Disclaimer: You know I don't own Harry Potter. We all know. There's no need for a disclaimer.
Author's note: Hey guys! Sorry it took a few days to update. I'll probably update again tomorrow or the next day. Please review. :)
I've spent all of my nights wide awake
Wishing for some kind of poison to take
So that my conscience would just take a break
I am so tired of the noise that it makes
I used to be so quick, so clever
And I used to know myself much better
Cause anyone can see that this is only permanent
Temporary, it never hurts to try
"Shit." Mile let his breath out in a low whistle. "We're screwed."
"STUN THEM!" One of the Aurors shouted.
There were cries of "STUPEFY!" all across the room as the Aurors turned their backs on Mile and Harry to face the Death Eaters that just arrived. Mile and Harry used this as an opportunity to get closer to the statue. They unlit their wands and ran across the darkness in the general direction of the statue. When Harry felt the crunch of broken glass beneath his feet, he knew he was right next to it.
When Harry turned back around to see what was happening with the Aurors, he saw that two of the Death Eaters had been successfully stunned while the others remained unharmed. However, the Aurors had all been disarmed. Bellatrix Lestrange now stood in front of them, sneering, as they were wandless and evidently terrified.
"What are the wittle Aurors doing here?" Bellatrix asked in an annoying baby voice. "Are the Aurors trying to get the horcrux? That's very, very bad. We can't have that, can we?"
"Bitch." One of the Aurors spat.
"What was that, dear cousin?" Bellatrix rounded on the Auror who'd spoken.
"She's distracted. Do it now." Mile whispered. "Hurry, before she turns around..."
Harry was about to raise the crowbar and hit the horcrux, but Bellatrix suddenly whirled around and glared at them.
"And you two! What are you doing here?" Bellatrix asked accusingly.
Now everyone's eyes were on Mile and Harry again. Bellatrix, the Death Eaters and the Aurors were all staring at them suspiciously.
"Think fast." Mile said.
"We were just trying to retrieve the horcrux for the Dark Lord." Harry said quickly.
Bellatrix's eyes narrowed when she recognized his voice.
"You." She said harshly. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you all throughout the battle at the warehouse. I sent Kyro after you."
"You didn't see me because I had the mask on." Harry said as if it should have been obvious.
"No, Kyro went around to make sure everyone was there, but you and Mile went unaccounted for." Bellatrix took a step forward. "And then the Auror went missing again. Tell me, why is it the Auror always escapes whenever nobody knows where you are?"
"Bad timing?" Harry suggested.
"Possibly." Bellatrix said slowly. "But I wonder...if you came in here to look for the horcrux, why are you holding a crowbar?"
Harry looked down at the crowbar like he just noticed he was holding it.
"That's a good question!" He said. "I have no idea. How did this get in my hand? What am I even doing here? I can't remember. I think I've been Imperiused."
Mile groaned and resisted the urge to slap himself on the forehead.
"We - er - we found it, lying around over there...we used it to break the glass open so we could get the horcrux in there." Mile gestured around at the broken glass. "We only had the crowbar so we could break the glass."
"Yeah, that's it." Harry agreed.
"But how did you know that's the horcrux?" Bellatrix asked.
"So you admit it?" Harry said. "That's the horcrux?"
"No, I did not admit it!" Bellatrix snapped, a little bit nervously. "Let me rephrase. I mean to say, what made you think that's the horcrux? Out of everything the horcrux could possibly be, why did you choose that?"
"We overheard one of the other Death Eaters saying the horcrux would have something to do with the Hogwarts houses." Mile said.
"Who was it?" Bellatrix demanded. "Which fool let themselves be overheard?"
"You." Harry answered, smirking behind his mask.
Bellatrix looked as if she'd been slapped.
"You're lying." She said angrily.
"I'm not. I really overheard you at Lestrange Manor." Harry said.
"But let's get back to the matter at hand, here!" Lucius Malfoy snapped from behind Bellatrix. "Why didn't you report to us before trying to retrieve the horcrux?"
"Because it would waste too much time if we were to report to you before coming for the horcrux." Mile said. "If we went and found you first, the horcrux could have been gone by the time we got back. We figured Voldemort's horcrux was more important than reporting to you."
Everyone in the room looked stunned at what he'd just said. Bellatrix, Lucius and the other Death Eaters stood in shock. Even the Aurors looked surprised.
"What?" Mile asked nervously.
"You...dare...speak his name?" Bellatrix said in a deadly whisper.
"What's the matter with you?" Harry asked. "Why'd you say his name?"
"You say his name all the time!" Mile said loudly.
"Yeah, but not in front of the Death Eaters!"
"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" Bellatrix demanded. "I DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE REALLY DOING IN HERE! AND YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOR SPEAKING HIS NAME, MILE, BELIEVE ME! JUST WAIT UNTIL WE GET BACK TO LESTRANGE MANOR!"
While Bellatrix was shouting, the other Death Eaters had their attention on her. The Aurors noticed this; two of them had taken advantage of their lack of attention and were crouching down on the floor, looking for their wands. Meanwhile, Harry was looking around the huge room, trying to think of a plan. The light from the Death Eaters' wands illuminated the complicated web of rafters and beams on the ceiling. Harry traced the shape of the rafters with his eyes, calculating how they balanced each other out...
"I think I have a plan." Harry whispered to Mile. "Keep talking until I figure it out."
Mile nodded in silent agreement. Any plan of Harry's had to be ridiculous, dangerous and probably reckless. But there was just no other option. A stupid plan was better than no plan. So Mile took a deep breath and started talking.
"Actually, Bellatrix, I don't think you'll punish me." Mile said loudly. "Because I have no intention of ever going back to Lestrange Manor. You see, we've decided that we no longer want to be Death Eaters."
All of the Aurors looked slightly hopeful at this. Even the two Aurors on the floor who were searching for their wands looked up when he said this.
"And why is that?" Bellatrix asked in a voice that was trembling with suppressed rage.
"Well, there's a number of reasons." Mile said. "I don't think we're cut out to be Death Eaters. We just don't meet all the requirements."
"What do you mean you don't meet all the requirements?" Bellatrix was visibly furious now. Her hands were balled into fists.
"Well, to be a Death Eater, you have to be a heartless lunatic." Mile said. "And we just have too much...what's that called when you actually care about other people?"
"Compassion for others." Harry answered.
"Right. We have too much compassion for others, and I feel like that interferes with our ability to be heartless lunatics with the rest of you." Mile said, much to the Death Eaters' outrage.
"Also, I can't deal with this schedule. Getting up at 4 in the morning every day to run off and fight Aurors for some stupid reason? I can't do that." Harry added. "Its too bloody early in the morning to be running around with you lot. Normal people are sleeping at this hour."
"Bella, why are we still listening to this nonsense?" Lucius hissed. "Let's just curse them and lock them up in the dungeons at my manor!"
"Lucius, I've heard about what goes on in your dungeons, and I really don't want to go there." Mile said. "So I'm going to have to decline the offer."
"It wasn't an offer, you insolent little-" Lucius started to raise his wand.
"NO, LUCIUS!" Bellatrix threw her arm up to stop him. "NOT YET!"
Harry looked over at the Aurors. One of the Aurors found his wand and was summoning the others' wands to him. Once he had all the wands in his hands, he quickly stood up and started passing the wands out to the others.
"And the biggest issue with being a Death Eater is the mask." Harry said. "Its so bloody thick, its practically suffocating me."
Harry started to reach for his mask but Bellatrix shouted, "NO, STOP! DON'T TAKE THE MASK OFF! I'LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT, JUST DON'T TAKE OFF YOUR MASK!"
Harry stopped and stared at her quizzically. Why was she so desperate for him to keep his mask on?
"Don't be so melodramatic, Bella. Its just a mask. No need to make a big international thing about it." Harry said. "And besides, you can't give me anything I want. You know what I want. You can't give it to me."
He raised his hand and Bellatrix's heart sank as she realized he was about to remove his mask.
But then, he didn't take off the mask. Instead, he pointed his wand at the ceiling and shouted, "REDUCTO!"
On one cold December morning when Harry was seven years old, Bellatrix asked him what he wanted for Christmas. She told him he could have anything he wanted. At the time, Harry thought Bellatrix was the nicest woman in the world. She just seemed so loving and caring, offering to get Harry whatever he wanted. It really seemed like Bellatrix loved him.
If Harry had known better, he would have realized that it had nothing to do with love. Bellatrix didn't care about Harry's happiness. It was never about caring for him. It was always about keeping Harry naive. It was about making Harry think of Bellatrix as family, so that he'd never betray her. It was about keeping him in line and keeping him from questioning the fabric of his life.
"What do you want for Christmas, Harry?" Bellatrix asked in an overly-polite voice. If Harry had been older and wiser, he would have noticed how fake she sounded. "What do you want more than anything?"
Harry had looked up into Bellatrix's black eyes and was too young to notice the coldness that resided there.
"Parents." He answered.
Harry's Reductor curse hit one of the rafters, fracturing it. It split in half before crashing on top of another rafter, and one by one they all began to fall like dominoes. Bellatrix and the Death Eaters' had to tear their eyes away from the Junior Death Eaters in order to see what was happening. Looking up, they saw the beams holding up the ceiling start to fall over. They all jumped back as a section of the ceiling collapsed to the floor in front of them.
This had given the Aurors the time they needed to grab their wands and yell, "STUPEFY!" at as many Death Eaters as possible.
A few of the Death Eaters went rigid and hit the floor. Clouds of dust from the collapsed ceiling were settling in the air. Both the Aurors and Death Eaters were coughing and scrambling around fragments of the broken ceiling.
Bellatrix Lestrange was beyond furious.
"LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Bellatrix screamed, looking around for Harry and Mile but the clouds of dust and dirt were making it hard to see anything. "YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING! HOW DARE YOU! YOU'VE USED THE REDUCTOR CURSE AGAINST ME! I'M THE ONE WHO TAUGHT YOU THAT CURSE!"
"Then you probably shouldn't have taught me that one, Bella!" Harry jumped out at her.
"I'll hex you into oblivion, boy!" Bellatrix snarled.
"With what wand?" Harry smirked coldly.
Bellatrix felt around for her wand in alarm. It wasn't there. Then Harry pulled it out of his sleeve and held it in front of her.
"That's right, I have it!" Harry laughed as she made to grab for it. She ended up tripping over a fragment of the ceiling and landed on her knees.
"Stop wasting time!" Mile appeared next to Harry, grabbing his shoulder. "We can gloat later, right now we have to destroy the horcrux!"
And with that, Harry and Mile darted across the room towards the statue of Salazar Slytherin. Behind them, Bellatrix shouted, "SOMEBODY STUN THEM!"
But the Aurors were faster than the Death Eaters, who didn't seem to know what was happening. The Aurors managed to stun every Death Eater except for Lucius and Bellatrix. Lucius had ran in front of Bellatrix and put up an invisible shield to protect the two of them.
Things weren't looking good for Bellatrix. She didn't have a wand. All the other Death Eaters were stunned and lying on the floor, except for Lucius, who couldn't do anything because he was trying to hold up the invisible shield. Meanwhile, Harry and Mile were about to destroy the horcrux. What else could possibly go wrong?
At the other side of the room, Harry and Mile had reached the statue. Harry grabbed for the crowbar again.
"DON'T! DON'T DO IT!" Bellatrix shouted, but was unable to do anything because all the Aurors had their wands pointed at her. "I'M WARNING YOU! YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOR THIS!"
"Oh, I'm so scared." Harry rolled his eyes before raising the crowbar high above his head and swinging it down onto the statue with all his might.
As soon as the crowbar hit, the statue cracked down the middle. Once it split open, there was a horrible screeching sound that rang throughout the entire room. Everyone cringed and ducked down, as if that would somehow stop the noise. If they were to listen closely, they'd hear that the screeching sounded almost human, like there had been a person trapped inside the statue.
And then it suddenly stopped. The room fell into silence. The statue crumbled apart and hit the floor. There was a few moments where no one said anything, and then:
"Whoops, did I do that?" Harry said. "I'm terribly sorry. You know how clumsy us filthy half-bloods can be."
James was starting to wonder how his life had ended up like this.
He was James Potter. The James Potter. Quidditch star, Head Boy, object of every girl's affection, talented animagus, founder of the Marauders and creator of the Marauder's map. Back when he was a teenager (which felt like lifetimes ago), he had everything anyone could possibly want. Girls wanted him, guys wanted to be him. He had the best friends anyone could have, the best girlfriend who soon became the best wife, and then he had the perfect child. Dignified and a bit arrogant, he was at the top of the world.
Now look at him.
Childless, grieving, and a bit crazy, searching for horcruxes in a room in the Department of Mysteries because some random ex-Death Eater told him they'd be there. What happened to his dignity? What happened to his pompous attitude that used to drive the girls crazy? What happened to the James Potter who walked with his shoulders straight and his head up high, ready to take on anything?
How did life come to this?
He couldn't help but wonder all of these things as he looked for horcruxes that probably weren't even there.
The "Room of Fate" wasn't just a room. It was a huge hall with towering bookshelves, spiraling staircases that disappeared into the blackness up above, mirrors that showed different scenes, metal crates stacked on top of each other, containing things James couldn't even imagine. He'd been searching through the crates and shelves for only fifteen minutes, and he was already losing hope. He was on his hands and knees, dust all over his clothes, wondering if there was a god and if that god hated him.
Snape would have been ecstatic to see James in this condition.
James sighed, brushed himself off, and continued digging through the crates. Maybe the horcrux wasn't even there, but he had to try.
"Look what you've done." Bellatrix hissed, too angry to yell. "You've ruined everything...everything..."
"If only I cared." Harry replied lazily.
Harry was trying very hard to act like he didn't care, but the truth was, he did. He was terrified. His knees were shaking and he was wondering what Bellatrix would do now. Fortunately, she couldn't curse him just yet because the Aurors all had her at wand point and Lucius Malfoys' shield was the only thing protecting her.
She raised her shaking hands to her head and started pulling at her hair, like she usually did when she was angry.
"I can't believe this." She seethed. Then she ended up ripping a chunk of hair from her head, without even wincing. "You fool! You're insane for doing this to the Dark Lord! Insane!"
"You're calling me insane?" Harry asked. "You do realize you just ripped your own hair out...?"
"You'll be punished for this, do you understand?" Bellatrix yelled.
"I understand that you're crazy." Harry said.
Bellatrix screamed angrily, pressing her hands against her head and rocking back and forth. Harry took an uneasy step back. Bellatrix was seriously unhinged now.
"Let's get out of here!" Mile grabbed Harry's arm and started pulling him towards the door. "Hurry!"
"Let's just arrest her already!" Scrimgeour said. "What are we waiting for?"
"Well, we can't do anything until Malfoy drops the shield!" Sirius reminded him. He looked at Lucius and said, "Come on, Malfoy, you bloody idiot! We're going to arrest you at some point, you can't keep hold of that shield forever! Surrender now!"
Lucius noticed that Harry and Mile had just run through the door. They'd escaped. And the horcrux was destroyed.
He and Bellatrix were cornered. There was no way out of this. Sensing defeat, he let go of the invisible shield that was the only thing protecting himself and Bellatrix and, with the few scraps of dignity he had left, let the Aurors stun them.
Once Lucius and Bellatrix went rigid and hit the floor, the Aurors all sighed in relief and stared around in amazement at what had happened to the ceiling.
"A kid did this." Scrimgeour said, gesturing towards the broken sections of ceiling that were lying in heaps on the floor. "A bloody child."
"I know." Sirius said, sounding impressed and amused. "Here we were, thinking those two Junior Death Eaters were trying to get the horcrux back to Voldemort, but they were actually trying to destroy it. And one of them was very disrespectful to you, Scrimgeour...me and that kid would get along great."
"Hey!" A voice cried. The Aurors all looked down and saw McNaughton kneeling on the floor, dust all over his face. "Where'd James go?"
Everyone ignored him.
"Well, the horcrux is destroyed and we stunned half the Death Eaters." Remus said. "Everything went better than expected. Now let's get these Death Eaters behind bars. Everyone grab onto a Death Eater and sidelong Apparate with them to Azkaban. Oh, and I'll Apparate with McNaughton. We can't forget about him."
Everyone did as Remus said, each Auror kneeling down and grabbing the wrist of a Death Eater.
"On three." Remus said. "One, two, three..."
Everyone closed their eyes and attempted to sidelong Apparate to Azkaban.
But nothing happened.
"What...why haven't we all Apparated?" Sirius wondered aloud.
"The wards are preventing us from Apparating." Scrimgeour said. "But why is that? We were able to Apparate here earlier."
"But earlier we Apparated to the entrance, not to the middle. Maybe you can only Apparate and Disapparate from the entrance of the Department of Mysteries. The wards could have it so you aren't able to leave or enter unless you're at the entrance." Kingsley said. "We might have to make our way back there before we can take the Death Eaters to Azkaban."
"We have to go all the way back to the entrance with this lot," Sirius gestured towards the Death Eaters' lying on the floor. "before we can take them to Azkaban? This is ridiculous. I've never really carried an unconscious Death Eater before, but I'm willing to bet they are heavy."
"We're just going to have to bind their bodies and levitate them." Kingsley said.
The Aurors each chose a Death Eater to bind and levitate, and pretty soon they were all marching towards the door, with the Death Eaters' bobbing up and down in the air before them. Sirius was levitating Lucius and Remus ended up levitating Bellatrix.
"Its been a pretty successful night, am I right, Moony? Bella-bitch Lestrange stunned bound, and levitating in midair at the hands of a 'filthy half-breed.' She better hope she never wakes up, because she'll die of shame the second she does." Sirius grinned. "If only we knew where James went..."
"He'll turn up." Remus said, sounding more confident than he felt.
Sirius and Remus started to chat idly, trying to discuss anything that didn't relate to the war. As the group of Aurors made their way through corridors and rooms, trying to make their way back to the entrance, Sirius and Remus eventually fell behind, too consumed in their conversation to notice that the others were walking much faster than they were.
"Hey," Sirius said suddenly. "The others are pretty far ahead..."
In the darkness, Sirius could barely make out their silhouettes up ahead.
"Oi! Wait up!" Sirius yelled.
None of the others seemed to hear him.
And then suddenly, in the dull light of the lanterns on the stone walls, Remus saw Bellatrix's eyes open.
"Oh no!" Remus said. "Sirius, she's awake."
"Just stun her again. She's all tied up, she can't stop you." Sirius said.
But Remus had stopped walking. At the other side of the corridor, there was a wide window that showed the night sky outside. The clouds that had been covering the moon drifted away, letting the moonlight flood through the window and shine on Remus' face.
Remus fell to his knees, dropping his wand, along with Bellatrix. When she hit the floor, she started to roll around, trying to break through the ropes that bound her.
Remus lay flat on his back, twitching and convulsing, his back arching off the floor.
"No," Sirius' face went white. "Not tonight, not tonight...how could it be tonight?"
Sirius dropped to his knees and grabbed Remus' hand, his mind racing with panic. How could they have forgotten there was a full moon tonight? Had they been so consumed with the mission that they forgot all about Remus' condition? Sirius was terrified; he'd never tried to help Remus with his transformation alone before. James had always been there.
But as Sirius was kneeling beside Remus, Bellatrix broke free of the binds and lunged at him. Caught off guard, Sirius fell over and rolled onto his back. Bellatrix climbed across him and grabbed Remus' fallen wand. Then she jumped to her feet, cackled hysterically, and took off running down the corridor, in the direction they just came from.
"Shit! She got away! Shit!" Sirius was torn between wanting to chase after Bellatrix and wanting to help his friend. His friendship with Remus eventually won him over. He grabbed Remus' shoulders and tried to hold him steady as he thrashed around on the floor, screaming in pain. And he waited out the minutes until the screams turned into howls before transforming into a dog.
"Mile! Mile! Where'd you go!"
Harry panted and leaned over the railing, desperately looking to see where Mile had gone. After destroying the horcrux and taunting Bellatrix, Harry and Mile had ran from the room and kept running down the hall until they found a hidden staircase. Harry ran up the stairs and had just reached when he realized Mile was no longer behind him.
"Mile!" Harry shouted down the stairs. "Mile, come on, where are you?"
He waited for almost two minutes, the blood rushing in his ears and his heart jumping around in his chest, until he realized Mile wasn't going to appear. Worried, more terrified than ever before and now alone, Harry continued running, not even sure where he was running to.
Was he looking for more horcruxes? Was he trying to find Mile? Was he trying to find a way out of the Ministry? Or was he just blindly running in circles with no plan for what to do next?
He didn't even know for sure if there were more horcruxes hidden at the Ministry. And how could he possibly find Mile again in this huge labyrinth known as the Department of Mysteries? But the biggest issue of all: even if he found a way out of the Ministry and escaped to Muggle London, what would he do then? Live on the streets, waiting for the Death Eaters to find him again? He could never truly escape from them, he'd never really be safe. They'd always find him. Always.
So he decided that the only thing he could do was try to find more horcruxes. But where to start? He didn't even know if there was more. If there did happen to be more horcruxes hidden in the Department of Mysteries, where would he start? He doubted the other horcruxes would be as easy to find as the last one had been.
He continued wandering through the corridors, his mind stricken with panic, until he came across a door with the words "Room of Fate" written across the top.
Thinking 'why not?' he decided to start his search for other horcruxes in there. He opened the door and stepped inside, briefly wondering why they called it the "Room of Fate" and if that would be a good or a bad thing.
Somewhat of a cliffhanger. Don't kill me.