Chapter 1: Not over yet
A/N: Hello again! As all great ideas do, an epilogue was planted in my head in the rain walking home around a month ago. Yes, rain in August. Really, this country gets WAY too much rain. Anyway, I had a dilemma. Either I could write a sequel, or make put an extra epilogue into HVD. After a short debate, and a PM to Arabella Riddle, I decided to make a sequel. And here it is.
From a glance, the dark woods in the middle of nowhere didn't look that suspicious, or dangerous. In fact, the only negative emotion you'd ever get from it was a slightly creeped out feeling, like the knarled trees were watching you.
They were.
Well, they weren't exactly watching you. But they could sense people who weren't welcome, and alert the people who were inside the forest.
That's right. People lived in that forest. You couldn't tell it by looking at them, but people lived there. People stayed there. You'd think that it'd be hard living in such a dark, dense, damp forest. But you'd be wrong. Because- let me tell you another thing.
The forest wasn't acctualy a forest.
No, the forest was a disguise. A disguise for something more sinister, more frightening than has ever been seen before.
Okay, now our story begins on a dark night, a night when the moon doesn't even make an appearance. There is no wind, no sound, and all the stars in the sky are blotted out by ink black clouds. A pop suddenly fills the air, and a hooded figure appears near the forest. He glances around; nobody is in sight. Then he rushed forward, towards the forest- and disappears from sight. If a regular person, who was, say, a student in the nearby college, or a scientist, or even a famous actor in a stupid movie that everyone likes was to go near that forest, that disguise, they wouldn't have disappeared like the figure has. They would have remembered an urgent appointment, or that they'd run out of milk, and then head in the opposite direction, forgetting completely about the forest. This is because the forest has protection- nobody who wasn't welcome was able to come near.
It's obvious that man was welcome then. Let me zoom a minute, down through the treetops, past the disguise. Now, this, this will shock some people. We are no longer in a forest. Instead, our setting is a large, magestic manor, that hardly seems small enough to be hidden by the forest. It is, however, a chilling sight. Everything about this mansion is dark. The windows green curtain's are drawn, the door seems to be scowling at us all, telling us to turn back, that we are not welcome. The hooded figure is undaunted by this hostility. He keeps on walking, past dead, shrivelled up flowers, past shrubs that are clipped into horrifying scenes, to the scoling ebony-wooded door. He knocks smartly- once, twice, three times. Slowly the door opens, and a tiny, elf-like thing is stood behind the door. It looks frightened, and has a black eye.
"Sir, you is welcome here." The elf-thing says, "If you will follow Carri through-"
"I don't have time for this," The man interrupts, pushing the elf-thing onto the floor and stalking into the hallway. Pictures of frowning people with evil expressions line the walls of the hallway, their eyes following the mans every move. He walks to the end of the corridor, with the elf-thing hopping quickly, trying to keep up with him. He throws open the door.
"Lucius, so glad you've finally joined us." A smooth but cruel female voice purrs from a long oak table. Many people sit at this table, each wearing a cloak to cover their faces. The person who spoke was sitting at the very top of the table, her dark brown eyes, glinting with madness, the only thing you could see about her.
"Join you, Bella?" The man smirks. He pulls off his hood, revealing his long, straight, platinum blonde hair, his pointed chin, his sparkling grey eyes, and his prize-winning smirk. "No, I'm only here to pass judgement. It depends on what you say, whether or not I will join you."
"Sit down then, Lucius." Another, raspy voice tells him. "You have much to hear, and the night is not long." Lucius nods, and sits down in a near chair. The speaker glares at the elf-thing, who squeaks, and rushes off to who-knows-where.
"Lucius, I do not know whether you recall the battle that happened over the summer, yes?" Bella says.
"Yes, I remember." Lucius nods again, "Where we all nearly got killed just because Harry Potter-" He spits out that name- "Had 'daddy issues'." A couple of people chuckle, but others scowl at the mention of this.
"Yes." Bella scowls. "A complete waste of time. And as you defiantly know, the Dark Lord has- changed, since this battle." Lucius nodded again. "He has become soft," People along the table hiss, "Become weak," people growl, "Become... nice." Now there are cries of outrage inside, loud as fans in a Quidditch stadium. "This is not our Dark Lord. This is not who he is. I still remember him fresh out of Hogwarts, hard, evil, everything he should have been," Bella sighs sadly, as if remembering something more elite than we'll ever know. "That was the Dark Lord, our Dark Lord... my Dark Lord. He is just lost. Lost somewhere behind that silly folly of fatherhood." Boos line the table. "And, who, I ask you, is to blame, Dolahov?"
"Harry Potter," A man hisses.
"Macnair?"
"Harry Potter." Another man growls.
"Rookwood?"
"Harry Potter." Another man yells.
"Yes."
"Forgive me to be asking, Bella," Lucius pipes up, "But are we not to be calling him by his proper name, Harry Riddle?"
"Bah!" Spits Bella, "A stupid trick, that our Lord was weak enough to fall for. No, Lucius. This boy is no more Voldemort's son than I am sisters to that traitor, Andomeda. This trick was made to weaken our Lord, to make him docile, no longer a threat. To bury his evil ways under the fatherly notion all men have. We women aren't that weak." Under her hood, Bella smiles cruelly. "We don't get that feeling to please our kin; we can do whatever we feel is for us. I know that our Lord is still there, underneath, waiting for us, Lucius. We just need to get rid of his distractions. In other words, we must kill Potter for him. Then, he will no longer have to hide in that pathetic prison. He will be free to rule the world like we always dreamed-" A man near her coughs, a bit angrily. "I mean, like he always dreamed. This is our goal, Lucius. To reband the Deatheaters, to rid the world of Potter, once and for all, and to have our Lord back!" There are cries of praise echoing around the room. "What do you say to that, Lucius? Will you join us?"
"If I were to say no, what would you do?" Lucius asks, although it's clear from his eyes he has no intention of declining this offer.
"Well," Bella laughs, "We'd have no choice but to kill you, Lucius. We cannot have word going around to the Ministry, can we?"
"No," Lucius smiles, "Well, Bella, I think I will just have to take you up on this offer." Bella smiles evilly behind her hood. She pulls out a long, knarled piece of wood, a wand, and casts a spell. A ginormous smoky skull, with a snake slithering out of it appears above the table.
"For Voldemort." She grins. "And for the Greater Good."
"FOR THE GREATER GOOD!"
A/N: And there we have it. Sorry for the really odd perspective of this chapter, my brain kept doing present tense for some reason, while I was trying to write in past tense. I couldn't be bothered in the end to go and change every single word to fit past tense, so I just kept it in present. Updates will be slow, because as well as working on this I'm trying to figure out a humour I'll call named 'Summer Fun', as well as working out a plot-line for another humour called 'Summer Cruise', and waiting anxiously for my Pottermore admittance e-mail! Also I'm writing an original story, called 'Island of Myths', but it's not coming along so well... And all this while trying to keep up with other good reads!
1. What did you think?
2. Who recognises the Chapter title? Whoever does gets a shout-out next chapter!
3. Are you excited for the sequel?
4. Anything you think should happen?
5. Should I somehow have the Muggles (Melina, Bryony, Freddie, Livia) return?
Please review!
Comix