Chapter 10 - Land of Confusion

(A:N) I apologise right away for the low quality of this chapter, I promise to make it up next time!

The lighting dominated the sky in the stormy night, other than the occasional thunder the silence was set on great Britain. Some would say it is normal for the reason of the late hour but not tonight, after such a grand battle that silence was considered very out of place. Yet there was more than met the eye, all across the country wizards and witches exchanged the good news about the victory of the Ministry against the feared Dark Lord Voldemort and the rumours of a group that helped them. There was one place the cheery atmosphere didn't reach, the Malfoy manor stood silent at that night. Inside dozens of masked wizards and witches stood or sat in complete silence, the deaths and capture of hundreds of their ranks has diminished their confidence, the promised easy battle turned into a massacre and now their numbers barely reached a hundred not counting the frightened dementors who refused to move from their spot outside of the manor, even the death of Harry Potter didn't cheer them much. Five inner-circle death eaters died at the battle: the Lestrange brothers were killed in the explosion Shacklebot created, Rookwood fell before Potter's might, Avery was brought down by the Minister and Macnair was torn apart by Director Bones after attacking her niece.

Severus Snape sat quietly in his personal corner that he claimed, he didn't know if he should celebrate or not, tonight's battle has crippled the death eaters, meaning that his days as a spy are most likely numbered. The bad news were the death of Potter, the only person who had enough influence to make Severus a free man after the Dark Lord's death. Another reason for his uncertainty was Voldemort's new power, while Potter equalled him in battle, Snape suspected demonic possession. It meant that the Dark Lord will become stronger as the demon will transfer into his body, a ritual that would take at least six months. In those six months he won't care for earthly matter, it would mean that he won't assign any missions for his minions nor any attacks, but when the ritual will be done the Dark Lord will possess unbelievable power, hopefully someone would be able to stand against him other than Potter.

Severus frowned, he should really stop calling him Potter, he was in no way familiar to his father, other than his reckless behaviour. For years he believed that Potter was a spoiled brat, the occlumency lessons in his 5th year changed his mind and gave him renewed hope for a life after the war.

Flashback - Harry's 5th year at Hogwarts - 7 years under the Old Masters

Severus turned around at the sound of the opening door, he sneered when he saw the intruder of his privacy.

"Potter, I see that for once you arrived on time, it must have truly taken your whole concentration to do it." Said Snape in his usual silky voice, he received no answer as Harry turned his back to him to put his school bag near the chair that was set for him. He turned around and looked at Snape in boredom, Severus felt the anger rising in him but he didn't lash out, the consequences of the brat whining to Dumbledore didn't worth it. "As you know, you are here to learn the art of occlumency, it is a mind magic that enables you to shield your thoughts from anyone who has learned the art of legilimency, the mind magic that enables a wizard to enter the mind and pick up thoughts or even alter them." He finished in a low whisper, he waited for a few moments but when Harry uttered no questions he continued: "The first step is to be able to clear your mind of any thoughts even when under a mental attack, you'll attempt that while I use legilimency on you, expect to fail." He paused for a few seconds before pointing his wand at Potter and bellowing in hatred: "Legilimens!" He felt himself diving into the brat's mind before suddenly slamming into a wall and being painfully ejected from Harry's mind and stumbling from the shock.

He took a gasping breath as he looked at Harry who was sitting comfortably on the chair with a smirk on his face, he spoke smugly: "Well then, should we get down to business?"

He didn't remember much after that, it seemed foggy. He did remember telling Harry that the Dark Lord had thoughts about ordering Draco to kill Dumbledore. Other than that he remembered almost nothing, probably because of some spell that was cast on him, but since then he was cautious near him, he kept being unfair to Harry to keep his spy role and that no one will notice.

When Draco told him how Harry offered him a second chance and he didn't take it Severus was left dumbstruck, the boy was an idiot! He refused to take his only way out of this mess because of honour and pride! And now he was here keeping his family honour on the losing side, simply fantastic!

"My lord?" He heard the loyal voice of Bellatrix, she was wrapped in many bandages and limping slightly. The Dark Lord turned his eyes to her, she quickly lowered her eyes before asking timidly: "What are your order, my Lord? Where should we strike next?" She looked excited at the thought of it.

His calculating red eyes looked at her for a few moments that seemed eternal for the other Death Eaters who were unashamedly eavesdropping. He finally spoke, his voice low and cold yet heard clearly in the suffocating silence: "I have no orders, you can do whatever you'd like, I couldn't care less."

A collective breath was drawn, everyone were stunned by their master's words. Bellatrix' eyes widened comically, she uttered quietly:"My Lord?" but it was too late the Dark Lord was already gone to his chambers.

XXXXXXX

Neville put down the letter he was holding, the Alliance requested a meeting with him do discuss future plans. He yawned, it was already noon but he was still tired from the battle that happened less than 24 hours ago. He believed that he did well at the battle, he was able to kill at least a dozen of them and to capture even more, but Harry died, his mentor and friend. With his help Neville was able to realise his full potential and role in the war. Neville knew that it was possible that he'll have to face Voldemort now when Harry was dead, that thought made him shudder, he knew that he won't be able to stand against Voldemort, he would be crushed!

If he worked with the Alliance they could probably come up with a plan to defeat the feared Dark Lord. When the Order returned to Grimmauld place started screeching about how she knew all along that someone was corrupting Harry and how they should've stopped it and how it was everyone's fault, Neville could see that she was upset and probably didn't mean most of the things she said, but a lot of people were burned from her insults.

The others seemed to be in dilemma, some were on Molly's side while others supported the Alliance and their methods, while the rest smartly decided to keep their mouths shut.

He reread the letter he received from the infamous Alliance, We would like to meet you as soon as possible, well now sounded like a good time. He stood up before disappearing with a faint pop to a location he saw only once.

He landed many miles away in a slightly dusty corridor, when he looked up he saw dozen of wands pointing at him. He looked around with a hesitant smile and said quietly: "Hello, you called?"

XXXXXXX

Dmitry sighed as he felt another headache coming, Neville had just left after their long discussion. After he just apparated into the HQ and almost got himself hexed to death they interrogated him for long hours.

Harry has thrust him into a very bad position, filling the boy's head with ideas of being the next leader of light and his important duties. What was Harry thinking? While the boy had an impressive amount of power he lacked the right personality to be a leader! The treatment of his grandmother left him unsure of himself and with low-esteem, a fatal trait for a leader. Only if Neville will fight during this war, only then he'll have a chance of being a successful leader.

The situation looked grim, their allies were giving less than enthusiastic response to the call for help they sent, most of them agreed to sign that treaty only because of Harry's persuasion, with his death they didn't see any sense in helping the humans. And unless the Alliance would be able to find Voldemort before it's too late, they were in deep shit.

Their only hope was Harry, Dmitry chuckled mirthlessly. He knew him since he was 9 years old and he had to admit he never met anyone as odd as him. He was told that Harry was a joyful child years ago but when he was asked to train Harry in the martial arts and sword fight he met a serious boy. It seemed as if an immense burden lay on Harry's young shoulders only by looking at the stiff posture the boy had adapted over the years. In his lessons Harry proved to be skilful and unpredictable, while Dmitry was always able to beat him he learned to expect the unexpected. Now that they knew that some 'higher forces' moved Harry's soul to another realm, some things made sense now. He could guess that Harry was trained there to serve as a tool for those beings.

The only thing he could do now was wait, torturing the information out of Harry will come later.

Reviews are always welcome, but they never come ;)