A sudden flash of green light half-blinded Harry as he looked up in shock to see Uncle Vernon's dead body fly back into the driver's seat.

Harry simply stared ahead, unwilling to believe what had just happened. His blustering, immense Uncle Vernon, who had been the scourge of his life but at least something constant...he was dead.

"Happy to see us, Potter?" came an aristocratic voice from outside the car, and at hearing Lucius Malfoy speak Harry suddenly snapped back to the present.

He threw himself under the driver's seat just as a jet of light smashed into the car. Harry found himself briefly airborne before an enormous jolt shook his body and he landed facedown against the backseat.

What was happening? Harry's head was throbbing violently, and he couldn't seem to remember what had just occurred. His surroundings were unfamiliar, and it was almost as if he was in an upside-down car. But that couldn't be right...things were so weird. Harry let out a half-laugh as he plopped down on the upholstery. Aunt Petunia would be so mad if she saw him putting his feet up on her upholstery.

Suddenly the car door tore open and Harry found himself face to face with one of the strangest-looking women he had ever seen. She had once been beautiful, but her disheveled black hair and unaware expression gave her the impression of someone escaped from an insane asylum.

"Hi," managed Harry to the woman, who was staring at him with barely masked glee. "He's mine, Lucius!" she shouted to someone outside the car. Did she want to mess around with him? That was fine by him as long as she didn't act too crazy the whole time. The goofy expression she was currently wearing made it look kind of like she was going to suddenly lunge at him and choke him with her bare hands.

The crazy woman pulled something out of the robes she was wearing...a wooden stick. What—

"Crucio!" she cried, thrusting the stick at Harry, who was suddenly in the midst of the most terrible pain he had ever experienced. Well, aside from that as Sirius flew backwards through the veil, the imprint of his laughing essence slowly fading from this world.

Wait...Harry began to snap back into reality. The crazy woman was Bellatrix Lestrange, and she was a member of a powerful organization that wanted him dead. He was Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, and if he wanted to live much longer he had to find a way out of the situation he was in, and fast.

The torturous Cruciatus Curse suddenly began to fade. Looking around, Harry realized the Death Eaters were in combat with three others who had just arrived on the scene—Ron, Hermione, and...

Ginny.

Struggling to his feet, Harry took advantage of Bellatrix's momentary distraction to Stun her with the wand he quickly produced from his pocket upon remembering how to work it. The addition of three new fighters to the game, although it had at first shocked the Death Eaters, would not make much of a difference in the long run. Harry could see ten individual Death Eaters within his immediate range of sight. How many more were covering the house, hidden around the corner, in the yard, or killing Aunt Petunia and Dudley inside right now—well, that remained to be seen.

A quick series of pops echoed throughout Privet Drive, and several Order members arrived on the scene. Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody, and Mundungus Fletcher made up only the wizards Harry could immediately spot.

The Death Eaters were in chaos now and probably preparing to retreat. Running as quickly as he could to his on-again girlfriend, he shouted, "Go home, Gin! You're not getting hurt out here!"

"The hell I'm not!" she shouted back stubbornly. "Done are the days where you can stumble into duels with Death Eaters and I'll sit at home and do what I'm told!"

'Damn it, Ginny,' Harry thought to himself as he dodged an Imperius Curse and returned a Stunner to Crabbe Sr., 'we don't need another hero.'

The Order were closing in on the few remaining Death Eaters. Most of them remained indecisive, but Harry saw out of the corner of his eye Bellatrix Lestrange make a sudden movement at Tonks. The Metamorphmagus flew backwards, breaking the tight formation of the Order, and Bellatrix ran towards Harry—no, wait, she was turning—

Harry fired a quick Stunner at her but barely missed. Bellatrix stopped just in front of Ginny.

Oh, Merlin...

A Cruciatus Curse erupted from Bellatrix's wand and slammed into Ginny's frail body, and she was writhing on the floor in terror. Before Harry knew what was happening, he was right in front of Bellatrix, taking the curse for Ginny, and the pain seemed to barely touch him, seemed to be what he deserved for letting Gin out of his sight for even one second, and in the midst of the curse Harry rose and, feeling as much hatred as he had ever felt for any human being, pointed his wand directly at Bellatrix's face and shouted, "Crucio!"

This time she didn't taunt him or call him baby names. She couldn't, because she was the one being tortured this time, getting a dose of her own medicine...

"Ohh..." murmured Bellatrix, and Harry was shocked and disgusted to find that she was having an orgasm due to the pain. Something beating into his skull repeatedly urged him on, and he was about to try his luck at the Avada Kedavra curse when Remus yanked his arm away from the satisfied witch and threw a Stunner point-blank at her.

Harry fell to the ground, exhausted, and the last thing he saw was Ginny's confused and frightened expression as she stared at him, unable to understand what had just happened.

- - - -

Two wizards were traipsing through a treeless plain. One was a slim, green-eyed, black-haired man that exuded a dangerous aura. Another, this one carrying what appeared to be an overlarge Muggle camera, was quite obese and was sweating with excitement and curiosity. The occasional house dotted the mostly bleak landscape.

"What d'you reckon this is, Rufus?" asked one of the men. "We get a lead about some magical object found in a Muggle village, but we're not allowed to tell our families about it. We're not allowed to bring our wands. And no one tells us anything about the object, where it came from, what it does."

"'S strange all right, Tom," replied the other. "Still, it can't be anything too dangerous, or the Ministry wouldn't have allowed us anywhere near it." Rufus pulled a map out from within his robes and checked it once, then beckoned to Tom and the pair headed off towards one of the sparse houses in the village.

They entered the house and were surprised to be confronted instantly by a Ministry official—none other than the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones.

"We've got the owner under a Sleeping Charm right now," she stated. "You have five minutes to take down your best observations of the object, then the Quibbler's coming in."

"The Quibbler?" spoke Rufus. "My ass would be offended if I used that rag as toilet paper!"

"Five minutes," reminded the stern witch, gesturing towards a door farther back in the residence. Tom and Rufus quickly hurried through it.

They were confronted by a medium-sized emerald crystal, hovering suspended in midair as if held up by invisible strings. Rufus, the first in, merely stared at it in astonishment. However, Tom seemed to recognize it in some way, for his initial awe was much greater than Rufus's, and his ensuing acceptance much more devious.

"What the hell is that thing?" asked Rufus confusedly.

Tom only shook his head, hiding his plotting beneath a naïve veneer.

Rufus withdrew a Quick-Quotes Quill from his robe pocket and began dictating to it as he walked around the crystal. "It seems to shine with a glow not from this world," spoke the reporter. "The Ministry fears it, although they seem to have no more knowledge of what it is than we do. It is a perfectly cut jewel, symmetrical in every way, almost unreal—"

Rufus cut off as he saw his partner pull out his wand and point it at the larger man. "Tom, what—"

"Avada Kedavra," whispered Tom, and a spout of green light engulfed Rufus, pulling him into the realm of darkness.

"I don't believe it," spoke Tom, pocketing his wand. He reached up hesitatingly and touched the crystal softly. When he found no otherworldly resistance, he took the crystal in his arms, like a child or a lover, and exited the room, pulling his wand back out as he approached Amelia Bones.

- - - -

Harry's eyes shot open. He quickly reached for his wand; it wasn't there! Had he been captured? The world around him was evanescing and breaking off into streams of light before reforming in even stranger pictures. Could he be in some obscure torture chamber? He shyly tested his bonds, finding himself only able to move minutely to the left and right.

"Mr. Potter! You're awake!"

Harry blinked and found himself in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey rushing towards him. "What happened?" he asked, struggling to sit up.

"Don't move, Mr. Potter," she warned him sternly. "You've greatly overexerted yourself. The Cruciatus involves incredible amounts of emotion and focus to cast. You're lucky you woke up this fast."

Harry waited mouth agape as the events of earlier that day returned to him. Had he used the Cruciatus Curse on another human being? Although Bellatrix Lestrange was deserving of it, the Cruciatus was used only by dark wizards.

What would Ginny think of him?

"Here, drink this," she said, shoving a potion into his hand. "When you're ready, you have some very eager visitors waiting right outside."

Were his friends there? Was Ginny? Harry quickly downed the potion. "I'm ready now, I think," he said, trying vainly to hide his eagerness.

He received a stern look from the kindly nurse, but she seemed to have no great aversion to letting his friends in, and in an instant a red blur flew through the door and threw herself onto his (still aching) body.

"Oomph," ejected Harry as Ginny crushed him in a bear hug. "Harry! I can't believe you got attacked at Privet Drive! I'm so sorry about your uncle! And to think we were about to visit! Oh, I feel so bad I was so mean to him before—"

The thought of Uncle Vernon brought another unpleasantness to Harry's mind. Although his uncle had never been well-loved by Harry, he certainly didn't deserve to die like that. And speaking of Uncle Vernon—

"My—what about Aunt Petunia and Dudley? Oh no, they were killed, weren't they?" asked Harry, feeling as though another unpleasant realization would be entirely in keeping with the theme of his day.

"From what McGonagall said, they were out shopping at the time," said Ron from his place at Harry's side. At these words an enormous burden lifted from Harry's chest.

"Oh Harry, I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking when I asked you that, I should've known you'd still be hurting over it..."

His need to care for Ginny overcame his self-pity. "Hey, Gin, please don't be like this," he said, putting a hand on his girlfriend's arm. "I know you care about me, and I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt me."

She grasped his hand tightly. "You're right," she said, somewhat sheepishly.

The loud clearing of a throat turned both Harry and Ginny's attention away from each other. Standing before Harry's bed was Professor McGonagall, her usual stern expression softening slightly as she examined Harry's weakened state. "After you are done visiting with your friends, Mr. Potter," she said, "Professor Dumbledore's portrait wishes to have a word with you."