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THE DARKEST MARK - Shadow Academy

PART 2

I said 5-7 days before the next instalment and it has been 7. I thought I'd have it up within 3 actually but everything got screwed up. Have fun reading Part 2 of the Darkest Mark and if your interested ive just posted Part 2 of The Muggle Girl!

Harry stared open-mouthed at Hermiones lifeless body hanging above the pit. Then Voldemort stood up. 'Quiet', he hissed. Then began to chuckle. He laughed louder and louder until his high, cold laughter stung Harry's ears. 'Friends' he adressed the Death Eaters, 'we have two visitors'. Harry looked wildly around for the other supposed visitor, Hermione was obviously one of them.

'Miss Granger here' Voldemort waved his hand carelessly at Hermione. 'And...' He paused. For a moment Voldemort shook. Then a cold smile played about his lips. 'HARRY POTTER!'. From Voldemorts fingertip a thin green jet of light issued and wrapped itself around Harry. 'GET OVER HERE' Voldemort yelled, and the wire constricted, turning Harrys face red. The next moment he fell next to Voldemort, panting helpless on the ground.

Since the years of Harry leaving Hogwarts, he had grown taller. Now, close to 6"5, his hair longer than ever, he was still thin, but wiry strong. Harry foolishly stretched his bindings, only to feel a white hot heat sink into his arm.

'Undo me Voldemort' he said, with the iciest voice he could muster. Voldemort, even though Harry doubted he would, undid his bounds and offered Harry a hand to get up. Harry looked suspiciously at Voldemorts spindly, white fingers. Anger coursed through him and he spat on them.

Voldemort half chuckled, half growled. 'You'll pay for that. You know that, dont you?' He said and slapped Harry hard across the face. Hermione screamed from above the pit. Harry shook himself and reached for his wand.

'Voldemort, you challenged me to a duel in my fourth year. Now Im grown up, do you think you can handle me?' Harry taunted. Voldemorts pale face twinged red at the high cheekbones. A wave of fire swept throuh his red, slanting eyes. 'Wih pleasure' he said.

The Death Eaters formed a circle around the competitors. 'Master, use my wand. Same make as yours. Dragon Heart string though' Nott, a Death Eater, said to Voldemort 'We dont want Prior Incantatem again'. Voldemort looked slightly amused, and took the wand. With a flourish he turned Nott into a horned toad and back again. 'It works excellently, thank you. You will be rewarded' he said. Nott bowed with satisfaction and rejoined the circle.

Harry and Voldemort stood facing one another. 'Bow' Voldemort said, and this time Harry bowed of his own free will. He kept his eyes upon Voldemort and his head did not go beneath chest height, however. Harry and Voldemort moved closer together and crossed wands. 'Begin' Harry said and arched his wand towards Voldemorts heart. 'Crucio' he said. Voldemorts body went rigid then straight again. He had overcome it.

Harry stared speechless at Voldemort for a moment, surprised that Voldemort could deflect such a powerful curse. Voldemort took a small model dragon out of his pocket and pinted his wand at it. 'Maxima Draconis' he hissed and the dragon immediately started growing. Within five seconds it was full height and Voldemort was hissing Parseltounge at it. Of course, Harry thought, a dragon is so like a snake, and so obviously of the same Genus then it would be possible to talk to it.

'Attack him' Harry heard Voldemort say to the Dragon. Harry pointed his wand at the dragons foot. 'Reducio' he said and sent a poweful yellow beam at the Dragons foot. The Dragon fell over, obviously in great pain. Harry felt immensely sorry for it. 'Ferula' he said and bandages covered the dragons foot. 'Minima Draconis' Harry said, guessing the Dragon growth counter-spell.

The Dragon shrunk back to a model. 'Accio' Harry said and the model flew to his pocket. Harry once again aimed his wand at Voldemort. 'How touching' Voldemort sneered, glancing at Harry's bulging pocket. 'Imperio' Voldemort said and Harrys mind went pleasently blank. 'Harry' a booming voice inside his head commanded, 'that wand in your hand, aim it at your head'. Harry saw no reason why not and did so.

'Say Crucio' said the voice in Harry's head. No sooner had he said this then Harry heard a softer voice. 'Why should I' it said 'that isn't good for me'. 'No' Harry said. The mistiness in his heard was getting clearer. 'No' he repeated. It was gone. He had thrown off the curse. Now it was Voldemorts turn to be surprised. Then Voldemort shook his head.

'Enough childishness' he said 'take him to his quarters in my tower. I have a headache' and turned to leave. 'Wait! You cant just leave. We haven't finished' Harry said angrily as the Death Eaters confiscated his wand and dragged him away.

For what seemed like hours he was dragged endlessly downwards until he was thrown into a dark room. One of the Death Eaters waved his hands and flames sprung up in all four corners of the room. To Harry's immense surprise the room was extremely well furnished.

Directly in front of him lay a massive four-poster bed. Velvet curtains draped down the side of it and a the mahogany shone brilliantly by the firelight. To the side of the bed was an enourmous bookshelf, filled with books on the Dark Arts. And on the other side sat a large study-desk. Papers and quills filled it. Around the walls maps with pins and marks on them showed pictures and the location of every Death Eater. Like the Maruaders Map, Harry thought.

Any dream of comfort Harry had was shattered when one of the Death Eaters kicked him in the ribs. Harry heard a crack and was sure that at least on was broken. He was thrown on to the bed and a sharp, burning pain shot up his side.

No sooner had the Death Eaters gone and Harry crawled into bed, had he fallen asleep. He slept very easily that night and when he awoke to the smell of bacon many hours earlier he felt much better. Gingerely rubbing his side, he confirmed to himself that he had two broken ribs and a few badly bruised ones.

Still he could not work out why Voldemort had not killed him and why he was putting him up in great luxury. What did he want? Then is hit him like a ton of bricks. He wanted Harry to join him. Harry shook his head defiantely. No, he would not join Voldemort. Never.

He was so lost in his thoughts he hardly heard the soft knocking on the door. He got up and was tugging on the doorknob, about to shout for a key when he realised it was unlocked. Hermione came in. She took one look at Harry and threw her arms around his neck, sobbing. Harry hugged her and rubbed the back of her head. 'Ooh' he winced, 'watch out, I have some broken ribs. One of the Death Eaters gave me a good night kick'.

'Harry! Does it hurt? Are you all right?' Hermione said desperately. Harry nodded and invited her to lie with him. She followed him to the bed and climbed in next to him. She rested her head on his chest and together they fell asleep again.

A little while later Harry re-awoke to find Hermione shuffling through the papers on the desk. 'Hermione, what are you doing?' He asked. Hermione jumped, surprised. She came over and stroked his forehead. 'I was looking for something. Anything that would tell us what he wants from us. Harry, how did you get here?' She replied.

He retold the entire story of Pettigrew revealing Voldemorts whereabouts, how Snape had been killed -Hermione gasped- and how he had been tricked into coming here. Then he turned to her, 'What are you doing here? He asked.

'Well, three days ago, one afternoon after you visited me, I got an owl from Dumbledore, at least I thought it was Dumbledore, saying I was to meet him in a little shopping centre in Scarborough. I thought it must be important if he chose such a random place. But when I got there, no Dumbldore, just a bunch of Death Eaters. I was looking through the papers on the desk in the room I'm in and I found all this correspondence between Voldemort and other Dark Wizards. Apparently this is his Shadow Academy, where he trains people like us in the Dark Arts, wether we want to, or not'.

Please review people! Sorry about cutting it off so suddenly. Until this instalment this story was going somewhere else entirely, but then I thought, if there are Foreign Wizarding Schools then why not an academy for Dark Wizards? Puh-leeeease dont take this idea! Just review. Go on, you know you want to!