Title: Harry Potter in the Realm of the Dead
Chapter Title:
Author: Avril13
Rating: Strong M (Definitely!)
WARNINGS: Violence and gore
Chapter Word Count: 4, 267
Date: May 3, 2009
Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and everyone else from Potterverse belong to JKR.
A/N
Thanks for reading and reviewing.
Chapter 10 Revelation
Harry was flying several yards in front of his soldiers. Rays flew over his head towards the manor and several blasts put the outdoor party into a defensive position. Harry remembered the spell that Voldemort sent after him in the Chamber of Secrets. It was a modification of the Incendio spell he already knew. He secretly, to ensure that Madam Pomfrey never found out, practiced it between treatments. It went pretty well, probably due to the fact that he wielded the twin wand. Now his eyes were focused on only one figure. As soon as he came into the spell range Harry sent a torrent of fire towards Marcus Flint. The blaze hit him in the chest and spread all over his body. Not only his clothes but his skin and even hair were set on fire. Screaming terribly Marcus fell onto the grass and continued rolling in agony.
Cassius and Sejanus used the Severing charm to rip Voldemort's cadets. It seemed as if they liked the blood. On the other hand the Weasley twins flew above Harry providing him with shields in his reckless charge. Ron and Ginny who somehow managed to join the raid unnoticed dismounted their brooms and continued fighting as foot soldiers. Ron also used only the Severing Charm while Ginny protected both with a shield. They were moving incredibly fast acting like one combat machine. Cedric joined them on the ground.
"What did I tell you? They are better in the Dark Arts then any of us." Percy told his elder brothers with a lot of pride in his voice. All three dived to support their youngsters.
"This is butchery!" Hermione exclaimed looking down from her broomstick as they conjured large rocks into the air high above the manor and let them fall onto the building. The shower of rocks and stones punched great holes in the manor's roof and Sirius and his squad moved in quickly. The sound of the battle from the inside told them that Moody's squad had penetrated the defences from the dungeons.
The Lombardy twins put Imperio on two cadets and sent them to open the front door. Both were annihilated in the blast that was triggered by their action. Harry sent another torrent of fire through the broken door, while the twins threw in several flasks that burst inside releasing enormous amount of smoke. Others already finished with the cadets and their instructors and were casting blasts on the main floor windows. Nobody responded from the inside and the Lombardies moved in followed by Narcissa who cleared her way by stunning two cadets. She obviously used the quickest and most reliable spells, just to get inside. Snape rushed in trying to catch up with her. On the bottom of the stairs they were attacked by two Death Eaters. Snape slashed one with Sectumsempra and continued duelling the other. Narcissa didn't wait to see the outcome. She led Sejanus and Cassius through the smoke upstairs trying to find her son. The squads from the outside moved in through the door and broken windows and joined those that were already fighting inside.
Harry took a few to the other side of the building to make sure that nobody escaped. He hoped that the wards for disabling the Floo network that Flitwick put around the manor worked. Harry didn't want anybody to get away. Then he remembered the secret passage that led from the trophy room outside. Harry called Fred and George to come with him and ordered the rest to watch the exits. The battle within the walls was already fading when he reached the exit from the tunnel. The trio took cover and were waiting in the ambush for someone to show up. After three or four minutes they heard somebody moving in the tunnel. Several seconds later a man with a hood on his head stepped carefully outside. For a moment, Harry noticed long silvery hair beneath the hood.
The man was obviously alone. He had a wand in his right hand and a heavy bag in his left.
"How stupid you are Lucius. If you hadn't wasted your time taking the family treasure, you might have escaped!" Harry thought. He recalled the last time he faced Lucius in the manor. He could still feel the crop on his face when Lucius had hit him for no reason. The evil man who inflicted so much pain in both of his lives was standing in front of him, desperate and in fear. Harry was still felt the rage he felt before the battle. He remembered that he promised Lucius to Cedric, so he decided not to use the Killing Curse but another Unforgivable instead.
"CRUCIO!"
Lucius Malfoy fell onto the ground coiling in pain. Another spell twisted his body to the other side.
"Harry, you'll kill him!" Fred exclaimed. George made sure that nobody else was coming from the tunnel.
Harry came closer and picked up Lucius' wand.
"Good evening master. Master seems to be in great pain." He said bowing theatrically. "Harry will take care of Master. Harry will take his Master to the manor."
"No! Please let me go!" Lucius begged. "Take this bag, it's yours. I'll give you the number and the key of my vault in Gringotts bank. Anything you want, anything, just let me go."
Harry stepped back, looking at him in despise. Then he flicked his wand muttering the incarnation "Petrificus Totalus!"
By the time they came back to the manor carrying the petrified Lucius, everything was over. Harry stepped inside the Manor's ruin. The fire was extinguished and the smoke was almost cleared out. There were bodies lying all over the manor and the front yard.
Harry looked for Shacklebolt.
"Has anyone escaped?"
"No, no one that we know of."
"What are our casualties?"
"Four wounded."
Harry looked at him puzzled.
"We caught them by surprise. They obviously didn't expect this. When we attacked the party outside, they rushed upstairs expecting us to storm into the building and ambush us from there. The stones that Sirius and his squad dropped onto the roof killed most of them before they cast a single spell. Others tried to flee and were slain by Moody and his men. The party outside was no match for us. All the hardship from Moody's drills paid off at last! You also have Hermione to thank. If it hadn't been for the shielding charm she thought us, things would have been much worse." His yes were sparkling in triumph while he was reporting.
The others felt victorious too, cheering loudly around the manor. They had been waiting for and dreaming that moment for many long years.
"The Prime Minister is among them," Shacklebolt pointed at the corpses that were being taken downstairs "Karkaroff too and a great deal of Voldemort's most loyal men!" Shacklebolt continued.
"Prisoners?"
"None."
At that moment the Lombardies came down carrying petrified Draco and his mother.
"They are both safe and sound, My Liege." They bowed. "We had to make sure they wouldn't harm themselves."
"Well done." Harry laughed.
"Finite Incartium!"
Draco stepped back from the twins terrified. He reached into his robes for his wand but it wasn't there.
"Who… who are you?" The assassins looked even worse then before the battle. Their faces, covered in scars and not fully recovered from the dungeons, were now half covered with blood from their victims. But still, he could see the amazing resemblance to him and his father. They laughed sarcastically.
"You can call us uncles. I'm Uncle Sejanus and this is Uncle Cassius."
"You're safe Draco." Harry said coldly. "You and your mother can go free or enjoy the sanctuary in Blackdawn Manor."
"What happened to my father?"
"What happened to him is less important than what's going to happen to him." Harry responded lifting the spell from Lucius. Cedric was already there.
"I only regret that I didn't find him first!"
"You couldn't. He was fleeing with his treasure like a rat. Unfortunately for him I knew about the tunnel. As I promised he's yours. Do it quickly, I have no time to waste here."
"We can't just kill the prisoner!" Hermione protested violently. "Wasn't that needless bloodbath outside enough?"
"Yes we can."
"Then we're no better then them!"
"Yes we are. We don't kill the innocent." Harry answered nervously. Nobody but Hermione could defend Lucius.
"Everybody is innocent until proven guilty, remember?"
"You want the proof? Is that what you want?" Harry asked struggling not to explode. "Moody, Veritaserum!"
Moody poured the potion into Lucius' mouth with grim satisfaction.
"Lucius Malfoy, did you or did you not brag about your collection of wands. Did you or did you not say they belonged to Blood Traitors that you personally had slain?"
"Yes I did."
"Did you slay them?"
"Yes, I did?"
"Was it always a fair fight?"
"No, some of them were already disarmed and helpless."
"Did you kill Muggles?"
"Yes I did."
"Did you enjoy killing them?"
"Yes I did." Lucius kneeled shaking in fear.
"Do you feel any regret or remorse about your deeds?"
"No I don't." Lucius started crying as he struggled not to tell the truth.
"Now we know he's not innocent." Harry said slowly looking at Hermione who opened her mouth to say something, but just helplessly shook her head.
Draco was staring at his father, who was sobbing on the floor.
"Why!" he cried. "Why did you do this to me? I hate you! I always did, but now I hate you even more!" Tears glistered in his eyes.
Lucius said nothing, nor did he look at his son. Narcissa tried to pull Draco away, but he shook off her hands, staring at the scene in front of him. He was so resolute that she gave up.
"Cedric." Harry stepped away from Lucius.
Cedric stood close to Lucius' side and raised his father's wand.
"DIFFINDO!"
And Lucius' head rolled down the hall. There was a total silence in the manor when the headless body hit the marvel floor.
Draco gulped down his tears and spoke first with his head proudly up.
"Now I know. I never really hated my father. I loved him. I just hated the way he was."
"Harry, why didn't we defend the Ministry? Isn't it more important than a few Death Eaters and a bunch of recruits?"
The voice belonged to Sirius Black. Harry said nothing. He sniffed from his snuff box, which he'd refilled as soon as they came back from Malfoy manor. He held his breath until he felt the effect of the powder. Exhaling loudly he looked at his godfather and others in the room.
"If we tried to defend the Ministry two things could have happened: First, the invaders would stage the assault to take it. In that case both sides would suffer high casualties and Voldemort's plan would work. Second, and more likely the invaders army would ravage the country while we would be sitting in the Ministry. In that case everybody would hold us responsible for defending the people. We couldn't possibly hold the Ministry and protect the people at the same time. Eventually we would split our forces and be defeated fighting on two fronts. Not to mention that the Death Eaters wouldn't miss the chance to stab us in the back at any opportune moment. By assaulting Malfoy manor we eliminated that threat and can now decrease the invaders waging the insurgency war. Remember, part of their forces will be tied down defending the Ministry making our job much easier. We'll strike where we want, when we want. Once we decrease them enough, the Ministry will fall and we'll be victorious."
"Harry, when did you become a military expert?" Hermione asked.
"I have advisors."
"Even if everything works just the way you planned, you'll need an army to retake the Ministry!" Moody added.
"It's under way." Harry replied. Everybody looked at him suspiciously, but said nothing. After all, he led them into battles already and every time they were victorious. Furthermore each time his actions didn't seem reasonable, but yet they defeated the Death Eaters in the end.
"Now, we all need to have some rest. Moody will organize small reconnaissance teams in the morning. We have to know more about our new enemy before we take any action."
Since nobody had anything more to say, Harry left the library and went to his room. On his way he peeked into his sister's room. She was calmly sleeping in her bed. He nodded to Sejanus who bowed. Harry appointed him and his brother to be her body guards. Voldemort might have known that she was the only connection to him and his whereabouts and Harry didn't want to take any chances. Whoever tried to harm her would encounter the fiercest opposition Harry could imagine. He went to his room, put the dream catcher above his head and fell asleep.
Harry felt unexpectedly fresh and relaxed next morning. He realized he couldn't remember the last time he had had a good night's sleep without interruption or injury. He wanted to see his mother and tell her about Rose. But he decided to look for his father first right after breakfast. He couldn't bear to meet his mother knowing his father was still down there suffering.
Harry found Hermione sitting alone at the table in the dining room. She was lost in her thoughts and barely noticed his presence.
"What's wrong Hermione?" He asked helping himself to some food.
"Nothing."
"I know you better than you think. Is there anything I can do?"
"No Harry seriously, I'm fine!" Hermione snapped.
"I'm going down again." Harry said.
Hermione twitched at his words. "I better watch over you then."
"There's no need to worry."
"No need to worry? Black Ergot by itself can make you not to wake up again, let alone the place you're going to."
'I've got to go. But you don't. If you want to watch over me, you must promise you won't follow me, whatever happens!"
"I'll watch over you, like it or not!" Hermione answered resolutely "And we better be near Madam Pomfrey, just in case."
Realizing that any further argument would be futile, Harry sighed and they left the room.
Harry was routinely sliding down the tunnel he already knew so well. He had to find the answer about where the remaining Dementors had gone. He had to find and liberate his father. But something wasn't right. Every other time he visited this place, his head was full of thoughts, feeling, and cries of souls captured in the Realm of the Dead. This time, however, everything was quiet. Harry slid down in a queer silence until he sensed the passage in the vertical wall. His instinct told him not to go in, but the desire to find his father no matter what, prevailed. Harry went in and after following the narrow passage he reached a small chamber. The air was very hot and smelled of rotten eggs. "Sulphur!" crossed his mind as he remembered his potion classes from Hogwarts. Harry looked around flicking his tongue. He couldn't see or sense anything, but he felt he wasn't alone.
Hermione was watching the motionless serpent in front of her. She didn't like Harry's ventures into the Underworld. She didn't like his "experiments" with Black Ergot and the Cheering powder the Weasley twins had made for him. Hermione especially didn't like that damn book. She was afraid that she would loose her best friend to something unknown and horribly wrong. So she decided to keep her eyes on him as much as she could.
Suddenly the snake's skin started popping with a fizzling sound.
"Madam Pomfrey!" She shouted trying her best healing charms on Nemesis.
The old healer rushed into the room followed by her assistants.
"Oh my goodness!" She exclaimed and started applying a potion muttering spells and working with her wand at the same time. Horrible burns were popping all over Harry's skin faster then she could heal them.
Hermione knew she had to do something fast. With one spell she drenched her hair and robes with water and still holding her wand lay on the serpent. The others looked in bewilderment at how she melted into the snake's body and disappeared in a couple of seconds.
If Hermione hadn't lost her breath already as she inhaled blazing stinking air, she would have lost it at the sight in front of her. Nemesis was withering in the powerful embrace of a demon whose skin was all on fire. Its head was disproportionally big with strong thick horns and its long muzzle full of sharp teeth it was trying to plunge into the snake's throat.
"Aquamenti!"
Hermione screamed squeezing the last remaining molecule of air out of her lungs. The jet of water hit the monster and the steam filled the chamber making it more bearable to breathe. The demon, taken by surprise loosened its grip and that was enough for Nemesis to wiggle out of the deadly embrace. The jet that Hermione was maintaining was pushing the demon further back and Harry used that time to transform himself into a human form. In the meantime the beast recovered from the surprise and with a terrible roar breathed out almost a perfect cone of fire towards the duo. Harry and Hermione joined forces putting a double shield in front of them. The wall of fire encircled them heating the air again. They tried to maintain the shield, but it was only a matter of seconds before it was going to collapse. Harry's robes were already caught on fire, but the demon was sustaining the fire coming slowly closer and closer. The friends couldn't do anything else without dropping the shield and there was nowhere to retreat. They already moved a few steps back and were now cornered against a stone wall. Hermione who stood behind Harry felt it was scorching hot.
All of a sudden the monster stopped and picked up something from the floor. Harry dropped the shield and hastily extinguished the fire that destroyed almost all of his robes. Then he looked at the demon. It seemed smaller in size than a few moments ago and the heat radiating from it lessened. Harry then realised it was the ring the beast was holding, the same ring he found in that chamber by the skeleton of Slytherin's daughter. His mind was suddenly filled with screams of numerous souls coming from the demon. At that point Hermione collapsed behind him completely overwhelmed by the experience.
"Blodeuyn?" Harry called her name. He knew that many souls were captured by the ring and kept inside Blodeuyn's soul. But he just couldn't imagine she had become the demon of the Underworld. And now the ring released all the evil souls and Blodeuyn appeared in front of him in all her innocent beauty as he remembered her so vividly from his dream.
"I was hoping someone would come." She said in that strange language he somehow understood. "I was hoping for it and dreading it at the same time!"
Still dazed, Harry stared at her. "Why?" He asked finally.
"You have the book don't you?"
Harry panicked as he reached into his robes looking for the book. It was safe in the pocket on the side that wasn't destroyed by the fire.
"Yes."
"You must destroy it at once!"
"No!"
"You must. It's using you, like it was using me, and my friends and Tom Riddle."
"What do you mean?"
"Evil comes in many faces, but the most dangerous of all disguises is Justice! Is it how it disguised itself to you? Did you believe you could defeat evil, punish the guilty, protect the innocent?"
Harry listened in bewilderment.
"Did you ask yourself how did it happen? Why all those people, some of them seasoned warriors, followed you as their leader? Did you ask yourself why it was so easy?"
"Maybe that's why you became so bloodthirsty, Harry!" Hermione said, standing up shakily. She looked worn out and confused, but her tone was still triumphant, in that annoying, I-told-you-so way that Harry was used to from their early Hogwarts years.
"I just wanted my life back! I wanted my family together!" He screamed defensively, shaking his head in disbelief.
"We must destroy it! Or you'll become the new Voldemort!" Blodeuyn repeated frantically.
"We?"
"Your girlfriend, you and me."
"Hermione isn't my girlfriend!"
"We must hurry; I won't linger for much longer!"
"I need it to find other Dementors, to save my father!"
"I'll tell you how to do that. And then we'll destroy it. Agreed?"
Harry looked at her. The voices of the souls escaping the demon started fading. "All right I promise."
"My friend Gwynfor thought he could turn evil against evil. The book had taught him how to make the first Dementors. Those were evil souls that he had captured in the dead bodies of those who deserved punishment. In the beginning it seemed to work well. The evil souls we captured in the Realm of the Dead forever, never to be reborn again. The Dementors executed this task and everybody believed that the struggle between good and evil was finally won, once and for all. Alas, all but too late they realised Gwynfor became damned himself overtaken by the evil he was up against. He became the worst monster of all, and released the Dementors to feast on every soul and not just the evil ones. Eventually the Dementors were contained around prisons like Azkaban, but never under full control. From time to time he finds a way to unite several evil souls and make them reborn with himself in one body. Tom Riddle was the last one of that sort. Find and destroy Voldemort and you'll destroy Gwynfor and all Dementors at the same time. Don't look for them anymore for they retreated to a deepness of the Realm of the Dead you cannot reach."
As she spoke the Blodeuyn's body withered and she become pale.
"My time has come! Put the book on the floor quickly. All three of us will cast the Killing Curse at the same time."
Harry hesitated, holding the book in his hand.
"Harry you must! You promised!" Hermione screamed at him.
Slowly Harry laid the book on the floor. The move was obviously painful for him; he made an agonizing grimace but didn't let out a sound. Hermione looked at him worryingly realizing he was covered with burns, but she decided to say nothing. The trio stood around the book with their wands ready to cast the spell. Harry's hands shook, and suddenly he swung around to face Blodeuyn.
"NO! I CAN"T DO IT!" He screamed. "And I won't let you do it either! The book belongs to me!" With that he started to cast a spell but Blodeuyn was too fast for him.
"Petrificus Totalus!" And Harry barely had time to turn his curse into a shield, which Blodeuyn avoided with practiced ease. But she was fading slowly, and Hermione knew she didn't have much time. She turned to the book, and pointed her wand at it once more.
"You can do this Hermione." She thought. "Avada Kedavra!" The green light left her wand, but when it hit the book, it merely faded away to nothing. "Of course I can't feel hate for a book. There must be another way." She thendecided to set it on fire…but again nothing happened.
"Disintegrate!" She yelled desperately. The book stayed put, mocking her. Around her she could hear Harry's and the other witch's voices as they continued to duel. Blodeuyn cast an "Expaliamus!" and Harry fell and glared angrily at the witch as she grabbed his wand. Hermione wasn't truly paying attention to them. She was thinking of how to get rid of the book without casting spells at it. It seemed impossible.
That was when she remembered about the tunnel.
With a sudden gasp, Blodeuyn vanished. Harry tried to stand up in order to reach his wand, but ended up crawling towards it. At the same time, Hermione cast a wave of water in the book's direction. She watched with anticipation as it rolled towards the tunnel.
Harry stood up, wand finally in hand, and looked over to see what was happening. "NO!" He yelled. He started running towards the book, but his panic was too great for him to think clearly about what to do. He ended up tripping again, watching helplessly as the book was washed down the deep, dark, tunnel.
Hermione immediately ran back to her friend. He was nearly unconscious and therefore didn't say a word to her as she started choking him.
"You idiot! Wake up! Wake up and get us out of here! You stupid prat!" She began crying as Harry weakly tried to remove her hands from his throat. Suddenly, she felt herself being pulled of him, and it took her several seconds to realize that she was in the Hospital wing and that it was Sirius she was now strangling.
"Hermione…" He said hoarsely after she stopped. "I didn't think that my proposal was that bad!" Hermione looked at him and fainted.