing from the air will ever try to attack Xanthius!!! I do not tolerate such shortsightedness from my own Death Eaters!"
"P-Please forgive me, My Lord! Please!" Daedelus pleaded. "I-it will never happen again!"
"Yes, it won't happen again…because you won't live another day!" Voldemort shouted. Daedelus shook his head, realizing that he was done for, and no words came out from his mouth.
Voldemort returned his gaze to the Death Eaters standing behind him. "My Deatheaters," he addressed while his red eyes looked at them one by one. "I will show you what I, Lord Voldemort, will do to those who fail me! Your greatest feats will never be good enough to lessen my wrath!"
"Yes, my Lord," muttered the Death Eaters in unison while Daedelus whimpered on the floor.
"Lucius! Knott! Bring this worthless fool with me to the Pit!"
"No, no, please my Lord, have mercy!" Daedelus cried. "Not the PIT!!!" He was however bodily carried out of the foyer and deeper inside the castle. He was too weak and in too much pain to fight back.
The journey to the center of Xanthius, the fortress Death Eater and Ministry of Magic official Daedelus Lowrie planned and helped build for Voldemort, took more than ten minutes through seemingly endless corridors. Anyone who was not familiar with the fortress' layout would surely be lost in a matter of seconds. For Daedelus, who knew what he was in for, it was a torturous eternity.
When they arrived all the Death Eaters present were already positioned at their designated places in the amphitheatre, looking down at a central stage made of stone and a steel platform. Deadelus was thrown painfully atop the platform - Lucius and Knott got up to their places beside Voldemort, who was the only one sitting down on a large throne. Besides the crackling of the torches, Deadelus' heavy breathing was the only sound that could be heard in the whole chamber.
"My Lord…" he weakly said, attempting to take a few steps back to try to get off the platform, but more than one Death Eater raised their wands and pushed him right back to the center.
"Thank you, my servants," said Voldemort.
"It is our duty, my Lord," said the Death Eaters that made the spells with a hint of satisfaction in their voices.
"Any final words before you die, Deadelus?" said Voldemort coldly.
Knowing he now didn't have a chance in the world to survive this, Deadelus' emotions had suddenly changed. For a fleeting moment, he didn't feel afraid anymore -rage and true contempt towards Voldemort coursed through him this time. Racking up all the courage Dealelus could muster, he took the opportunity to spit what he had to say to his now former master. This was his only chance for repentance, though no one would ever know that he had.
"You were never a good master, V-vvvvvv…" he said, struggling and failing to say the name. "I regret all the things that I have done for you! I rebuke you, you evil TYRANT!" A majority of the Death Eaters around him swayed, not believing anyone could say that to what they consider as the most powerful and terrible wizard of all.
"That is enough!" Voldemort said, and with a wave of his wand, the platform on which Daedelus stood fell open in half, revealing another dark chamber below, and the man plunged unto it. As he stood up to regain his footing on the sandy ground below, Nagini (Voldemort's faithful pet snake), came out from its sleeping niche towered and over him. Void of a wand Daedalus was now defenseless against this powerful creature. He backed off against the chamber's walls, hoping to at least gain some distance away from the menacing snake, but he knew this was all an act in futility, as he had absolutely nowhere to go.
In a split second Nagini struck him. Deadalus Lowrie, with a promising career as senior Auror and double agent to the Dark Lord, was dead. Nagini swallowed Deadalus whole, and he was now seen from outside as a lump slowly going deeper down along the length of Nagini's body. Moments passed in eerie silence for there were no cheers among the Death Eaters who witnessed this. The sight was so disturbing from above, and they were not sure if they would meet the same fate as Deadalus' in their own future.
"You all have been warned, my servants," Voldemort said as the platform closed. "Fail me and you will suffer the same terrible fate. Now, everyone leave the chamber - except you, Lucius." All the Death Eaters obeyed without any word and left, closing the huge silver doors behind them.
Lucius Malfoy, who was very apprehensive all night to begin with, was now alone with Voldemort. He moved in front of him slowly, dreading to be the next one in line for punishment from his master that might or might not come.
"How can I serve you, my Lord?" Lucius said, managing to maintain a steady voice.
"Are you still my faithful servant, Lucius?" said Voldemort calmly, slowly lifting his head toward the elder Malfoy. Those red glowing eyes didn't make anybody feel good.
"Ever since - and forevermore, my Lord." Lucius looked up again to see his master, who then seemed to have deep thoughts.
"That will do," Voldemort said shortly. He stood up and lifted Lucius chin with his cold, long fingers. "I have another task for you - I want nothing less than Harry Potter on that platform and into that pit, do I make myself I plain?"
"I understand my Lord," Lucius said, feeling relieved of being important once again to the Dark Lord. "Any means necessary, my Lord?"
"Yes…Yes, any means necessary," said Voldemort tentatively, nodding his head slowly. "Do what you have to do, as quickly as you can. He has evaded me so many times. I cannot tolerate this travesty any longer, Lucius. No fully-grown wizard has survived my death sentence and yet I can't kill a puny 15-year old wizard-to-be?" He paused and breathed deeply as he sat back on his throne to say something difficult.
"I should have killed him on the spot when he was here last, my faithful servant," he continued, gripping the arms of his throne tightly with his scaly hands. "Yet I was so optimistic he could not get away, and the prospect of having him as an unwavering servant and the dire effect it would have caused against those who oppose me clouded my judgment. So… uncharacteristic and foolish of me."
Voldemort sighed. "I believe Potter must die so I may live and reign forever - yet he had slipped away again…Yes, this time he must die for sure, and my Nagini will kill him for me this time. He deserves to feast on the flesh of my mortal enemy."
Lucius did not dare to comment.
"Go, and fulfill my wish," Voldemort said finally, standing up. "Report back to me with your plan at noon tomorrow."
"Your wish is my command, my Lord," replied Lucius solemnly, and bowed off. He strode out of the room, opened the tall silver doors, and closed them behind him. There were several Death Eaters outside the chamber looking at him expectantly, hoping to be told what the Dark Lord was thinking, but Lucius ignored them all and walked all the way to his personal quarters to start planning a new plot.
Not until he locked the doors to his quarters did he take off his mask to wipe his heavily sweating face and breathe deeply. He was quite certain back there he was the next in line for punishment from Lord Voldemort, but he felt quite fortunate that the Dark Lord still had faith in him despite the failure of his recent action. When was that, just seven days ago? he asked himself.
It seemed incredible for him to have plotted a plan just a few days before with similar objectives like he's about to design after this - his old plan ultimately failed because of the incompetence of a wet-nosed candidate for Death-Eatership. Still, it was the Dark Lord himself who called off the plan in the most inconvenient time in the middle of the operation and therefore he was not responsible for whatever happened afterwards, he thought. He did bring Harry Potter as ordered, albeit indirectly. Lord Voldemort punished him for his "failure", but he knew very well that's how his master worked - blame everything on somebody else and nobody ever dares to complain. Perhaps Daedalus was right.
It has also been one hell of week for Lucius. Just two days ago the Ministry of Magic summoned him to a highly publicized hearing about his alleged plot to kill Dumbledore. He was suspected as the writer of the mission order found in his late beneficiary's (Jack Chadron) possession, but that was just about it. He was only a suspect. In the end he was cleared of all charges due to lack of more solid evidence, and no less the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge quickly approached him to apologize as if the Ministry couldn't stand on its own without the Malfoy's financial backing. Such wonders how regular contributions of gold could do, and Fudge dreaded to give it all up. The conditions will still be right to hatch a new plot. To have the most chances of success this time, however, Lucius had to be less visible. Even though it was inconceivable for him what the Dark Lord will do if he fails, he also couldn't afford to have his noble family's name tarnished again in the wizarding world just in case he survives this war, and Voldemort perishes.
His thoughts then came back to the nosy old Auror named Olga Gargarin. She, along with some veteran and green-horned Aurors in the London bureau, were the reason he had been investigated with only a letter to Jack Chadron as proof. It seemed to him that this Auror was bent on at least smearing his name if he couldn't land in Azkaban, and he made a mental note to deal with her sooner or later.
From what he heard from his own mole in Ministry of Magic, Gargarin was also hot on Cassius Wallace's trail. Wallace was a Ministry Auror now suspected as a Death Eater after that debacle in Hogwarts. Of course, he really was a Death Eater, and Lucius thought it was imperative to contact him before he got caught. Right now he had serious planning as expected by the Dark Lord, and he was determined not to be unsuccessful it this time. All he needed was just a few key people to do his work for him, and this time he knew very well who they exactly were.
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A/N Hello, I'm back in Fanfic mode!
First of all I wish to thank my good friend Belinda for giving me permission to adopt a key point of the plot from her fanfic published years ago in Mugglenet!
Also thanks to all who have read and reviewed "Fugitives or the Ministry", well after the last day of updates, especially to the reviewer who gave me a little lesson in present, future, and past tenses (yeah!). I hope you all like this new fic, though criticism is welcome. I'm following my own storyline for the characters therefore some points may not correspond to what is written in the real books. Thanks to the most recent reviewer the month of June, 2004!
Author's note to new readers: if the story does not make sense this early, it's because this is the sequel for my other two action-adventure fanfics "The Auror and the Oarling" and "Fugitives of the Ministry". I hope you could take the time to read these fanfics (okay, I know this is a shameless plug, but how can I resist?) "Auror" was my very first complete fic so it's a little rough around the edges. Please read and review these stories if you have time. Thanks!
I'll be back soon with an update!!!
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