Blood On The Snow
Summary: Harry makes the decision of a life time. And there's no going back – not that he wants to.
Disclaimer: I own nothing and no profit is being made from any of my works :)
Warnings: Character death.
"Harry, please think rationally for a moment!" Hermione shouted at her best friend – who was more of a brother than anything else. There was no way the boy was in his right mind.
The two were in the Room of Requirement. At the moment it was a rather cozy sitting room, with many wards surrounding Harry to keep his friend from hexing him into oblivion. Not that she could be blamed if she did. The only warning Harry had given the witch about this...well, 'announcement' was a, "meet me outside the Room of Requirement at midnight."
"I am thinking rationally, Hermione. I need to do this, and I need you to promise to keep my secret. You're like my sister and the only person I trust completely with this particular one. You have to understand...Please." Harry looked at his friend with pleading eyes. He needed this and Hermione knew it.
With a defeated sigh, she rather unceremoniously collapsed on the sofa next to the Boy Who Lived. "Oh fine, but you have to somehow keep in touch with me. Which means you'll need an alias...And perhaps a new owl? Hedwig is too noticeable."
Harry nodded and looked deep in thought. After a moment his head perked up. "My alias can be Evan, you know like 'Evans'. And I can borrow owls from people."
"Alright, Harry, seeing as I'm not going to be able to change your mind...Good luck. You're definitely going to need it." The emerald-eyed teenager chuckled and thanked his almost-sister. With a quick kiss on the cheek, he donned his invisibility cloak.
Hermione watched the door open and close before sighing again and allowing a few tears to roll down her cheeks. He was gone. And had she not known that he could easily throw off the Imperius Curse, she would have been extremely concerned at her friend's decision.
For now there was nothing to do but wait.
Harry made it out of Hogwarts' front doors easily. He reached the gates in record time and traveled through Hogsmeade until he reached the edge of town. Once there, he Apparated.
He landed a bit shakily in the middle of a graveyard. The graveyard. He fought back memories of fourth year and pressed on to the manor looming ahead. Little Hangelton was eerily quiet; fog swirled at Harry's feet.
There was a silver knocker on the oak front doors. Harry smirked when he realized it was in the shape of a snake. He knocked and in the next moment Wormtail opened the door, peaking out of the crack.
Harry fought down his homicidal urges. "Take me to your Lord, Pettigrew. I do not wish to harm you or anyone else." After studying him through beady black eyes, Wormtail opened the door more and allowed Harry through.
"Please follow me." Receiving a nod, he began towards a set of stairs. They went up and winded through numerous corridors before coming to a halt before a large door. "The Master's study, Mr. Potter." He turned and knocked on the door.
There was a silence before a short "enter" granted them access. Wormtail opened the door and lead Harry through. Voldemort was bent over a desk, writing on a piece of parchment with a rather fancy quill.
"My Lord," Wormtail murmured, "you have a visitor." At this Voldemort's head shot up and slowly turned for a view of his servant. His eyes widened to see Harry Potter standing there, staring curiously around the room.
"You are dismissed, Wormtail." With a short bow, the squat man scurried away. "Well, well, Mr. Potter. What have I done to be so honored with your presence?"
"I'm done."
Raising an elegant eyebrow, Voldemort spoke again, "Pardon?"
"I'm done playing this...game with you. I don't want to fight anymore. I was thrust into this situation without any say in the matter. Dumbledore has been manipulating my life since that Halloween night and it's getting very old, very fast. The Order is suffocating me and my only relatives don't want me.
"There's this Muggle saying, 'If you can't beat them, join them' and since you'd never – willingly – join my side...I figure, what have I got to lose? I'd be happy to join you if only you reform your ways the slightest bit."
Voldemort gave him a coldly calculating look before responding. "And why, pray tell, would I reform my ways for you – the bane of my existence?"
"Because I'm me: Harry bloody Potter. I'm the ticket to anything and everything you've ever wanted. If you don't trust me, go ahead and take a peek inside my mind. I'm absolutely dreadful at Occlumency and I'm certain Snape killed any natural barriers I had last year."
Harry spent the rest of the night convincing Voldemort that he was no longer a threat. The next day it was announced to the Death Eaters that Harry was now Voldemort's right hand man. Those who had anything negative to say about it weren't heard from for a very long time.
Privately, Harry made Snape swear to secrecy. The Dark Lord sent someone to purchase Harry another owl and they came back with a rather magnificent eagle owl that was promptly named Marvolo – if only to irk Voldermort.
After a short ritual, Harry was officially the Dark Heir. Then the reforms started. Harry ordered that no Muggles were to be killed ever – unless they got caught in cross fire. It was simply unnecessary...Unless they were the Dursley's, because that changed things.
On the third day of Harry's arrival, he was sitting with the Dark Lord in the 'throne room' listening to Death Eater reports. It was a very tedious task and it wasn't until Severus – as Harry had come to address him as – entered the room that anything interesting was told.
"My Lords," both men nodded.
"What had you got for us, Severus?"
"I'm sure you won't exactly find this to your liking, Young Lord...But Dumbledore has initiated a world-wide Harry Potter Hunt. There are pictures of you in every Wizarding and Muggle newspaper across the globe, as well as on every Muggle news station. The Wizarding World is in complete chaos over your disappearance...The only person unperturbed by all of this seems to be a certain Hermione Granger."
"That is none of concern, Severus," Harry snapped. "The Dark Lord is aware of the situation and sees no problem with it. Any other information?"
And so was Harry's first few months at Riddle Manor. Nothing exciting happened because Voldemort refused to allow him out of the mansion. "I will take no chances with them finding you," he had said. "I've admittedly grown rather fond of you, Harry. I couldn't bear to lose you now."
Eventually, after nearly six months, Severus notified them that Dumbledore had called off all efforts in finding him. The Order figured he was either where he was willingly or he was already dead.
By this time Harry had mastered wand-less magic and Occlumency. He was on his way to being a top Legilimens, just as Severus and Voldemort. He practiced on the most accomplished Occlumens out of the Death Eaters: Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy – every time he dropped by just to annoy him – and Voldemort himself. He was the designated Legilimens during Death Eater reports, if only to spare his partner the dull task.
He'd kept in correspondence with Hermione, keeping her up to date with everything he was learning. She was insanely jealous, of course, that he had learned wand-less magic in a matter of months.
A whole year went by before the Dark Lord and his heir grew tired of waiting. It was time for the attack.
They chose a Hogsmeade weekend for the students. Harry was to stay by the Dark Lord or one of the Inner Circle at all times. His deflecting of curses was more important than his casting of them. Not that he couldn't do both at once...
Finally the day was upon them. The weekend before Christmas break. Harry admitted that his stay with Voldemort and his Death Eaters had turned him Dark. Although, most of it was due to the bonding ceremony. Technically Voldemort was his father, and he had grown to care deeply for the older man. As only a son could.
It was Harry that had suggested this date. He wanted to see the blood on snow. Father had said he's nearly "waxed poetic" when he explained his reasoning. And so, here they were, dressed in their Death Eater attire. Harry was instructed to keep his mask on – Sticking Charms were handy little things – and hood up the entire time. No one was to know his identity until the end.
And then it began. The first hex was shot by none other than Bellatrix and Hogsmeade went into chaos. Harry and Voldemort exited the wood last and the battle halted for a second.
"I am Lord Voldemort. This is my heir. Even if you take me down, he will be there to follow in my footsteps. You can not hope to bring him down." He fired off a Killing Curse carelessly and the battle resumed.
Harry stayed with him for a good ten minutes – throwing up shields that sent the curses back at their caster – before he was split from his father. He searched frantically and spotted Lucius not far away and stayed with him. He kept an eye on his father, sending over shields every once in a while.
It didn't take long for all of the Professors to show up, along with the Order and Albus Dumbledore. Nearly all were Stunned or hit with some nasty curse – many suffering side-effects of the Cruciatus Curse – by the time Dumbledore reached the Dark Lord.
They began a full out duel. Harry watched in silent fear as his father deflected many of the curses sent at him. He refused to use the Avada Kedavra until the last moment. He shouldn't have.
Dumbledore hit him squarely in the chest with a very well-aimed jet of green light. A horrified scream left Harry's lips as he raced towards the fallen body.
"FATHER!" he roared. Albus looked at the figure racing towards Voldemort in shock.
Father?
Harry dropped to his knees by the body. Voldemort's eyes were wide open, but glazed over. His mouth opened as if laughing. A sound that would never be heard again. Harry didn't even realize that he had tears streaming down his face, or that agonizing sobs were leaving his body. He simply held his father's hand until Dumbledore found his voice.
"Who are you?"
Turning sharply, Harry stared up at his former Headmaster. "Who am I?" he asked coldly, letting out a cackle that would have made Voldemort proud (and it did, many times). "I am the Dark Heir, the Dark Lord's son by blood ritual. But I am not only that. I am someone you know – or think you know."
Slowly and deliberately, Harry lowered his hood and removed the mask after undoing the charm keeping it in place. "I am Harry Potter."
Albus' jaw hit the ground. His eyes bugged out in shock, along with most of the Order's. Remus stared at Harry, betrayal washing over his features. It took the aged wizard a moment to find his voice again. "Harry? Why?"
"I simply got tired of fighting; of you manipulating me; of all the whispers and stares I got from fellow students; and of returning to that horrid Muggle home every summer to refuel some bloody magic. And, now, you've murdered my father."
Without any warning, Harry raised his hand and a jet of green flew out of it, hitting the headmaster in the same exact spot it had hit Voldemort. Harry felt his soul rip and he smiled with grim satisfaction. He'd have to conceal one part later...Father had taught him how. But before that, he turned to the crowd watching.
"Would anyone else like to follow the old fool's example?" After a few more seconds of shocked silence, Order members began Apparating away.
Professors began to usher students back to the school, but the Death Eater children instead ran to where their parents were. Several – both Death Eater's and students – were nursing wounds, but not many; and nothing that couldn't be fixed with a simple Episkey or Healing Potion. Harry smirked at their blatant disregard to the authority figures of Hogwarts.
Yes, he thought, they will make very good followers one day... As he glanced around Hogsmeade he smiled a sinister smile and Apparated away.
The snow covering the town was indeed stained with blood.
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xoxo, Haley Potter