Unofficial Portkey Archive

Title: Harry Potter and the Unbreakable Link (2/20)

Author: Silvestria

E-mail: [email protected]

Category: Mystery

Keywords: Hermione Estella Harry Voldemort Aphrados

Rating: PG

Spoilers: All books

Summary: 7th year fic in the good old traditional style. Voldemort has a daughter (only he lost her), Harry has a dream, Dumbledore has a past and Hermione has a problem. Major revelations about the Potters, and the beginning of a possible romance...

Disclaimer: 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.

Chapter 2- The Lady

Harry was stunned. His invisibility cloak! Gone! Where? Was it possible that the lady in the dream... but that really was impossible! Invisibility cloaks did not suddenly disappear.

Harry did not know what to do. In the end he wrote to Sirius explaining exactly what had happened in his dream and afterwards. However he later wished that he had waited another day to send the letter, then he could have told Sirius about the second dream...

The room was dark and wet and damp. The circle of Death Eaters stood round Lord Voldemort in a circle. Voldemort looked healthy and at the height of his powers. He prowled round, staring carefully at all the hooded faces.

"So," he said eventually, "we still do not know who the Potters' secret keeper is? Are we sure? Is someone keeping something back, perhaps? Severus Snape, surely you have an idea?"

A hooded figure replied in Snape's voice, "Indeed, Master, I do not know."

"I do not believe you! You must guess. Surely you are aware that the Potters have a secret keeper?" His voice started to take on a hint of menace.

Snape paused a moment then said carefully, "The Potters trust Dumbledore more than anyone, I believe."

"Professor Dumbledore? Ha! That muggle loving fool! Now I can concoct my plans for their defeat properly. The meeting is over now. Crabbe, I wish to see her ladyship as soon as possible. Now."

The wizards started to apparate away and soon only Voldemort was left in the room. He paced up and down looking tense. "I cannot hope to defeat Professor Dumbledore. Not yet anyway." He laughed.

"What is so amusing, my Lord?" Voldemort span round.

The speaker was a lady. She was very small and dressed in black robes with a hood pushed back over her forehead. She was carrying a bundle in her arms. Her hair was coal black and scraped into a tight bun. Her face was pale and sharp and she had shrewd dark eyes. Her mouth curved into a clever, sly smile.

"Nothing, Estella. Nothing. Nothing you care about."

"Oh, Tom, how cruel of you. You must know that anything that interests you must interest me as well."

"Stupid girl. Why have you brought the child, fool?"

"What else am I meant to do with it? When are you going to give me something else to do than simply nurse a crying baby like any common muggle?"

"Well said, my Lady, well said." He laughed cruelly. "That is exactly what you are going to do: give it to a muggle to nurse for you."

"Are you mad?"

"No, of course not." He paused, waiting for her to react in some way then when she didn't, continued, "Estella, I cannot hope to defeat Dumbledore, you know that."

"I know it."

"This child is the same age of the Potters' son. If I cannot reach the Potters, then this child will grow up with him and then, through little Harry, I will kill the Potters."

"Oh yes, my Lord. I can see it all. Here, listen. At the sorting- Potter, Harry. Gryffindor, of course. Bla, Bla, Bla. Voldemort, Elvira. Sure. That's going to work. Dumbledore will blow his top."

"Don't be so silly, Estella, I'm not going to do it like that and I shall make sure that you, since you wish to do something, shall be in charge of your daughter's upbringing."

"What an honour! You get to do the dirty work and I look after the children. Great! Just what I always wanted to do."

"This is not any child, Estella!" he hissed. "This is my child and your child! Think of its parentage! The daughter of the most powerful and clever wizard-"

"Think a lot of yourself, don't you?"

"-and the cleverest witch ever, I'll give you that."

"Thank you, Tom, but I still don't know exactly what you have in mind."

"This. You have heard of the prophecy, that Professor Trelawney made to me in my last year of school?"

Estella looked pitifully at him, "Really, who'd have thought it, Tom Riddle, alias Lord Voldemort, believes the pathetic Trelawney's fake predictions! Well, honestly!"

"I'm getting very fed up with you. I'll give the job to someone else if you don't stand still."

"What job? I'm listening."

"The prophecy said that our child would defeat the light."

"I seem to remember it saying the light, or the dark, eh, Tom?"

"ESTELLA! I do not remember anything of the sort."

Estella looked contemptuously away and pursed her lips. Voldemort continued. "You are an expert in Transmorphation. You will change my daughter's appearance so that she looks like the normal, unintelligent muggle she will be taken for. You will then deliver her into the care of a nice, not too bright muggle family where she will be brought up."

"What is the point of this, my lord?"

He laughed. "Not quite so clever as normal, Estella. She shall then be sent to Hogwarts believing herself to be Jane Bloggs, or whatever. There she will discover her true side as a Slytherin- my daughter, and through her cultivation of Harry Potter's friendship I shall get at the boy and through him, his parents! It is a perfect scheme."

Estella was silent for a long time, then she said, in a low voice, "Do you really expect this to work? Your schemes are always stupid. Without me to guide you through everything you would be rotting away in Azkaban by now. You've always known that, that's why you picked up insignificant Estella Green of the first year, friendless and with only her diary to talk to! Where would you be without me?!"

"You can talk! Where would you be without me then? Still plain, insignificant Stella Green, earning her living writing adventure stories starring wonder-witch, Elvira! Now you're the mistress of the most powerful wizard in the whole world!"

"I could have become the most powerful witch in the whole world in my own right, without your help, as you well know!"

"I would have killed you then."

"I know. And I didn't want to die, so I joined you."

"How do I know you are faithful to me?"

"You don't."

Voldemort didn't reply. A few seconds later, his lady said ironically, "We really have the perfect relationship, Tom. I cannot betray you to the ministry or Dumbledore because you would kill me, and you cannot hurt me because I would kill you."

"Would you really kill me, Estella, after all these years?"

"Waxing sentimental now, Tom, are you?"

"Do you want to know what to do with the child, or not?"

"You're going to tell me whether I want to know or not."

"You will take the child away tomorrow and deliver her to the muggles. After that you can leave everything to me, and I never want to see you again afterwards, Estella. You may leave."

Estella stood still a minute then, putting her daughter on a chair in the room, she approached Voldemort. She looked him in the eye and then she slapped him hard across the face. Her cheeks had red spots on them and her lips were the thinnest lines. "You'll regret saying that, Tom Riddle." She hissed then she turned on her heels, picked up the baby and swept proudly out of the room, before he could curse her.

Outside, she took a deep breath and nodded to herself. "You're making a big mistake, my Lord," she said out loud.

This chapter has ended.