I am not J.K. Rowling, nor am I associated with Scholastic, Warner Brothers, UNICEF, the Harlem Globetrotters, the American Bar Association or Hormel. I'm just a fanfic writer.
Chapter 15: Life Among the Mountain Trolls
The oppressive darkness vanished in an instant as flickering torchlight appeared in the open doorway. A haggard-looking old man with a dour expression on his face took the time to hang up his cloak and place the brightly glowing torch which now illuminated the room in a nearby torch holder. 'That's Septimus Prince,' Harry thought to himself. 'Snape's grandfather. Snape's long-dead grandfather. That means I'm having another dream as Voldemort.' In vain, Harry Potter attempted to push Lord Voldemort's presence from his mind, to regain control of his own thoughts and to dream about anything other than this moment in the Dark Lord's life. The memory continued without interruption, however, just as though he were watching it in a pensieve. He wanted very much to scream, but found that his voice was not his own. When he spoke, it was with Voldemort's familiar contemptuous hiss. "Septimus."
"Tom Marvolo?" Prince's weary voice called out. As he had seen it before in a previous dream, Harry knew that they were inside the older man's quaint little bookstore, Pages of Mages. Or was it called The Book Nook? Harry had little time to consider the matter, as Voldemort walked silently through the shelves towards Prince's shadowy form. In his wake, all the volumes on every bookshelf fell to the floor, filling his ears with the deafening sound of pages rustling and book spines cracking. As Lord Voldemort neared him, Septimus quirked an eyebrow in amusement. "Is something on your mind?"
"You knew," Voldemort said, his tone dripping with venom. "All of this time you knew everything." The elderly squib looked back at him incredulously. "I used the Ravenclaw boy to see inside the Chamber. I know now where it leads."
Septimus Prince sniffed dismissively. "Are you Slytherin's heir or aren't you? If anyone would know what lies inside the Chamber of Secrets, wouldn't it be you? I don't know why you would expect…"
The bookshop owner fell silent as Voldemort's wand made contact with his throat. "I tire of you answering my questions with pointless questions of your own. It's time for you to be honest with me."
"Perhaps you should be honest with yourself first," Prince retorted in a strangled voice.
Voldemort laughed then, an evil cackle that echoed throughout the room. "That's rich, coming from you." He withdrew a piece of paper from Septimus' robes and held it up to the torchlight. "What's this, then? Another spell you've written that you'll never be able to cast? 'Sectumsempra'?" As he read the spell, a deep gash opened on Prince's throat, forcing him to clutch his hand around it to stop the bleeding. "A cutting spell, eh? I like it. Although, as long as we're being honest with each other, 'diffindo' usually does the job just as well." More cuts formed on his face, making blood trickle down his chest in a small stream. "You swore to me that you'd tell me everything you knew about Lord Slytherin."
The defiant look in the old man's eyes said that he would not be cowed, not even by Voldemort. "Some oaths supersede others." Without moving his wand or his arms, the Dark Lord lifted Septimus Prince into the air and an invisible hand seemed to crush his windpipe. "I was going to tell you everything…in time…" he rasped.
"Who else did you swear an oath to?" Voldemort demanded.
"The Knights…of Walpurgis," Septimus managed to choke out. At that, Voldemort released him, letting him fall to the floor. Prince began coughing loudly, but his coughing soon turned to bitter laughter. "Your naiveté would be charming if it weren't so pathetic. Did you really think that you garnered so many followers so quickly because of your magnetic personality and quick wit? Don't be a fool. They knew exactly what it meant that you were the Heir of Slytherin." Voldemort turned away from him. "Do not feign shock, Tom Marvolo. Power never comes cheaply. There is always a price to be paid."
Voldemort's hands became clinched fists. "How many knew about the Temple of Osiris?"
"All of the important ones," Septimus answered simply. "The Knights have been waiting for Slytherin's return for centuries."
"So that's it?" Tom Marvolo Riddle asked petulantly. "I'm to be nothing more than a sacrifice? A lamb being led to the slaughter?"
Prince's tone grew solemn. "It is your destiny." As Voldemort let out a low growl, Septimus attempted to appease him. "Consider the matter rationally, Tom Marvolo. Salazar Slytherin was the greatest dark wizard who ever lived. You are merely his heir."
"I am not merely an heir," Voldemort snapped. "I refused to bear my filthy muggle father's name and I can defy Slytherin as well. I can become more powerful than he ever dreamed!"
Septimus Prince pursed his brow in thought. "That would require quite an undertaking. You would have to build an entirely new group of followers, ones who had nothing to do with the Knights. Moreover, the Knights of Walpurgis themselves won't take kindly to this move. They will attempt to stop you."
"Then I'll kill them all," Voldemort declared furiously.
Prince smiled evilly. "I don't expect that will be necessary. Once you kill most of them, the rest will likely be persuaded to join your cause." He gave a mock bow. "Of course, you'll need the names of those most likely to be so persuaded."
Voldemort's lips twisted into a rueful smile. "And I suppose that's what you're offering me, in exchange for your life?" Prince nodded curtly. "You should have been a politician, Septimus. You have a gift for randomly choosing a side and then making it your own."
"I've always been on your side, Tom Marvolo," Septimus Prince replied, as if offended that Voldemort would believe differently. When the Dark Lord scoffed, the older man continued unabashedly. "Who told you to forsake Slytherin in the first place? Who advised you to re-examine the Chamber of Secrets?"
Voldemort's eyes widened in realization. "You."
In that moment, time seemed to stand still. Lord Voldemort and Septimus Prince appeared frozen in place. Harry could feel his own consciousness slipping away from the memory and a voice beckoning him. "Harry?"
Concerned brown eyes were searching his as he awoke, his eyes blinking rapidly as they adjusted to the light. "Harry, are you alright?" Hermione asked with a frown. "You were having a dream again, weren't you? As him." There was no need to specify who 'him' referred to.
"I'm sorry, Hermione," Harry told her, his voice full of regret and loathing. "I've been trying to shut him out of my thoughts using occlumency, but no matter how much it seems to work during the day, the dreams still come at night."
Hermione brushed Harry's long bangs out of his eyes with her fingers. "You don't have anything to apologize for, Harry. This isn't your fault. We'll just have to keep working at it."
Harry tilted his head slightly on his pillow and gave Hermione an appreciative look. "You entered my mind again, didn't you? Using legilimency."
Hermione grimaced sheepishly. "I didn't mean to be intrusive. I just thought that I might be able to help you."
Harry gave her a wide smile. "You did. Somehow, you always manage to." Her hand intertwined with one of his and gave it a gentle squeeze. He then realized, rather embarrassingly, that she was practically sitting in his lap. "Um, Hermione? You're in my bed."
She smiled wryly. "I rather thought you might be used to that by now."
"Yes, well, I am, actually," Harry stammered, "but I thought we agreed to sleep in separate beds on this trip."
"I agreed," Hermione corrected him. "You were the one who insisted. Although I'm still not sure why."
As Hermione scooted off of his lap, Harry sat up and reached for his glasses. "After what he said to me at Bill and Fleur's wedding, Remus would take the mickey out of me if he knew we were sleeping together." Hermione looked puzzled. "Well, not 'sleeping together', I suppose. We've been doing that for awhile now. You know what I mean, though."
"But he won't be suspicious that we're rooming together, when you could have stayed with him and I could have bunked with Tonks?" Hermione asked him pointedly. Harry only shrugged by way of reply. "There's another reason you're not telling me about, isn't there?"
Harry didn't answer her as he rose from the bed, donned a pair of slacks and went to one side of the room to look out the window. It was deemed unsafe for the four of them to apparate to Eastern Europe (and, in any case, neither Harry nor Hermione were sure they had enough experience to apparate that far), so they decided to take what had been the safest, most reliable way to cross wizarding Europe for over a century. It was a train that ran the length of the continent, taking anyone who cared to pay the fare from the Grindelwald War Memorial in Brest all the way down to the flying carpet shops of Istanbul. It was known by all who had ever ridden it as the Disorient Express.
Harry was watching a majestic Alpine sunrise through the window, but, much like at Ministry headquarters, the windows weren't showing him what was really going on outside. If they did so, they would have shown the train traveling at all sorts of odd angles and at extraordinarily high speeds. "Is it me?" Hermione asked him softly.
Harry turned to face her. "What?"
Hermione was blushing with embarrassment. "You know, when we…hadsex…was it not…?"
Harry shook his head. "Whatever you're about to ask me, Hermione, the answer's no."
"It's alright for you to feel that way," Hermione assured him. "From what I hear, the first time is…"
"The first time was wonderful," Harry interrupted as he put his arms around her waist and gave her a tender kiss, "and I'm sure the second time will be just as brilliant." He smiled at her impishly and then began planting kisses up and down her neck. "Not to mention the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth…"
Hermione laughed playfully. "Really, Harry, what kind of girl do you take me for?"
"The kind of girl who's madly in love with me," Harry replied with a laugh.
"I've made it kind of obvious, haven't I?" Hermione asked him with a wide grin. Each of their hands roamed freely over the other's body and what little clothing they were wearing was getting looser and lower all the time. "Harry?"
"Mmm hmm," Harry muttered as best he could with his lips so thoroughly occupied. If his mouth hadn't been so close to her ear, she likely wouldn't have heard him at all.
"The real reason that you insisted on separate beds…" Harry broke away from her abruptly, as if stung. "It's Voldemort, isn't it?"
Harry could not look her in the eye. "Yes." As Hermione crossed her arms and gave him a disapproving glare, he explained. "I can feel him getting stronger all the time, Hermione. If he took control of me during a dream, if he hurt you…"
"I know you, Harry," Hermione countered forcefully. "You'll do everything in your power to fight him." She closed the short distance between them and brought her hands to rest on his bare chest. "And I want to be there with you when you do. Being together makes us stronger. Don't you feel that way, too?" Harry could not deny that this was true. "Trust me, Harry. I know what I'm getting into by being with you."
Harry let out a mirthless chuckle. "You're an incredibly brilliant witch, Hermione, but I don't think there's any way that you could possibly know that."
Hermione began chewing on her lip, clearly thinking something over. "Maybe you should go back on the carpe diem potion, at least until we can figure out a more permanent solution."
'Death is permanent,' Harry thought to himself, but did not dare say aloud to Hermione. Although he had agreed to go along with her plan to find some other way for him to defeat Voldemort that didn't involve his own death, Harry was not entirely optimistic about the possibility of such a plan's success. A permanent solution to this problem, if it existed, was bound to be both elusive and extremely risky. Idly, he wondered why Dumbledore himself hadn't been trying to find a better solution than the carpe diem potion. The elder wizard always seemed to have a counter to Voldemort's best moves. "I dunno. I don't really want that ruddy monster in my chest to come back. It might not fancy you as much as I do."
Hermione smiled weakly. "I think you should be worrying more about Voldemort than some imaginary monster. We should consider this seriously, Harry."
Harry suddenly leaned in closer to her, so close that the bridges of their noses touched. "Can't it wait?" Harry's lips captured her own, the Alpine sunrise was turned to moonlit Viennese woods with a flick of his wand and they decided, without ever discussing the matter, to completely abandon the plan to sleep in separate beds.
***
As the dawn broke (for real this time), the Disorient Express was only a few minutes away from its scheduled stop in Bucharest. Harry and Hermione were both already dressed and ready to meet Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, who had been sent by the Order of the Phoenix to escort the two teenagers on this mission to find a legendary intelligent troll who might just contain a shred of the soul of Janus Quirinius Quirrell. Of course, neither Remus and Tonks nor the Order had any idea what the mission's real purpose was. If Harry were being honest with himself, he would have admitted that he wasn't entirely certain either. At the moment, however, the most pressing thing on his mind was, "Hermione, why does your knapsack weigh a ton?"
Even though Hermione was currently searching the room to make sure they hadn't left anything behind, he could almost sense that she was rolling her eyes. "Because I like to be prepared for every eventuality."
"Alright," Harry conceded, "but why can't we use a shrinking charm on it? Or something to make it lighter?"
Hermione sighed, walked over to him and took her knapsack back from his sagging arms, throwing it over her shoulder casually. "Because I don't know what that would do to the Animus Signatus potion in its current form. Now, do you have any other questions before we leave?"
"Just one," Harry replied. "If the troll does turn out to be a horcrux that Professor Quirrell made, what are we going to do about it?"
Hermione cast a quick silencing charm on the door to make sure that they wouldn't be overheard by anyone, something that Harry immediately regretted not doing before he asked the question. "Study it, I suppose. Try to figure out how Quirrell did it. There's a kind of advanced switching spell that I think he may have used, but I need to be sure."
Harry looked skeptical. "Advanced switching spell?"
"The switching spell we learned about in Transfiguration class only covers physical objects. When you delve into the metaphysical, it gets a bit more complicated. Not quite impossible, but almost." Hermione looked into Harry's eyes worriedly. "If we could find some way to switch the shred of Voldemort's soul that's inside of you with something else…"
"Then we could destroy the object that it goes into," Harry finished, following her reasoning without difficulty. "Just as if it were a normal horcrux." The idea of there being a 'normal horcrux' was slightly ludicrous, but both of them were now so used to the evil objects that neither commented on that fact.
Hermione gave him a sad look. "I don't think it could be an object, Harry. It would have to be another living being. That's why Quirrell chose trolls to experiment on."
Harry's face fell. "So…someone else, or something else, would have to die because of me."
Hermione put her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "Not because of you. Because of Voldemort." An alarm on Hermione's watch suddenly began to beep. "Come on. It's time to meet Remus and Tonks."
***
"This stop is Bucharest. Bucharest, Romania. The last stop before Istanbul. Everyone exit carefully and remember, if you find you have to vomit, please use the proper receptacles. Thank you for riding the Disorient Express."
"Ah, Romania," Tonks said cheerfully as she stepped down from the train's platform. "I remember the first time I ever came here. It was straight after I graduated from Hogwarts. Me and my old boyfriend Theseus decided it would be good for a laugh to visit this vampire that used to be good friends with his father."
Hermione made a face. "That doesn't sound like it would be good for a laugh."
"Well," Tonks elaborated, "I had fun, but Theseus was a bit of a pill. He kept complaining about these little holes in his neck. It must have run in the family, because his father had the same problem."
"I thought you told me you'd never been to Romania before," Remus said with a knowing smile. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you made that story up just to make me jealous."
Tonks looked hurt. "Now why would I do that?" Remus and Tonks shared a quick kiss just as Harry turned around to ask them a question.
"Is, erm, Charlie supposed to meet us here?" he asked, trying to ignore the fact that his former teacher was kissing someone.
Lupin looked dazed for a moment, then replied, "Yes. Er, I mean, no. We're supposed to meet him at an Order safe house about twenty kilometers from here. We were told to arrange for our own transportation."
"Ooh, what about these?" Tonks gushed as she ran up to a kiosk not far from the station. "Flying carpets. I've never ridden one before."
Remus shook his head. "That would make our presence here too high profile, love."
Tonks did not seem to be dissuaded. "But wouldn't it be romantic? Just the two of us, soaring through the sky…"
"Tonks dear, it wouldn't be just the two of us," Lupin pointed out. "Harry and Hermione would have to go as well. Or did you forget about them?"
The young metamorphmagus began playing with the collar of Remus' shirt. "Let them take their own flying carpet. I'm sure they'd find something to do up there." It was all Harry and Hermione could do to avoid looking embarrassed.
Lupin gently brushed away her hands. "This isn't a romantic getaway, Tonks. It's official Order business." His eyes quickly found another nearby sign. "Here we are. Broom rental."
Tonks put a pouting expression on her face. "Spoilsport."
Remus paid the man for two brooms and soon the four of them were in the air and invisible, courtesy of the disillusionment charm. "Isn't this just as romantic as any flying carpet?" Lupin asked Tonks as they ascended into the sky.
Tonks winced. "I'm getting splinters in places that you won't be going for awhile," she informed him coldly.
With the two Order members leading the way, Harry and Hermione found themselves flying over the foothills of the Carpathians within the hour. Eventually, he spotted a rustic little shack on a mountaintop with smoke billowing out of its chimney. Remus and Tonks began their descent towards it. "That must be it," Harry said to Hermione. Her hands clutched his arms tightly as they too began to drift closer to the ground.
The two brooms landed softly and the four of them dismounted at once. Remus motioned for all of them to be silent. "Even though this entire area is under Order protection," he whispered, "we can never be too careful. There could be Death Eaters about. So we all have to be very, very…"
An earth-shattering roar interrupted him, followed by the sound of heavy footfalls and the crackle and roar of a blazing fire. "Woah, Molly, woah," the easily recognizable voice of Charlie Weasley called out as he chased after a large Hungarian Horntail that had apparently decided that it no longer wanted to be kept in a pen.
"I think our cover's already been blown," Tonks noted wryly.
Once Charlie began gently stroking the scales near its ears, the dragon stopped in its tracks and sat heavily on the ground. "There's a good girl," Charlie Weasley cooed.
"Wotcher, Charlie," Tonks called out in a very friendly voice. The second-oldest Weasley brother started and then spun around quickly, his wand out.
"Easy there, Charlie," Remus said calmly. "We're all friends here."
"Remus, Harry, Hermione," Charlie called out in recognition. "And…is that Nymphadora Tonks? Blimey! You're all grown up, aren't you?"
Tonks blushed prettily. "None of us get to stay seventeen forever, Charlie."
Charlie grinned and goggled at her at the same time. "No, I suppose we don't."
Remus Lupin cleared his throat noticeably. "We should probably get moving, love, don't you think? Urgent Order business and all of that."
Charlie laughed, thinking that perhaps Remus was making a joke. "Yeah, investigating some wild rumors about a troll raising an army for You-Know-Who. That's not exactly what I'd call 'urgent'."
"Harry would disagree with you," Remus pointed out icily. "He insisted that we investigate the matter fully and as soon as possible. And, quite frankly, I agree with him. Underestimating the ability of Voldemort to exploit potential strengths within the magical world was exactly the sort of thing that we did too much of in the last war."
"I didn't mean any disrespect, Remus," Charlie replied, casting a sidelong glance at both Tonks and Harry. "Come on. Let me show you what you'll be riding."
As Charlie walked ahead of the four of them, Tonks whispered harshly in Lupin's ear. "So we went to school together. That doesn't give you the right to be a berk to him."
"He was flirting with you," Remus countered angrily, "and I wasn't being a berk."
"No he wasn't and yes you were," the metamorphmagus argued through clenched teeth. Harry and Hermione had remained deathly silent throughout, too afraid to speak and desperate to pretend that they were hearing none of this.
Charlie led the four of them to a corral where about half a dozen adult dragons were being kept. Near the gate, two large Hungarian Horntails were nuzzling each other affectionately. "These are the dragons you'll be riding," Charlie announced proudly. "Molly you've already met," he indicated the one to his left, "and this is her mate, Arthur Pen Dragon." Charlie Weasley turned around to face them with a goofy grin. "Get it?"
All four of their faces were now completely blank. "I'm sorry," Harry said shakily. "I could have sworn that you just said we were going to be riding these dragons."
"You are," Charlie replied gleefully. Harry's face suddenly grew pale. Hermione looked as worried as he had seen her in recent memory. Remus was trying hard not to appear amused by the situation as Tonks smiled politely. "I know you've had a bad experience with the Hungarian Horntail, Harry, but trust me, these two are as tame as pygmy puffs." As he spoke, Molly snorted a jet of flame that singed Charlie's hair. He nonchalantly put the fire out with a spell he had apparently learned for just such an occasion. "Well, mostly. So…which one of them do you two want to ride?" he asked Harry and Hermione.
The idea of mounting a dragon named after Molly Weasley was singularly unappealing to Harry. "How about Arthur?" he tried in a high-pitched voice.
Charlie nodded his approval. "Ah. Good choice. Arthur loves to be handled by young riders."
Remus scowled at that remark, but said nothing as Charlie handed both the werewolf and Harry a map of the area, with the supposed base camp of the troll king marked by a red 'X'. "Good luck, you four," Charlie said half-heartedly. Clearly uncomfortable with the entire situation, he retreated into the small safe house as the two dragons took flight.
***
It had taken them the better part of a day to reach their destination, at which point all four of them were physically exhausted. They decided to stay the night on top of a hill only a few kilometers from where most of the mountain trolls had congregated. Once it had been decided that two of them would patrol the area to make certain that it was safe to set up camp there, Tonks had grabbed Hermione's hand and led her off into the Transylvanian wilderness without so much as a goodbye. This left Harry Potter and Remus Lupin sitting alone together in awkward silence, with only a couple of lovesick dragons to keep them company.
"So…" Harry started, staring at the fire they had built and wondering what to say next. He couldn't come up with anything.
"So…" Remus repeated. His former DADA teacher seemed equally unwilling to start a conversation.
"Is there something you want to tell me about what's going on between you and Tonks?" Harry said at the same time that Lupin asked, "Is there something you want to tell me about what's going on between you and Hermione?"
They both laughed lightly. "Great minds think alike, I suppose," Remus remarked bashfully. "You first, if you don't mind."
Harry fought the urge to sigh. How could he explain what had happened? Things had changed between the two of them so quickly and yet slowly, too, so slowly that he had hardly known it was happening. Still, he had to start somewhere and he wanted to be honest with his father's old friend. "I love her, Remus. I think I have for a while."
Lupin smiled mysteriously. "You know, when Ron and Hermione were named prefects in your fifth year and Molly Weasley had that little celebration for them, I saw the look of jealousy in your eyes. I couldn't help thinking that maybe you were jealous of Ron not just because he got the prefect's badge, but because he would be getting to spend so much time alone with Hermione Granger. James felt the same way when Lily became a prefect and he didn't. That's why he worked so hard to become Head Boy." Harry had little difficulty believing this. "So imagine my surprise when you began dating Ginny Weasley."
Harry grimaced. "That wasn't exactly my proudest moment." He did not want to tell Lupin about the after effects of the carpe diem potion nor about the monster in his chest.
"The Weasleys are among the nicest families you'll ever meet, Harry," Lupin told him earnestly. "They've been vital to the survival of the Order of the Phoenix these last few months. And I'd say they've been the closest thing to a family that you've ever had, wouldn't you?" Harry nodded. "Dating their youngest daughter and then ending things with her abruptly, only to turn around and date your longtime best friend, who, incidentally, is also her brother's girlfriend…well, that can get a little dicey. I hope you found a nice, respectful way to tell her about you two."
"She knows," Harry gulped. "She's not happy about it, but she knows."
"Dumbledore never married, you know," Lupin threw out suddenly, making Harry learn forward curiously. "He knew how powerful he was and that he would spend his life combating the dark arts, so he chose not to share that life with anyone. I always admired that about him. Because of my…condition…I thought I would do the same. And then Tonks came along, so full of love and so sure that she could handle my life. I couldn't resist anymore. I got lonely." He let out a long sigh. "Now I'm wondering if I made the right decision."
"You seem to make each other happy," Harry assessed. "Well, when you're not around Charlie Weasley anyway."
"Sometimes it just doesn't feel right," Lupin admitted. "Tonks is so much younger than me. She has her whole life ahead of her. After the war ends, once she's free to do whatever she wants, is she really going to want to be with me?"
Harry thought the matter over for a moment. "I think maybe you're just going to have to trust her. If what you have is meant to last, it will."
Remus Lupin took a sip of water from his canteen and then gave Harry a grateful look, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "And here I thought I'd be the one giving you advice."
Harry smiled back at him. "Well, I have been dating longer than you have. Of course, the last two girlfriends I had have ended up screeching at me over Hermione, so I'm not sure I'm an expert on girls yet."
Remus winced. "Things went that badly with Ginny, eh?" Harry nodded his head sharply. "Can I offer you a little free advice, Harry?" Once again, he nodded. "Our whole world is waiting for you. To lead us. To inspire us. But most of all, to defeat him. Whatever the role the Order or the Death Eaters or the Ministry ends up playing, ultimately this war is going to come down to you and Voldemort." Harry looked somewhat embarrassed by this. "I'm not saying that you have to become Dumbledore overnight. Just don't make us wait too long."
***
"So," Remus Lupin began, sounding every bit like the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that he once was, "what do we know about fighting mountain trolls?"
It was just after dawn the next morning. Harry and Hermione were huddled together by a fire, their hair seeming even more untamed than usual. Tonks did not look to be fully awake yet and was experimenting with ways to camouflage her own hair. "Well," Harry tried, "when Ron and I fought one in first year we used its own club against it."
"I'm well aware of your exploits as an eleven-year-old, Harry," Lupin replied with an indulging expression on his face, "but we will not be facing only one troll, nor will a simple levitation spell be enough to carry the day. We need to think bigger."
"We could pelt them with rocks," Tonks suggested, only half-seriously. Lupin gave her a reproving glare. "What? It'd be fun."
Hermione gave Tonks a serious look. "Didn't you say that the Ministry has developed a method of dealing with renegade trolls?"
"Well," the Auror hedged, "there is something that really knocks magical creatures for a wallop. 'Corpus vile.' If the spell isn't done right though, it wouldn't just stun the troll. It would kill it."
"That won't do for the king," Harry told her glumly. "We need him alive."
Lupin's eyebrows rose, but he said nothing. "Erm, Remus, Tonks?" Hermione interjected. "I think I have a plan that might work."
***
The howling wind threatened to blow the map out of Harry's hands as he took the time to reassure himself that this was the place. Not that there was much need, given that he could see a slew of mountain trolls gathering below. "Are you sure about this?" he asked Hermione in a loud voice.
"No," she yelled back honestly. "But it's the best shot we have."
Harry nodded and gave Arthur a gentle kick that (hopefully) told the dragon that they wanted to land. In the space of a minute, Arthur Pen Dragon had come to rest in the middle of a grassy patch on top of the mountain. They weren't far from a large opening in the rock face and they were soon completely surrounded by angry-looking trolls. Many of them were wielding clubs and large rocks.
An unearthly bellow suddenly brought silence to the entire mountain. From the opening in the rock face, a larger-than-usual troll emerged wearing a fur cape and a comically oversized crown. Slowly, the troll king made its way down to where Harry and Hermione remained perched on their dragon, anxiously waiting to see what would happen. "He doesn't seem that intelligent to me," Hermione observed skeptically.
As if to reinforce this notion, the troll opened his mouth as though he might speak, but only let out a large belch. Unfortunately for Harry and Hermione, however, this appeared to be the signal the trolls had been waiting for to begin to attack. Large rocks made painful contact with dragon hide and clubs were being raised threateningly in the air. "This is my least favorite part of your plan," Harry whispered to Hermione.
"Just stay on the dragon and wait for…" Hermione smiled in victory as she saw their salvation soaring through the air. "Molly." The female dragon didn't seem to be taking very kindly to the trolls' treatment of her mate and began breathing fire down in streams, driving the trolls back. As Harry began to dismount from their dragon, Hermione put her hand on his arm. "Wait. Give her just a few more seconds." In the trolls' desperate attempt to fight off Molly, they began slinging stones at her, a few of which connected with her head. "Now!" Hermione exclaimed.
Arthur Pen Dragon, equally incensed at the attack on Molly, took to the air just as Harry and Hermione slid off the dragon's back. Walls of flame now separated the two teenagers from the bulk of the mountain trolls, as the dragons furiously pursued the hapless trolls. "How did you know that would work?" Harry asked Hermione.
Hermione gave him a knowing look. "I just thought of how I always react when you're in danger." Harry smiled at that. Hermione withdrew a vial of black, chunky liquid that used to be the Animus Signatus potion from her knapsack. "Now it's time to see how this part of the plan goes. Remember, green means the troll's a horcrux, red means…" A large wooden club slammed down in front of them, as it became apparent that at least one of the trolls hadn't been driven away by the dragons.
Harry glanced between Hermione, the troll in front of him and the troll king, who looked ready to make a hasty retreat. "I'll take care of this one," Harry told her confidently. "You go after the king."
Hermione hesitated for only a moment. "Harry, are you sure? I…"
Harry just had time to push her out of the way as the troll's massive club swung in her direction. "Go!" he exclaimed. Hermione followed after the troll king quickly, the remnants of the Animus Signatus potion cradled in her arms.
As the large, ugly-looking troll in front of him grunted and smashed his club on the ground, Harry hit it in the face with a stunner. The brute shook it off quickly. "OK, stunners don't work. Let's try…" Harry didn't get a chance to try anything else, however, as a large stone hurled from behind him struck the troll in the head. The magical creature abruptly collapsed. Harry turned around to see that the rock had been thrown by Remus Lupin, who was standing next to a triumphant Tonks.
"See?" Tonks said to Lupin with a smug smile. "I told you it would be fun."
"Come on," Harry said with a beckoning motion to the others. He was not about to leave Hermione to fight Quirrell on her own.
Harry, Remus and Tonks followed the path Hermione had taken, only to find her crouching behind a boulder, watching and waiting for her opportunity to use the remains of the potion to discover whether or not the creature was a horcrux. "I need to get a clear shot at it. We can't afford to mess this up."
Remus' lycanthropic olfactory sense picked up the smell of what she was holding immediately. "Animus Signatus potion? Do you really need to throw that on the troll?" Hermione and Harry nodded in unison. Lupin sighed. "Very well. What if I provided you with a distraction?"
Hermione frowned. "What kind of a distraction?"
The mischievous look in Remus' eyes made Harry truly understand for the first time why the werewolf had been a Marauder. "Something like this." All at once, Remus Lupin dashed in front of the troll, waving his arms like mad. As the troll began lumbering towards him, Remus scooped up an armful of rocks and began throwing them at his head.
Hermione stepped further into the cave and then levitated the jar containing the potion in the direction of the so-called 'troll king', eventually smashing it against his legs. As the solution made contact with its skin, it turned a bright red. "He's…he's not a horcrux," Hermione bemoaned softly. "But it made so much sense…"
At that moment, the troll king got the bright idea of throwing one of the large stones back at Lupin, knocking him to the ground. "Remus!" Tonks called out in dismay. She eyed the troll with pure hatred. "Corpus vile!"
"No, don't," Hermione cried out, hitting Tonks' arm and deflecting the spell. "We may need it alive!"
"Hermione, get down," Harry cautioned as he watched the troll's gaze go from Remus Lupin's fallen form to an angry Tonks to Hermione. Just as he pulled his girlfriend behind a large boulder, a hex struck the rock, shattering it to pieces.
"Where did that come from?" Harry asked confusedly.
A light dawned in Hermione's mind. "I think I know." She rose from her hiding place, despite Harry's frantic warnings to the contrary. "Let me try something." Hermione pointed her wand at the troll's club. "Wingardium leviosa." The blunt wooden object began to float above the troll's large, gray hand.
"Hermione," Harry whispered urgently, "I don't think that's going to work this time."
Hermione paid him no mind. "Finite incantatem." The three of them watched as the club landed to the immediate right of the troll…and hit something that did not seem to be there. Immediately, the belligerent troll scratched his head in confusion and sat down on the cave floor with a large thump, looking about as threatening as a lost kitten. "I think we're about to find out what's going on here."
Cautiously, Harry and Hermione approached the darkened area of the cave where the troll had been, while Tonks attended to Lupin. As they approached the troll's club, Hermione's hand reached out and pulled back an invisibility cloak to reveal a shrouded figure wearing a Death Eater mask. As Harry grabbed his wand, Hermione removed the mask to reveal…no one that they had ever seen before.
"He was being controlled by a Death Eater the whole time," Harry remarked as he stole a glance over at the now-slumbering 'troll king'.
"He must have used the Imperius Curse," Hermione reasoned. When she saw the Death Eater's leg twitch, she immediately petrified him. "We should take him back to the Order safe house and give him veritaserum. Maybe he can tell us something about what Voldemort's planning." Harry nodded his head. Perhaps this mission wouldn't be a total loss after all.
***
Back at Charlie's Dragon Shack, Tonks poured veritaserum into the young, dark-haired Death Eater's mouth as Remus prepared to interrogate him. Harry and Hermione simply sat back and watched in fascination, their wands at the ready. "What is your name?"
Against the dark wizard's will, his mouth opened to answer. "Kerry Yerik Carlock."
Lupin wrote the name down on a piece of parchment. "And what were you sent here to do?"
"To build an army of trolls for the Dark Lord. The time is coming when…" His voice trailed off as his body began to convulse. The Dark Mark on his arm burned brightly. "Fools," a voice that was decidedly not Carlock's cried out as his eyes shone red. "None of you are prepared for what is to come. The end will be here before any of you know it."
"Voldemort," Harry whispered in recognition.
"Potter," he called out in a hiss. Both men were now speaking parseltongue, as Lupin, Tonks and Hermione looked on in perplexity. "Be at Hogwarts on Halloween or everyone you've ever cared about will die a horrible death." The snake-like hissing fell silent thereafter as the Death Eater's body collapsed in defeat.
"What just happened?" Remus asked in confusion.
"He's dead," Tonks declared in equal bewilderment as she checked his pulse.
Before Harry could attempt to explain what had just happened, Charlie Weasley burst into the room. "I've just received an owl, Harry. You're going to want to go back to England straight away." Harry and Hermione both stared at him in surprise. "Ron's awake."
The next chapter is so shocking, I can't even reveal the chapter title! Not that I was doing that anyway, but still...
ITL