Darkness Unveiled
Chapter 9-Choices, Not Destiny
Harry stepped out of the potions lab with an air of extreme boredom. It's been two long weeks of attending to the potion and learning about other potions in the meantime, after he was done tending to the Felix Felicis of course. It wasn't that he found potions boring, far from it actually, but it was just he hadn't had time to relax and just have fun in ages. Looking at the sunny, warm, and breezy August day, Harry went to his room and grabbed his Firebolt and took off towards the Quidditch pitch in the back.
Last year, as the Firebolt model came out, Harry had asked his father to buy it for him, even going to the point of begging on his knees for it. However, once that didn't work he tried blackmailing his father into getting it for him. Thinking about it now Harry had to laugh at the murderous look in his father's face when Harry threatened to tell his Death Eaters that his father's bedroom smelt like lilacs to remind him of his long dead puppy.
That, of course, was a blunt lie but the Death Eaters didn't know that. However, logic did not prevail because the next half an hour was spent on jinxes and hexes turning the other amusing colors. Harry chuckled in amusement just thinking at the Gryffindor colors both donned for it was the worst they both could think off.
With the growth of the Death Eater's children, Voldemort had constructed a Quidditch field for them to have fun rather than just the plain field. Sometimes, when the Ministry gathered some information on possible Death Eaters, the children came here for a couple days while matters were cleared up.
Looking at his Firebolt fondly, Harry sprinted and took off before he even reached the pitch.
He sighed contently as he swooped and dived, taking in the exhilarating feel of the air blowing in his face and ruffling his hair. The Firebolt curved and turned so smoothly that it seemed like it could read Harry's thoughts.
It was about five minutes before he felt a feeling poke at him of being watched. Careful to check his surroundings and acting like nothing was out of place, Harry finally spotted a blond figure on the benches, watching him. He decided to drop by and introduce himself, so after a steep dive; he landed in front of the wide eyed teen.
"Hi," said Harry to the pale blond, "I'm Harry."
After a moment, the blond collected himself and said a bit arrogantly, "Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Instantly Harry knew whose son he was. There was no mistaking the infamous Malfoy sneer, even if one did overlook the striking resemblance.
"Care to play?" Harry asked after spying the Nimbus 2001 in his hands. Instantly Draco's face lit up as he nodded. Summoning the Quaffle from the shed, the pair tore up the field playing a one-on-one match of Quidditch. A good two hours later, both landed out of breath and sweating but grinning nonetheless.
"Let's go to my rooms. We can rest and relax there," suggested Harry as the pair took off. Just as they were about to reach the black dragon, Lucius Malfoy intercepted them. His calculating eyes took in the companion of his son.
"Heir," he said with an elaborate bow, "your father is looking for you. He says it is rather urgent and insists on a meeting before the next hour." With that said, he continued on his way. As he left, Draco turned, shocked, to face Harry.
"You're the Dark Heir!" he exclaimed with wide eyes. Harry rolled his eyes. Why does everyone who knows that suddenly clam up? On the way back from the pitch, both had a heated discussion about Quidditch and the Death Eaters. Harry found that he liked Draco for all his haughtiness.
"It's just Harry. All that 'heir' stuff is kind of annoying after a while," he said with a dismissive wave of the hand. "I hope you'll act normal rather than most of those bumbling baboons called Death Eaters. Honestly! Most of them act as if I'm my father and stutter in my presence that it's impossible to get the message!"
Draco had to laugh there. He knew how true that was. From what he had heard from the other children and their parents, they thought the Heir was just a heartless, cold, and powerful as the Dark Lord. The powerful part they knew were true enough but he was not the type to torture a person for no reason.
"No problem. Well I'll see you around? Probably don't want to keep the Dark Lord waiting," he said and strode away after a friendly farewell.
After Draco left, Harry entered his chambers and after a quick shower to clean himself from the exhaustive afternoon, he left to meet his father. Harry knew that private meetings between him and Voldemort almost always happened in his father's private rooms. Two turns and three secret hallways later, Harry arrived outside the doors of his father's room.
Without knocking, he walked in. He knew that he was the only one with access to these rooms. These were his innermost chambers. Voldemort's other "private" rooms were for meeting Inner Circle Death Eaters to discuss plans sometimes not safe to reveal in the common meeting rooms.
Looking at the elegant room Harry spied his father pouring over a pile of parchments on the large oak desk. Everything in the room screamed wealth and power. The room was just slightly larger than his own with emerald carpeting, maple bed with green, silver, and black everywhere. Occasionally there was gold but that was scarce due to the fact that it was deemed too "Gryffindor" and therefore used to a minimum.
"Father," Harry said hesitantly, not sure if his father wanted time to finish the paperwork. Voldemort made a dismissive motion, gesturing at the velvet chair opposite him. Gingerly Harry sat down and a moment later the Dark Lord set down his quill tiredly with a sigh.
"These reports are getting longer and even more idiotic as if those baboons don't know what to report and what not to report," he said while rubbing his eyes. Harry had to snigger there. It was well know that Voldemort gave out Cruciatus Curses like candy if there was not enough information given or data being withheld. Evidently, the Death Eaters were going to learn the hard way tonight that too much information can be a bad thing as well.
Voldemort glared at his son. He knew what Harry was thinking as well. As well guarded Harry's mind is from Legilimency, he unconsciously lowered them when in private with his father. It had begun as a habit and now his father just accidentally read his thoughts.
"I'm glad one of us is finding this amusing," he said rather dryly.
"Come on father! At least it's not as bad as that one time you attacked Hogsmeade and every Death Eater had to give a precise account of what they did and where they did it. Now that meeting took forever. My legs were numb from standing there invisible all night!" exclaimed Harry. Judging by the noticeable wince, Voldemort did as well. That night was not pleasant. After five hours of listening to the Death Eaters stammer and repeat themselves over and over again, he wanted to just torture the lot of them and bang his head on the wall before getting Snape to give him the Draft of the Living Death.
Voldemort sighed once again. This time it was in agitation of the events about to unfold tonight.
"Harry, there is something important I need you to do for me tonight," he started and noticed Harry's abrupt snap into business, "I need for you and a handful of Death Eaters to go to the Department of Mysteries. In there is the Hall of Prophecies. I've received word that there was a prophecy many years ago concerning me and another individual. From what Rookwood has told me, it is in row 97. I am certain that you will be able to touch it as your name is on it along with two other people and me. That is the reason why it must be you who gets it for no one else but those on the prophecy can touch it. I want you to get that prophecy and bring it to me," he finished gravely.
Harry thought about it and nodded. He would be prepared to go tonight.
"Who are accompanying me?"
"All Inner Circle that I trust absolutely, even then they will not know the full extent of the prophecy. I think that will be Lucius, Bella, Antonin, and Rodolphus. As much as I want to trust Snape, I find that he could be a tricky fellow," Voldemort said as his eyes flashed.
Harry just nodded and stood, "I'll go get ready for the attack tonight. Do you expect the Order to be there?"
"I do not think so but I wouldn't put it past Dumbledore to figure out about this plan. Either way, there is the issue of Aurors at the Ministry. You will portkey there along with the others and Lucius will sneak you into the Ministry."
After bidding goodbye, Harry left the hidden chamber to prepare all of his weapons. He had a feeling that tonight will bring many surprises.
Eight o'clock came and Harry met the rest at the apparation point. Though they were using portkeys, the other points in the stronghold were warded against apparating and portkeys.
He saw the rest there already and to Harry's surprise, his father was there as well.
"I expect this to be a success and keep in mind that I will be very…displeased should it fail," he said with a threatening tone in his voice. Harry had to fight himself to not roll his eyes. His father was always one for dramatics and Harry would be surprised if he didn't pass it onto the Death Eaters.
"Harry," he started in Parseltongue for privacy. Harry could see the others shift and shiver slightly at the unusual and dangerous language. "If you are not back by nine o'clock I will come to the Minisssstry myssself."
"WHAT! Father, that'sss way to dangeroussss!"
His father relented a bit and finally said, "Very well but I expect reportsssss by Legilimency every thirty minutesss." At this Harry had to sigh but it was him that gave in this time. They had practiced last year at communicating via their minds and it worked quite well. However, using it often gave huge migraines and both decided to use it only in the case of an emergency.
Finally, with a finger on a business card, Harry portkeyed to the Ministry of Magic along with all the Death Eaters.
Looking around at their location, Harry could see that the office belonged to no other than Lucius Malfoy. It was overly luxurious and screamed "wealth" at every corner, probably due to the gold, velvet, silk, and leather everywhere. Due to his "astounding" advice to Cornelius Fudge on some Death Eater attacks, he was given the office to thank him for his hard work. What the minister doesn't know is that Voldemort had given Malfoy that information to keep suspicion, which had been rising, away from the fact that Malfoy was a Death Eater. The Dark Lord wanted a spy in a position of influence in the Ministry to keep him up to date on what is happening, and perhaps change it. The Death Eater attacks that had been stopped from Malfoy's information only risked low level Death Eaters and even then it was not that much of a risk, for all had a way of getting out of the situation.
"This office is directly above the Department of Mysteries," started Malfoy, "We need to get down one floor and then go to the revolving doors."
After checking the hallways, Malfoy led the way towards the stairway going down. Ministry wizards and witches are all in a hurry and have no time for using the stairs, along with their laziness, which make the stairs a safer method to use.
All wore their Death Eater garb, with a charm over it to make them look like regular wizards, or in Bellatrix's case a witch, that work in the Ministry. They quickly made their way there without any trouble, only meeting a messenger boy along the way.
Going into the Department of Mysteries, the spied the spinning doors and walked into it, dropping their disguises. Now, all were masked and robed in proper Death Eater attire.
Once the doors stopped, they stepped out and walked into the Death Chamber. In here, the mysteries of death are studied by the Unspeakables. They walked straight ahead, not stopping to regard the veil, until Bellatrix opened the door to the Hall of Prophecies.
"We need to go to row 97," stated Harry, "right now we're at 47, so we need to go to the right. Let's go."
Silently, the group walked over to the row. All spread out in row 97 until finally Harry saw the prophecy.
S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D
And
(?) Harry Potter
(?) George Potter
(?) Neville Longbottom
Bellatrix reached to grab the prophecy when Harry grabbed her hand.
"No! Your name isn't on the prophecy. So unless you want to be cursed terribly, I suggest you retract your hand…now!" said Harry with flashing green eyes. In his anger, he made his emerald eyes an eerie Avada Kedavra color, which showed the Death Eaters why he is the heir. In a way, his anger is similar to the Dark Lord's, and that brought an involuntary shiver down their backs.
"Then how do we obtain it!" demanded Bellatrix.
"Father put a secret spell on me that gave me his magic signature for retrieving the prophecy," he explained. That was a total lie but he couldn't very well just go out and say that he's Harry Potter. In fact, Voldemort had said nothing on the fact on how to get the prophecy, but he apparently knew that Harry could touch it.
Bellatrix backed down, but she glowered dangerously. Quickly, Harry grabbed it and put the prophecy into a small box charmed to be unaffected by spells, so the prophecy wouldn't break or be Accio-ed.
"Stop right there and give us that prophecy!" said a slightly raspy voice from behind the group. All turned to face an assembly of Order members. There were approximately fifteen Order members, so the Death Eaters were outnumbered three-to-one.
Before anyone could act, Harry aimed his wand towards the row of prophecies and whispered a, "Reducto!" making the row fall over and all the glass spheres shattered.
"Run! Get back to headquarters!" shouted Harry over the voices from the prophecies.
Harry cast the disillusionment charm over himself, ignoring the egg-like feeling, and silently backed away. He only got away three feet before a shadowed pair caught his eye and ears.
"THE ONE OF THE PROPHECY WILL SOON COME TO A FORK IN THE ROAD AND WILL BE FORCED TO MAKE A DECISION, CHANGING THE COURSE OF WIZARDKIND…WILL HE JOIN THE DARKNESS OF THE ONLY ONE TO ACCEPT HIM…OR WILL HE SIDE WITH THOSE THAT TURNED THEIR BACKS ON HIM AT HIS TIME OF NEED…THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES…"
No one else noticed the prophecy, but Harry was so wrapped up in listening to the hoarse voice that he didn't hear Mad-Eye Moody, who had a magical eye which could see through illusions and spells of invisibility, sneak up behind and blast him with a bludgeon curse. The impact threw him back onto the other row of glass spheres, knocking it over as well.
Harry could feel lacerations on his skin in many places from the shattered prophecies but nothing too bad. Getting up, he gasped sharply from the feel of a cracked rib. Well that can't be too good.
"Heir get out of here!" shouted Malfoy. He was holding off four Order members. As fast as he could, Harry shot a Bone Shattering Hex towards Moody, who fell promptly from the shattered leg. Harry knew that he had a missing leg, therefore without a good leg to keep him upright, Moody collapsed right over.
"EXANIMO!" shouted Harry, pointing at a man fighting Malfoy. He repeated the same thing with two other Order associates dueling with Dolohov, who was hit quite hard. All three dropped like stone onto the floor.
The spell itself was a variation of the stupefy curse but it was stronger. Both were stunning spells but stupefy lets the subject be revived too easily. Instead, exanimo allows the person to be revived but uses much more magical energy. Harry had invented the spell with his father three months ago. Due to the magical exertion, the spell could not be used more than five times and at three, Harry was starting to feel its impact.
"Retreat the way we came in! Use the portkey; I'll go a different way!" he ordered before taking off towards the Atrium. Sprinting there, he heard a voice in the back of his head and thought; this really is not a good time. What is happening Harry? Voldemort asked. The Order of the Phoenix set a trap or they knew of what we were planning! Just as we got the prophecy, they attacked us. We're outnumbered three-to-one! Most of them got away the way we came in but I have to go a different way. In the back of Harry's mind, he heard the Dark Lord curse but Voldemort asked immediately, Where are you right now and why are you going a different way than the others!
I'm about two minutes away from the Atrium and I'm slightly hurt from a curse and I don't think I can make the distance that we came in. The Atrium's closer. Harry closed the connection for the moment to save energy. Panting slightly, he reached the location. By now, the impact of the Reductor, running, and the connection had taken an impact on him, causing his breath to come out raggedly.
Looking around, Harry saw the statues around a circular pool.Tallest of them all was a noble looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf. All the creatures were looking up at the witch and wizard with admiration in their faces. Glittering jets of water were flying from the ends of the two wands, the point of the centaur's arrow, the tip of the goblin's hat, and from each of the house-elf's ears.
Approaching the, in his opinion, ridiculous statue to show magical corroboration, he grabbed the stone around the fountain statue with his right hand and leaned over slightly to breathe. Bringing up his left hand, Harry coughed into it and when he took it away, he groaned slightly at the wet pool of blood in it. Great, probably that stupid hit I took and the running didn't exactly help it either. Looking into the water's edge of the fountain, Harry groaned seeing the multiple cuts and scratches on his face alone. Merlin, father is going to murder me once I get this treated!
"Young man I suggest you hand yourself over," said a calm voice from behind him.
Harry stiffened at the sound and turned to look over his shoulder. He looked at the wizard there and stared into the face of no one other than Albus Dumbledore, one of the greatest wizards alive. He internally groaned at his luck and kicked himself mentally for not noticing someone sneak up on him.
Harry brought his arms to his chest, making it seem like he was grasping his heaving chest with his arms, and loosened his throwing knives. The image made it seem like Harry was having hard time breathing, which in a way he was, and lowered the other's guard. After all, how difficult could a teenager be? That's not to mention the fact that practically no wizards ever use muggle means, especially Death Eaters.
"Dumbledore," Harry spat out.
The Headmaster inclined his head and said, "I've heard about you of course. May I ask why you are helping Voldemort and what he's doing? If you choose to abandon the Dark side, the Order can help protect you against Voldemort."
Harry laughed, "You want me to switch sides? I can tell you this old man, that that is not going to happen! Why should I abandon my father? And what is the point of going to the Light when they abandoned both him and me years ago? No, there is no turning back from our path."
"It's never too late to change," he persisted but was cut off at once by Harry's bitter laughter.
Harry just shook his head. "You just don't get it do you? Some of us are too far from redemption. We've gone too far and I'm no exception. Now get out of the way old man," he said raising his wand.
However, before Harry could fire one curse a figure apparated into the Atrium with a soft pop.
"Father!" exclaimed Harry, "What are you doing here!"
"I saw through our connection that you met the old coot and thought I'd drop by to say hello," he said in Parseltongue while staring into the bright blue eyes of Dumbledore. The two kept on staring into the eyes of the other ten paces away from Harry and the fountain.
"Tom," said the Headmaster inclining his head, "I see you've not change or your ways. Converting children," he finished with a sad shake of the head.
"Do NOT call me that vile name from that bloody muggle!" Voldemort hissed angrily at Dumbledore and sent a Killing Curse at the leader of the Light. Dumbledore transfigured the centaur at the fountain to leap in front the green light and protect him. Outraged, the Dark Lord conjured a shield from thin air to keep away a much stronger version of the blasting curse.
Voldemort sent his own exploding curse at Dumbledore only to have it rebound to the side due to a shielding charm. However, the reflected powerful curse shot towards the side of the water fountain right next to where Harry stood. Harry never noticed the incoming spell because he was bent over clutching his chest. His breath was coming out in short pants when the exploding curse hit the statue of the wizard, shattering the stone into thousands of fragments.
Harry had unfortunately been standing right next to it as it exploded and the countless shards struck him. By the time the rubble had cleared, Harry's prone figure laid in a bloody mess on the ground. As no movement came from Harry, Voldemort felt himself panic.
"HARRY!" he yelled as he rushed to Harry's side. His hands shook as he grasped Harry's right hand and wand. Looking over at Dumbledore's shocked figure Voldemort felt a surge or fury at him for reflecting the curse rather than merely absorbing it.
"This isn't over Dumbledore!" the Dark Lord spat venomously before apparating away with Harry.
A/N–Sorry for the long update, but I've been busy with my other story! If you haven't checked it out yet, give it a shot…please! It's called Ashes of Betrayal and all you have to do is look at it in my profile and read/review!
This chapter starts the unfolding of the prophecies as you've already heard one. The original in the canon will take a totally different interpretation next chapter! NOW BE GOOD READERS AND REVIEW!
Thank you to: MarauderinglyMagical, rayama, LadyMegsie, Lilith Kayden, Angelis Raye, rosiegirl, yournombrehere, jka1, alwaysariyana, Anaelisa, hey, oooo, anime goddess, areil riddle, Makurayami Ookami, Cory7, goofball44306, Harry Draco Malfoy, Fk306 animelover, Bewittching, Support Severus Snape, jon02, RedViciousApple for reviewing! You guys ROCK! Make me happy and do it again! (Reviews might encourage me to update faster!)
Disclaimer–Don't own Harry Potter, never will.