Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or HBP would have been different.
A/N: My response to my own challenge, "The New Dark Lord". The requirements are included in the prologue. Please, if you read, leave me a comment. It makes me happy. The idea of the Liquid Imperious I've nicked from "Sunrise over Britain", so I must say it is not mine but of Bob and Alex.
Captured and Released
Next day, Ron went to the office and found many reports about Dark Magic reported in the Area of Godric's Hollow.
It was like someone had left hints for them to pick up.
"I don't trust this. It will probably be a trap. Neville!" he called. The former Gryffindor entered the office.
"Gather all our forces. We're going to search Godric's Hollow. Tell everyone to be careful, it will probably be a trap," he barked, readying himself with an holster for his second wand on his leg, and taking his cloak.
Soon later, the full Auror Department Apparated to Godric's Hollow. Harry smiled bitterly. "So ends the reign of Lord Eversor," he muttered.
In a few minutes alarms ringed in the castle, and all his servants prepared for the fight. Harry remained sitting on his "throne", watching the scene unfolding under his eyes.
Ron and his men walked cautiously toward the castle, breaking trough the wards that Harry had weakened, but triggering the anti-intrusion alarms in doing that.
"We will be expected," he whispered to his men. "Be ready to launch a counter-attack."
Neville nodded and passed the order to the others.
From the window in their room, Hermione spotted them, and was equally relieved and scared. Relieved because soon she and her daughter will be home. Scared because she had no bloody idea yet on how to help Harry go back to what he once was, and how to save him from Azkaban, where he would be lost once and for all.
Finally the Aurors reached the main doors of the castle. With a great effort, and using all their magic combined, they managed to open them.
Malfoy nodded to Bella as soon as the door started to move. They were ready to fight back, and so were all Harry's servants.
But, once the door was completely opened, all their wands flew to the ceiling, with a single movement of Harry's outstretched hand.
They had no time to think about what had happened before the Aurors stunned and bound them.
Then Ron walked to the throne.
"You've been defeated, Lord Eversor. Show yourself now" he commanded, his wand raised.
"Fool! Do you really think you could have defeated me so easily if I didn't want to surrender, Weasley?" Lord Eversor said, lowering his hood and contemporarily sending the Aurors' wands to keep company to the ones of his servants.
"Harry?" Ron stammered. "No, this can't be…"
"It is, Ron. It is. Now, will you be so kind to bring myself and my cronies to Azkaban? I think we deserve that. Oh, by the way, you'll find Hermione and Lily upstairs, in the third room on the left."
Ron didn't wait for him to say that twice, and ran upstairs to see his wife and daughter.
Harry looked after him smiling sadly, then gave the Aurors back their wands, and let them stun him. It took five stunners contemporarily to do that.
That night, once Lily was in bed, an heated argument took place in the Minister's house.
"Hermione, you can't be serious. I know this is Harry we are talking about, but he acted no better than Voldemort himself. He deserves to be thrown in Azkaban, as much as it pains me! It's the man who kidnapped our little girl, for Merlin's sake!"
"Yes, and treated her like a little princess while she was with him!" Hermione spat back. "Ron, I know what he did, and I know that deserves to be punished. But, the truth is, he would have never become this monster if it wasn't for us."
"Us? What does that mean?" Ron asked, dumbfounded.
She sat on the couch, tiredly putting her face in her hands. Tears started to flow.
"Ron, he's become this way because the two of us got together! He got this way because he saw us kissing at that blasted party, and that broke his heart! It was the last straw for him, after the youth he had had. This is why it is our fault, too!"
Ron was stricken. "He was in love with you, wasn't he?" he said, after a minute or two.
She simply nodded.
"Hermione, I know how you're feeling right now, but please, reason. Even if it was a bit our fault too, and I don't believe it, because what would be our fault, falling in love with each other? But, even if it was, he has still committed lots of crimes, and he needs to pay for that. I don't like the idea of putting my former best friend in Azkaban any more than you do, but there is nothing we can do about it. Harry signed his own fate with his actions." he said, hugging her and holding her close, while her tears stained his shirt.
Hermione, of course, knew he was right, but she didn't have to like it.
Her sleep was filled with nightmares, and she tossed in their bed. Ron was going over some paperwork about the captures of the day, and shook his head.
Next day Harry and all his cronies were brought to the prison. There, Dementors filled the landscape, but strangely enough Harry was only little affected by them. He had very few good thoughts they could take from him, and the horrors of his past could not scare him anymore.
That day, Hermione entered her office and found owl post on her desk, as usual. She found the newspaper too, and shook her head, thinking Harry had been right.
In the first page, an huge title read:
The Boy-Who-Kills
Yesterday a mass capture occurred in Godric's Hollow where Lord Eversor and his minions were taken by an action of the full Auror Department, led by Ronald Weasley. With incredible bravery our men entered the well defended castle and after an huge fight managed to capture the Dark Wizards led by no one else than the once Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter. It's clear that years fighting the Darkness have corrupted the heart of the boy, who has sunk so low to start a career similar to the one of his predecessor, Lord Voldemort…
Hermione stopped reading, throwing it in the trash bin. "If Harry had not let them in, they would have never gotten him."
Enraged, she decided that even if that would cost her the position of Minister, she would find a way to get Harry out of prison.
Time passed, and tension started rising in her family. Often she and Ron would fight over Harry and her desire to help him. At times, they would do that even in front of Lily, who would start crying. After soothing her, and placing her in her bed, they would restart fighting, now on whose fault was that the girl had to witness that.
Adding to this, since at home she could not do that with Ron's remarks, she set for searching something to help him in her office hours, thus leading to having lots of work to do for the Ministry when at home, and to be stressed about that.
What was truly maddening for her was, however, the ease with which Ron would leave Harry to rot in Azkaban. How he could not feel he had a bit of fault in what happened to their best friend was beyond her, and she started to doubt he was the compassionate man she thought she had married.
Ron, on his part, could not understand why Hermione was so obsessed with Harry, and helping him. Ok, he had been their best friend, but he had turned his back on everything they had fought for, and had done horrible things, so now he deserved his punishment. Ginny, as much as she loved Harry, was on his side, so he thought he was in the right.
The fact was, that since Hermione was exhausting herself with work, their sex life had vanished, just a kiss now and then, and he was sincerely getting frustrated with that. He loved her, and wanted to show her by making love to her, but she was always too tired for that. Not for sneaking in their library to read at night, though.
So other fights started between them for that. It was like their marriage had been a landslide ready to happen, and the little rock of their disagreement on Harry started it. Now there was no way to stop the ruin that would follow.
In fact, Hermione started thinking about divorce.
Lily could see things were different between her parents, so one night, while Hermione was reading her a story, she suddenly spoke.
"Mummy, do you love Daddy?" she said.
Hermione was taken aback by such a question. "W-Why do you ask?" she said.
"I've noticed things are different between the two of you" the little girl replied, and for once Hermione wished she had not inherited her brains.
However, after a deep breath, she decided the truth was the best thing. "I dunno anymore, sweetheart. We have had lots of arguments lately, and I am not sure anymore we should be together"
The little girl started crying. "Leave me alone!" she said angrily.
Hermione did, although her heart broke at seeing her daughter crying. Lily eventually cried herself to sleep, vowing to not love anyone in her life, as love was a silly and temporary thing.
Days later, Hermione gathered the courage to breach the subject with Ron.
"Ron, I think we need to talk" she started.
"I'm listening" he said, not even raising his gaze from his sheets of work. "Is this about helping Harry again?" he asked sarcastically.
"No" she said coldly. "It's about us. The last weeks have opened my eyes, Ron"
"What is it supposed to mean?"
"That I think we did a mistake. If we can't work through difficult times like this together, and we keep fighting, maybe it was just not meant to be" she said, expecting his explosion.
"I agree" he said instead.
"You do?" she asked, bewildered. He smiled sadly at her, finally looking up from his work.
"Yes, I do. As much as I would like to continue our life together, I must admit we lived well while things were easy, but as the first trouble came, we discovered we're not so suited for each other as we thought," he said. "I'll always love you, Hermione, but just not in this sense. I hope you will at least consider me your best friend still"
"Of course I will" she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
So, they agreed to a divorce.
Lily was angry especially at her mother, so she asked to be placed with Ron, and it was settled. Hermione was heartbroken at losing her little girl, but she knew her decision to help Harry was right.
And she did.
She called a press conference, and announced that there were news on the case of Harry Potter. She announced that he was to be judged by the Wizengamot, and his case revised.
A week later, Harry was brought from Azkaban at the Ministry, and interrogated. Hermione was in the head of the jury judging him.
"Harry James Potter, you've been brought here for an interrogation. Your case is under revision, as it is suspected you've been fed a mind controlling potion called "Liquid Imperius". You will truthfully answer our questions" she said, and hoped he would understand what she was doing.
He looked into her cinnamon eyes, and remained silent, although he knew he had not been fed anything.
"I suggest the use of Veritaserum" Ron said. It was not like he wanted Harry in Azkaban, but he believed in justice, and if his best friend was guilty, he believed he should pay. The use of Veritaserum would end Hermione's game soon. However, a blonde girl near him elbowed him in the ribs, scowling.
"I think that would be a waste of potion. We all know his powers, he could easily feign to be affected by it, and tell lies all the same" one of the jury said.
"I agree with that" Hermione said, smiled warmly at the witch. "Now, let's start with the questions. Mr. Potter, have you been attacked after the battle? Maybe in an occasion when you were in a crowded place?"
He feigned to be in thought. "Yes, Minister. At the Ministry party in my honour, I remember I was searching for you and my other best friend Ron Weasley when I was hit by something, and fell unconscious. Next thing I remember, I was in a dark castle, on a throne, wanting to conquer power"
"Could you have been fed a potion while unconscious?"
"I guess yes, I would not have been able to resist an eventual attempt to drug me"
"Have you ever learned about the symptoms of Liquid Imperius? Would you have been able to recognize if you were drugged?"
"I don't know how the potion acts, so no, I would not be able to recognize it"
"But he was able to resist Imperio at fourteen!" someone protested.
"Yes, I'm aware of that since I was there myself" Hermione said coldly. "However, Liquid Imperius cannot be thrown off. It is one hundred times more powerful than the Imperius Curse"
The questioning continued for a bit more, then the jury voted. Harry neutrally watched what was being decided of his destiny.
If he was to be released, he would be pleased, of course, but would feel guilty for escaping his deserved fate. If he was to be kept in prison, he would be glad because he would have deserved it and justice would make its right course, but of course his life would be hell forever.
In the end, he was released. Ron's vote had been decisive. Although the redhead knew Harry had not been drugged, his love for his best friends won. If Harry free could make Hermione happy, then he would be happy with that too. He had to admit that his encounter with Luna Lovegood few days after the divorce had been enlightening, and the two of them started seeing each other steadily. At the moment of voting, her opinion ended up influencing him. Of course the fact that she was right there near him did the trick too, as he knew she could be almost as scary as Hermione if she wanted…
Harry smiled gratefully at Hermione who simply nodded.
As predicted, Wizarding population did not like the event, and all started asking for Hermione's resignation.
She resisted for some time, but when it became blatantly clear that no on wanted her there anymore, she resigned.
Harry, in the meantime, had bought a flat, and lived there, without a job, as no one wanted to hire a former Dark Lord. Now and then he would meet with his old friends, trying to restart his real life from where he had left it. He had lost more than five years of their lives, and he was eager to catch up.
At times, when angry, the darkness within him would erupt again, but overall the love of his friends helped him in containing it.
They included him as much as possible in their lives, especially Hermione.
She was especially happy to have him back, as she had an ancient secret to reveal him when the moment was right.
-->