Disclaimer: I do not own any character's objects or anything else that comes from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
Warning: This story will contain scenes of violence, bad language, and maybe other themes that some audiences may find unsuitable. You have been advised.
When You Have Nothing Left to Lose
Chapter 2
A throbbing pain made up his entire world, and it showed no sympathy, no mercy.
This is what woke Harry from the blackness called unconsciousness. Despite his awakening, however, Harry Potter could not see anything in his vision excluding the blackness that directly covered his eyes. If Harry was not in so much pain at the moment, he would have deluded to himself that somehow things had gotten worse for him and that he was in hell, but the pain was abundantly present in Harry's mind. It tortured him and clouded all thoughts. The pain would have restricted his movement if the chains and shackles already had not done so.
"Finally, Potter. Daphne was beginning to get impatient, and Merlin knows that I do not want her upset, even if it isn't with me." A voice cut through the toxic cloud that hung over Harry's body.
Harry tried replying along the lines of, "Fuck all of you. I hope each of you goes straight to hell," but in actuality, he just mumbled incoherently.
The voice cackled. "Look at the great Harry Potter now, huh? You're so weak and helpless without your friends. I can't believe you inherited the Potter fortune. You're a disgrace to the Potter name."
"Enough. Daphne wants to personally interrogate him. Go bring him." Another voice ordered. Harry's sense had started to return and now could at least identify separate voices.
"Why do I always have to move the prisoners?" The first person whined.
"One: because my duty is to guard the prisoners. Two: your job is to transport and sometimes watch the prisoners. Three: Daphne assigned you to your position. If my former points weren't enough for you, think about how Daphne will be if he doesn't arrive soon."
There was no reply, but a few seconds later, he felt and heard rushed movements to unlock him from his shackles. Before he could start to walk, however, another set clamped down on his wrists. Harry's arms had to hang low due to the weight behind the iron shackles. The first man then shoved Harry forward, forcing him to start walking in the direction he wanted.
"What, are you daft? Cast the spell first, you idiot!" The second man shouted, causing the first one to stop Harry.
"Fucking git." The first man grumbled quietly to himself before Harry heard him say, "Sentit!" before he could not hear, smell, or feel anything around his head. Harry was not even able to see the cloth in front of his eyes. Either of the men could have removed the blindfold, and Harry would have no idea that they had done so.
Suddenly, though, he felt another shove into his back, again indicating for him to start walking. After a few seconds, however, Harry tripped on the first step on a staircase and fell on his face. Thankfully, whatever spell the man had just cast stopped any pain from reaching his face, but the fall did worsen his headache. A hand then pulled Harry up by his right shoulder, forcing him back on his feet. A second later, he was being shoved forward again. Carefully, Harry began walking up the staircase with the man behind him pushing him forward and to the left so as not to slow down their progress. Suddenly, though, the man held Harry back by his shirt before Harry could take another step. The man then picked up Harry's right leg and moved it as if Harry was taking another step. Oddly, though, Harry's foot traveled down farther than he thought it would, making him realize that he had reached the top of the stairs. Harry picked up his other leg and set it down on the floor. The man then pushed Harry forward and navigated him down the hallways by shoving him the necessary way down the path. Finally, the man stopped Harry for a few seconds before he was shoved forward once more and guided into a chair, where Harry's limbs were tied down.
Suddenly, Harry's sense returned to him, excluding his sight due to the still present blindfold.
"My, my, Potter. You caused us much trouble, but all of it was for nothing. You are now our prisoner, and as such, we are free to do whatever we want with you. Nobody knows your location, excluding us." A feminine voice said. Her voice was extremely cold.
"I think I caused a little bit more than 'much trouble'. Did you scum finally put out the fiendfyre, or is it still burning up the town?" Harry smirked viciously.
"You are not grasping the deadly gravity of the situation, Potter." Daphne spat out his name particularly maliciously.
"No, you don't. If you remember from the hill, I have nothing left to live for; …I only have everything to die for. Do what you want to me because it will make no difference. You might as well kill me now." Harry calmly replied.
"You might not care what will happen to you, but I think you will care about what will happen to your family." Harry could hear the triumph in her voice.
"You still don't have me there." Harry's smirk grew bigger despite how horrible he felt about his family's deed. "They abandoned me, each and every single one of them. Ginny, James, Albus, and Lily."
"We can still take your friends." Daphne retorted.
Harry sat in silence for a few moments. "Even if I cared, what do you want from me?" The man had realized during his time of silence that now that he no longer had his family, he did not care about anything.
"Information."
"Like what?" Harry spat. "I might be known as a great auror, but I am not the head of my department! I don't know anything worth a shit! I might have saved the whole bloody country, but guess what? They still don't trust any of us like old times. With that, people being ignorant about how our country is doing, and the Ministry still being corrupt as fuck, I still might as well be in fifth year at Hogwarts!"
Daphne was silent as Harry panted from his rant.
"I see you have lost your faith in the ministry." Daphne said after a few moments.
"Of course I have! The way things are now, why wouldn't I?" Harry shouted.
Silence again. Then suddenly, Harry's blindfold was removed. Opening his eyes, Harry was thankful that Death Eaters loved their rooms on the darker side. His eyes were able to quickly adjust to the candlelight of the room but couldn't see much else of the room due to an object being very close to his face.
Daphne Greengrass was staring into his eyes as they adjusted to the light. "I have a proposition for you, Potter."
Harry sneered much like his old potions professor had.
"I want you to join us."
All of Harry's outer defenses immediately fell, allowing his shock and surprise to show. Daphne would have chuckled if she did not have to be so apathetic and did not want to lose the possibility of having the Boy-Who-Won be on her side.
"What makes you think I would ever be one of you scum. All you fuckers do is murder, rape, abuse, torture, and steal from the innocent, especially the muggles who don't even know what they did to deserve your cruelty." Harry growled.
"That might have been the case with our first leader, Voldemort, but times have changed, Potter." Harry eyed the woman standing in front of him with caution but could not help but be curious. "Since your victory over Voldemort, the remaining Death Eaters went through many changes of power but all of the early attempts were weak as only few grouped together. Towards the end of the attempts, however, Death Eaters began forming in different areas, but we still lacked a strong overall leader… until I came along." Daphne paused to reflect on her memories. "I had been one of the Death Eaters for six years a year ago and had always been present in the reformations since that time, but I decided to finally stop the pathetic attempts of regrowth and seize control. Since that time, I became what you see now: the strongest leader of the Death Eaters since Voldemort himself if not stronger!"
"As much as I find your whole backstory interesting, would you mind actually getting to your BLOODY POINT? It might have been scary the first few times when I was in mortal danger, but it is now FUCKING BORING!" Harry yelled.
A flicker of anger crossed Daphne's face, but it only lasted half of a second. "I was leading up to the fact that, under my supervision, the Death Eaters have reformed in more ways than one. You see our goal is to now protect our world, the wizarding world, from extinction. While there is a great debate among us if it should be through complete isolation or to lesser degrees, I am pushing for muggleborn wizards and witches to be allowed in at an earlier age than Hogwarts. This will allow the survival of the wizarding world but less violence than our first organization."
"While I think that is a great story, how am I supposed to, in any way, believe that? The DMLE is receiving more attacks from your organization each day!" Harry retorted.
"Ah, I thought you would bring that up." Daphne said slightly victoriously. "The problem with your accusation is that we are not involved in any way with these attacks excluding our name. We are being framed because we once tried changing the Ministry through peaceful negotiations."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked carefully.
"You see, Potter, the Ministry of Magic is setting up the attacks! They make a scene of devastation and use our name so as to lessen our support and dependability!" Each of Daphne's words grew more passionate than the last.
"I severely doubt that, Greengrass. How could the Ministry pull that off without all of my department knowing?" Harry asked sarcastically.
Daphne nodded in understanding. "Your doubts are well-placed given your history with the Death Eaters, but they are unnecessary. Think about it for a second instead of automatically denying the facts. Have you not noticed how many of the higher officials in your department will act secretly? How some of the lowest members will disappear for short periods of time before reporting directly to these officials? Have you not had your own suspicions that many know something that you don't in the Ministry? This is what it is! They know of your hate for our group and have used it to try and eliminate us in a more public setting!"
By the end of Daphne's latest small speech, all of Harry's defenses had fallen, showing the shock that rocked his entire mind, body, and soul. "They… they… used me?" Harry asked much like he would have when he was a child.
Daphne nodded. "Quite effectively as well, but now you understand that we can give them what they deserve! The sides have switched, and it is time for good to finally abolish these corrupt politicians and blinded followers! Join me, Mr. Potter, and I know that we can ensure their defeat! Join me, and avenge everything you tried to achieve when you first defeated Voldemort!"
"What would you have me do?" Harry asked solemnly.
"You would be my second-in-command if not my equal in commanding the Death Eaters when you became ready." Daphne replied.
"And until then?" Harry questioned.
"Training. You will adorn the cloak and mask, be trained in the dark arts, and be given more power than you thought you could ever achieve. The Death Eaters have been busy, Mr. Potter, and we have discovered many new advances in magic." Daphne waved her hand, unlocking all of Harry's restraints. "Will you join me?"
Harry sat in silence for a few moments, thinking over everything Daphne had just said. Once he came to a decision he stood up and walked up to Daphne. Standing in front of the woman, Harry was silent. Each person stared into the other's eyes, searching for the slightest piece of information they could gain. A blizzard met a solid wall of emerald, and jade colored vines tried penetrating a wall of ice.
Suddenly, Harry swung his right hand around, gripping Daphne's neck. "You better not be lying to me." He growled, keeping a firm grip on the woman's neck but not strangling her.
"I'm not." Not even a wick of fear escaped her.
Harry nodded and let go.
"I'm in."
AN: There you go, everyone. Despite the low reviews, I thought I would give this story a shot. I really liked the idea of doing something different from my other two stories but with some of the same principles. I would really appreciate all of my readers leaving a review since it does help give me more ideas for this story and inspire me to write these down faster. Also, I believe everyone would like to know that I will keep current news relating to my stories on my profile. As always: Occidere Prima Vel Occidi.