AN: This will, no doubt, be the last chapter before the release of the final book. I don't know if I will be able to continue it after Deathly Hallows is out, but I am going to try. So, I guess you can enjoy this last chapter.

And if by some chance Harry does become a Death Eater...Well, you now know where JKR got the idea from. :D

Disclaimer: Due to the fear of anything happening in return of me not stating a proper disclaimer, this one is going to be straightforward and sincere. JK Rowling, along with her lawyers, publishers, editors, and all those other book-producing peoples that are able to have their names printed in credit somewhere within those marvelous books own Harry Potter. There, I said it. And not a sarcastic comment in sight. :P

CH: IX

Recuperation

It had been a little over a week since Harry had returned to a conscious state. Well, to be precise it had been 9 days. To be even more precise, it had been 9 days, 17 hours, and 41 minutes. And how do we know this? Because when you are confined to a bed for that long a time there is little else you can do besides count the minutes that you are forced to endure. Oh. 42 minutes. Time sure does fly.

Harry was feeling a thousand percent better than he had when he had first woken up those nine days ago. Thanks to the Healing powers of Vel Pyrite, he was recovering much faster than anyone had thought he would have. Vel seemed to have an uncannily thorough knowledge of Dark curses and torture techniques utilized by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and was able to figure out the ones that were used against Harry. And by knowing this, he knew exactly what was to be used to counter them. No one really knew just how it was that he knew these things so well. And no one asked. Harry was healing up and, at the moment, that was all that mattered.

Members of the Order of the Phoenix were in to visit Harry every day. He was able to remember them all, now, except for a few new members that he hadn't yet met. They all talked about how glad they were that he was alright, and how horrible it would have been if he had been killed by the Dark Lord. They all seemed like nice enough people, showing genuine concern for his well-being, but he was also able to remember that for some reason or another, they weren't to be fully trusted.

Although all of his memories had returned they still felt odd and partially out of place. His mind seemed continually clouded over and cluttered, as if there was something in there that didn't quite belong. When he asked about it (in English, mind, for he was able to remember that now, as well), everyone just attributed it to the stress and the trauma that he had been through, and that he shouldn't be concerned with it. But, should he really be trusting them? Each time he thought about it, all of his other thoughts just got a little grayer.

Like his memories, everything else was only partial healed. His speech had returned, with no problems, but holding any lengthy conversations drained him of energy. He could now move his arms and legs, the bones in which that had been broken were now completely mended. He could sit up and move around, with only a fraction of the pain that it had caused when doing so before. He ached to get up and walk, to get out of this room. Or at least this bed! But everyone agreed that he was still too weak and needed more time to recover before he could try walking again. And that is why Harry had been forced to lie there and count the minutes as they ever-so-slowly passed by. Nine days, 17 hours, and 46 minutes. He kept track using the analog clock that hung on the wall opposite him.

Right now it was 9:53 in the morning. Lupin normally came in at about 9:30. Harry was vaguely wondering where he was, when he remembered that Lupin had said he would be bringing a few people with him today. And at 10:02 he walked through the door, accompanied by three others. At first, Harry was not able to recognize these three, but then realization rolled its eyes and smacked him across the face.

How in the world could he have forgotten them!?

"Ron, Hermione! Ginny!" He exclaimed as he sat up against his pillows.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed as well as she ran across the room and threw her arms around him. He winced, and grimaced slightly from the pain it caused, but hesitantly brought his arm up to her back to return the embrace.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," she said, pulling away as she felt him wince. "Its just...oh, its so great to see you awake Harry! I mean, last time I saw you, you were..."

She stopped talking after receiving a warning glare from Lupin, who had walked over and was now standing on the other side of Harry's bed, across from her. Harry didn't see the look that she was given.

"I was what, Gin?" He asked, confused by why she had so suddenly stopped.

"You were just a little worse for wears, mate." Ron said, giving him a slight nudge in the shoulder. Harry winced again, and Ron returned his hands to himself. "Oh, right. Sorry about that."

"No, its alright. I'm just glad you guys are here! Why haven't you been up before?" Why haven't I thought of you before?

"They kept saying that you weren't strong enough yet, and that you needed more rest before we could come to see you," It was Hermione that spoke this time. "Plus, Ron and I have just started our N.E.W.T.S. work, and the teachers have already assigned dozens of rolls of parchment...And McGonagall wouldn't let us go on a school day. But we were here everyday before term started. Oh, it really is great that your alright now, Harry!"

Hermione looked like she wanted to thrown her arms around him as well, but restrained herself after seeing Harry's reaction to when Ginny had. Last thing Harry needed right now was more pain. A warm and friendly smile would have to do.

"Really, Harry. How are you?" Ron asked seriously.

"I'm...I'm alright, Ron." He said honestly. "Most of the pain is gone; I'm taking potions for that. I'm just really tired all the time. And bored. I want to get out of this bed and do something." He gave a half-hearted smile.

"Harry, we've told you. Your legs haven't healed up properly yet to allow you to walk." Lupin said. He had been telling Harry this for the past three days now.

"How much longer do you think it will be, Lupin?" Hermione asked.

He looked back at Harry before answering. "Maybe only 2 more days," he replied to her, but really directed it at Harry.

"Two more! But, Lupin, I'm bored! I can't just lie around here all day..."

"I know, Harry, I'm sorry. But you really have been through quite a lot...We don't want to risk causing any more damage by having you exert more energy than is necessary."

"What about the scarring?" Ginny asked Harry, rather quietly. "Will it go away?"

"Well...my Healer, Pyrites, said that some of the larger ones will be permanent. But the rest should eventually subside...within a few weeks or so..."

"Wait, Pyrites?" Ginny repeated, an odd expression on her face. It might have been that of a suppressed fear, or it might have just been confusion. "Why have I heard that name before?"

"He's one of the new Order members. And he was one of my Healers as well," Lupin said. "After the incident with Pettigrew..."

"Oh, yes. That must be it..." Ginny said, nodding her head in recognition. But she still didn't look entirely convinced.

"Wait, what incident with Pettigrew?" Harry shot the question at Lupin in surprise.

"Goodness! I haven't told you?" He asked, sounding rather astounded. Harry shook his head 'no' and furrowed his eyebrows.

Lupin explained. "Harry, after you took that Portkey to Voldemort, Wormtail used Polyjuice potion and came to us pretending to be you! It didn't take long for us to figure out that he was an imposter, though, and when I confronted him he, well, attacked me..."

Lupin lowered the collar of his robes and tilted his head to reveal a faded red hand-mark imprinted upon the skin. "He tried to choke me with his silver hand. And werewolves aren't really known for reacting well with silver..."

"Needless to say, I had seen better days. The Order brought me here immediately, and they were able to help me out. Pyrites treated me when he was in. If I hadn't gotten medical attention as fast as I had, I probably would have died on your bedroom floor, Harry."

"That's what the hair was for!" Harry exclaimed, and everyone looked at him for an explanation. "As soon as I got there, Wormtail ripped out some of my hair and then left! That's what the rat did with it! Lupin, are you alright now?"

Remus nearly laughed at Harry's sudden outburst. "Yes, yes. I'm fine now. A few potions and some decent sleep and I was as good as new. Well, as new as I'll ever be, at least."

"What happened to Pettigrew?" Harry asked.

"Well, we were hoping that you would be able to tell us." Remus admitted. "He escaped before the rest of the Order even knew what had happened."

"Dammit. I wish someone had caught him and given him the life-sentence in Azkaban that he deserves..." Harry said rather ruefully.

"Do you really think that he deserves that, Harry?"

"What do you mean? Of course he does! He betrayed my parents! He turned against you all and sided with Voldemort!..." Harry blanked, his heart plummeting to a stop on the inside of his rib-cage and stopping his breath...He had done the same...

"What I meant was, do you think that he deserves even that? I mean, he would still be alive, even as horrible as an existence that it would be..." Lupin paused, but didn't notice Harry's discomfort. "Harry, that night, I had been trying to kill him when he attacked me. I had never hated anyone so much; for what he had done to your parents, for his hand in what had happened to you. For Merlin's sake, he was laughing."

The words of Sirius Black from years ago suddenly echoed around his mind. 'You should have died! Died, rather than betray your friends!' They were the darkest, most fate-bindingmost dismaying words that Harry had ever heard before.And this time, it felt as if they were directed at him.

"He should have died," Harry said, his voice shaking slightly with anger. As I should have... "Anyone who turns their back on lifelong friends doesn't," he gulped. "Doesn't deserve to live."

Everyone sat rather quietly. It wasn't a very awkward silence, but it did hang in the room like a heavy weight. Harry felt that they needed something else to talk about, before he said something stupid and revealed anything.

"Well, your not the only one with 'attempted murder' under their belts, Remus..."

"What?" Remus asked, wondering what he could possibly mean by that.

"I, er..." He paused, trying to find the right way to put it, before he realized that there was no 'right way'. "I tried to kill Bellatrix Lestrange." He nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

"What!?" Everyone collectively exclaimed, and Harry couldn't help but give a small smile at the expressions of shock on their faces.

"Harry...how? Why?"

"It was only a little after I was taken. I hadn't even been brought to Voldemort yet." A thought occurred to him. "It was probably at about the same time that you were trying to kill Wormtail...Anyways, I figured that I was about to die within the next five minutes anyway, and I wanted to take as many Death Eaters with me as I could. So I thought 'What the hell?' and cast the Avada Kedavra..."

"What...what happened?" Remus asked, flabbergasted.

"Well, er, nothing, actually...It hit her directly in the chest, but she seemed unfazed by it. She had even provoked it..." He said thinking back. "It was really strange, like she knew it wouldn't effect her. Maybe I hadn't really meant it...?"

"Harry, you hate Bella for what she did to Sirius, we all know that. You certainly meant what you were doing..." Ginny said.

"Hatred of one does not always warrant their death," Lupin countered, then looked at Harry. "But I think that in this case, it would have been enough to power the Killing curse. Especially if you factor into that the desperation of the attack. You thought that you were going to die, and so you made it one of your last efforts, correct? No, I don't think that it has anything to do with how much power and will you put behind that spell, Harry. She knew that it wasn't going to kill her."

"But how? How could you have that type of assurance? No one can survive the Killing curse..."

"Except you," Ron pointed out with a grin and a slight roll of the eyes.

"Yeah, well...That was different." Harry said, trying to shift it aside. "Bella didn't have anyone sacrifice themselves for her, did she? So how could she have survived? Wait a minute!" He said, remembering exactly what had happened. "I asked her! I asked her why the spell didn't work and all that she said was 'the power of the Dark Lord'..."

"You don't think that Voldemort could have done something, do you?" Ginny asked rather quickly. "To make his Death Eaters immortal or something, I mean."

"I sure as hell hope not. We'd never be able to defeat them."

A twisted thought whispered itself in the back of Harry's mind. You'll never be able to defeat us anyway... Harry shook his head and forced the thought back into the recesses of his mind. What was he thinking!? Whose side was he really on? Whose side was he supposed to be on? And, had he just used the term 'us'?!

"I think that perhaps I should inform the Order of this at our next meeting," Remus said, "to see if they might have heard of any similar situations."

"How, er, is the Order, Remus?" Harry asked.

"We've, well, been better..." he alluded. He then sighed. "To be honest Harry, we've never been worse. We spent most of our time trying to find a way to get you back, but that was just as much a dead end as everything else. Its always been Dumbledore that's had the plans or the information. Without him...we're lost...Not to mention the fact that we lost our Headquarters, that was quite a setback."

"What?" Harry exclaimed. "How could you have..."

He froze. He knew exactly why they had lost Grimmauld Place.

"Remus...I'm sorry." Harry said, shaking his head. He couldn't believe himself! "I think I--I gave it to Bellatrix."

"What? Harry, how? Why?"

"She was using the Imperius. I tried to fight it, but I... She forced me to, I'm sorry."

Remus was silent for a moment, and Harry could tell that he was trying to fight back his disappointment in him. He apparently realized, though, that Harry really didn't have a choice in the matter and that it wasn't his fault, because there was no trace of disappointment in his voice when he spoke.

"That's actually, surprisingly enough, a relief, Harry. We thought that Voldemort had been able to break the charms on it and gain entrance, and feared he would be able to do it to Hogwarts as well. Knowing that the spells that we put in place are still in effect does provide a bit of comfort."

Harry was glad to hear that he didn't blame him. "Where's the Headquarters now?"

"The only other place that would have us," he said with a grim smile. "Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts!" Harry exclaimed. "But...how can you..?"

Remus chuckled. "Harry, what better place is there? Half the staff are already members, we can protect the students from an attack...Hogwarts is already the safest building in the world! We didn't need to modify many spells for it to accommodate us."

"It really has been great having the Order there at school with us," Hermione said. "We spend nearly all our free time with them."

"Which isn't much, mind you." Ron added. "Honestly, Lupin. What's the point of all this schoolwork during a time like this? Its completely mental."

"Ron, of course we need all our schoolwork!" Hermione sounded appalled at even the idea of dispelling classes and homework. "We need to know as much as we can when it comes time to fight!"

"Well at the rate this is going, we're not even going to have time to fight." Ron said, rolling his eyes, exasperated. "You'll be the only one out there in the middle of a duel with a spell book going 'Oh, will you please hold on just a minute? I need to learn what spell would be best to hex you with.'"

Everyone laughed, although Hermione looked rather offended.

"Harry! If the Order is at Hogwarts, does that mean that you will be too?" Ginny asked. "Could you attend classes and everything?"

Harry thought about it for a moment, but it was Remus who spoke first.

"I think you should continue your studies, Harry. You'll be right there, so I see no reason why you couldn't. You never know what you might learn that you'll end up needing."

Harry shook his head. "No, Lupin. I don't think that there is anything else they can teach me that would help. I could use that time for other things."

No one argued him. It was Harry's decision, after all. And he had larger, more important things to worry about then homework and exams. But at least he would be able to be with his friends. Although, considering it now, it would also make it a hell of a lot harder to hide the mark branded to his inner forearm, as well as everything that went along with it.

"Do you mean the Horcruxes, Harry? Well, finding them, I mean." Ginny asked, and Harry shot his head up towards her. "Don't worry, Lupin knows. The entire Order does."

"Sorry, mate. I knew you had told us not to tell anyonebut under the circumstances and all..." Ron said, careful not to let slip that those 'circumstances' had been Harry found dead. They didn't want Harry to know about that quite yet. But he was slightly nervous at Harry's reaction to breaking his word with him, as the three of them had thought it best to let the order in on Dumbledore's and Harry's secret. It was the only thing that could stop Voldemort, and they thought they had needed to know.

But Harry merely stared at them, confused. "Horcruxes?" He had never heard the term before, and as soon as he said it, both his scar and the mark on his arm burned intensely. He cried out in pain.

"Harry?" Remus asked, moving towards him. "Harry, what is it?"

"Scar..." Harry breathed through clenched teeth. It wasn't just that, but he knew better then to mention the Dark Mark burning as well.

Everyone looked at each other in fearful concern. "Just..lay down, Harry, it will pass." Remus said, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. There really wasn't anything that they could do for him.

But Harry wrenched away from Lupin's touch and growled in pain. "No one is supposed to know," he said, almost angrily. "No one was supposed to find out!"

And although it was Harry's voice that was speaking the words, it wasn't really him that was saying them. It was Voldemort. But to the people surrounding his bed, it sounded only as though Harry was mad that they had broken their promise.

"Harry, I'm sorry! But...they had to know!"

"No one was to know!" Harry snarled, his head and arm still encased in burning pain.

At that moment, the door was swung open and Vel Pyrites rushed inside. Seeing that Harry was in pain, he turned to Remus.

"I'm sorry, Remus, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Vel said in a serious tone. "He's going to need some further treatments and rest for the day."

Remus looked back and forth between Harry and Pyrites. "Its his scar; he says its burning."

Vel nodded. "A few more pain potions, then." He looked to Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. "The three of you as well: out."

They could all only nod, and looked back at Harry with concern as they were ushered from the room, Remus not far behind.

"Don't worry; he'll be just fine," Vel Pyrites said comfortingly, as he locked the door behind them all. He then walked quickly over to Harry, throwing his clipboard into an empty chair.

Harry grimaced in pain. Whatever had happened, the Dark Lord was not pleased. The pain from his scar began to subside, and he prayed that it would leave his arm as well. But there was no such luck. Pyrites began to undo the bandages that covered the Dark Mark. The skull and snake were a deep crimson red upon his flesh.

For a moment, it seemed that the pain would disappear, but an instant later Harry was proven horribly wrong. An unbearable burning sensation swept from his arm, and Harry watched in horror as the branded red symbol bolded to the deepest of black. The pain was tremendous, far worse then it had been just a few moments earlier, in both the blazing Dark Mark as well as returning to the lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead.

"What the...bloody hell...is happening?" Harry cried out between his gasps of pain, clenching his eyes shut.

Pyrites looked at him, an odd gleam filling his copper eyes as his mouth twisted into a menacing smile.

"Its time."

AN:

Xx Evil Grin xX

Yeah, thats about all that I have to say to that. Sorry! But, I PROMISE that there will be another chapter out before the release of book 7. There's a few things that I want to throw in there so that you know I had them planned before I read the book. I really do want to finish this, but I know that after Deathly Hallows so much is going to be different its going to be pretty hard. But, I can always just continue it anyways, and it just won't go along with what happens in the book.

Unless of course JKR stole all of her ideas from me. In which case, it will be exactly like the book, and you can all have the pleasure of reading the first few chapters of it before its even released. Just kidding! I know that JKR would never make a Harry a Death Eater...or would she?

As always, a big thank you to all of my readers and reviewers. You all really are getting better at this 'submit a review' thing. Its really not that difficult. You click the button on the bottom of the screen, type a few sentences, and press enter. That's it; review sent. Go on and try it. Say something ridiculous, you know you want to. Do it...

Xx shakes head sadly at self xX

Best I leave you all now.

Happy 4th of July, btw. Go watch some fireworks! Lol

MtFbwy.

Xx Nods head and Disapparates xX