AN: So here is the next chapter. I do apologize that it took a few days longer then i had hoped to get it out there, but the holidays has left me with much to do and not much time with which to do it. I have yet to beta this chapter, and am in fact still looking for someone interested in being my beta for this story, so there are sure to be a mistake or two here or there, but i will try to read through the chapter again in the morning and fix them. I just wanted to get this chapter out there for those who were eagerly awaiting it.

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns any and all things related to the world of Harry Potter. The only thing i can claim would be any OC's or original plot ideas.


The next two weeks, Harry and Gabby's training was brutal to say the least. Harry could understand how Gellert had became one of the most feared men to ever exist. Their days were long and hard, and the work was even harder. Although Harry had to admit, the man was brilliant and had great idea's when it came to warfare. Harry half suspected that the rise of the third reich and Nazi Germany wouldn't have been half as successful without Gellerts influence. Gellert had taken to spending time with each of them individually to practice their dueling skills each day.

Gabrielle and Gellert were just finishing another round in the dueling room, and had just entered into the library to see Harry sitting there looking at the Resurrection Stone. Gabby walked over to him and took a seat in his lap giving him a passionate kiss on the lips. "So are you planning on talking to them?" she asked, knowing he would understand she was talking about his parents.

"No, not yet." he sighed. "There are a few things that I wanted to try and I needed some advice from someone else."

"Oh?" she asked. "What is it that you want to do?"

"Well...i was thinking about getting familiars for the two of us."

Perking up a bit she asked. "Oh? What kind of familiar do you have in mind that would need the stone?"

Harry smirked at her before answering. "I want to make us a pair of Basilisk's."

She frowned for a second. "But Harry, I can't speak to snakes like you can."

Harry smiled at her before giving her another kiss. "I know. That is why I need the stone. I want to pass the skill on to you, similarly to how it was passed on to me."

She knew then who it was he was needing to talk to. "So why do you need to talk to Him about it?"

Harry tightened his hole on her before answering. "Horcruxes. He is the only one I know of who knows how to make them. The book Hermione and I found held knowledge on what they were but the pages on how to make them were no longer in it. I suspect Tom removed them to cover his tracks."

"What are Horcruxes?" Gabby asked him confused, having never heard the term before.

"Originally they are a means at immortality. However, when used on another living person it transfers natural talents to the host." he told her.

"So what exactly are they?" she asked.

"Well...there is a ritual that you have to do that involves killing someone. This act of murder, combined with the ritual, rips your soul in half. A Horcrux is when you remove that piece of your soul and place it into another container. As long as that container, and your piece of soul, remain intact your spirit will not leave this world when your body dies." he told her, trying to remember exactly what it was he had read in Secrets of the Darkest Art.

"And you want us to make one?" she asked half afraid of their power and half in awe.

"I figured we could use each other as our Horcruxes, if you don't object that is. There would be a few advantages outside of immortality to do it this way."

"What other advantages?" she asked.

"Well...when I had Tom's soul inside of me I was able to feel his emotions and catch visions of what he was doing when he was feeling strong emotions. If I could do all of that while trying to block it out, who knows what we could do if we let the other in." he told her before hesitating. "I'm hoping that we can use it as a means to tell where the other person is and if they are in danger or not. You are the only one I have right now and I couldn't stand it if I lost you now that I have you."

Gabrielle shifted in his lap until she was straddling him. "You don't have to worry about that. If things go right, you are going to be stuck with me for a very long time." she leaned and placed her lips to his. It started off slow and passionate before it moved to more fast and furious. Each wanting to show their hunger for the other. They broke away a few minutes later, both breathing heavily.

"So when are you going to talk to him?" she asked after catching her breath.

Harry eyed the stone for a moment. "No time like the present I guess."

Harry turned the stone around in his palm three times while thinking of Tom Riddle. On the third turn a ghostly presence started to materialize in front of him, turning into Tom after a few seconds. Tom looked around confused for a few seconds before spotting Harry and Gabrielle sitting in a chair, Gabby shifting in his lap so Harry could see.

"Hello Tom." Harry stated simply while sliding out from under Gabrielle to stand up, straightening his robes as he did so.

"Potter!" Tom hissed with a sneer on his face. "What do you want you petulant child?"

Harry bristled at his insult, but chose to ignore it for now. He needed information and truth be told he didn't much care for arguing with the spirit of a dead man. "We seek information, and you are the one who has the answer."

Tom finally took notice of Gabrielle after Harry's mention of 'we' and sneered. "I see you never change do you Potter. First you hang around with the mudblood and now you are with a veela whore. Tell me exactly why you think I would tell..."

That was as far as he got before, purely on instinct at his insult towards his Gabby, Harry slashed the Elder Wand through the air and angrily hissed out, "Crucio!" Instantly Tom's spirit dropped to the ground, writhing in intense pain. It was only held for a few short seconds before, in surprise that anything had actually happened, Harry had dropped the curse.

"Interesting..." Harry said looking thoughtfully at his wand while Tom's spirit slowly stood back up looking murderous. "Deathstick indeed." Harry finally muttered before looking back at Tom with a gleeful look on his face. "Perhaps now you will mind your tongue half-blood, or you may find yourself spending eternity without it. Now you will answer my questions, then...and only then, will you be allowed to return to your 'next great adventure'."

Tom looked from Gabrielle to Harry with a murderous look still on his face, but understanding he indeed did hold the disadvantage, replied. "Very well. Ask your questions so I may leave...the present company."

"Horcruxes...I am assuming it was you who took the pages out of Secrets of the Darkest Art as a means to hide the knowledge from everyone else. However, I also know you wouldn't have destroyed them, so where did you hide them?" Harry asked with a stare that told Tom to expect pain if his answer was not satisfactory.

However, whatever answer Harry was expecting, it definitely wasn't the cackle of laughter from Tom. "So the precious 'Gryffindor Golden Boy' has fallen to the dark." Tom said smiling, looking like he had just conquered the world. "Perhaps I should have kept a closer eye on you, Harry Potter. Very well...the knowledge you seek is hiding in my ancestors vault at Gringotts of course. I only tell you this in the hopes I get to watch the world burn...now release me from the binds of the stone!"

"Very well." Harry said, happy to have the information he wanted. "But understand, if the information is not there..." he let his sentence end there while fingering his wand, knowing that Tom would understand the threat. Harry pocketed the stone and allowed Tom to return to the afterlife...after all he had no real desire to see the man any longer anyhow.

As soon as he returned to his seat his lips were attacked by Gabrielle's. After she let him come up for air, she answered his unspoken question. "Thank you for defending me. You look incredibly sexy when torturing the spirits of the dead." she let out a soft giggle while Harry just gave her a soft chuckle. They were broken out of their alone time by Gellert, who Harry and Gabrielle hadn't noticed had been watching his talk with Tom from the door.

"So Horcruxes..." Gellert started. "It appears that we have a trip to Britain in the very near future."

"Indeed we do. We shall be leaving tonight." Harry replied pulling Gabrielle back into the crook between his arm and chest. "While we are there, we might as well retrieve my families Cloak of Invisibility. I am interested to learn what new surprises the Hallows have in store."

"It has been a long time since I have been in Britain. I do believe I shall enjoy our visit. I believe I will go rest for our journey." Gellert said leaving the room to presumably take a nap.


Later that night in the outback of Australia a trio stood outside, of where only minutes before a tent was erected, while a man put the finishing touches on a portkey that would take them to the alley in muggle London that was just outside of the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron. They would not be returning here once they were done, preferring to keep on the move. It would be around noon in London thanks to the time difference between there and Australia. "It will activate in fifteen seconds, everyone grab a hold." the younger of the two men said. The other two, an old man and a beautiful young blonde, both grabbed a hold of the portkey moments before the trio felt that familiar pull from behind the naval and they were whisked away.

Ron was standing behind the counter at the joke shop he currently ran with his brother George. He had plenty of money and could even be considered rich with the millions of galleons he had stored away in Gringotts. He didn't need to work but he did it, one for George and in memory of Fred, but also to get away from the house. He didn't want to relive the adventures of his past, but he had to admit they did at least keep the boredom out of his life.

He sighed as the midday rush was close to over and he would finally be able to take his lunch break. A few minutes later he rang up the last customer before shouting out to George. "Hey Georgy, I'm going for my lunch break!"

"Alright, see you in an hour." came the call from the doorway of the storage room, as George came out to man the counter for the next hour.

Ron walked out of the shop and began heading in the direction of The Leaky Cauldron. Diagon Alley had rebuilt itself nicely over the last few years, a far cry from the desolate and rundown alley it had been during his year on the run. Of course a lot of the shops were different with many of the previous owners having been murdered or never returned to England after the war. "The usual Tom." Ron told the barkeep after being greeted by the old wizard.

"Very well Mr. Weasley." Tom replied. "It will be out in a few." Ron just nodded his head before heading off to the side to find an open table.

Ron was about halfway through with his lunch when he noticed the door to muggle London opened and three people entered the pub. The first two were a young couple who had very expensive robes, done in what Ron guessed was Acromantula silk, of dark green, silver, and black. Ron knew instantly that they were expensive as he had millions of galleons in his vault and Hermione still wouldn't let him buy robes of that quality saying that they wouldn't stay rich if they blew it all in over-extravagance.

He couldn't see their faces as they had their hoods up and had spelled them to only show shadows. About the only thing he could tell was that one was male and one was female. The girl had silver-blonde hair that hung from under her hood to down below her breasts. The only thing he could tell about the man was that he was obviously a noble lord, if the huge ring that was on his right hand was anything to go by.

The third was an elderly man, who appeared to Ron to be older than his aunt Muriel. He too was dressed in silk robes, but not ones as expensive as the younger couple. He however did not have his hood up, but he did not recognize the man. The youngest looked his direction briefly before Ron was distracted momentarily by the thought of his home for some reason. Which led to him mentally comparing it to the manor the stranger probably owned. "Dirty rotten purebloods" Ron grumbled to himself. Even though he was rich, Ron still held his jealousy for those who had more then he did. Deciding not to let his jealousy get between him and his lunch, he turned back to his food as the trio made their way gracefully through the pub and exiting out of the back, headed towards the entrance to Diagon Alley.


Harry, Gabrielle, and Gellert made their way through the alley, headed towards the large white marble back at the end of it. Harry sneered, although his hood hid it from the public, at the peaceful crowds who walked around happily as if they had no care in the world. 'That won't last for much longer.' Harry thought angrily to himself. As if sensing his mood, Gabrielle latched onto his elbow and the trio continued on to their destination.

Harry gave a short nod to the guards in front of the bank before making his way into the building. As usual for this time of day the bank was rather crowded, not that it mattered as purebloods hated to wait so the head teller was available to only those of wealth. Making his way over towards the proper counter, attracting a few stares along the way, Harry greeted the teller. "Greetings master goblin. I wish to visit my vault." Harry flashed his ring to the goblin to show proper identification.

"Very well Lord Slytherin, a goblin will be along very shortly to assist you." the goblin said, completely ignoring the other patrons that were obviously staring after hearing that the head of Slytherin house was there.

A few minutes later saw the party of three, now four with the addition of a goblin, standing outside of the Slytherin vault. It had taken a few minutes to get here by cart, as the Slytherin vault was one of the first. "Just press your ring to the door and it will open." the goblin told Harry as he made his way to the door.

Harry brought his right hand to the center of the door and a few seconds after pressing his ring to it the door clicked and slowly swung open. Harry really should have visited the vault when he was last here he thought as he made his way inside. Most of the, admittedly large vault, was consumed by the millions of galleons that were in semi-neat piles. There were a couple of full bookshelves on one side with a large table that held other items of importance.

The trio made their way over to the table and bookcase. "Gellert would you check the bookcases for any books you deem useful to us? Gabby can you help me find the missing pages from the book please?" Gellert in response just headed towards the books, while Gabrielle gave him and smile and nod of her head and followed him to the table.

Harry began to sift through the stacks of papers, notes, and journals that littered the table. On his search he found a small leather bound book that held Tom's notes from when he created the dark mark. Deciding to make a side project out of it he shrunk and pocketed the book. Harry also found a scroll that told him how Tom had learned to fly like smoke on the wind, it too went into his pocket. It wasn't anything that was critical to his future plans, but he did find it rather cool.

It took the pair about ten minutes of searching before Gabrielle found what they came for. "I think I found it Harry." she told him holding a small stack of bound pages that had ripped edges on the left side of them.

"Perfect!" Harry said happily pulling her into a deep kiss before pocketing the pages. "Now all that is left is to retrieve my cloak and we can leave this godforsaken country once more until I have completely recovered."


Once back outside of the bank, Harry told Gabrielle and Gellert to grab a hold of his arms and he apparated them to where he knew Ron and Hermione lived, having pulled it from Ron's mind back at the pub with wandless Legilimency. The trio stood just outside of the wards from a rather nice two story home. It was nothing that compared to some of the pureblood manors or even Grimmauld place, but it was larger then most muggle homes. Harry could see a small forest in the background, but no other houses were within direct eye sight. He did notice an automobile in front of the house however. 'It seems Hermione hasn't completely left the muggle world behind.' Harry thought to himself.

"Homenum Revelio" Harry said pointing his wand towards the two story manor. It only took a few moments before the spell told him that there was only one occupant currently home. "I believe Hermione might be home for lunch. Gellert can you put up anti-apparition wards please."

"It will take a few minutes." Gellert responded taking out his wand and beginning on putting up the wards. About five minutes later Gellert gave Harry a nod, letting him know he was finished.

Harry took a moment to decide how best to take down the wards. He could easily spend the next half hour taking them down with Gellert's help and Hermione would be none the wiser, but he didn't feel like spending the time to do it and he figured with the anti-apparition ward up she wouldn't likely have time to floo out before he could get to the house. After all it was her betrayal that hurt him the most. Ron had shown his capabilities at betrayal several times over the years, but she had always been the only one he could always count on to be there for him.

Deciding to just blast them away with brute force, Harry brought forth the Elder wand and started to collect the magic within him. He knew you could overload the wards with magic, causing them to self-destruct, but depending on what wards were in place and who had put them up, would determine how much power it would take to destroy them.

Harry's eyes started to glow as the magic built up within him, and it looked as if lightning was striking deep in his emerald eyes. With a grunt, Harry jabbed his wand towards the wards while letting his magic blast forth from it attacking the wards. The winds around them started to swirl violently around the trio due to the amount of magic in the air. Gabrielle could feel herself starting to get moist between her legs at the amount of power that was flowing off of Harry before she pushed those thoughts aside knowing now was not the time.

The wards themselves started to glow bright red within a few seconds, and wouldn't hold up too much longer. Veins and cracks began to form and spread wider and farther along them. Wanting to get the wards down as quick as possible Harry pushed his magic even harder through the Elder wand with a primal roar that turned into gleeful laughter when the wards finally let loose all of that energy and exploded. The sound hurt their ears, and the shockwave could be felt in the forest a half mile behind the house. Gabrielle and Gellert were both blown off of their feet and threw back a few feet onto the ground.

Harry, having kept his balance, was quickly making his way towards the house now, determined to not let his prey escape. As he got within ten feet of the house, he slashed his wand through the air and the door and half the wall were blasted into the house where he heard a yelp. Quickly making his way through the giant hole in wall, he spotted Hermione quickly trying to climb back to her feet and make her way towards the fireplace.

"Bombarda." Harry said lazily moments before the fireplace exploded, rendering it useless.

"H..Ha..Harry?" Hermione asked weakly and with no small amount of fear as he pulled down his hood to reveal his face, with a large smile plastered on his face.

"Hello Hermione." was all she heard before a red light sent her into unconsciousness.

Knowing that he probably didn't have long before someone happened to come along to investigate the large explosion that probably rattled any windows that were within a few miles, Harry used Legilimency on Hermione to find out where Ron had kept the third Hallow. A few seconds and a quick 'Accio' later and his cloak came flying down the stairs and into his outstretched hand.

Pocketing the cloak with a large grin on his face, he picked up a piece of rubble before speaking. "Gellert please gather her, I have something special planned for her. The portkey will be ready momentarily."

"Aye, we will be ready to go in a moment." Gellert responded before binding Hermione in ropes and taking her wand. He heard Harry step outside and incant 'Fulgura Colubrium', having no clue what it meant, before stepping back inside.

Harry, Gabrielle, Gellert, and an unconscious Hermione all grabbed a hold of the portkey a few minutes later, one of the four by force, and a few seconds after that were once again spinning through the multi-colored vortex.


A few seconds later the four landed on the rocky shores overlooking the North Sea, nobody bothering to stop Hermione from slamming into the ground. "Where are we love?" Gabrielle asked.

Pointing to the north-east, where a faint black dot could be seen, he answered her. "A short broom ride away from home...Azkaban." Harry pulled out, and unshrunk, two brooms from his pocket. "I apologize you two but I only had the two brooms, so Gellert you will have to bring Mrs. Weasley on yours and Gabby you will be with me." Harry added, not looking the least bit sorry about the fact Gabrielle was going to be tightly pressed against him for the next half hour.

Gellert took his broom while grumbling about doing all of the grunt work, but nonetheless climbing on the broom while draping Hermione across the front, making sure she didn't fall off with a sticking charm. With a Cheshire sized grin Gabrielle climbed onto the broom behind Harry, scooting as close to him as possible before wrapping her arms tightly around him. Harry just shook his head and smiled when one of her hands started to wander south before disillusioning the four of them and kicking off and starting their journey towards the prison.

Half an hour later saw four people quietly land on the banks of Azkaban Island. "Gellert, can you keep watch out here and make noise if you see anybody headed this way from the mainland?" Harry asked the elder wizard.

"Aye, never much cared to be close to those foul creatures to be honest." Gellert said sitting down on a large rock a few feet away keeping vigilant watch out to sea.

"Gabby, would you prefer to stay out here with Gellert? I know personally how much of a hell it is to be around the Dementors." Harry asked a white-faced Gabrielle.

Gabrielle nodded her head looking a bit upset she couldn't stand their presence better than she could. "I'm sorry love, this is the first time I have been close to them and I don't think I can stand to be any closer."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I promise I am not upset about it." he told her giving her a warm kiss on the lips, trying to warm her up. "Besides, my first time I blacked out, so you are already doing better than I did." he told her with a lop-sided grin.

"Just be careful and hurry." she told him giving him a quick hug before watching as he levitated Hermione in front of him before disillusioning the both of them and making his way towards the prison.

Slowly, as to avoid detection by the few human guards that were on duty, Harry made his way up to his old cell. Once outside of it, after making sure there was nobody around to disturb him, he started to cast a powerful notice-me-not and silencing wards around the cell so that the aurors wouldn't notice or hear anything from this cell in the future. The dementors and house elves working here of course would not be effected and would still be able do their jobs.

Finally finished a few minutes later he levitated Hermione into the cell closing the door open so she couldn't try to escape. Setting her roughly down onto the floor he cast a quick 'innervate' on her and waited for her to wake up. A few moments later she started to stir, the dementors were close enough for her to feel the cold, but far enough away still that she wasn't yet haunted by her worst nightmares.

"Wh...whe...where are w...we?" she asked shivering trying to fend off the cold.

Harry started at her a moment before answering. "Home, where I learned the truth about despair...as will you. There's a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth..." Harry stood up and turned back to the window, as he had done hundreds of times in the past, that faced the sea before continuing. "Hope. Everyone who has been in here over the centuries has looked out to the distant shores across the sea and hoped to one day gain the freedom to set foot upon it. So easy...so simple...and in their hope of freedom many men have held onto their sanity only to suffer and despair at the hands of the dementors until they waste away and die."

Harry turned away from the window and focused back onto his prisoner. "I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So, as I terrorize England, I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe they can survive so that you can watch them clamoring over each other to 'stay in the sun'." here Harry handed her the receipt to her new subscription to the daily prophet. "You can watch me torture an entire country and when you have truly understood the depth of your failure, I will fulfill my new destiny... I will destroy England and then...when it is done and England is in ashes...then you have my permission to die."

Harry didn't say another word as he made his way to the door and exited the cell. He stopped when he heard Hermione say through her tears. "Harry please don't do this! How could you plan to kill millions of people?"

"Gellert told me that I could expect to hear that question a lot. I will tell you the same thing I told him. The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed. Of course he then told me that one could say that even Hitler didn't betray his self. Of course he was right, he did not. But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the real tragedy, not that one man had the courage to be evil, but that millions of people had not the courage to stand up to him and do good." here Harry let a little of his anger show as he finished his conversation with a few more words. "I can almost understand the ministry and the purebloods locking me into this prison, as they have always shown how corrupt and evil they can be. It was the fact that nobody, not the thousands of lives I saved by destroying Voldemort or...even my best friends...stood up to my defense and even helped to push the dagger deeper into my back...Goodbye Hermione, I hope your time here is as enjoyable as mine was...I doubt we will see each other again."

With that Harry slowly made his way back out, under disillusionment, to collect Gabrielle and Gellert and once more leave the shores of England.


AN: I hope you all enjoyed this story. Some of my plots for this story are just starting to take shape in this chapter and i tried to make it stuff that is believable yet not entirely cliche, as hard as that is. All comments and reviews, while not required, are greatly appreciated and i do read them all. I hope to have the next chapter out in the next week or two, it just depends on how busy I stay for the rest of the holidays and into the new year. I wish you all a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and hope i don't offend those that do not.

AN2: I have now beta'd this story myself now that i have had time. There were only a few mistakes i had to correct, but i do now have a couple of people interested in being my beta. So hopefully in the future, these small mistakes will be taken care of by the time the chapters are posted.