Well, I got Deathly Hallows yesterday, and even though I've only read twelve chapters, I can already tell I'm going to be disappointed. The dialogue is horrible, the trio is ridiculously OOC, and it just reads like a bad fanfiction to me. There was one scene in particular that made my blood boil (I think it's in chapter six…you know the one). Harry acts like a spoiled brat, Hermione is a nagging bitch (and if a die-hard H/Hr shipper like myself can say that, well…I can't really blame Emma for wanting to quit), and Ron is…well, I don't know what Ron is, but it ain't good.
While it is far from the worst story I've read (I've seen some pretty horrible fanfiction floating around), it is far from the best. Nevertheless, there were some ideas that intrigued me, and will be integrated into this story.
As usual, I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, Gin-bitch would be dead, the horcruxes wouldn't exist, and Harmony would have been established a long time ago!
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Remus was, simply put, falling apart. In the past week, he had gotten maybe a couple hours of sleep and spent the rest of the time worrying over what may have happened to Harry. Then Hermione disappears, and the entire Order is in a panic. Then he finds out that Harry is a vampire, and to top it all off, the wizarding world was all but under Voldemort's rule now. He was certain that if it weren't for his new and pregnant wife, Nymphadora Tonks Lupin, he would have snapped long ago. Remus idly fiddled with his gold wedding band, lost in his thoughts, when he heard a soft padding behind him.
"Remus, you can't keep beating yourself up like this," Tonks said tiredly. "Harry wouldn't want you to get yourself killed because you're too tired to even walk straight." Remus sighed as he stood up from his chair.
"I can't sleep, Dora, not with everything that's been going on," Remus groaned, running his fingers through his graying hair. "I can't sleep knowing that Harry and Hermione are doing Merlin knows what, and I can't be there to help them. I can't sleep knowing that I failed Lily and James…again." Tears welling up in her eyes, Tonks strode over to her husband and wrapped him in a tight hug.
"You didn't fail them, babe, there was nothing you could have done," she whispered. "Right now, the best thing you can do right now is come to bed and get a decent night's sleep." She pulled back and looked into Remus' gray, watery eyes. "If you won't do it for yourself, then do it for me," she continued, taking his hands and placing one on her cheek, placing the other on her abdomen. "Do it for our baby." Slowly, Remus nodded and bent down to kiss Tonks softly on the lips.
"I'm sorry, Dora," he whispered, pulling her close. "I love you." Tonks sniffled into his shoulder, unable to hold the tears back any longer.
"I love you too, Remy," she said. Together, they walked back to their bedroom and held each other through the long, dark night.
The next night, Harry, Hermione and the photo of Albus Dumbledore were gathered together, discussing possible ways to destroy the Horcruxes.
"Blast it?" Harry offered. Hermione shook her head.
"I doubt that Voldemort would have made his Horcruxes that easy to destroy," she countered. Harry thought of a different tactic.
"Melt it?" Harry suggested. Hermione considered it, and then shook her head.
"We don't have a furnace here that can get hot enough to melt the metal, and if we used an acid, we'd need one that's on the level of basilisk venom in potency, which is very dangerous to acquire and handle."
"And the only basilisk we have has been dead for five years, and the venom is all dried out," Harry added, closing his eyes and dropping his head on the table in frustration. "Damn it, we're screwed."
"Come now, Harry, wars were never won on the words `I give up'. You'll figure something out," Albus' image said reassuringly. Harry lifted his head up and glared at the photo.
"I don't see you coming up with any ideas," he said darkly. "To that point, you never told me how you destroyed Gaunt's ring." Albus suddenly looked very nervous.
"As I told you before, Harry, I'm simply a copy, I don't hold all the memories of the original," he said calmly, but he had no twinkle in his eyes. Harry narrowed his eyes at the portrait.
"You're lying, I know you are," Harry growled, ignoring Hermione's gasp of outrage. "We may both be immortal, Albus, but I have neither the time nor the patience to wait for you to fess up, so tell me how you did it, or I'll take you to a Muggle office supply store and feed you into a paper shredder," he continued. Albus merely looked at him nonplussed.
"I can merely return to my portrait hanging in the Headmaster's office, Harry, you know that," he said.
"And I can Apparate into Hogwarts, so it's no real feat of difficulty for me to pop in, rip your portrait off the wall, and pop out. So again, how did you destroy Gaunt's ring?" Albus sighed in defeat at Harry's persistence and straightened up to tell him.
"I put it on," he said simply. Both young adults stared at the photo, shocked.
"You put the ring on," Hermione repeated softly.
"That's it?!" Harry yelled. "You just slipped it on your finger?"
"And as you saw, I lost my right hand in the process, Harry," Albus said firmly. "That is precisely why I didn't tell you that procedure. Activating a Horcrux and destroying it while the soul inside is trying to stop you is very dangerous. The Chamber of Secrets fiasco is a prime example." Harry clenched his hands on the edge of the table, his anger slowly slipping away.
"I'm sorry, Albus, but as you no doubt know, I'm sick and tired of having secrets kept from me." Harry cast a glance at the silver chalice sitting innocently on the table. "But now I know what to do with this," he added, snatching the cup and walking away.
"Where are you going?" Hermione called after him.
"To get a drink," Harry yelled back. It didn't immediately register to Hermione what he said, but when it did, she took off after him in a mad dash. She ran into the kitchen to see Harry pouring the last remnants of a container of blood into the now full cup.
"Harry, don't do it! We'll think of something else," she pleaded. Harry just looked at her with a look of resolution in his eyes.
"Don't come in until you hear silence," he said. He flicked his wand, and she was knocked down on her back and sliding across the floor. He flicked his wand again, and the door closed and locked itself with a sickening squelch. She got back on her feet and banged on the kitchen door with her hands.
"Harry! Harry, don't do this! Harry!" She screamed, but Harry ignored her. He transfigured a knife into a large axe, and squashing away any fear he had, drank the blood in the cup. The normally smooth and sweet blood now poured down his throat rough and hot, but Harry kept drinking, until every last drop was swallowed. Searing hot pain rushed through his body, and he dropped the cup as he fell to the floor, curling into a fetal position, screaming in anguish. He opened his eyes to see a ghostly green mist swirling out of the badger engraved on the cup, and it coalesced into the form of Tom Riddle, somewhere in his twenties. Riddle opened his eyes and looked around in confusion.
"What is this place? Who are you?" he sneered at the crumpled form of Harry. With a visible amount of pain, Harry managed to pull himself back onto his feet.
"That's not important," Harry said, grabbing the axe. "What is important that you're going to be destroyed." With a yell, Harry swung the axe at Riddle, who in his surprise did not dodge it. However, instead of blood and gore, only a bright white light shone from the wound, which quickly sealed. After realizing what happened, Riddle emitted a cold, humorless laugh.
"You can't kill me that way, fool," he chuckled. Harry just grinned patronizingly.
"I know," he said. "But I can this way," he continued, swinging the axe down on the cup, which gave a resonating gong, but was otherwise unaffected.
"No!" Riddle screamed, realizing what Harry was trying to do. He tried to wrench the axe out of Harry's hands, but the young vampire kicked Riddle in the stomach, knocking him down. Harry brought the axe down on the cup again, and this time, a small split appeared on the edge, and Riddle's body began to disintegrate. Struck with agonizing pain, the Horcrux soul could not move to stop Harry, so he continued to bring the axe down on the cup. Slowly, the split in the metal grew, until with a mighty swing, the cup was split in two.
Harry tiredly threw the axe down, ignoring the screams from Riddle's soul behind him. But as he drew his wand to unlock the door, Riddle's soul exploded behind him, sending him flying through the door, smashing it. The last thing he saw before his world went black was Hermione kneeling over him with a look of panic on her face.
Hermione normally prided herself on being very level-headed in times of crisus, but when Harry locked the door to battle the Horcrux, she panicked. Forgetting that she had left her wand upstairs, or that she even had one, she began banging on the door with her fists to get it to open, and then tried to kick it when that failed. After several minutes of beating the door vainly, she suddenly remembered that she had a wand, and ran back into her room to retrieve it like Voldemort himself was chasing her. She ran back to the doorway just in time to see Harry being thrown through the door. Screaming, she dropped down onto her knees, watching as Harry went unconscious. Quickly brushing off the splinters on Harry's body, she grabbed him from under the arms and dragged him to the nearest bedroom, where she struggled to haul him onto the bed. She immediately began taking off Harry's thick, protective clothes to inspect his body for damage. When she pulled his T-shirt off, she normally would have blushed at Harry's well-toned body, but now was not the time to be bashful. She carefully ran her fingers down his arms, chest and back, but could find no evidence of damage. Evidently, his dragon hide armor had done its job. But there was the issue of Harry's catatonic state. Not knowing anything about vampire physiology, all she could do was bring the blanket up to his armpits to protect his modesty and summon a rag and bowl of water to begin cleaning the ash off of Harry's face.
Harry groaned as he slowly cracked one eye open, and then the other, but he felt strange. He felt…weightless. When he tried to move, he found that he couldn't. He took in his surroundings and saw that he was in a dark room, surrounded by people in black robes and silver masks. He also saw a young woman hovering before him, utter fear in her eyes.
"Severus," Harry hissed, gesturing to a Death Eater to his right. "Would you care to do the honors?" As Snape raised his wand, white-hot hatred for his former potions master welled up inside of him, that his host raised his hand. "Wait."
Lord Voldemort was in a good mood today. He had just put all the pieces into position to take over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts, and he was going to watch the execution of a particularly annoying Mudblood to boot. "Severus, would you care to do the honors?" he offered. Unable to see his face behind his mask, Snape raised his wand and prepared to fire the killing curse, when Voldemort felt a vaguely familiar feeling in his mind. He suddenly felt intense hatred for his follower. "Wait," Voldemort said, raising his hand. Snape stopped mid-curse and stared at his master in confusion. He could see a growing look of frustration on Voldemort's face as the barely-human dark lord glared at an invisible object. Suddenly, the thin, pale man stood up from his throne.
"I have urgent business to attend to; send the Mudblood back to her cell and return to your tasks." With quiet grumbles of disappointment, two Death Eaters violently grabbed the woman and dragged her back to her cell while Voldemort returned to his quarters. Voldemort laid his hands on either side of the wall where a mirror hung and glared into his reflection. "Who are you?" he snarled to himself. Seeing no way out of his predicament, Harry answered back mentally, Take a guess. Voldemort smiled nastily at the answer. "Ahh, Harry, now nice of you to join me. It's been a while since we've last spoken. How's Dumbledore? Oh wait, he's dead now, isn't he? My mistake." Harry was unamused by Voldemort's sarcasm, and if he had eyes, he would roll them. "But I'm afraid that you're on private property, now leave!" Voldemort sent a Legilimency probe at Harry, who instinctively raised his Occlumency shields. To their mutual surprise, Harry successfully managed to completely block Voldemort's attack.
"Ahh, so you learned a few new tricks, I see. Well, let's see how long you last!" Again, Voldemort unleashed a vicious mental attack against Harry, who successfully blocked it again. Bring it on, Harry thought smugly.
For almost two weeks, Voldemort locked himself in his room, not allowing anyone inside except the house elf that brought his food and water. For every minute of those weeks, he was locked in mental combat with Harry, not sparing even a moment's rest, and it was showing. While Harry, even though he could feel the fatigue and hunger from not eating or sleeping for weeks, he could tell that Voldemort was much worse off. Voldemort's attacks were becoming so weak, Harry could barely feel them anymore. Suddenly coming up with an idea, Harry pushed his way through Voldemort's weakened mental shields and pushed his consciousness down, possessing his body.
Harry slowly clenched his hands and walked around to gain a feel for his new body. He heard a crack behind him and instinctively spun around, brandishing his wand, to see a terrified house elf carrying a tray of food.
"Bring me the one named Wormtail," Harry ordered the elf. Nodding fearfully, the house elf vanished with a pop, only to appear a second later with Wormtail in tow. "You may leave us," Harry told the elf. Bowing, the house elf disappeared again, leaving the two men alone.
"Wormtail," Harry hissed to the balding, cowering man before him. "I have a task for you." Shuddering in fear, Wormtail only nodded. "Firstly, you are to find Snape and the Malfoy boy and tell them I require their presence. After that, you are to release the prisoners." Wormtail looked up in confusion at the second order.
"Which ones, my lord?" he whimpered.
"All of them, alive and unharmed," Harry said simply. Wormtail didn't understand his master's reasoning, but knew better than to ask, so he scurried out of the room to find Snape and Malfoy. After Wormtail had left, Voldemort tried to regain control of his body, but the currently superior Harry knocked him back down. Several minutes later, Snape and Malfoy entered Voldemort's chambers.
"You summoned us, my lord?" Snape said as they both bowed. Flicking the door closed with his wand, Harry looked down at them, resisting the urge to kill them immediately.
"Yes, I did," Harry hissed emotionlessly. "I have a task for you two, but first, I require your wands." Snape and Malfoy looked at each other nervously, but they handed Harry their wands, which he set down. "Now, take a nap," Harry said, quickly stunning the both of them. Taking a couple pieces of spare parchment and turning them into portkeys, he bound them and sent them to Grimmauld Place. Suddenly, Harry felt his control over Voldemort's body as his hunger came back with a vengance.
For two weeks, Hermione has tended to Harry's comatose form. But after cleaning his face, there was nothing she could do except sit by him and hope that he would wake up. Hermione heard a thump come from the floor below, and she grabbed her wand to investigate. She carefully walked down the stairs and into the kitchen to see the unconscious and rope-bound forms of Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy. After stunning them again for good measure, she levitated them to a bedroom and dropped them down.
"Dobby?" she asked, and the excitable little house elf popped in, many colorful hats balancing on his head.
"Dobby come for Harry Potter's miss!" Dobby said joyfully. Not commenting as to how she was "Harry's miss," she smiled kindly down at Dobby.
"Dobby, could you watch these two while I set the anti-Apparation wards, please? And also, could you change their clothes and confiscate any items on their person? That'd be great." Dobby shook his head vigorously, his hats flying everywhere.
"Dobby will watch bad master and slimy man for Harry Potter's miss!" Shaking her head, she closed the
door and left the house elf to his guard duty while she set the wards to not allow any Apparation into or out of that
room. Her job finished, she returned to the room, where the two unconscious Death Eaters had been changed into no doubt
the filthiest clothes that Dobby could find.
"Dobby, when they wake up, can you take care of them?" Dobby spun around, his tennis-ball-like eyes threatening to pop out of his head. "By no means do you have to treat them well, but we need them alive for now." Reluctantly, Dobby nodded, and resumed staring resolutely at his two wards. Hermione simply closed the door and walked back up to Harry's room, where he laid still as always.
"You wouldn't believe our luck, Harry," Hermione whispered, stroking Harry's hair. "Someone stunned Snape and Malfoy and brought them here. Dobby's watching them now, and they didn't have their wands, so I think we're safe." Hermione sat quietly, lightly tracing his scar. "Please wake up, Harry. I miss you." Slowly, she bent over and softly pressed her warm lips to his cold ones. He'll never know, she thought as she kissed him. When she sat up, she heard Harry groan softly.
"Hermione?" he mumbled. Joyfully, Hermione leaned closer to him.
"I'm here, Harry," she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. Instead of responding, she heard a bestial growl coming from Harry's throat. Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he lunged to her. Before she could react or even scream, she felt a sharp pain in her neck as Harry plunged his fangs into her.
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Hmm…. This is a rather gloomy turn of events. Oh, what will happen next?
Don't forget to read and review!
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